Game Pass Marketing

Part of my work and time at Xbox was advertising for Game Pass. This aspect of the job was FAST relative to the other work. Where UX/UI work had a bevy of designers working out of the same ecosystem, Game Pass design for marketing was initially one other designer and myself making multiple designs or cuts for existing ads daily. Even during the larger campaigns, there would still be daily design work to get done. As the team grew we ended up tackling more long form work, but the ad campaigns were always constant. On paper the product was easy to design for, as Game Pass is a great value that contains tons of games; so it just comes down to how well can we reach out audience, both on console and PC.

 XBOX Game Pass Advertising

Xbox console advertising has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. The window for design is SMALL, and a gradient has to be applied to the bottom third of the space. On the other hand, the marketing teams at Xbox were very open to both informative and humor based approaches. We tested a LOT of ads, tests on color, on individual games, on holidays, etc.

All of the backgrounds you see below were illustrated by me, either net new, or a collage approach, often times made in less than half a day. The quantity and volume of advertising is a LOT, so I was grateful for times when I was allowed a moment to illustrate an ad or take a risk. It was a joy to send these ridiculous ideas to companies like Bethesda and NetherRealm Studios, only to have them emphatically approve the silly copy and design jokes I would assemble. Pink hearts for Doom Eternal on Valentines Day? Sure! A cage joke for MK 11? Go for it!

PC APP and WIndows

PC advertisements would sometimes overlap with console; but often the user base, deals, and design elements would change when creating adverts for PC.

Quest Branding Update

During my time at Xbox I was asked to update the iconography and layouts for Quests, bringing more visual cohesion to the program. All of these icons were approved by Microsoft’s iconography team to be allowed for use across any MS team.

Informational Design

Sometimes departments would reach out to us not for any marketing campaign, but to inform players about benefits or functionality that they already have access to by owning Game Pass. These designs were sometimes their own landing pages, and other times would occupy a slot on the home screen.

Ad Illustration Process