Xbox One and Call of Duty lead Game Connection Marketing Awards

Campaigns for Xbox One and Call of Duty: Ghosts lead the nominees for this year’s Game Connection Marketing Awards.

The ten categories celebrate the publishers and agencies responsible for eye-catching campaigns and stunts, and this year marks the fourth edition of the awards, which take place in San Francisco.

Saints Row IV, Tomb Raider and microconsole Ouya are all up for Best Overall Campaign.

Microsoft’s Xbox One first-party launch title Forza 5 is nominated for three awards, including Best Experimental Campaign and Best Gameplay Trailer.

Scottish CGI production house Axis is also up for two awards in the Best CG Trailer for its work on Fable Legends and Halo.

Other nominees include Armed Mind for its work on Call of Duty: Ghosts, Artifact for Disney Infinity and Cosmocover for its Dark Souls II ‘Forging a Hero’ campaign.

All nominated campaigns will also compete head-to-head in the eleventh category for the ultimate accolade of Best Marketing Team.

The winners of each category will be announced at the special awards ceremony at Game Connection America 2014 in San Francisco on March 17th, from 4pm to 6pm.

Game Connection says its Marketing Awards are “designed to recognise and raise the profile of best-in-class marketing campaigns from across the video game industry”.

In addition to these awards, Game Connection will also host its long-running Selected Projects Awards Program at its forthcoming San Francisco event.

The categories and nominees are as follows:

Best Digital Campaign
Paradox Interactive – A Call to Arms (Paradox Interactive)
Armed Mind – Call of Duty: Ghosts – "Who are the Ghosts?" (Activision Blizzard)
Midnight Oil – Saints Row IV Digital Campaign (Deep Silver)

Best Experiential Campaign
iam8bit – "DuckTales Remastered" (Capcom Entertainment)
Xbox – Forza Motorsport x Bathurst (Xbox)
iam8bit – The Great MMO Migration (ArenaNet)

Best Gameplay Trailer
Artifact – Disney Infinity (Disney Interactive Studios)
Xbox – Forza Motorsport 5 Launch Trailer (Xbox)
Paradox Interactive – Leviathan: Warships trailer (Paradox Interactive)

Best CG Trailer
Axis – Fable Legends (Microsoft Studios)
Axis – Halo Xbox One (Microsoft Studios)
RealtimeUK – War Thunder Heroes (Gaijin)

Best Live Action Trailer
Xbox – Forza Motorsport 5 Filmspeed (Xbox)
Ubisoft Entertainment – Just Dance E3 Trailer (Ubisoft Entertainment)
Heat – Madden NFL 25 (EA Sports)

Best Mobile Campaign
The Game Agency – Nerf Blaster Challenge (Hasbro)
Enter the Studio – TRANSFORMERS Construct-Bots (Enter the Studio)
Gameberry Inc. – Mini Motor Racing for kakao (Selvas)

Best Original Content
Armed Mind – Devil’s Breath (Activision Blizzard)
Armed Mind – Who are the Ghosts? (Activision Blizzard)
Cosmocover – Dark Souls 2 Forging a Hero (NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe)

Best PR Campaign
The Farm 51 – Get Even (The Farm 51)
Neology and The Redner Group – Seeing is Believing – Best PR Campaign (Oculus VR)
Image & Form – SteamWorld Dig (Image & Form)

Best Social Media Campaign
Deep Silver – Saints Row IV – GATV (Deep Silver)
Game Insight – Tattoo and Body Art Contest (Game Insight)
Ayzenberg Group – Xbox One Product Launch (Microsoft/Xbox)

Best Overall Campaign
Armed Mind – Ouya Launch (Ouya)
Midnight Oil – Saints Row IV Overall Campaign (Deep Silver)
Square Enix – Tomb Raider Overall Campaign (Square Enix)

Game Connection America 2014 takes place on March 17th to 19th at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, San Francisco, USA. Find out more and book tickets here.