Games Workshop and the popular tabletop miniature wargame brand, Warhammer, were in a state of re-definition, poised to push engagement across audiences.
There was a need to get children under 11 first introduced then engaged with the Warhammer hobby, ideally on a long term basis, as well as understand the associations hobbyists and families have with the brand Games Workshop and Warhammer to aid marketing decisions.
Based on the needs of the client, we split our research into two core focus areas:
1. How do we encourage growth with youth audiences? What are their core associations and connection points, what are the barriers to overcome, how can we facilitate engagement through physical and digital channels (current and future)?
2. What words, phrases and taglines BEST signal the Warhammer experience - considering that we need clarity and the power to inspire action - to both adult and child hobbyists.
We conducted a multi-stage study involving comms and channel analysis, qualitative interviews and interactive build, paint and play sessions in Warhammer Stores.
Whilst Warhammer has a strong presence across various channels, we needed to assess their relevance to children and parents who might be exploring the brand and hobby, to ensure it's both sufficiently clear and welcoming. A series of desk research and analysis exercises explored applicability across social media, Youtube, online stores and unique brand webspace (e.g. the core websites, community hubs).
Our primary research consisted of engaging children aged 7-12, their parents and adult hobbyists between the ages of 17 and 65, face-to-face – to uncover the associations, barriers and drivers of engagement with the Warhammer hobby across both of our key audiences.
A lot of our discussions and moments of exploring the hobby with audiences (including building, painting & play) were conducted in store, which allowed us to deep-dive into the emotions and connections participants had around all elements of the Warhammer brand – ultimately understand how this could be leveraged to facilitate engagement.
An element of this phase focused on using a word and tagline association and emotion excercise to understand the possible impact of each in marketing.
Our output was comprehensive, spanning across written reports, videos and visual representations – detailing branding opportunities, marketing messages, resonant taglines, staff behavioural conduct and relevant products – as well as a model for engaging four cohorts of children with the Warhammer hobby.
“They've done something that they would never ask to do, but they've really enjoyed it - so it's brought out an interest they clearly have.”
