Jennifer Hsueh

Bronze - Newspaper Single Marketing Awards - Strategy Online Jun 2023 Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering is the world’s biggest collectable card game, with more than 40 million players. To drum up interest in the latest release, the brand let fans know that Magic was retiring one of its most legendary characters, Jaya Ballard, on the game’s 30th anniversary. To give the character its proper due, Publicis created the “Jaya Ballard Obituary” and published it in The Seattle Times. A couple of days passed, without anyone noticing. But when a Reddit user… Show more Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering is the world’s biggest collectable card game, with more than 40 million players. To drum up interest in the latest release, the brand let fans know that Magic was retiring one of its most legendary characters, Jaya Ballard, on the game’s 30th anniversary. To give the character its proper due, Publicis created the “Jaya Ballard Obituary” and published it in The Seattle Times. A couple of days passed, without anyone noticing. But when a Reddit user posted the obituary, fans flocked to the online memorial that was created and to the platform where they could purchase her final drop of cards. Pre-order sales went up 112%, the best-selling card collection in five years, and the campaign yielded a 2.4 million reach from 118 countries. With a mere $497 spend, it became the most successfulMagic print campaign in history. Show less

Silver Campaign Winner - Jaya Ballard Obituary Issued by PHNX Tribute 2023 by AdForum May 2023 The Jaya Obit was intended to truly surprise and delight Magic Fans, by embracing all things that gamers love. Including easter eggs, special character death, and online communities. We snuck an easter egg into a “dead” medium, for a “dead” character, and inserted a gaming meme for fans to pay their respects. We did this all organically relying on an insatiable fanbase we knew would uncover everything about our experience. Some fans even tried to have newspapers shipped across the country just… Show more The Jaya Obit was intended to truly surprise and delight Magic Fans, by embracing all things that gamers love. Including easter eggs, special character death, and online communities. We snuck an easter egg into a “dead” medium, for a “dead” character, and inserted a gaming meme for fans to pay their respects. We did this all organically relying on an insatiable fanbase we knew would uncover everything about our experience. Some fans even tried to have newspapers shipped across the country just to have their forever version of the ad. Show less

Shortlisted - Game Marketing Category for Jaya Ballard Obituary Issued by The One Show Apr 2023