Because of the overall success and relevant of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, everyone on the planet has heard of Grand Theft Auto VI at least once or twice. It's a meme at this point, where something that people have waited for years arrives before it. So, you can't help but wonder, if nearly everyone on the planet knows about GTA, why is Take-Two Interactive bothering spending a fortune marketing it?
CEO Strauss Zelnick just answered it and his answer makes sense.
In an interview, Zelnick said that awareness and enthusiasm are two different things. "Awareness is one thing," he said. "Enthusiasm is another." Knowing a game exists does not make anyone reach for their wallet. Marketing exists to close that gap.
The comparison Zelnick reached for was the Barbie movie. As he put it to GamesBeat, "they marketed the living daylights out of that picture," even though everyone already knew the brand. The campaign was everywhere. It worked, turning a known name into the year's biggest film, one that pulled in $1.448 billion worldwide during its theatrical run in 2023. His point for GTA 6 is the same. A famous property, no matter how popular and prevalent, still needs selling.
How Take-Two thinks about marketing GTA 6
Stage | Zelnick's point |
|---|---|
Awareness | Everyone has already heard of GTA 6 |
Enthusiasm | Marketing's job is to turn that into real excitement |
Intention | Excitement is what becomes an actual purchase |
The funnel behind the aggressive GTA 6 marketing campaign.
Take-Two treats it as a chain. Take awareness, build it into excitement, then turn that excitement into the intention to buy. Everyone is already at step one for GTA 6. The ongoing marketing blitz is there to move them through the next two, although judging by the public pre-order numbers, much of the planet has already paid and bought GTA 6.
With that said, this explains everything that's happening right now. The GTA 6 billboards in Tokyo, the Spotify billboards in three US cities, the rooftop sign in Miami, the pre-orders already breaking records are all examples of Take-Two taking that awareness and enthusiasm, turning it into a number on their bottom line at full speed. None of it is Rockstar Games or Take-Two doubting whether people know the game. It is them refusing to leave any stone unturned, or to be more specific, money unspent.
So the biggest game of the decade is going to keep getting marketed like nobody has heard of it, right up until launch.
By Zelnick's logic, they're not wasting money that they can afford to spend anyway. It is the way to turn the most famous game on the planet into the best-selling one of all time.