Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V (GTAV) has debuted a collection of high-resolution promotional art that can be downloaded for fans’ personal use, making them more accessible and therefore more widely distributed.   Rockstar has always featured some iconic art in promoting its products. Now, Rockstar is coming out with five new high-resolution images that depict the three main characters in the game in different settings.  GTAV lovers can download these images from the Rockstar website, and use them in their own way, for example, as their desktop background or Facebook cover photo, and still enjoy the same high-resolution quality of the original print images.  This will encourage widespread use of the images and greatly increase people’s exposure to the features of the new GTAV game.

 

In making these high-resolution promotional art images more readily available, Rockstar is using the “Elaboration Likelihood Model” of the public relations and mass communication theory.  Instead of promoting the GTAV game directly, via the “central route,” Rockstar is using the GTAV images to promote to people through the “peripheral route.”   People will be repeatedly exposed to the images of the new GTAV game without even realizing it.  Because the images are made in high-resolution, people will like them and want to show them off on their own social media sites.  In this way, the images will be easily shared and viewed.  This will help to make sure that the images are seen by many potential GTAV customers over and over again.  With such repetitive exposure, people will process the images via the “peripheral route.”  People will visit a website or visit a friend’s Facebook page and see the GTAV image as their cover photo. They will most likely not realize that the images are actually a form of advertising, but will nevertheless be exposed to them and will subliminally notice them, eventually developing a positive attitude toward them and toward the GTAV game.

Making these high-resolution photos widely available is a very good public relations tool because it helps to communicate and promote GTAV in a positive but unobtrusive way.  The promotional images show what exactly you’d be getting yourself into by playing the game, and most importantly, the degree of clarity that will be expected during game play. The high-resolution feature of the images will help to draw people who see them into the game.  After GTAV potential customers are exposed to the images over and over again, they will feel familiar and comfortable with them.  They will feel a part of the GTAV game without knowing exactly why.  This will help to put GTAV in the “mainstream” and encourage widespread purchases of the game.

This method of public relations contrasts with other direct routes that we generally see on TV, billboards, and in magazines via the “central route.”  However, it is very effective in promoting a product and a brand name to a specific audience.  Although they may be just high-resolution images, they provide an opportunity to reach and engage many potential GTAV customers, and will play a vital role in ultimately increasing the sales of the GTAV game for Rockstar.

 

By: Jennifer Babcock