JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R

Written by Rose Renzelman

Let’s go over the work I’ve done on this title!

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has its own cult following from manga fans to its anime fans. Marketing a game for this would be simple, no? Well, it isn’t all that easy as you’d think. Not only were there challenges in our teams path for this title with it being the remaster (R) of the PlayStation 3 title, securing solid relationships with the licensor (and keeping them happy) but having a game releasing in 2022 with no rollback netcode is tough. To add even more challenges, JJBA itself has characters named after pop culture icons and we always have to use the localized names (example: there is a character in Part 6 named Foo Fighters but localization is FF).

Despite the odds against us, we did it. We did it so well - that the game was Bandai’s #1 new title sales for that fiscal year beating One Piece Odyssey.

The growth of the primary social channel @jojo_games is worth a study for how you can truly tap into an audience and with the right person running the show, create your own cult sector of the following. Not too long into managing the social accounts for this game, did the regulars begin to call me “Chadmin” (for those who don’t know it’s a play on words for being a “chad” and the admin of the account). The fans wanted to engage with the account nonstop to where it drove pre-orders when we started asking them to show us they did so. It was nothing shy of an honor to be a part of such a phenomenon as an employee of BNEA and as a fan of the IP.

Pre-launch Prep & Planning

Social Strike Plan - Execution & Delivery

First on the agenda for JJASBR was creating a social strike plan. This document was a key item from the social marketing team for any project at Bandai Namco Entertainment America. Each sector of the marketing teams had to deliver their own plan for a new title and this was my responsibility as the head for social on JoJo’s.

Creating Engaging Beats

The social strike plan is a chance for you to put every idea that comes to mind out in the air. The worst that can happen is your superiors or licensors do not approve of it. This is where you put the best creative ideas and set them up.

Some key highlights in my plans for JJASBR that made the cut (there were many that didn’t due to licensing/Japan) were:

  • Announcement Trailer (April 2022)

  • Jolyne Statue (from pre-order collector’s edition) to Influencers

  • Character Introductions

    • 50 playable characters on launch means clips/trailer content for each release

    • Engaging thumbnail and social attached to drive fan hype

  • Early Access Demo (June)

  • JJBA Part 6: Stone Ocean - Hype Trailer

    • Netflix (non-affiliated to us) was releasing Part 2 of Stone Ocean (anime) Sept 1, 2022

    • Idea to create trailer highlighting Jolyne and the powerful women from Part 6 (while revealing FF)

    • We centered this around Anime Expo as a big beat

Post-launch Prep & Planning

Even after the game launched, DLC was going to be a given. The passes that were coming up had some characters that weren’t seen in the PlayStation 3 version of the game so these were important to capture the excitement of the audience. One big detail you’ll see is the copy always tied to the lore in some form to make sure to find that connection with the fans. This played into the success of everything we did on this title.

Life after Launch

Every JoJo reaches the end of their tale and eventually I did to as I wanted to move back from Southern California back to Georgia. The success we saw with this title is something that never was expected by higher ups and to this day one of the biggest accomplishments for myself as a social marketing manager.

My time on this game (along with the other titles I worked on) was a very cherished time for me. To this day users will still bring up the “chadmin” of JoJo Games and some of the legendary replies or posts that were made there. As they say in JJBA - to be continued…

Rose Renzelman
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