OCR Animal Crossing Marketing

A complete OCR A-Level Media Studies lesson exploring Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Nintendo, marketing, synergy and industry context.

This fully editable PowerPoint (.pptx) lesson focuses on Animal Crossing: New Horizons as the OCR A-Level Media Studies video game set text for Paper 2: Evolving Media, Section A – Media Industries and Audiences.

The lesson explores how Animal Crossing: New Horizons was marketed using both conventional and unconventional marketing techniques, including trailers, reviews, articles, online advertising, launch promotion, social media, brand partnerships, user-generated content and virtual marketing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students develop their understanding of key industry concepts including production, distribution, consumption, franchise, sandbox games, vertical integration, synergy, cross-promotion and brand partnerships. The lesson also examines how Nintendo’s control over development, publishing, hardware, marketing and distribution strengthens its brand identity and commercial power.

This resource includes a supporting article resource document for students to use when analysing marketing, virtual partnerships and the rise of in-game advertising around Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The lesson includes discussion tasks, key term definitions, marketing analysis, social media statistics, brand partnership examples, exam-style writing and a model response.

This lesson covers:

OCR A-Level Media Studies
Paper 2: Evolving Media
Section A: Media Industries and Audiences
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Nintendo
Video game marketing
Conventional marketing
Unconventional marketing
Virtual marketing
Social media marketing
User-generated content
Brand partnerships
Synergy
Cross-promotion
Vertical integration
Production
Distribution
Consumption
Franchise
Sandbox games
COVID-19 context
KFC island
Gucci
Valentino
Marc Jacobs
100 Thieves
H&M
Highsnobiety
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
TikTok, Twitter and Reddit engagement
Uses and Gratifications

What is included:

Fully editable PowerPoint (.pptx) lesson
Supporting article resource document
Do Now task on production, distribution, consumption and franchise
Teacher feedback/model answer slide
Lesson objectives
Key term explanation for sandbox video games
Key term explanation for vertical integration
Benefits of