Rockstar used a multi-pronged marketing campaign for Red Dead Redemption, including trailers on YouTube and in cinemas, billboards, branding on NASCAR vehicles, and short films made from gameplay footage. The marketing highlighted the game's violence, expansive open world environment, and transportation options to appeal to the target audience of male gamers. Pre-order bonuses like exclusive in-game outfits generated interest and pre-orders from fans. The short films reinforced similarities to Western movies, further associating the game with that genre. Overall, Rockstar invested heavily in diverse traditional and digital marketing channels to promote Red Dead Redemption as a cinematic and detailed open world experience.

1. Marketing
How RDR is marketed

2. NASCAR displaying RDR logo
Trailers in cinemas Billboards
RDR was one of the most
expensive games ever
Red Dead Redemption made, with one of the most
Short film
Marketing mix amazing marketing campaigns
to boot. It cost around $10
billion to make and market.
QR codes in cinema Trailers on
foyer Youtube
Pre-order bonuses

3. Launch Trailer
What’s marketed towards the typical gamer in the trailer?
Violence-So much violence. The guns, melee weapons and
explosions are all marketed as a prominent feature of the
game, therefore the gamer can see obviously that it’s a
violent game, enticing them to buy it as the target audience
is known to enjoy violence.
Transportation-Rockstar is known in the game industry
for it’s massive use of transportation. The trailer hints to
the gamer the use of trains and stagecoaches, amidst the
obvious use of horses. This is marketed towards the
gamer as he/she can explore the environment in a
multitude of ways.
Massive environment- The trailer shows
lots of RDR’s
environment, saloons, deserts, jails etc...
This is marketed towards the gamer as
he/she can anticipate roaming around in
these places.

4. Short film by John Hillcoat
This film was made after the game was released on
May 21.
The film consists entirely of scenes from Red Dead
Redemption, including parts from cut-scenes and actual game-
play footage.
The obvious reason why this markets the game so well is the
cross-media convergence. RDR is linked to Western films in so
many ways, similarities between John Marston and Clint
Eastwood, Native-Americans, Bounty hunters...
So, by making an actual short film from it works even more to
reinforce the idea of RDR being a movie, not a game. The fact
that John Hillcoat could even make a whole 30 minute film from
scenes in the game proves how similar RDR is to Western films.
On an unrelated note, the film contains a part of the game where a woman says
“It’s not about the money Marshall, this is peoples’ lives!” Rockstar puts many
anti-capitalist statements in it’s games, so it’s interesting to see this in a Western
game as well. This also plays on the humanity of the characters in the
games, should you support them, even though they’re murderers? Such level of
thinking isn’t usually denoted in video-games, whereas they are in films, thus
linking it again to the film industry.

5. NASCAR
Red Dead Redemption was also advertised on a
NASCAR car during a race.
The viewers of NASCAR are usually teenage boys/
young adults. This fits into the target audience of RDR.
So the reason that Rockstar marketed RDR during a
NASCAR race shows that the game itself is marketed to
a similar audience as they are.

6. Pre-order bonuses
Shops, such as Gamestop in America and Game gave players an in-game
bonus if you pre-ordered the game.
They held a competition online for anyone to vote in for 3 separate outfits
in the game. The winning outfit became the pre-order bonus. This was
good marketing as it meant people feel like they helped make the
game, and it means that those who voted would be likely to pre-order the
game in order to get the outfits.