Through the call for projects Marketing Booster, Pro Helvetia offers the chance to emerging talents in the field of interactive media to receive a grant of up to 20’000 CHF to support a clear marketing goal in relation with an upcoming release. Examples of possible marketing objectives are:

• A thorough market analysis – to define the target groups, competitors, price points.
• Create a release strategy – media campaign, platform strategy, promotion, influencers.
• Create a general communications strategy – storytelling, media campaign, platform strategy, influencer.
• Work on community building – platform management, crowdfunding.

The support is oriented towards impactful marketing activities, also in collaboration with external partners such as specialised communications, PR, or marketing firms (the partner must be contacted beforehand, and an offer must be available).

The eligible projects are independent interactive works for computers, mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, virtual reality glasses or similar platforms in any phase of development (pre-production, production, or post-production). They must hold a high degree of interaction, meaning that the action of the user must have a major impact on the unfolding of the content.

The selection will be done by a jury of experts. The jury will meet at the end of October 2022 and the results will be communicated by the end of November 2022 at the latest.

General conditions of participation:
Applicants (developers or studios) must fulfil the following criteria:

• Funding measures are aimed at applicants who are either Swiss citizens or have permanent residence in Switzerland.
• Applicants may submit projects up to seven years after graduation or within the first seven years after establishing a studio under legal form
• The project is carried out according to professional standards.
• The project is highly innovative in creative and technological terms.

Project submission:

• The application deadline is Thursday, 1 September 2022 (inclusive).
• No funding is awarded retrospectively. The corresponding marketing objective may be completed at the earliest four months and at the latest one year after the application deadline.
• Applications must be submitted via email to swissgames@prohelvetia.ch (title of email: Marketing Booster application – name of project). The application dossier must include the following:
  • Description of the project (a single PDF file, max. 10 pages), consisting of Visuals; CVs of key project staff (including date of entry of the company in the commercial register); Market analysis (with target group description); Plan for development, production and commercial distribution; Budget for development.
  • Description of marketing objectives and strategy how to achieve them, including description of partners, timeline, and expected impact (PDF file, max. 4 pages).
  • Project trailer (max. 2 minutes).
  • Budget and complete financing plan for marketing activities.
• Essentially, all documents must be submitted in English. If the applicant has no knowledge of English, the person must provide a project summary (max. 1 A4 page) and may submit the main documents either in German, French or Italian. The summary will be translated into English by Pro Helvetia for the jury process.
• The application must be complete and submitted on time (1 September 2022, 23:59).
• You may apply separately for a Work Grant.

 

The restrictions for the Work Grants are valid also for this call: https://prohelvetia.ch/en/guidelines-interactive-media/factsheet-work-grants/

 

Supported projects:

• Stardust, «Grimoire Groves»
• Twisted Brainz, «AST-Hero»