Brandbook Max de Grauw

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 Content
Part 1: The brand and its environment.
Chapter 1: The brand
Chapter 2: The target audience
Chapter 3: The three trends
______________________________________
Part 2: The brand and its design.
Chapter 1: The PLC
Chapter 2: Values
Chapter 3: Five senses
______________________________________
Part 3: Communication
Chapter 1: Personal traits
Chapter 2: Tone of voice
Chapter 3: Visual presence
Chapter 4: Social media
______________________________________
Part 4: The brand’s behaviour.
Chapter 1: Reasons to believe
Chapter 2: People, Planet & Profit
______________________________________
Part 5: Future proof advice
Summary
 Part 1:
The brand and its environment.

Chapter 1: The brand

Riot games is a American video game developer, publisher, and
E-sport tournament organizer. It was founded in September
of 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merill to develop League
of Legends. They went on to create multiple spin-offs, a show,
and another unrelated video game. Riot games operates a to-
tal of 14 international League of Legends Esport leagues, the
League of Legends Worlds Championship, and the Valorant
Champions tour. Riot games’ mission statement is ‘‘
Riot Games’ mission has always been to develop, publish, and
support the most player-focused games in the world. This sin-
gular focus on player experience is the driving force behind
everything at Riot Games.

Chapter 2: The target audience

Riot’s target audience mainly consists of young people, ran-
ging from appr. 16-26. The past few years however, have
proven that age does not matter to alot of people, showing a
growth in the target group’s range of age.
 Chapter 3: The three trends
Mega:
Riot has almost singehandedly changed the world’s perspec-
tive on E-sports, or competitive gaming. They host yearly
tournaments, and have inspired many other Game compa-
nies to create their own E-sports. This has revolutionized
E-sports, and transformed it from ‘just’ gaming, to a real
sport.

Maxi:
Riot has shown with League of Legends that a free-to-play
game can still be a very profitable business strategy, via the
implementation of purchasable add-ons. This has in turn in-
spired many other companies to do the same.

Micro:
Recently, Riot released Arcane. An animated series following
some of the characters from the game. Despite literally eve-
ry single movie/serie adaption failing for other games, Riot
has been the first to create a show with glowing reviews. I
believe this will inspire other companies to do the same.
 Part 2:
The brand and its design.

Chapter 1: The PLC

The product life cycle for Riot is focussed on the skins. A
skin is a cosmetic item which you can purchase in the game’s
shop. It changes the look of a certain character, or item.

Introduction:
A skin is introduced via a teaser. A shirt video, a picture, an
animation, several different types of media are used, depen-
ding on the quality of the skin.

Growth:
The skin is released. Depending on the quality and which
champion the growth can be explosive, or stagnant. This is
very different for each skin and champion
Maturity:
The skin is seen more and more in-game, it’s well known and
most people that play that champion have the skin.

Decline:
People see the skin alot, and eventually they grow accusto-
med to it. Sales usually decline fast at this stage.
 Chapter 2: Values
Riot is a company founded with the belief that a company
of gamers, commited to serving and helping players, could
create amazing games. Riot games believes that anyone with
passion, vision, and perseverance can make a positive social
impact on the world.

Through corporate social responsibility, they hope to help

build a more positive world for the players and their com-
munities. They hope to achieve this by focusing on creating
equal access to education and skill development, and promo-
ting positive citizenship in their communities.

Riot Games has 4 ‘’Pillars’’, which they follow.

 Pillar 1:
Education
Providing and expanding access to STEAM education
and Social & Emotional Learing (SEL) to prepare stu-
dents for jobs in the future economy.

Pillar 2:
Citizenship
Encouraging, building, and protecting inclusive and sup-
portive communities in-person and online.

Pillar 3:
Opportunity
Supporting people from all backgrounds to live and
equal, just, healthy, and happy life so they might realize
their full potential.

Pillar 4:
Sustainability
Limiting their impact on climate change and ope rating
business activities within a sustainable manner.
 Chapter 3: Five sense
The five senses are activated in a manner of ways, though
most active are touch, sight, and sound.

Touch:
The sense touch is triggered by the touching of the keyboard
and mouse. You generally keep your hands and fingers in one
position, so eventually a certain pose becomes like second
nature.

Sight:
Sight is the most important sense for this product, since it’s a
video game, the player follows the characters on the screen,
and quick reflexes and hand-eye coordination is required to
respond to any threats.

Sound:
The ears are also stimulated by the game, this is thanks to
the soundtrack. There’s always music/sound playing, and
this adapts to the situation you’re in. Every champion has it’s
own sounds and voice too, so often you might get saved by
noticing the sound of an enemy attack.

Scent & Taste:

Nether scent nor taste is used.
 Part 3:
Communication

Chapter 1: Personal traits

Riot games could be described as a enthousiastic, fantasy rich,
young person. They portray themselves in a playful manner,
sharing memes and other fun interactions via Twitter, but
keeping a story-telling like voice when sharing important
news or information.

When described as an archetype, LoL would be most akin to

the Creator or the Magician. A company focused on creating
a world and deeply developing how we view that world.
 Chapter 2: Tone of Voice
Riot uses an informal tone of voice with it’s customers. Con-
necting via platflorms as Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram.
They tend to show that they are gamers themself, and try to
relate to the customers as much as possible.

In game, Riot has a different tone of voice. Here, they follow

guidelines to create a linear narrative for the world of League
of Legends.
Purpose. To create a strong sense of direction in their stories,
they write with purpose, and a clear direction. This style of
writing is used in most player-facing communication. Howe-
ver, if writing for a certain type of thematic, the flavor may
vary, but the base should stay consistent.

Write like you’re ready for action. Riot believes in the power
of words, and how strongly influenced players can be by this
strength. They focus on writing in ways that show strength,
but also a strong sense of flow.

Steady direction. Riot communicates in a way that puts the

player in the spotlight, informing and inspiring, but not going
into deep descriptions.

Know how to play along. To keep Riot on the same emotional

level as the players, employees are instructed to be free with
their language when speaking one-on-one. Keep it casual, and
fun.
 Chapter 3: Visual presence
League of legends’ visual presence is strongly based around
the elements from the game; Gold Hextech metal, and blue
flowing magic. Most of the ‘’softer’’ backgrounds are made of
the soft magic, with strong gold and metallic machinery and
tech as a visual guideline. These work together very well, gi-
ving the reader a calm background, while also leaving a clear
line of sight to follow with the Hextech.

The imagery itself is usually of champions, or the world they

inhabit. A lot of work goes into building their world, and there
is alot of art of unrelated parts, like streets and fields of land
unrelated to any present champions. This is crucial to give the
world it’s strong integrity, and is part of the reason the world
feels so fleshed out.
 Chapter 4: Social Media
League of Legends uses both Instagram and Twitter, using the
platforms to spread news about game changes, updates, even-
ts, and new skin updates.

Instagram is used more for just the updates, posting pictures

of new skins and small charts with current events or game
changes. Player interaction is quite low here, as they don’t
respond to comments.

Meanwhile, Twitter is a different story. They have alot of fan

interaction on twitter, chatting with players and posting more
memes and other things unrelated to the game.

Both of these however, radiate a playful demeanor, showing

that they are still a young company, and one that wants to
keep in touch with it’s fanbase.
 Part 4:
The brand’s behaviour

Chapter 3: Reasons to believe

League of Legends is an everevolving game, and that means
that no matter how hard the developers try, it can never truly
be balanced. Unfazed by this, they keep trying with each up-
date, tweaking and twitching the game mechanics and files to
make it as fair as possible. This is a case of strong resolve, and
it shows the players just how dedicated they are in making
this game, and the world around it.
 Chapter 3: PPL
People
For it’s people, LoL uses it’s pillars, providing and expanding
education to further student’ preparation for the future eco-
nomy.
Planet
LoL focuses on community building, creating a safe, inclusive,
and supportive community for anyone.
Profit
LoL is also commited to minimizing ecological impact, by ope-
rating withing a sustainable business manner.
 Part 5:
Future proof advice

Though the game and it’s creators have alot of posi-

tives, there’s always room for improvement. Though
the community has improved alot, there is still quite a
toxic atmosphere in alot of games, and this is created
by bugged gameplay, or otherwise unfair penalizati-
on. This needs work, as it’s a large point of irritation
with fans. Besides this, I can only hope that League of
Legends stays true to what they believe in, and that
they keep on creating the games (and other media)
which they envision.
Thank you for reading this Brand Report. I hope
it’s been informative, and has shed some light on
my company of choice.