Craig Hospital Involved in Design of New Xbox Adaptive Controller

Challenge

Craig Hospital’s Adaptive Gaming program was born in 2015 with a group of occupational therapists and rehab engineers, along with the Therapeutic Recreation department as a way to help patients become more involved with their therapy, as well as create social engagement activities.

Through a mutual connection, a team at Xbox heard about Craig and reached out to explain that they were in the process of developing a new Xbox game controller and asked if they would be willing to test it out with patients from Craig. Xbox aimed to create an affordable, adaptive controller that people with limited mobility could modify, customize and use to play in a way that works for them.

The GroundFloor Media (GFM) team was tasked with leveraging this opportunity to build national awareness for Craig Hospital as a leading rehabilitation center that is doing more than just physical and occupational therapy to help its patients.

Challenge 1: Craig’s goal was to be mentioned in 25 percent of the media coverage on the controller’s announcement and have a Craig spokesperson featured in at least one national media piece.

Challenge 2: Partner with Microsoft to tell this very visual story through several campaign assets, including blog posts and video.

Challenge 3: Leverage social media networks to spread the message about Craig’s significant involvement in the direction and development of the controller.

Solution

GFM partnered with Craig Hospital on national media relations, as well as the social media and digital campaign highlighting this partnership and innovative program.

The Xbox team visited Craig Hospital several times during the development process to observe the bi-weekly game night, where patients tested the controllers and collected real-time feedback. When the final beta version of the controller was complete in February 2018, the Xbox team visited game night again to bring demo units to the hospital and observe patients using the final version. During this time, the Xbox, Craig and GFM teams discussed PR and marketing efforts and coordinated multiple opportunities for Xbox to revisit the hospital to collect patient stories through video and an editorial piece that would appear on Microsoft’s news website.

The GFM team helped support on-site visits and coordinated filming with the Xbox team, where they interviewed Craig staff, patients and their family members about their use of the Adaptive Controller.

In addition, the GFM team traveled to Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Wash. to help facilitate a media preview day, where reporters from CNET, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, GamesBeat, Engadget and more got a preview of the controller and a full briefing on the process for its development, including presentations and panel discussions that highlighted the Craig Hospital team.

In the meantime, the GFM team also prepared two blog posts on the Xbox Adaptive Controller that discussed the hospital’s adaptive gaming program, as well as Craig’s involvement in the development of the controller.

Results

The Xbox Adaptive Controller was announced by Microsoft on May 16, 2018 to coincide with Global Accessibility Awareness Day. GFM successfully leveraged this partnership to build national awareness for Craig Hospital as a leading rehabilitation center that is doing more than just physical and occupational therapy to help its patients. Results included:

• Craig Hospital was included in more than 250 articles announcing the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which was just under 50 percent of the 529 total articles. Erin Muston-Firsch, occupational therapist and assistive technology specialist at Craig, was interviewed for several national/international pieces, from publications including Engadget, WIRED, The Guardian and Eurogamer.
• Craig Hospital’s involvement was prominently shared via Microsoft’s channels. This included the company’s Story Labs site, where a full article on the development process features Craig’s involvement and a patient story. Xbox shared an announcement video that featured Craig staff and patients on their social channels, reaching an audience of nearly 550,000 people. The video alone was shared more than 9,800 times on Facebook.
• Craig Hospital’s social promotion of its involvement with the Xbox Adaptive Controller garnered significant reach and engagement. Posts reached an audience of nearly 14,000 people and was shared more than 70 times.