SQUARE ENIX
Turning the inbox into part of the adventure
Collaborating with Marketing Manager Mel Gordon, I developed a personalized CRM campaign for DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined that invited players to choose one of five party members to receive a letter from. The DRAGON QUEST Story team wrote each letter in the party member’s voice, inviting players to join them on their adventure.
I transformed each letter into a unique email inspired by the character’s personality, minimizing the traditional marketing feel to make the experience feel more personal. Each letter linked to a central hub where players could discover and read the full collection.
DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined Character Letter Campaign
CRM CAMPAIGN DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
EARLY EXPLORATION
Before the DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined visual identity was finalized, I began exploring how each character’s letter could come to life within the email. These early concepts focused on balancing readability with personality, using details like stationery style, paper texture, typography, and signatures to make each letter feel unique to the character.
Once the DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined visual identity was established, I used its graphic elements and treatments to guide the CRM design. The blue palette, layered paper shapes, map-inspired details, bold orange accents, and playful framing helped create a consistent campaign system while leaving room for each character’s letter to have its own personality.
Letting Player Choice Shape the Campaign
The announcement email invited players to choose which of the five party members they wanted to receive a letter from. Aishe quickly emerged as the most popular choice, receiving significantly more votes than the other characters.
Rather than sending Aishe’s letter to everyone who didn’t vote, we used the results to adjust our approach. Non-voters were randomly assigned one of the five letters, giving every character a chance to shine while adding an element of surprise to the campaign.
An Invitation to Explore
After players received their selected character letter, the campaign shifted from a personal message into an opportunity to explore more of DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined.
Each letter included contextual CTAs that extended the experience beyond the inbox. Players could visit the campaign microsite to read letters from the other party members, learn more about the game, and continue toward purchase. Rather than interrupting the character-driven experience with traditional marketing, the CTAs were designed to feel like a natural next step in the journey.
Preserving Personality Across Languages
The SEE Localization teams translated each letter and identified key phrases to emphasize through bold and italic styling. We refined the typography over several rounds to keep the emphasis expressive and intentional without overwhelming the reader.
Extending Beyond the Inbox
The character letters resonated beyond the CRM campaign, sparking organic conversation within the DRAGON QUEST community. Fans shared the letters on Reddit, discussed their favorite characters, and even cited the campaign as helping build their excitement for the game.
The campaign also earned coverage from
Noisy Pixel, while the microsite gave the wider community a place to discover all five letters—even if they weren’t part of the original email campaign.
