“We need to be agile, we need to hop on the things that are coming,” Iwo Zakowski, global head of marketing for live games at Supercell, told a session at Cannes Lions. He revealed how Supercell’s partnership with its creative agency has led to innovative campaigns that have “clashed” with huge cultural moments.
Clash with podcast genres
It’s not enough to tap into popular culture, the session heard, you need to clash with culture. So how might you do that? Zakowski and chief creative officer André Toledo, from DAVID New York, believe that you need to look at things differently and go all in.
One example of their innovative thinking is to take the true-crime podcast genre and reinterpret it for the gaming world. Hammerless, a podcast created for the video game, challenged players to find the perpetrator of a crime that occurs in Clash of Clans. It even employed a real forensic psychologist to analyze the different characters of the game for their criminal potential. The community loved it and the podcast became a Spotify hit.
“Tell a story people can obsess over,” advised Zakowski, who reported that the podcast resulted in +1,220% increase in engagement.
Clash with celebrities
Another campaign capitalized on the popularity of World Wrestling Entertainment and one of its superstars, Cody Rhodes, who is a fan of Clash of Clans and has the persona of the ultimate good guy.
But what if the ultimate good guy turns bad? This became the starting point of three short films featuring Rhodes going over to the “dark side” and acting as an evil overlord while playing the mobile game. It culminated in a host of WWE-themed features in-game, and an event in Las Vegas.
It resulted in:
- 2.7 million new players
- 4.3 billion impressions
- +12% increase in revenue
A similar partnership with Norwegian football star Erling Haaland, a long-time fan of Clash of Clans, riffed on the idea that people love to hate the player because he’s simply too good. The marketing team then invited gamers to “get a taste of revenge” by trying to raid Haaland’s village in Clash of Clans. “A learning for us,” said Zakowski, “is that you can really turn hate into love.”
It resulted in:
- 34 million gamers raiding Haaland’s village
- 11.8 trillion worth of gold stolen from the football player
- +150% new players for Clash of Clans
Learnings
• Take risks: “Sometimes you clash but sometimes you crash. That’s the risk of doing things differently,” said chief creative officer Toledo. But he added that they will learn from their mistakes and go again.
• React with fire: It’s not new to react when something happens out in the world, but make it bigger when you see something interesting. That’s how you become part of culture, Zakowski explained.
• Don’t be afraid to clash heads: You need debates and different points of view to improve on ideas and make them better, said Zakowski.
• Take on the big guys: When the team noticed that HBO drama series House of Dragon had almost no dragons in it, Supercell reminded its players that “in this house you’ll actually find dragons” – a message that spawned new scenery, an in-game challenge, and 16.4 million new and reengaged players. They’re now waiting for Netflix to present them with the next opportunity.
Source: warc.com