INTELLIGENCE THAT WINS WARS

Short List
TitleINTELLIGENCE THAT WINS WARS
BrandACTIVISION
Product / ServiceCALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS
CategoryA08. Best Use of Social Media Marketing
EntrantMEC Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Entrant Company:MEC Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Agency:MEC Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Luke Ryan MEC Social Media Strategist
Guillaume Goudal MEC Digital Strategy Director
Viki Hammond MEC Business Director

Results and Effectiveness

The most successful market globally with 2.6 times the COD global growth rate. An additional $864K in sales attributed back to this campaign that cannot be attributed to anything else. Increased the number of discussion forums by44% Before community moderation, 73% of all Black-Ops conversations occurred in Hard-Core gaming forums in Australia. Afterwards, 49% of all conversations occurred in Casual channels. 40% increase over objective. Conversations successfully through content development creating a global hit with Lego Black-Ops generating 8,300,000+ views to date, 3.1M at campaign end. Media value generated by Lego Black-Ops video at campaign end $2.3m. A46 times ROI.

Creative Execution

The Communication Idea came from this insight – “New Model Army” recruiting the Casual Gamer into Black-Ops. The media strategy was about using data & insight to find leading influencers [YouTube directors / Community Moderators] to translate what we want to say, into a form consumers wish to receive and share. Recruitment and influence were best delivered through social media. It further allowed us to cost effectively engage this heavily socialised audience. Firstly we’d find the Casual Gamer through Community Moderation(paid) , by growing and changing the conversation in Casual sites [not gamer sites] Secondly the game would find the Casual through great video content [owned] shared by their peers [earned]. Our strategy was to use an influential YouTube director’s style to bring to life the multi-player dynamic of playing Black-Ops in an unintimidating way for Casuals to enjoy [and pass-on]. Hence the Lego Black-Ops video was created

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Our task was to develop a new Post-Launch campaign for Call Of Duty Black-Ops video game targeting the Casual Gamer [18-34male] to deliver on the business objective of an additional $300,000 sales The Casual Gamer only buys one or two games a year, and want the sure-fire winner that everyone has, however all of the content currently created was directed towards the Hard-Core Gamer Measures: Increase consideration [Grow conversation by 20%; Change conversation to 35% Casual; Create conversation 100,000 views]–all behavioural and measurable. There was heavy competitive activity and a tiny budget < $50k AUD Buzz analysis showed that Casual gamers do not actively seek out information or content relevant to gaming. The insight was developed directly from buzz monitoring; "I like games that are popular and have great reviews. It's about being part of a bigger thing-you know, when your mates have it too. Games must find me.“