Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

We aimed to provide an experience that resonates well with the local culture.

Background

Wargaming group, that produced World of Tanks Blitz, a popular massive multiplayer game, approached us to come up with a campaign in order to drive up organic game installs in Japan.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

World of Tanks is famous for being bold and ironic, and this tone is often reflected in their advertisements. So we proposed to raise awareness of World of Tanks Blitz by reaching the gamer community through an online game minisite of a popular but rather unique genre in Japan: a dating simulation game. The goal of the game is to win over the heart of a long time classmate, named Ayano Konkara, also known as Tank Head girl.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The target audience was young and young adult Japanese males playing video games. To reach them organically and cost-efficiently, we designed a mini-game that tapped into a genre that has a long historical connection within the Japanese gamer culture which is a dating simulation game with an added ironic twist to it that would also make the bridge to the actual Wargaming game.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

We designed and implemented a dating simulation game that we hosted in a mini-site. We paid particular attention to the game character by collaborating with a voice actress and illustrator that was not only talented but had also built up a fan community on social media that matched our target audience. On launch day, we published a press release and a dozen micro-influencers that we contacted beforehand posted about the game on Twitter (Twitter is particularly popular in Japan). The voice actress and illustrator also shared the work on social media.

List the results (30% of vote)

The PR release was picked up and relayed by over 80 news media including all the major online game media and some of the biggest news media in Japan. Tank head girl (戦車頭女子 in Japanese) was organically mentioned over 8,000 times on Twitter with overwhelming positive or amused reaction, with many sharing their own interpretation of a “Tank head girl”, turning it into a meme. Dozens of playthrough videos were organically published on YouTube, giving other players (and us) a chance to enjoy their reactions to the game. A person made a highly realistic cosplay costume of the Tank Head Girl character that she shown in various popular events such as “Wonder Festival 2018” and “Comiket 2018”. She even got interviewed on national television in a morning program named “Mezamashi TV”. The minisite got 12,000 unique participants, over 150,000 page views and 3min average session time.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and/or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

We used a game genre that is specific to the Japanese culture and which is not conventionally used for advertisement.