Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Mobile games typically focus on user acquisition and app installs as their main priority. However, there are limits to user acquisition. Instead of a traditional performance driven approach to acquire new users, Twitter proposed a brand-building campaign with the key objective of driving mass awareness and buzz amongst casual gamers to avid gamers. The campaign spanned over 9 days, from Online-to-Offline activations across Twitter to Tokyo’s subways and Shibuya Crossing (like NYC’s Times Square).

Background

EVA is a cult classic anime from 1995, a huge iconic anime among Millennials and Gen Z in Japan and also Asia and there is a new in-game IP collaboration between CODE:D-Blood and Neon Genesis Evangelion (EVA). CODE:D-Blood, published by Tencent Games in Japan, was first launched in April 2020. By December, interest was waning. For this new in-game IP collaboration for the title, Tencent Games was looking to drive maximum conversation and buzz from casual gamers to avid gamers.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

When the angels arrive to destroy humankind, everything turns blood-red. The lead characters were 14 years old when they set on the path to be something bigger than themselves and they carry a tinge of reluctance knowing that they are about to engage in a fight of their lifetime, to save the world. To generate buzz amongst the gaming community, the idea revolved around "The Awakening". By creating a once in a lifetime experience for the gamers to reenact the iconic battles of Eva together, the chosen ones were awakened to answer the call.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

EVA is a cult classic anime from 1995, a huge iconic anime among Millennials and Gen Z in Japan and also Asia. The gaming community in Japan is very active on Twitter, there were 2 billion gaming-related Tweets in 2020. Partnering with Twitter, CODE:D-Blood was able to connect with the gaming community on the platform and used engaging real-time features to blur the lines between worlds by bringing iconic elements from the story and game onto Twitter. To further blur the lines, the battle was brought from Twitter into real life, taking over Tokyo subways and Shibuya Crossing.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

CODE:D-Blood took over Twitter and Tokyo with a 9-day campaign simulating iconic elements from the game into the real world. A hashtag connected emoji eye that opens in dark mode was created to tease the launch and embody the campaign. Everything in-game and on Twitter, including the CODE:D-Blood timeline, started to turn red just like during doomsday in EVA As the in-game event went live and was streamed on Twitter, Shibuya Crossing was taken over, replicating the start of the first game event in real world Tokyo. 6 launch videos were streamed simultaneously on DOOH screens, reaching 2.4million people daily. The QR codes on Tokyo subway billboards directed to a website that was updated daily with the latest action. It was a virtual fest as in-game battle alerts went out on Twitter and gamers as they rushed to the action.

List the results (30% of vote)

In just 9 days, CODE:D-Blood Code Dragon Blood’s relaunch had over 17 million Impressions, 1.4 million Video Views, and over 900 thousand people joining the launch day live stream. CODE:D-Blood Code Dragon Blood trended #1 on Twitter in Japan and #4 in the world during the campaign and moved the game back up to the #4 most downloaded free game on the iOS App Store.