Activision: GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: ACTIVISION
Agency: KETCHUM PLEON
Category: Services
Advertising campaign: GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY
Business Director: Alessandra De Martino (Ketchum)
Web Strategist: Andrea Prenz (Telemacus)
Junior Account Executive: Benedetta Pavan (Ketchum)
Senior Marketing Manager: Carlo Barone (Activision )
Art Director: Cinzia Schiffo (Telemacus)
Senior Consultant: Chiara Giacoletto Papas (Ketchum)
PR Manager: Francesca Carotti (Activision )

Relevancy
It’s war out there.Leading video game and entertainment publisher Activision Publishing, Ltd. was launching Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the 9th chapter in the series of the popular first-person action game. It was seeking a broader reach of media and consumers, and was asking regional agencies to come up with creative solutions.We recognized the opportunity to make the Italian market a major player, utilizing our knowledge of gaming, familiarity with the media and insight into Italian popular culture.

Execution
Play a big role.We gave Italy a part in Black Ops II, and recruited celebrated actor Giancarlo Giannini to make the most of it, announcing his role as the game’s villain during a star-studded press conference at the historic Majestic Hotel in Rome. Next we kept the gaming community in the loop, organizing a presentation day at Milan’s tech savvy Spazio Anniluce, where journalists could preview Call of Duty:Black Ops II in multiplayer mode between one-on-one interviews with the game developers.As launch date neared, we unveiled a unique app allowing consumers to collect and share photos of themselves in the game’s popular “Zombie Mode.” The Call of Duty branded content, developed with a major game retailer, and distributed via Facebook, quickly went viral.The launch night event, modeled on the midnight premiere of popular movie franchises, used a military theme, popular local DJs, and a Call of Duty: Black Ops II tournament to build excitement to a crescendo.

Strategy
Make everyone a player.The worlds of video games and cinema have long overlapped; game titles are often launched with the same techniques as popular movies. But movies don’t engage viewers the way video games engage players. And video games don’t enjoy the broad appeal of hit films, playing to enthusiasts rather than the public. We saw a way to leverage both approaches. Our campaign would engage famous actors, the general public and the media themselves to play a role in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, use big theatrical venues to create events that were impossible to ignore, and deliver an irresistible story for the mainstream press, plus a viral component for the online world.

Client Brief Or Objective
Go beyond the Game.To make this a blockbuster in Italy and set sales records, we needed to engage consumers who might not otherwise notice the launch of a videogame, and attract media outlets who traditionally don’t cover the gaming industry. We set out to convert this enhanced engagement into positive media impressions and increased product sales.

Effectiveness
Blasting Black Ops II into pop culture.ROI: 1400% for a three-month campaign.Advertising value equivalency of earned media coverage: 2.100.924.5 €.980 articles (on/off line, Broadcast and Radio) and more than 400m impressions, reaching well beyond game/tech sectorMore than 20,000 people visited the ZOMBIE APP and 15% of users created a brand-specific album on their Facebook page.Black Ops II became the fastest-selling Call of Duty sequel ever, generating $1 billion in worldwide sales in the first 15 days.

Campaign Description
“Going above and beyond the Call of Duty”Activision Publishing, Inc. is a worldwide leader in video gaming entertainment, and Call of Duty is one of the most successful titles in its history. But the game was being raised to another level. Call of Duty: Black Ops II was the 9th chapter of the series and now faced fierce competition. Italy had become one of the most important gaming markets in Europe, but its economy was reeling. Reaching enthusiasts was simple, but to build the brand, Activision needed to entice the broader public, and mainstream media who are typically unwilling to cover the gaming industry.The agency’s Milan office saw a way in. Combining Italy’s historic love of film and growing appetite for video games, we crafted a storyline and sent it out across the country: “Video game looking for actors’ engagement.”Italian movie star Giancarlo Giannini was enlisted as the voiceover for the game’s villain, an announcement we handled with Hollywood fanfare. We gave the public a role in the action: a custom app that allowed them to collect and share images of themselves in the game’s popular “Zombie Mode.” And we treated the press to an exclusive hands-on engagement of its own.By the time Call of Duty: Black Ops II launched, its midnight premiere in Milan had become a major event. Thrown by us. When the smoke cleared, we had 980 media stories, 400m impressions, 20,000 users of our Zombie App, a ROI of 1,400% and a role in the fastest-selling Call of Duty sequel ever: $1b in 15 days.