Riot Games were launching their new series Arcane on Netflix, based on their popular PC game League of Legends. Strategically, this moved them from gaming into entertainment and they wanted to bring the loyal fan base on the journey to the animated series and for them to become real ambassadors to the transition.

We were asked to conceive and produce a massive cultural moment around the Arcane launch through a global experiential campaign playing out the series narrative (without spoilers) over four weeks.

The core creative idea needed to provide content for a wider integrated campaign, particularly on social media; and should represent a ‘love letter to the fans’ allowing them to engage with the characters and worlds they love in the game, in a different context.

The objective was to drive engagement, buzz and viewership with Arcane being placed in the top 10 Netflix series charts globally. Budget confidential.

Unable to reproduce the animated characters IRL, we lifted a key story strand from the debut series (the advancement of Hex crystal technology), and opened six flagship ‘Hextech Expo’ stores in retail spaces in succession around the globe, showcasing the in-game/series technology ‘in real life’.

Hoardings teased the stores openings with product AR before revealing storefronts that featured interactive windows, shrouded technology and an opening countdown clock.

The night before opening, stores were raided with all technology stolen by the series’ main protagonist Jinx, leaving a trail of destruction that aligned with the series story arc and episode drops. UGC style ‘breaking news’ films captured and amplified the narrative on social channels for fans to find clues and speculate as to the culprit’s identity, the location of the next attack and episode content.

The campaign kicked off with a custom 3-minute film on the world’s tallest building hijacked by Jinx.

Our target audience was the global League of Legends gaming community, a group heavily invested in the characters, worlds and lore within the game. Their knowledge of the game was so vast it was crucial for us to go deep and detailed in our understanding and approach to ensure authenticity in every element (made all the more challenging by not being able to feature the animated characters IRL, or episode content spoilers).

Our experience needed to go beyond a mere stunt that replayed the plot. Instead, we created a campaign playing out over four weeks that was borne from a narrative fully authentic to the characters and the fantasy world within the series whilst building our own unique story. We also needed to create a global movement that the community would get behind, lighting a touchpaper that would ensure the community themselves became a vehicle for amplifying the campaign content.

The campaign launched with a 3-minute custom film on Burj Khalifa, Dubai on 31st October, hijacked by protagonist Jinx and posted on YouTube.

A series of week-long experiences were curated in flagship retail spaces in Paris, London, Madrid, Istanbul, Singapore and LA throughout November – ‘Hextech Expo’ stores teased fans with a showcase to demonstrate in-game technology using AR content and interactive windows using gestural control to allow visitors to stabilise a ‘Hex Crystal’ and take control of a key character’s weapon via their Smartphones.

Prior to opening, stores were ‘destroyed’ overnight and Hextech stolen by Jinx using six different destruction methods, graffiti typography, custom-design-and-build props and visual effects that aligned with the series story arc and episode drops.

UGC style ‘breaking news’ content was amplified on social channels for fans to speculate as to the culprit.

Toolkits were created to support local market activations, social, OOH and print.

• 34 Million Series views in 6 days

• Arcane reached No. 1 on Netflix charts in 52 countries

• 49% of League players saw or heard of campaign

• 381% increase in conversation during campaign period vs target of 100%

• 542% increase in weekly social mentions vs LoL average

• 144.3 million engagements globally with campaign content on owned channels (organic, no paid support).

• Highly engaged community demonstrating emotional connection with activation.

A snapshot of comments to social posts:

“Events like this make my heart ache I want to see EVERYTHING”

“I have not seen a campaign of anything with so much effort behind it for a long time and I find it an incredible way to use advertising to bring both the character and series to life.”

“They are doing very well. Making the world of fantasy and reality interact is very difficult. 10 of 10.”