The ask:

Xbox tasked us with promoting the Minecraft expansion pack in the UK, in such a way as to excite younger audiences about the themes of the new game add-on: nature and history.

The client wanted us to deliver an effective campaign, ideally with a trusted and recognised partner in the heritage space, that would emphasise Minecraft’s ability to educate children on subjects such as history, through gaming.

The challenge:

Finding the right idea and the right partner to execute it. We needed to excite young gamers, driving them towards the update for increased gameplay.

Objectives:

• Successfully launch the Wild update

• Secure a strong partner for the campaign

• Drive interest and engagement

Conservation requires people to imagine ruins as they once were - and imagination is a huge part of Minecraft.

To get gamers excited about history and the update pack with ancient ruins, we had to bring the past into the present.

We formed a historic collaboration with The National Trust and unleashed the imagination of the Minecraft community by challenging them to recreate a real-world ancient ruin in the world of game, using the updates.

First: Drones mapped the ruins of Corfe Castle

Second: Developers created a base ruin within Minecraft that gamers could build on

Third: We introduced a second key collaboration. Minecraft creator Grian and popular TikTok historian created a version of Corfe Castle in the game and shared with fans in film and on socials

Fourth: We held event at Corfe Castle, merging real-life with online for a historic brand experience to drive further engagement and coverage

As the leading heritage trust in the UK, National Trust was the perfect partner for this collaboration, offering a direct and recognisable connection to nature and history, which Minecraft wanted us to highlight.

Target audiences were broad. Partnering with National Trust, we were able to tap into their expansive subscriber base too, which only has a small overlap with Xbox UK’s gaming audience.

Leveraging Grian as our key Minecraft talent helped us draw in Minecraft's core audience too. His expertise in the pro building space are incredibly well recognised and he is a fan favourite.

Collaborating with TikTok Historian Alice Loxton added legitimacy and allowed us to tap into her huge following of history fans, expanding our reach. To include non-gamers we didn’t dive too deeply into building facets.

We created the hero film that showcased their build and hosted it on Minecraft global channels, on socials and in release.

We worked with Minecraft specialists, 'Blockbuilders' using GPS drone data to create accurate model of the ruin.

Grian and Alice Loxton developed the first reimagining of the castle in the game.

For launch, their finished build and experience featured in our hero film. This was shared on global Minecraft channels, YouTube, Xbox UK Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.The film features match cut drone shots from the real Corfe Castle in Dorset, to demonstrate how closely Grian’s build is to the authentic ruin.

Content shared on influencer socials.

National Trust hosted a landing page, detailing the campaign and its partnership with Xbox. Gave inspiration for other builds based on other locations across the UK.

Live gaming event held at Corfe Castle for National Trust’s Festival of Archaeology. Pop-up demo tent for the 3,000+ attendees to roam around our Minecraft builds and learn about the campaign.

Full press release and media outreach program.

• 1,905 castles built

• Minecraft channel video 1.114Million views, 51K likes & 4,346 comments

• Grian Youtube channel video: 1.393Million views, 104K likes & 4,842 comments

• 205,100 Organic Social Engagements

• 1,200+ Unique Total Players in the Corfe Castle Server

• 97% Player Retention Rate during the first 10 days of the campaign

• 73% retention rate through to January 2023 (end of campaign period)

• Average Playtime during campaign, 8 hours 48 minutes

• Total Player Game Time: 1 month, 1 day, 16 hours, and 26 minutes