Situation

Since 2003, 18 different CoDs have been released! Over the two decades a lot has happened in the gaming world; it’s difficult to be unique and create excitement. Especially for CoD that has been around forever. The many launches have led to that gamers have stopped caring and mostly complain that it was better in the past.

But not only that, the ned COD would also take place in a, for most, obsolete theme: WW2.

And that is also where the big challenge lies. How can you make people excited about the 19th Call of Duty relative to any other game?

Brief

Create positive awareness (fame) and expectations for the new CoD Vanguard, with a WW2 theme two months before it is release.

Objectives

The primary goal is earned reach and reactions for Vanguard.

Call of Duty Warzone is Activision’s free-to-play multiplayer game. It has a strong community of over 100 million players. A great media channel to build hype around the next Call of Duty.

In Warzone, 150 players drop simultaneously onto a big map. Every player shares the same simple goal – to be the last one left alive. If you succeed, you get to see your in-game character get evacuated off the map by helicopter as the sole winner. A holy scene for the community that not everybody gets to witness.

As the first-ever teaser of Vanguard, we introduced one of the main characters by making a change to the ending scene of Warzone. Instead of successfully getting evacuated by the helicopter. Polina (the most succesful female sniper in history) unexpectedly stole the victory in front of the winning player’s eyes.

Game insight:

Polina both hints both the depth of the story and new unique characters.

Community insight:

The gaming community are famous for sharing their own content, and watch others around gaming, which could benefit the earned media story.

Target audience:

The main target audience was lapsed Call of Duty players or players that play Warzone – Activision's free-to-play multiplayer game with 100+ million players. And win them over to Activisions AAA pay-to-play title Call of Duty Vanguard.

The strategy was to 'sneak' the new ending cutscene in the game letting players discover it themselves – and then use uploads and reactions from the community to push the PR-narrative in gaming press. (Which isn't hard with the amount of active Warzone matches going on at any given moment.) Once the story broke, we amplified the story targeting gaming journalists press releases and more information behind the idea.

In the final sequence after players have won a game of Warzone they get evacuated in a helicopter. It's a triumphant moment where many streamers brag about their glory and show the summary of their achievement. In the original cutscene, you or your team get winched up a helicopter as credits roll – getting ready to leave the battlefield. But we made a change the end cutscene.

It started as it have always done, but halfway up the helicopter. Your in-game character was suddenly shot off the line. For the first time reavleaing our main protaganist – and her sniper rifle as the culprit.

It was implemented on a global stage across all active Warzone-matches in the world between August and November (when the game was launched).

The initiative generated articles in most major gaming forums: eg GameSpot, IGN, Gamesradar, Polygon, NME, Uproxx, Inverse, Venture beat.

The initiative generated 500+ reaction / discussion videos uploaded by the community on TikTok, Twitch, Youtube, Instagram, etc. Where people gave their views on who it was. People themselves, looked up the depth of the story and the unique characters.

Example:

PrestigeIsKey - 1,4 million subscribers

Inkslasher - 1,09 million subscribers

402THUNDER402 - 741,000 subscribers

@esportscenter - 526.1k followers

@zeffgaming - 1,4 million followers

@sallyisadog - 2,5m followers

"Undoubtedly, this new CoD: Vanguard Warzone teaser has injected more excitement into the community and a desire to see the new game officially revealed soon."

- @charlieINTEL (The largest independent site for COD-communities)