Horizon Forbidden West is an action role-playing open-world and of the most anticipated gaming titles of 2022. The sequel to 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn, the game is set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Western United States recovering from the aftermath of an extinction event caused by a rogue robot swarm.

While every exclusive PlayStation video game has a global launch, for the Romanian market it's a must to embed traces of local culture and insights into a custom creative idea. The same challenge applied also for Horizon Forbidden West's launch.

Having a total budget under €10k, the creative solution had to tick the following objectives:

- generate awareness and reach for the video game launch

- engage gamers with pieces of digital content that can deliver a better performance than the benchmarks

- generate earned media to scale up the impact of the launch

Still on air since 1965, Teleencyclopedia is Romania's iconic documentary show running on the national television channel every Saturday. For Romanians, it has been Discovery Channel and National Geographic mixed into one for more than 50 years.

And, in 2022, Teleencyclopedia premiered a 4-episodes digital miniseries about the open-world video game Horizon Forbidden West, following the same format and iconic elements of the original show: the intro with the emblematic song, the iconic voice of the narrator, the storytelling approach. Romanians' beloved Teleencyclopedia documentary format, but this time, for the first time in its history, featuring the world of a video game.

Romania lived under a communist regime until 1989. Almost anything associated with that period of time has died with the regime. Except things that had value on their own. One of them was and still is the documentary show Teleencyclopedia. With such a long history, it manages to trigger somewhat of a Pavlovian effect when it comes to knowledge, exploring worlds and learning about history.

Gamers, no matter the age, are not immune to the trigger. Especially those who are fascinated by open-world games and documentary series. For them, the story is as important as the technical features or the graphics. They want to feel immersed in alternate universes and and bring to life their digital alter egos.

For the launch of Horizon Forbidden West, PlayStation set to activate the soft spot of Romanian gamers who are in awe when global brands add local relevance to campaigns.

One week before the launch, PlayStation launched a teasing trailer for the documentary series about Horizon Forbidden West. The trailer replicated the intro of the original Teleencyclopedia, using the emblematic song from the series over footage from the game, to announce the first episode.

Every week, another episode was released online, both on PlayStation's YouTube channel and Facebook page. The episodes featured the game’s post-apocalyptic Earth and its unforgiving nature, tribal cultures, and awe-inspiring machines. In exactly the same manner as a the classical format of the series.

All 4 episodes showcased footage only from the game and featured one of the iconic voices of Teleencyclopedia, which guided viewers through the game's universe, just like in the TV series, and highlighted the PS5 features that turn the open-world game into an unmatched experience.

The series reached a digital audience of 13.5M, with a benchmark breaking 62% average view rate for 5+ minutes videos, hitting the 600k EUR mark in earned media.