There was no Carnival on the streets of Brazil this year. But there was Carnival on Call of Duty Mobile. Activision released a pack of themed Skins and a new Brazilian character, the first ever for Call of Duty. Our challenge was to promote this historic release. But how to achieve that goal in the very year that went down in history as the year with no Carnival in the country of Carnival?

There’s no such thing as Carnival without a hit song. So we just went ahead and released our hit anyway. We made a remix of QUE TIRO FOI ESSE, the greatest hit song in Brazil over the last years (#1 in Brazil and top 10 songs worldwide in 2018). Our remix used only sounds from the game and the voice of Jojo Todynho, writer and singer of the original version.

We used the popular power of the greatest hit in the Carnival season to engage the Brazilian audience around a global game. We generated identification among the gamer community while reaching out to new audiences. Our strategy was to produce a work of entertainment that was as popular as a hit song. We ended up with both a music and a download hit by producing the new song and the accompanying music video.

We invited Jojo Todynho herself and her DJ to record and produce a remake of the hit song. The instrumental base was created using samples from the sounds of Call of Duty. The new track, along with the music video, was recorded in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, the homeland of the new character in the game. We released the video on the social of both Jojo Todynho and Call of Duty, along with the support from top Brazilian influencers and public relations. The song was released nationwide and soon became a hit all over Brazil.

We took over not only the music media, but also mass media. From production to launch, the remake of the hit song was picked up by online portals and was talked about on social media. In the first few hours after the opening of Carnival, we already had 1Mi views, and reached 3Mi views during the campaign period alone. There were more than 11Mi impressions and outstanding growth on Call of Duty channels: 2119% more engagement and 7981% more views. Not to mention the immeasurable impact on the local pop culture, because we made sure Brazilians didn’t go without the thing they most look forward to every year: a Carnival hit.