In 2023, Clash of Clans was updating its most important in-game building, the Town Hall, for the 16th time. The game wanted to turn this launch into an opportunity to both retain current gamers and attract new players. To achieve it, rather than just using our game and social media channels to drive interest, we decided to hire a peculiar public figure, Insta-famous real estate broker Tony B, to help us drive awareness and earned media for the game upgrade both within the Clash community and the public.

Clash of Clans is a mobile game where players have to build and defend a village. For the 16th time in over a decade, in 2023, the game was going to upgrade the Village’s main building: the Town Hall. How could we get current and potential gamers excited about yet another upgrade? We hired a world-famous real estate broker to help sell our virtual building. Tony B promoted Town Hall 16, giving virtual tours and listing it on real estate platforms all around the world, turning the launch into one of the game’s most successful updates in years.

For the campaign to launch Town Hall 16, we had a large and diverse target audience – one that included both existing Clash of Clans players as well as new gamers. We therefore needed to provide an experience that would both incorporate Clash of Clans lore to excite our fanbase, as well as create an activation that would be playful and engaging enough to evoke potential new players’ curiosity. We therefore determined that it was essential that we make Town Hall 16’s launch culturally relevant, which resulted in hiring a trendy and humorous real estate social media influencer as well listing the game building just as if it were a real-world property in a high-profile way.

To implement our ‘Town Hall 16 For Sale’ brand activation, we enlisted the help of an internet-famous real estate broker, Tony B. We timed Tony B’s listing of our property with Town Hall 16’s in-game launch. The week that the building became available in Clash, Tony B posted a virtual tour of it to his social media channels. We also listed Town Hall 16 on real estate platforms around the world, including Zillow, Idealista, Craigslist, and numerous others – listing it with a real price, floor plan, and description that detailed the virtual location just as if it were a real-world location. We also featured a walk-through of Town Hall 16 on YouTube that gave viewers a full tour as though it were a real-world building. Tony B even posted our virtual property in his actual windows alongside real-world properties.

‘Town Hall For Sale’ had a significant impact on both Clash of Clans’s brand perception and business. It resulted in over 1.7 million virtual building upgrades, a 21% increase in game downloads, and, most importantly, a revenue increase of 313%. It also reengaged 6.1 million gamers.