For the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, we wanted to invite new people to play. The problem was, everyone thought our game and the people who played it were intimidating. But that wasn’t true. We needed to change perception.

To show the world who we really were, we launched CODNATION to reintroduce Call of Duty. We created a studio where we wrote, directed and edited 100’s of social films made from inside the game, all celebrating our player’s true personalities. The films were designed to inspire and empower our community of over 4 million active players to create and share their own under a new identity, #CODNATION.

To grow, we realized didn’t need to rebrand the game, we needed to rebrand who plays it. In spending time with our community, we realized the game is more than an outlet for their competitiveness, it’s also an outlet for their creativity. A whole world of creators populate the Call of Duty digital world with hilarious gifs, memes and videos. In other words, they use the game as their canvas for self expression. We amplified this insight to prove Call of Duty was about more than angry competition. It was about creativity and fun.

To inspire our community, we used the game as our creative canvas to create 100’s of social films over the course of a month, ranging from skits to parodies to music videos. Every film was in service of showing our fun, creative side. We also collaborated with select celebrities and influencers to make films relevant to what was happening with them in culture. Soldiers participated in synchronized swimming routines, helicopters parodied animal mating documentaries, a famous rapper remixed his mega-hit, and much, much more. The films were launched on social with a “Make It. Tag it. #CODNATION” CTA to encourage participation.

The best selling video game in the US in 2018.

Set franchise record for most active players on day 1.

Set a new Playstation record for day 1 digital game sales on the Playstation store across the globe.

Highest performing launch campaign on digital/social for Call of Duty ever.

View Completion Rates were in the 50th percentile, the highest for the brand.

Our films inspired our community to make 25,000+ videos of their own in the first 48 hours all with #CODNATION.

#CODNATION films drove over 118M earned media impressions across the lifecycle of the campaign.

#CODNATION generated 552.9M potential impressions and 23.6M owned channel organic views and engagements throughout the campaign.

Our campaign resonated extremely well with users with 87.9% positive sentiment.