Video games and influencers go hand-in-hand. Despite FTC crack-downs on transparency, publishers and social media stars maintain a close-knit relationship, made popular by “Let’s Play” videos and livestreams. Challenged with creating a truly authentic experience for viewers, these publishers got creative with influencer campaigns to inform and entertain millions.
Hitman: Real Life Hitman
To promote the return of Agent 47 this past March, IO Interactive teamed up with Realm Pictures—a group of indie filmmakers whose “Real Life First-Person Shooter” video went viral on YouTube and quickly exceeded 10 million views. Realm Pictures created a similar scenario in which various YouTube superstars, which include Smosh Games and the eSports champions, OpTic Gaming, guide a “real life” Agent 47 (the main character from Hitman) through a scenario similar to one found in the game. In iconic Hitman fashion, the “players” could accomplish tasks in multiple ways, and not everything went as planned during the “mission.”
“[Real Life Hitman] is one of the best campaigns I’ve ever seen our brand team put together,” Square Enix senior director of marketing, Mike Silbowitz told [a]listdaily. “With how crowded the marketplace is these days, you can’t just show gameplay. You have to find unique ways to show off your experience. One of the things I absolutely loved about this is how it detailed choice in the game, and not just scope.”
Bejeweled Stars: #ShinyPlace
Launched this May, Popcap and EA’s newest mobile version of Bejeweled needed a way to stand out from its “candy crushing” competitors. To accomplish this, the publisher teamed up with social media influencers, who then showed off their “shiny place”—the game’s catch phrase—through pictures and video. Influencers included The Bachelor‘s Sean Lowe, social media filmmaker, David Lopez, and even adorable, tongue-out kitty, Lil Bub. The most popular of these promotions, with over a million views, was from Jiffpom, a “petfluencer” on both YouTube and Instagram whose specialty is being generally fluffy and cute . . . this time, with a sponsored hashtag.
Doom: Day of Doom
Bethesda went all out for the launch of its gory reboot with promotions ranging from race cars to live-action commercials. Despite already being one of the most anticipated titles of the year, Doom got the influencer treatment in style thanks to a partnership with Rooster Teeth, professional athletes and some highly popular YouTubers. Rooster Teeth’s Day of Doom commenced on March 29 with a livestream of the tournament on YouTube Gaming. Going head-to-head in the 6-on-6, single-elimination tournament were NFL and MLS sports stars Rob Gronkowski, Thierry Henry, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, and Antonio Brown. They were teamed up with YouTubers like Rooster Teeth, SSSniperWolf, Funhaus and iJustine for the bloody battle.
Tom Clancy’s The Division: Agent Origins
Ubisoft worked with popular YouTube filmmakers, RocketJump and devinsupertramp to develop Agent Origins, a four-part live action series based on Tom Clancy’s The Division. The film was produced by Corridor Digital and detailed the background stories of four agents tasked with restoring New York City after a devastating viral outbreak. The four episodes debuted first on YouTube, then with exclusive scenes on Amazon’s Prime Instant Video service on January 19.
“YouTube is an amazing channel for the video game industry,” Ann Hamilton, brand representative at Ubisoft, told ION. “It allows us to share our video content with our consumers directly through our own channels. It has been a great tool at building communities for each of our games. We release a variety of content including gameplay walkthroughs, interviews with game development teams, game trailers, as well as partnering with major creative talents on projects like Agent Origins. Additionally, it’s a venue for fans to create their own content based around our games and share it.”
Sonic Boom: Smosh Games Scavenger Hunt
The gang at Smosh Games set out on a San Francisco scavenger hunt, inviting Twitter users to suggest locations and activities. At the end, Sega invited them on a tour of its facilities, gave a hands-on with Sonic Boom and a peek behind a forbidden door to discover a mind-blowing secret. The video garnered 1.7 million views and over 17,000 likes, raising awareness for the new game and showing off Sonic Boom gameplay through a unique, comedic situation.
