It may have started off as a joke, spoofing Destiny‘s cross-promotional campaign with Red Bull, but Dying Light‘s #DrinkForDLC campaign exploded into a social media phenomenon over the summer. At its conclusion, over 15,000 fans showed their support for the game by Tweeting a picture of themselves drinking water using the #DrinkForDLC hashtag. The developers rewarded this showing of support, and the benefits of staying hydrated, with free water-themed content pack that will release on February 9th along with the recently announced Dying Light: The Following – Enhanced Edition.

As an added bonus, the Enhanced Edition will feature a number of graphical and gameplay upgrades (free for current Dying Light owners), along with all the add-on content and updates.

1 8[a]listdaily talks to Techland’s Social Media Manager, Michal Napora (left) and Creative Copy Writer, Krzysiek Janicki (right) — the minds behind the campaign — to discuss the campaign’s success and the importance of staying hydrated during a zombie outbreak.

Tell us about how the #DrinkForDLC campaign started and grew.

Krzysiek: It probably won’t surprise you when I say it all started as an internal joke about a certain video game campaign. You know which one specifically… We realized most gamers shared our sentiment, so we talked about it a bit with the team and then decided to go public with it.

Despite it being a joke, it was thought out really well. We took a blatantly commercial idea and made it about every one’s gain. After all, there’s nothing more obviously good for you than drinking water.

Then it all went better than expected. Our Twitter was flooded (*wink wink*) with pictures of our fans drinking water in most bizarre situations and disguises. We had hours of fun at the office just scrolling through them all.

 

How did you promote #DrinkForDLC

Michal: When we launched our first post with that poster, it got picked up organically – no paid boosting. It was just a single tweet that spread like wildfire. The press got notified and then some social influencers, and most importantly our fans, all jumped on it. As soon as the photos of people drinking water started coming through, we started retweeting them, filling our Twitter profile with hilarious snaps. We went a bit silly with it, and people saw that we are having as much fun as they are. It helped to boost our fans engagement with the campaign.

What were some of the most memorable #DrinkForDLC photos

Michal: There was tons of awesome photos that came through! Some of the most memorable ones included a guy going nuts in a morphsuit, heaps photos of people drinking from their toilet bowls (not advisable), someone giving water to their cats, and Major Nelson sending through his Vine. It was awesome to see those entries coming through!  

 

Do you think there will be similar social campaigns in the future

Michal: Most definitely! We’re always looking at trying to break the internet. We’re actually working on something now that we will show in January. Hope our fans will like what we have in store for them.

What prompted you to develop an Enhanced Edition of Dying Light, instead of a straightforward Game of the Year Edition

Krzysiek: A Game of the Year Edition is often just the old DLC of a game that gets slapped onto a new box and resold. What we’ve created here is a lot more than just that, especially since a big part of it is being developed right now. It’s not just about reselling what’s already out there. The expansion pack plus the enhancements are almost a year in the making alone. It’s mainly there to get new players on-board with a cool one-stop package. As for our existing fans we’ve  made it that the enhancements update is free for all existing fans while the expansion is free to all season pass holders.