2019 Brand Experience & Activation

GREEN DAWN

Short List
TitleGREEN DAWN
BrandUBISOFT
Product/ServiceTHE DIVISION 2
Category A04. Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains
Entrant DDB PARIS, FRANCE
Idea Creation DDB PARIS, FRANCE
Credits
Name Company Position
Alexander Kalchev DDB Paris Executive Creative Director
Alexis Benbehe DDB Paris Creative Director
Pierre Mathonat DDB Paris Creative Director
Idris Dabré DDB Paris Art Director
Marie-Elise Archambaud DDB Paris Agency Supervisor
Quentin Grimal DDB Paris Agency Supervisor
Geoffroy Sardin Ubisoft Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing
Guillaume CARMONA Ubisoft Marketing Director
Cedrick Delmas Ubisoft Advertiser Supervisor
Sébastien Ratto Ubisoft Advertiser Supervisor
Alexandre Guenounou Ubisoft Advertiser Supervisor
Marine Cremer Studio 5 Sound Production
Cédric Boit Studio 5 Sound Production
Clément Reynaud Studio 5 Sound Production
Alexandre Vicart Studio 5 Sound Engineer
Alban 404 - - Resident Gamer

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Green dawn is a 30mn podcast series, based on the universe of “The Division 2” but broadcast through the virtual radio of another game: “Ghost Recon Wildlands”. Green dawn is a bridge between “The Division 1” and “The Division 2” telling the story of seven kids trying to survive in a world destroyed by adult. It’s a piece of storytelling in itself that enriches the universe created by Ubisoft, and immerse gamers in another world before the game release.

background

Gamers are notoriously hard to reach. They typically don’t react well to traditional sponsored media or advertising. They don’t like advertising, and they know more than any other community how to avoid it. 75% of gamers use Adblockers, VPNs, and most of them don’t watch TV. To catch their attention, you have to do something that has its own merits and doesn’t smell like advertising while having a unique twist. They’re a crowd that is ready to be engaged and isn’t necessarily trying to avoid your content if you give them room to operate within that campaign. Ubisoft asked us to promote “The Division 2” in an innovative and surprising way, that would activate the gamers community.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

In the world of Ghost recon wildlands, more than 13,7 gamers use their cars to travel one of the largest game maps ever designed, and in their cars, they listen to the virtual radio of the game. So, we advertised “The Division 2” by streaming an exclusive 30 minutes podcast series to the huge audience of Ghost Recon Wildlands, using the in-game car radio for a total cost of 0$ paid media. We used the audience of a game to advertise another game, and make the division 2 the most anticipated game of the year.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Green Dawn is a premiere, in its way to understand that a video game is a world in itself. Almost everything we know in real life exists in those virtual worlds. And in-game radios in Ghost Recon Wildlands already have a huge audience (13,7 millions of gamers). But game editors have forgotten that they own those medias. We reminded Ubisoft that the best way to talk to their target is when they are playing, and we could use the virtual radio of a game to advertise another game. Green Dawn became the first story that starts in a virtual world and ends in another.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

We worked hand in hand with Ubisoft Studios. We validated a storyline with the creative director of “The Division 2” and collaborated with the studio that developed “Ghost Recon Wildlands” to build the smoothest and most natural experience for gamers. We produced a thirty minutes podcast that we broadcast through the radio of every car in the game. For 3 months, every gamer driving a car in the game was exposed to the podcast. Did we mention that “Ghost Recon Wildlands” is one of the biggest map ever created in a video game ? As a result, a player spends a third of his gaming time in a car.

List the results (30% of vote)

Gamers are a really involved community. When they love your content, you can be sure that they will talk about it on Reddit (the biggest pop culture forum on the internet). We saw organic conversations rising on the platform. People were debating about the story and creating theories about the upcoming game “The Division 2”. Then, they start to stream their experience and post it on Youtube. Gamers from all around the world shared their theories and videos. We reached 13,7 million of gamers without any paid media.