SPACE BONUS

TitleSPACE BONUS
BrandWORLD OF TANKS
Product/ServiceWORLD OF TANKS, VIDEO GAME
Category A07. Excellence in Brand Integration & Sponsorships / Partnerships for Branded Content
Entrant WARGAMING Nicosia, CYPRUS
Idea Creation WARGAMING Nicosia, CYPRUS
Media Placement WARGAMING Nicosia, CYPRUS
PR WARGAMING Nicosia, CYPRUS
Production WARGAMING Nicosia, CYPRUS
Credits
Name Company Position
Darya Khysh Wargmaing Group Limited Special Projects Manager
Alexander Bobko Wargmaing Group Limited Special Projects Manager
Sandro Gelashvili Wargmaing Group Limited Head of Creative Agency
Vladimir Mogilevets Wargmaing Group Limited Creative Director
Anna Tishkevich Wargmaing Group Limited Creative Copywriter
Kirill Nechaev Wargmaing Group Limited Art Director
Andrei Andrushevich Wargmaing Group Limited Designer
Aleksandr Lupashko Wargmaing Group Limited Designer
Dzmitry Hrubin Wargmaing Group Limited Designer
Vyacheslav Stasenko Wargmaing Group Limited Designer
Alexey Kalosha Wargmaing Group Limited Artist
Nadezhda Pertsova Wargmaing Group Limited Copywriter
Denis Shlykov Wargmaing Group Limited Copywriter
Vitaly Narkevich Wargmaing Group Limited Editor
Yuriy Ocheretyanyy Wargmaing Group Limited Sound Designer
Pavel Rapinchuk Wargmaing Group Limited Sound Designer
Vitalia Mironenko Wargmaing Group Limited Project Manager
Ekaterina Glinskaya Wargmaing Group Limited Producer

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

Video games are one of the biggest growing entertainment media and, in certain countries, are bigger than the film and music industries combined. The idea was to create something which was an amalgamation of both real-world and in-game events.

Background

20th July 1969. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The day the Space Race effectively ended. Ever since, space has been gradually losing its appeal in Eastern Europe, whereas in the Western world, it’s still booming thanks to great advancements and breakthroughs in astronautics. The overall idea was to reignite Eastern European players’ interest in space, while also creating an event which was relevant for a global audience.

Describe the creative idea

World of Tanks celebrates and commemorates Cosmonautics Day (12th April) every year as players share a keen interest in history and the cosmos. The game is part and parcel of Russian and Eastern European life, meaning by launching such an event, space would become part of everyday conversation once again.

Describe the strategy

Our players in Russia and Eastern Europe are proud of their history, and space exploration is one of the pinnacles. Yuri Gagarin, Laika, Valentina Tereshkova: each one a national hero in the former Soviet countries. We decided to further this pride and passion for the past and give our players an opportunity to engage with cosmonauts currently stationed on the ISS. We wanted to reinforce the connection between space and World of Tanks, all while getting them closer to their heroes.

Describe the execution

Partnering up with Roscosmos (the corporation for the Russian Federation’s cosmonautics programs), a three-day event was designed with a large-scale phygital concept which revolved around the International Space Station. Anytime the ISS was in a player’s Earthly time zone, they could earn in-game Space Bonus rewards, which included special tank skins and unique crew skins. To support the event, a live Q&A stream with astronauts currently aboard the ISS was held, where viewers could put their questions directly to those people out of this world.

Describe the outcome

Over a three-day period, average in-game session length grew by 14% and more than 1,580,000 players were able to get closer to space than ever before. Of those, 760,000 tankers earned in-game Space Bonus rewards. Outside the game, multiple news articles were created in relation to the Space Bonus event. Headlines included: “New Space Crews Are Here in World of Tanks”, “World of Tanks Fans Will Receive Tasks from Out of This World” and “Wargaming Establishes a Connection with Space”. Comments on social media went even further, Wargaming was even asked “when will a tank be sent into space?”.