Title	MYSTERY SNIPER
Brand	ACTIVISION
Product/Service	CALL OF DUTY VANGUARD
Category	D03. Use of Social & Digital Platforms
Entrant	INGO Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation	INGO Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Björn Ståhl	INGO	CCO
Rickard Allstrin	INGO	Account executive
Max Hultberg	INGO	Art Director
Magnus Ivansson	INGO	Copywriter
Simon Stefansson	INGO	Planner
Eric Biessman	Raven Software	Senior Creative Director
Tyler Bahl	Activision	Vice President and Head of Marketing
Fernando Machado	Activision Blizzard	Chief Marketing Officer
Pelle Sjoenell	Activision Blizzard	Chief Creative Officer
Carolyn Wang	Activision	Vice President Consumer Marketing Call of Duty
Anna Malmhake	Activision Blizzard	Managing Director Go-To-Market
Daniel Green	Activision Blizzard	Vice President EMEA Marketing
Jim McMullin	Activision Blizzard	Vice President Call of Duty
Michael Sanders	Activision Blizzard	Senior Visual Director

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

In the first ever teaser of the new game, we introduced one of them in Activision free-to-play multiplayer game – Call of Duty Warzone. A game that already enjoys 100+ million players. The single-player campaign for Call of Duty: Vanguard is the franchise's most ambitious ever. It was therefore important to introduce and build the hype of the main characters the game. We created an activation, where the players got to experience the true grit of one of the main characters in one of the most sought-after moments in the game; the winning cut scene.

Background

Call of Duty has long been famous for spectacular single player campaigns, adding great storytelling to first person shooters. But during recent years they've had criticism for the lack of depth in their stories. So the single-player campaign has been a strong focus in the upcoming game.The single player campaign is important in many ways, and it's one of the best ways to attract players to buy the game. To get players interested in the campaign, the mission was to build the main characters of the new game – Call of Duty Vanguard. A gaming taking place during WW2 focusing on four soldiers from different fronts of the war. One of the main characters go by the name Polina Petrova. A very skilled Russian sniper. To hype her character and the story. We used Activions free-to-play multiplayer game as a media channel to get people interested in the pay-to-play game.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

One of the most interesting characters in the campaign is the skilled Russian sniper Polina Petrova. To introduce her we teased her in Activions free-to-play game – Call of Duty: Warzone. In Warzone you're thrown into a last-player-standing battle with a total of 150 online players, the objective is simple. To kill all other players and be the last one left alive. If you win, you get to enjoy the sweetness of victory by being the only one getting picked up by a helicopter. So, to let the community get a hint of Polina's character, we let them experience her first hand and by changing the sought-after winning cut scene – and letting her steal their victory. From out of nowhere, a mysterious sniper started to kill the last player standing. "Who stole my victory?! and within hours Polina Petrova was a household name in the community.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Single player gaming is a core revenue driver for many games. But the last CoD-games have faced criticism because off that the stories have lacked depth and mainly focused on American-centric stereotyping. Which has led to many players loosing interest in the franchise. Many game launches have hyped unique graphics and story before, we realized we needed another focus to create attention. The compelling thing with Vanguard is that you play as real WWII soldiers that fought in four real fronts—fronts that are rarely covered by the entertainment industry today. This became our focus as it is a clear incentive to buy the single player game. Secondly uploading spectacular moments from the CoD franchise to social media is common within the community, if we could hijack these moments in a way we would get free publicity and reach in an instant.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

Implementation: We added a new winning cut scene to the game making people see their own character get shot at the place of killing the last other remaining player in the game. The cutscene was showed at random to winning players. Some got the standard cut-scene, some got the one where they saw their character get shot by a mysterious sniper. Timeline: During the month of August Placement: Call of Duty Warzone Scale: The cutscene was added randomly to Warzone-matches to all servers across the world.

List the results (30% of vote)

• Coverage in the biggest gaming outlets (i.e. GameSpot, IGN, Gamesradar, Polygon, NME, Uproxx, Inverse, Venture beat etc.) • 1000+ uploaded reactions on TikTok, Twitter, Youtube, Reddit and Instagram. First posted by @CharlieIntel • Polina Petrova quickly trended within Call of Duty community • Exposed and surprised most of the winners in Warzone's 100+ million player base Positive sentiment in PR: "This is easily one of the more interesting teasers that the franchise has done compared to its teasing of Black Ops Cold War in Warzone last year." "Undoubtedly, this new CoD: Vanguard Warzone teaser has injected more excitement in the community and a desire to see the new game officially revealed soon." CharlieIntel When you realize you'll never see the Polina Victory Royale cutscene yourself because you're trash at the game. @_Tom_Henderson @IGN "No player's safe until they're off the battlegrounds" Gamespot "A bloody conclusion to warzone matches" IGN