Insight
2015 was THE BIGGEST YEAR IN AUSTRALIAN GAMING HISTORY! 85 titles released at Christmas alone. Amidst this competitor noise with much bigger budgets EA Games launched Need For Speed (NFS).
Consumer: Gamer competitiveness means being the first to DISCOVER is an essential part of sharing/engaging within their community.
Game: NFS is the most immersive, community-orientated racing game in the market. The only game that allows players to win by rewarding COLLABORATION, STYLE and PERSONALISATION.
Market: Being too 'mass' is a turn-off for gamers. It needed to go UNDERGROUND and avoid mainstream media.
Challenge: How to...
• Fight market clutter with a small budget?
• Highlight unique qualities of NFS?
• Take fans back to where their love for cars, racing and gaming started?
Solution:
• Harness the power of co-creation
• Bring NFS's virtual reality into the real-world
• Be immersive and interactive (our audience connects with content they've influenced)
• Reflect the virtual world they love.
The campaign's three pillar strategic process was brought to life using Owned (O), Shared (S), Earned (E) and Paid (P) Media assets.
• Discover: leverage EA owned channels (O) and NFS based music partnership with Spotify (P) to launch the campaign
• Your style: content personalisation - give the audience control over the execution and campaign activation storyline and leverage their input (S)
• In the new underground: prioritise niche channels (P) and influencer communities to create cultural relevance (E) and earned engagement.
Strategy
NFS CREW CREATE: a content-fuelled story uniting gaming and non-gaming communities to create the ultimate crew built NFS vehicle in the real-world.
A content driven story built in three stages:
1. FIND A CREW: leverage Automotive, Music and Design communities in Australia that have the power to influence cultural and social trends. (E) (S) Not only did Arena Media find influencers within relevant communities, it utilised Australian influencers that are within the original game and used them as ambassadors and co-creators in the real world.
These included:
• Zen Crew Racers: influencing a community of over 120k fans who would build the custom Crew Create car
• Justin Cox, owner of motoring blogs Zen Garage and JDM Forums, with over 220k followers who would be the Crew Create host.
2. BUILD THE CAR: from designers shaping body-kit to creating street-art graffiti graphics, influencers brought their passion-points to the build. (E) Most importantly, the audience had the final say in which design was picked. (S)
These included:
• Hayden Cox one of Australia's most prominent surf board designers, influencing a community of 140k
• Melbourne street artist DVATE with over 19k followers on Instagram.
3. SHOW SOME STYLE: 360 video and real-time user personalisation took in-game integration to the next level. (P) (S) At this time 360 video had never been done for another game in Australia.
Execution
Owned: To drive hype around NFS's immersive features, the agency launched Crew Create with a 360 video on Facebook (media first in the Australian gaming category) and seeded it across targeted owned EA and NFS social channels. 360 formats meant the car could be scrutinised from all angles, allowing for that immersive virtual world experience.
Shared: Each week the new 'online fan crew' steered the car's look by sharing and posting their views on which body designs (wheels, body kit, graphics) they liked in real-time underneath videos (Facebook and YouTube). The design with the most votes won.
Earned: Zen Garage, who feature in NFS, became the Crew Create Team for the build, bringing the game to life from day one. They lead the audience through the five week OLV content series on social utilising their followers, influence and community pull. Design collaborations with Hayden Cox and DVATE on several car features created new urban and Australian relevance and earned media amongst new communities that NFS had never entered before.
Paid: The build was complimented by a NFS sponsored Spotify App and playlist that allowed users to discover their NFS music 'drive style.' This paid partnership delivered previously unseen engagement rates on EA social channels. Revealed at Australia’s biggest street-car event, End Of Month Meet Sydney, fans were rewarded with an exclusive 360 video experience of the car being raced.
Results
The strength of insight convinced EA to take a completely new media approach to launching a game.
The campaign engaged new audiences through relevant cultural partnerships to expand the NFS core audience and created the world’s first street car developed by gamers through media.
1. TARGETED AWARENESS OVER CHRISTMAS 2015:
- Delivered 2,500,000M+ unique engagements (double the KPI)
- With zero search spend NFS attained search queries above any other race category competitor - representing 79% market share
- 4,000+ in Facebook fans (80% increase vs. last campaign).
2. MAXIMISED INVESTMENT EFFICIENCY:
- Earned Media was greater than the total media investment - over $200,000
- The most cost efficient campaign for EA to date. Average CPE of $0.06
- Spotify App delivered unprecedented engagement rates on EA social.
3. GET EYES ON GAME PLAY IN A UNIQUE AND INTERESTING:
- 4.44% engagement rate, Crew Create content SURPASSED Australian Industry benchmarks of 2.80% across all categories.
4. BUILD A POOL OF HAND-RAISERS:
- Delivered 4,000+ ORGANIC new EA Facebook fans within a month
- Influenced the product and changed how people played the game
- The vehicle became the most popular car customised within the game.