Media strategy: Weapon 7's campaign for Ubisoft

Objectives
Create conversations in social media channels among the target audience about the forthcoming video game Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Strategy and targeting
Weapon 7's target audience was hardcore gaming male fans aged 18+. The agency had three main insights: Ubisoft share valuable tips in forums to generate kudos or respect, Ubisoft love being challenged (so it was important that activity shouldn’t be too easy
to follow) and they are very, very suspicious of marketing, so it was critical that anything Weapon 7 did had a highly subversive or underground feel. Creating a concept and a content plan that constantly tied the three insights together was paramount.

There was zero media budget, so Weapon 7 had be canny, and let their knowledge guide their approach. Weapon 7's starting point was devilishly simple. They created a web of intrigue every bit as complex and menacing as the game itself. When gamers switched on their XBoxes on Boxing Day 2009 (the highest XBox usage rates of the year) they found an unannounced film on XBox Live. It contained exclusive footage of Splinter Cell: Conviction and a URL that appeared for a couple of seconds. The hidden URL led to codeofconviction, a subversivelooking site that asked for four codes. Users could explore the source code to discover a hidden website purporting to be that of a surveillance camera company, which in turn led to destinations both online and in the real world. To hunt for the four codes, gamers from 116 countries worked together to follow a trail of Xbox Live content, surveillance cameras, answerphone messages, websites, blogs, Twitter, emails and YouTube videos. Every element was challenging and edgy, complex and subversive. And there was always the promise of discovering something of real value, whether a code or a theory on how to unearth one.

Weapon 7 constantly emailed their new database of 106,000 codeofconviction visitors with exclusive content and the game’s launch date. The content has created an online trading community in its own right.

Results
106,000 visitors from 116 countries. Their official forum received 3,228 activity-specific posts on 162 pages, with 182,881 views. Their Twitter feed overloaded twice.
They received one cease and desist order and three death threats.

Best Media Strategy- Gold.pdf