Gamers are savvy, they don’t like blatant, tired tactics – they want authentic engagement and entertainment. We needed to be creative and authentic to the character and the fans by creating a campaign that felt true to the Deadpool tone of voice without being salesy.
Our approach was to let Deadpool spearhead a fan-centric approach by taking over the game’s social channels with a variety of activations that proved he needed to be included in the game.
The result? Our weeklong takeover was their best performing marketing beat of the whole campaign.
To kick-off the activation a video from the man himself went out across their social channels where Deadpool recruited Marvel fans to get him in the game by making their voices head with #DeadpoolSuns.
Supporting this blitz, we took over the games’ website / social channels and defaced them with Deadpool illustrations and easter eggs.
Each day we replied to fan comments and Tweets in Deadpool’s icon voice.
Deadpool leaked unreleased characters and gave out free game codes as he responded to fans directly across channels.
The last big hurrah consisted of Deadpool’s Doodle Day, an entire day spent crafting responsive, custom drawings based on fans’ reasons why they deserved to be Deadpool’s newest sidekick.
The fans did it! Through their engagements with our accounts they convinced the folks at Firaxis and 2K that Deadpool deserved to be part of the Midnight Suns!
Fans had a blast interacting with our takeover during that week, and it showed! That week drove the highest engagement rate of the entire campaign and sent positive sentiment soaring as chatter peaked through PR and earned media touchpoints that took notice of our Deadpool takeover.
We even created a fun throwback website for fans to continue following along – created by Deadpool himself. It might just be the best website since Space Jam 1994. Check it out below.