How Our Humble, Helpful Hero Blew Up

How Our Humble, Helpful Hero Blew Up

Marketing Campaign

HOW DO YOU ACTIVATE A SELF-AWARE CHARACTER?
START WITH A SELF-AWARE CAMPAIGN.

Every morning, Guy eats the same bowl of cereal, puts on the same blue shirt, and goes to the same dead-end job. Occasionally, he gets blown up, or mugged, or spills his coffee... but as something called an NPC, he always gets to start over.

In gamer parlance, an NPC is a "non-playable character" — a forgettable after-thought who serves as fodder for the main action. By wanting to escape his destiny as an NPC, Guy's no different than the millions of fans who want to escape their daily grind, too.

And that became the mission: to help Guy break out of his rut, we had to forge a breakthrough campaign of our own.

Our campaign not only had to serve up tactics that would explode off newsfeeds like one of Free City’s errant rocket launchers, but drive interest in Guy as a hero, and Free Guy as a new IP:

  • 1) Drive AAA buzz through unexpected partnerships that plug Guy into the real-world
  • 2) Leverage gaming tropes and humor to bridge Free City and real-world
  • 3) Connect with lapsed “Dad gamers” and Gen Z through curated content beats
  • 4) Embrace the “Make it a Great Day” positivity, forging it into a call-to-action
  • 5) Celebrate Guy’s can-do attitude, guts, and journey in authentic ways
  • 6) Imbue Guy’s role in film as a pop-culture icon into IRL beats that do the same

Grab your blue shirt and khakis—here’s how we helped level-up one of Hollywood’s biggest new IP launches in years.

Free Guy Digital Content Campaign
Client
Disney
Project
Free Guy Digital Content Campaign
What We Did
  • WikiHow Partnership Stunt
  • Ninja Collaboration
  • Depop Partnership Stunt
  • Social Strategy + Ideation
  • Social Campaign
  • IG Story Mini-Game
  • IG - Disruptive Content
  • Video Content
  • Copywriting

A NEW HIGH-SCORE:

Gaming and film fans alike rallied around their new blue-shirted hero, making Free Guy one of the biggest movies of the year:

Results
  • #1 OPENING
  • #1 NEW ORIGINAL IP OF YEAR
  • #1 AT-HOME
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