A CLOAK-AND-DAGGER...WITH EXTRA DAGGERS
Marketing Campaign
A SLY, SPECTACULAR HERO REVEAL WORTHY OF A STEALTH ASSASSIN
Heroes of the Storm's newest character, Valeera, required a reveal worthy of her stealthy skills. To generate buzz for her arrival, we let her do what great assassins do: assassinate her own reveal.
While Valeera likes to work in the shadows, we needed the announcement of this fan-favorite character to be anything BUT covert. Like our assassin, we knew we had to kill it. Our goals:
- 1) Shock and awe a social community who thought they new the brand’s playbook
- 2) Tease the game’s newest hero without creating an all-out ARG mystery
- 3) Engage fans unfamiliar with Valeera’s lore while exciting fans intimate with her backstory
Full of sass, stealthiness, and surprise, our campaign played on Valeera’s most recognizable and revered traits. Ultimately, she revealed herself with unapologetic badass-ness, slashing through the NewsFeeds of fans with a warning that she was about to take center stage — and nothing could stop her.
Client Blizzard Entertainment
Project Valero Reveal - Marketing Campaign
What We Did
- Marketing
- Video
- Social Management
FAKE NEWS
To set up the reveal, we created fake posts that were real enough to seem plausible but weren't overly misleading. We populated them with average stats on likes, shares, and comments for extra believability.
HINTS WITH DAGGERS
On Facebook and Twitter, we teased the reveal with an innocuous looking #throwback video that seemed to celebrate HOTS gladiator Rehgar. That is, until Valeera made her opinions crystal clear with a bright green dagger through the post.
VALEERA KILLS HER OWN REVEAL
When it came time for the official reveal, we let Valeera speak for herself. She boldly slashed through fans' newsfeeds with a chilling promise to spend less time in the shadows are more time kicking ass.
A MULTI-LINGUAL ASSASSIN
The stunt was deployed in 12 languages to reach audiences across the globe.
RACKING UP THE REDDIT UPVOTES
Though the tease was subtle, Blizzard's core fans caught wind of Valeera's arrival quickly. The resulting Reddit threads rocketed to the top of the brand's subreddit, staying there as the tease shifted gears into the full-fledged reveal.
A REVEAL THAT WAS ANYTHING BUT STEALTH
Valeera might’ve tried to stop her own reveal, but the social stunt catalyzed excitement amongst fans and gaming journalists alike, generating millions of impressions across social channels and even more from earned media outlets.
- 4.6 MILLION Impressions
- 7000+ Likes, Shares, and Engagements
- Extensive Earned Reach from Reddit and gaming sites like Gosu Gamers and The Meta
