R/GA has partnered with the gaming firm PONOS, on the launch of a brand new Black Friday marketing campaign for its mobile game The Battle Cats. As a part of the activation, the gaming model’s social media channels had been hacked by a felony organization, who name themselves ‘The OutCats’, whereas PONOS additionally issued an announcement detailing considered one of its warehouses has been focused by thieves who’ve made off with 100 million cans of Cat Food – the sport’s fundamental forex.
The ‘OutCats’ Black Friday work is the primary on this sequence of campaigns aimed to take the model narrative in new locations The Battle Cats followers won’t ever anticipate. The work is the primary in a brand new long-term inventive innovation partnership between R/GA Japan and PONOS.
The marketing campaign was developed to extend the attain and repute of PONOS’s iconic cellular recreation model The Battle Cats, primarily within the North American market. With this marketing campaign, the R/GA Japan crew kicked off a co-creative innovation journey with PONOS’s recreation creators to take the sport to the subsequent degree – by growing a sequence of surprising inventive campaigns that can excite, intrigue, and develop The Battle Cats’ fan base.
Headquartered in Kyoto, Japan, PONOS has appointed R/GA as its inventive innovation companion to create a strategic framework on drive revolutionary narratives and artistic campaigns that ring true to lively followers, carry new recreation followers into the world of The Battle Cats and revive old followers who used to play the sport.
“We were delighted to be chosen as PONOS’s global innovation partner to drive its US market expansion, and help take the brand and its iconic game to new creative heights,” mentioned Anthony Baker, General Manager, R/GA Japan. “This partnership gives us an exciting opportunity to work on a brief with a real difference. They are a brave, innovative company – and we love how they always try to do what’s best for their fans. Now that our first campaign is out there, we look forward to what else the OutCats have in store – and how The Battle Cats will respond!”
Specific to the Black Friday marketing campaign, PONOS introduced that 100 million cans of cat meals had been stolen by the OutCats, alongside a “hostile” takeover of its platforms – producing gentle panic and buzz within the gaming fraternity.
In a video posted on the “hijacked” accounts, the OutCats revealed that they’re made up of people rejected by The Battle Cats 9 years in the past. Their latest antics are a revenge tactic with a view to distribute contraband to the gamers – with everybody who logs on to the sport robotically receiving 999 cans of Cat Food.
The work was co-created by PONOS’s recreation creators and R/GA groups throughout its world community together with Japan, the United States and Argentina. Longer time period, R/GA and its companion PONOS are engaged on extra campaigns and techniques to drive new consumer acquisition, buyer loyalty, in addition to rising the model’s paid consumer base. Taking inspiration from PONOS’s tagline “GO FAR BEYOND”, the R/GA inventive crew plans to thrill and shock audiences by exhibiting up in surprising methods.
Since the unique model of the sport for the Japanese market was launched in 2012 and the English model “The Battle Cats” for US followers and followers all over the world was launched in 2014, The Battle Cats has grown to grow to be an acclaimed tower protection technique recreation that has amassed greater than 85 million downloads. It sees gamers taking over the position of a commander, main cats in battles in opposition to a number of completely different enemy varieties, together with commonplace animals and weird creatures that bear little relation to residing fauna, domesticated or in any other case . As gamers progress, they achieve access to new Battle Cats with a spread of talents. In order to gather these feline warriors, nonetheless, gamers should spend Cat Food to open Capsules. This “hack” will due to this fact permit gamers to extend their Cat Food reserves and strengthen their Battle Cat armies freed from cost.
