Historically, branded entertainment in gaming has been geared towards keeping committed fans in a franchise - for example, the “Museum of Humanity”, a fictional monument celebrating the aggregate efforts of Halo fans, or “Greatness Awaits”, an entire campaign immortalizing hardcore players of top PlayStation games. By contrast, mobile games have an entirely different challenge - they need to keep their diehard fans engaged, but also constantly grow the user base to remain visible in such a crowded category. Up to this point, most branded content around mobile games has been fairly basic - simple explanations of gameplay through screen captures. We realized we needed a different approach from the typical strategies to truly breakthrough with both fans and new gamers.

Before the new Clash of Clans commercial was aired to the general public, we aired it within the app itself, giving the game’s dedicated fans an opportunity to view the new commercial first. We also pre-released it on Reddit and on game blogs and messageboards. The response was immediate. The commercial received six million views on YouTube before airing on television, and rose from 80th in the iPhone US rankings to 30th (ultimately rising to the top 10 post television debut).

Although popular and with a devoted following, Clash of Clans had become relegated to the 80s in the iPhone Top Tree rankings. When the commercial aired on TV, the app rose into the 20s and broke into the Top 10 by December 31st. The commercial was the second most viewed ad on YouTube for the month of December despite being released in only the final week and to-date has over 20 million views, while the entire campaign has over 35 million views. As of this writing on March 31st, Clash of Clans is the top-grossing application on the iTunes app store.