Cannes Lions

Ubisoft & Branded Entertainment Network (BEN) - Tom Clancy's The Division: Agent Origins

BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK, Los Angeles / UBISOFT / 2017

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Overview

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Credits

OVERVIEW

Description

In Agent Origins, four sleeper agents from a clandestine government agency called The Division must leave their old lives behind to take back New York City, as it teeters on the brink of collapse after being devastated by a mysterious pandemic.

Ubisoft and the agency partnered with three of the biggest Narrative YouTube creators – DevinSupertramp, CorridorDigital and RocketJump – in a first-of-its-kind collaboration. Working closely with Ubisoft, they came to understand the world and characters in order to creatively tell their lore and backstory.

The narrative was designed to showcase the game-world and characters as relevant and compelling through four connected backstories. The creators humanized the heroes by showing their lives before and after they are “Activated” as agents, highlighting key game features (equipment, enemies, gadgets, and technology) and downloadable content that brought the on-screen stories to the game itself.

Execution

To achieve the vision of bringing Tom Clancy’s The Division to life, Ubisoft, the agency, and the filmmakers collaborated heavily, from scripting and pre-production to VFX, culminating in a 13-day shoot with multiple locations (including an abandoned prison), extras, stunts and explosive practical effects.

Four unique short films and were produced, each following a different Agent’s story, and released simultaneously on Corridor Digital, RocketJump, DevinSupertramp, and UbisoftUS’ YouTube channels. Each short was tailored to match the unique style of the channel and could be enjoyed in any order. Each linked to the others, inviting viewers to binge the content and share their experience across social media.

To amplify the content, Ubisoft partnered with Amazon Prime Video to bring Agent Origins to an audience of over 63MM+ Prime Video users by weaving the four shorts together to create a unique 30-minute linear short film with additional exclusive content.

Outcome

Agent Origins debuted as a 30-minute short film to 63+ million Amazon Prime Video users, another first-of-its-kind partnership for the video game industry. Four short films released on the filmmakers’ YouTube channels, garnering over 15 million minutes of viewing time, with over 40% of viewers watching multiple videos.

Agent Origins was one of the top watched movies on Amazon Video during the week of release, where viewers could pre-order the game directly from the video page, in addition to earning over 2,900 5-star ratings.

Viewers also redeemed over 150K in-game rewards through the Agent Origins website.

Agent Origins introduced the world of The Division to millions of gamers. The Division broke the record for fastest selling new video game IP and set a Ubisoft record for the most pre-ordered title on Amazon. The success of Agent Origins helped solidify Tom Clancy’s The Division as a must-play game for 2016.

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