Our mission was to bring back lapsed players and win over casual players to play Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 across APAC, with the challenge of limited budgets and the need to engage many markets with different interests, identities, beliefs, and languages.

We knew that previous adapted campaigns had underperformed due to a lack of relatability, and winning back these players would not be easy as shooter games topped the charts on console and PC top 20 game rankings in Southeast Asia.

We faced a highly competitive genre, especially against regional games with characters and storylines that local gamers could better relate to.

What if we could let gamers live in Warzone’s new world by bringing it out to the real world?

Introducing Warzone 2.0 DMZ Loot Ops

A real-life raid that lets you keep what you steal... if you survive.

We physically recreated Warzone 2.0's new Al Mazrah map and dropped off 21 creators to raid it for loot while evading hostile guards armed with foam dart guns before time runs out.

The creators then streamed the intense live-action COD gameplay to APAC's gaming community, enabling them to collectively participate in the unique unveiling of Warzone 2. All the raided loot was also given away to the community to sweeten the deal.

With limited resources and an entire region of gamers to excite, we needed the right intel to recruit them. Here’s what we found out:

Creators’ influence was the right medium to drive impact at scale - 60.7% of gamers follow gaming experts and creators on social media, more so than celebrities [42.8%], GWI specific search.

Warzone 2.0’s new “Loot-and-Extract” game mode was also hotly anticipated on Social and in forums - Fans couldn’t wait to raid the new maps and other gamers for in-game loot.

Gamers play to try on a different life – After game quality, 46% of gamers play to escape reality, while 38% are driven by social interactions in games, YouGov custom research.

We knew we had to move away from traditional comms and create a new and unforgettable experience for APAC’s passionate community.

The community loved it all.

Creators and their communities felt honoured to be included in the launch experience. They expressed amazement at the high quality of production comparing it to a ‘live-action COD film’. Fan chatter also revealed a huge desire for Activision Blizzard to launch their future titles in a similar fashion but even bigger.

This excitement across APAC was reflected in the campaign performance and business results,

- The various watch party streams garnered 5.2 million views.

- A total of 17 million gamers was reached with over 20 million impressions of campaign assets.

- 25 million gamers played Warzone 2.0, in the first 5 days after game launch.

- All accomplished with zero paid media.

“The resulting content was a great point of differentiation for our franchise and an entirely new offering in region.” Tegan Knight, Activision Blizzard.