We needed to find a breakout star, someone who was a genuine fan of the Call of Duty franchise, who garnered more than just regional media interest and had the capacity to capture national media and consumer attention.

There was also a need to create a must-see activation plan with talent in a way that only Call of Duty could do. If our competition was doing it, it wouldn’t work for us.

We could then utilize the celebrity fan’s involvement throughout the year to secure a broad spectrum of enthusiastic media coverage that reinforced Call of Duty’s presence in popular culture.

The aim: Use our talent to create new media cycles for Call of Duty that extended beyond the traditional game coverage.

A first for both brands, we succeeded in securing the exclusive cover and feature story with ESPN the Magazine, announcing the worldwide reveal of Marshawn Lynch’s Call of Duty in-game involvement.

ESPN brought a crew to Activision’s state-of-the-art performance capture studio and game developer Treyarch’s office, allowing the crew to shadow Marshawn throughout the performance capture phase, and document the process of putting Marshawn into Call of Duty.

We then worked with ESPN to set up a photo and video shoot to capture exclusive content for its in-magazine feature and online story. Additionally, Marshawn participated in his one and only pre-reveal interview, giving ESPN the exclusive, worldwide unveiling of Marshawn’s in-game involvement.

In the weeks following the studio visit, we worked with ESPN’s editorial team, providing needed assets, including: key game information, developer interviews, exclusive images, video footage and the digitally-rendered portion of the magazine cover image.

Marshawn Lynch’s ESPN the Magazine cover achieved the desired crossover effect between Call of Duty and sports, making history as the first-ever cover story for Call of Duty on the iconic sports publication, and the publication’s first cover to ever feature a video game.

Beyond delivering a broad spectrum of positive stories (232+), we secured top-tier press beyond video game outlets, including: SportsCenter, USA Today Online, Sports Illustrated Online, Fox Sports Online, Yahoo! Sports, Mashable, and Adweek.

The partnership also resulted in high-profile extensions, including two television appearances on TBS’ Conan. Additionally, Marshawn later took part in the highly-anticipated live-action television trailer alongside Michael B. Jordan and Cara Delevingne, which has garnered over 17M views on YouTube alone.

Ultimately, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 claimed "the biggest entertainment launch of 2015" garnering $550 million in opening-weekend sales, surpassing the opening weekend box office success of Star Wars: Episode VII.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 partnership with Marshawn Lynch set the tone for the entire year, helping to break new ground for the franchise.

As a first of its kind for both the Call of Duty franchise and ESPN the Magazine, Marshawn’s participation made waves in the pop culture world. His reticence for the public eye made his vote of confidence in Call of Duty all that more impactful.

The campaign helped rewrite how a PR-led celebrity partnership works in the gaming world and beyond, bringing greater attention to the popular franchise in ways.

We enlisted football superstar Marshawn Lynch, a longtime Call of Duty fan and transcendent star to work with us on Black Ops 3. Thanks to his stellar play, his off-field antics and the controversial ending to Super Bowl XLIV, the spotlight was on Marshawn and everything he did. And in an unprecedented move for the franchise, Activision and game developer Treyarch offered Marshawn the opportunity to appear as a character in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which Marshawn enthusiastically accepted.

We set our sights on securing an exclusive cover and feature story with ESPN the Magazine, announcing the worldwide reveal of Marshawn’s Call of Duty in-game involvement.

Our partnership with Marshawn, along with the subsequent in-game character reveal, would harness the anticipation of Black Ops 3 to: engage the broader Call of Duty community, win validation early with core fans, and build pop culture inevitability leading into launch.

On Friday, November 6, 2015, Activision launched the most anticipated video game of the year, and 14th main release in the franchise’s history, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.

As the world’s most popular first-person action game, Call of Duty fans have high expectations for fresh, but familiar content ushering in the video game’s newest release.

Facing strong competition and media often citing “franchise fatigue,” it was critical to win back consumers and press, all while competing against new first-person shooter franchises from rival publishers.

Our challenge: reach the masses by leveraging the power of the franchise’s high-profile fans. In the process, reflect the game’s appeal beyond core gaming audiences by showcasing the authentic fandom stemming from influential and diverse personalities.

Fortunately, the franchise has a large roster of high-visible fans across pop culture. We just needed to find the right one, and deploy that person in the right way.