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2016 One Show - Social Media

Call of Duty Hack in Black

Agency Edelman / Los Angeles + AKQA / San Francisco

Client Activision
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Annual ID

SM16053M

About the Work

When Activision set out to reveal its new Call of Duty game, Black Ops 3, it faced a unique challenge: over 12 million gamers were still perfectly happy playing the old game, 2012’s Black Ops 2 each day. Activision tasked us with developing a campaign that would specifically target these players with first hints about the sequel in a way that would shock the base and reverberate to the masses. We knew there was only one way to truly grab their attention: hit them right where they were… by hacking into the game itself. We executed the first ever in-game integration with Snapchat and used the platform to tease elements of the game's story, generating a tidal wave of buzz and speculation leading up to Black Ops 3's reveal.