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Hammerless
Agency DAVID / New York + Supercell / Helsinki + Duotone Audio Group / New York + Digital Banana Studio / Paris
Category
Online / Branded Podcast
Annual ID
OS25_RA020M
Background
Clash of Clans is a mobile strategy game that is based on building a village and raiding other players’ villages. And every year, we host our biggest in-game promotion called, “Hammer Jam,” when upgrades for your village are discounted up to 50%. It’s basically our Black Friday. But after six years of the same event, players knew what to expect and it was starting to get old. We needed a reason to get them excited and engaged again.
Creative Idea
Hammer Jam is a once a year Black Friday-like event in the Clash of Clans mobile game, when players get 50% off on building upgrades. This year, right before the event, we staged a shocking crime and made the iconic hammer go missing. To solve the mystery we directed players to a multi-episode true crime podcast, where we explored all the potential suspects and clues. Theories poured in as fans worked together to crack the case, find the missing hammer and save the event.
Insights & Strategy
Our audience was existing Clash gamers: they get easily bored of games when they don’t offer anything new, and can be cynical of the promises made by game developers. Hammer Jam had been around for six years already, so we needed to do something genuinely new, disruptive, and intriguing — something that would have them talking amongst themselves, not just listening to us. The insight was simple: if people were expecting Hammer Jam, the most exciting move would be to take it away.
Execution
We started with a shocking Clash of Clans news update in-game and on social that caused a fervor amongst players: The Hammer Jam hammer was missing just days before the event.
Our docu-style trailer set the scene of the crime and established that every single character in the game was a suspect.
From there we drove fans to a multi-episode podcast that dove into theories and clues. It was the first ever true-crime podcast based on a video game. And we took it 100% seriously.
Starting with the victim himself, The Builder, we questioned how innocent he was in all of this and even brought in a real criminal psychologist to discuss his mindset and potential motives.
From there we dove into other characters, such as The Barbarian, who we ‘interviewed’ for the first time (despite the fact that he only grunts).
Throughout we wove fan theories into the podcast to encourage more and keep them guessing and sharing.
But only one eagle-eyed fan figured it out, when he caught an Easter egg we planted in the trailer film which showed The Giant itching his backside. And he was right. It turned out the hammer was simply stuck to The Giant’s butt the entire time — it was a hammer jammed for Hammer Jam.
We covered this resolution in a final film and corresponding podcast episode where we revealed the whole thing was just a cheeky joke.
In the end, the fans cracked the case, found the missing hammer and saved Hammer Jam.
Our docu-style trailer set the scene of the crime and established that every single character in the game was a suspect.
From there we drove fans to a multi-episode podcast that dove into theories and clues. It was the first ever true-crime podcast based on a video game. And we took it 100% seriously.
Starting with the victim himself, The Builder, we questioned how innocent he was in all of this and even brought in a real criminal psychologist to discuss his mindset and potential motives.
From there we dove into other characters, such as The Barbarian, who we ‘interviewed’ for the first time (despite the fact that he only grunts).
Throughout we wove fan theories into the podcast to encourage more and keep them guessing and sharing.
But only one eagle-eyed fan figured it out, when he caught an Easter egg we planted in the trailer film which showed The Giant itching his backside. And he was right. It turned out the hammer was simply stuck to The Giant’s butt the entire time — it was a hammer jammed for Hammer Jam.
We covered this resolution in a final film and corresponding podcast episode where we revealed the whole thing was just a cheeky joke.
In the end, the fans cracked the case, found the missing hammer and saved Hammer Jam.
Results
Hammerless was a hit in itself. The campaign made off with 13.7m views - and 74% of them were organic, a testament to how gripping the saga was. Community engagement exploded as people combed the scene of the crime, going up from 194k interactions to 2.6 million.
And it did its job, making Hammer Jam 2024 a huge spike in the game: 17 million players joined or rejoined the game in November. Daily user activity grew, from 25 million every day, to 29 million. And across the month, 31 million players took the plunge and upgraded the most important building in the game: the Town Hall. It was the perfect crime.
And it did its job, making Hammer Jam 2024 a huge spike in the game: 17 million players joined or rejoined the game in November. Daily user activity grew, from 25 million every day, to 29 million. And across the month, 31 million players took the plunge and upgraded the most important building in the game: the Town Hall. It was the perfect crime.
2025 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit
Credits
Agency
DAVID / New York
Client / Brand
Supercell / Helsinki
Production Company
Digital Banana Studio / Paris
Music / Sound Production Company
duotone audio group / New York
Art Director
Victoria Rocha
Associate Creative Director
Maria DiTullio
Chief Creative Officer
André Toledo
Creative Director
Erin Evon
Jason Burke
Global Chief Creative Officer
Pancho Cassis
Global Chief Strategy Officer
Paula Vampre
Strategy Director
James Mitchell
Associate Producer
Sophie Freid
Creative Director / Founder
Peter Nashel
Executive Producer
Natasha Louckevitch
Account Supervisor
Irene León
Art Direction
Thibaud Pourplanche
Audio Producer
Lou Baron
Business Affairs Manager
Catalina Peña
Chief Creative Officer North America
Daniel Lobaton
Clash of Clans Animation Director
Kamil Khan
Clash of Clans Community Manager
Marco Monteiro
Vladislav Perge
Clash of Clans Marketing Lead
Anna Bouveng
Director and Supervisor
John Banana
Anders Ehrenborg
Director of Business Affairs
Barbara Karalis
Executive Music Producer
Ross Hopman
Executive Producer, Audio Post
Greg Tiefenbrun
Global COO
Sylvia Panico
Global PR Director
Sandra Azedo
Group Account Director
Brett Niebling
Head of Global Live Games Marketing
Iwo Zakowski
Head of Production
Brenda Morrison Fell
Marketing Producer
Yuri Yoshimura
North America Managing Director
Carolina Vieira
PR manager
Jonathan Howard
Sound designer/mixer
Andrew Green
Storyboard Artist
Adrien Gault
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