As Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was gearing up for its 2024 release, the goal was simple: make launch day, October 25, the most talked-about day in entertainment. To do this, we needed more than just hype — we needed urgency, FOMO, and the feeling that everyone, everywhere, was ready to drop everything to play.
Enter The Replacer — the beloved and grizzled character known for stepping in when players needed time to play. For this launch, we took The Replacer beyond his usual role and integrated him into the very fabric of internet culture.
Our idea: make Call of Duty unavoidable by hijacking one of the internet’s most iconic forms of communication—GIFs. We teamed up with GIPHY for a first-of-its-kind takeover, replacing the most popular reaction GIFs with brand-new, Call of Duty–themed versions featuring The Replacer. Every time a fan went to search for a GIF, they'd find one "replaced" with Call of Duty — creating an endless wave of shareable moments.
To bring this idea to life we had to hijack one of culture’s greatest forms of communication: reaction GIFs. Seems simple enough, but to do so required a massive effort across many channels and platforms in this first of a kind GIPHY takeover, helping players feel the presence of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 across culture–everywhere they looked.
First, we had to find the right Gifs to replace. We knew we had to partner with the premiere home for Gifs online, Giphy and together we analyzed the most shared Gifs across our audiences, matching phrases and search terms to the Gifs our audience used most daily.
We replaced the Gifs in painstaking detail. Each and every element of the Replaced Gifs needed to feel 1:1 to the original Gif. To achieve this, we didn;t miss a single detail: custom lighting, rear-projected backgrounds, props, wardrobe, and minute design elements were all replaced. The final touch, of course, was putting The Replacer in the starring role.
A seamless partnership with Giphy. In collaboration with the GIPHY team, we made sure our new GIFs would pop up everywhere fans looked: on GIPHY, across GIPHY-powered keyboards on Reddit, Android, WhatsApp, Teams, and more. Wherever the internet searched for their favorite Gifs, they found our Replaced Gifs instead.
As soon as the GIFs hit the internet, fans were drawn in. As more fans discovered the Replaced GIFs, they shared them far and wide as the disruption drove more intrigue and sharing. Even celebrities, brands, and other gaming companies jumped on board, spreading Call of Duty excitement across social feeds, chat threads, and beyond.
Within 2 days of our GIFs flooding the internet, they were used around the world–reaching fans with over 200 million impressions. We soared 299% over our reach target and 2.5x beyond GIPHY’s engagement performance targets for the campaign. Beyond these numbers, though, the campaign successfully got The Replacer’s message about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 into the feeds of our players and culture at large - driving chatter and hype about the November launch, and helping position Black Ops 6 as the best-selling game of 2024.*
Source: https://wnhub.io/news/other/item-46612
