Kabam is integrating storytelling and “joy”-ful classical music to promote the PC launch of Marvel Contest of Champions.
The video-game publisher and agency partner Full Punch went for an “epic” feel in the live-action trailer that marks the game’s move to PC after a decade on mobile.
According to Full Punch CCO Chris Zawada, the game’s source material – head-to-head battles between classic comic-book characters such as Spider-Man, Thor and Dr. Doom – provided plenty of inspiration.
“On the mobile version, the graphics, the story, even the sound are all truly epic,” Zawada says. “With this PC version, that’s going to feel even bigger. We wanted to capture that feeling in the launch campaign.”
To that end, Full Punch took Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and reworked lyrics to reference gameplay features, easter eggs and a Marvel villain or two.
“We recorded with classically trained opera singers to maintain the original, heroic energy,” Zawada says.
The song became the soundtrack for the trailer featuring three gamers in three distinct scenarios as they experience the PC version for the first time.
Full Punch is working with Kabam for the first time with the video, which has been in development since early in the year.
Zawada tells strategy that Full Punch wanted each element on screen to honour the game and the comic-book canon, while capturing the passion of millions of die-hard fans.
“If we failed at either, the community would undoubtedly let us know,” he says.
“While we only had a little formal category experience, luckily, a lot of the team, from agency to production teams, working on the project were already comic-book and game fans. And we had numerous stakeholders with an unbelievably encyclopedic knowledge of all 300-pluss characters featured in the game keeping us on track.”
The campaign’s tactics are digital and social OLV, with a target audience of current gamers and lapsed players.
Media was handled by Kabam’s in-house team while Kiddo handled production and Cereal Post worked on post-production. Music and sound design were created by Wave Productions.
