Who will you be today? BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Asia and VMLY&R Singapore launch first-ever regional brand campaign
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Asia is a leading global publisher of interactive entertainment content, with a wide range of game franchises in its portfolio. The publisher recently launched its first-ever regional brand campaign, as part of ongoing efforts to connect consumers with its large portfolio of games.
While games by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Asia enjoy much popularity and traction across the region, the company saw an opportunity to increase recognition and awareness about the common developer behind the various franchises. Consumers were often not drawing the connection between games like TEKKEN 7, SOULCALIBUR VI, and ACE COMBAT 7, and the company or its legacy, stretching back as far as PAC-MAN. As such, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Asia needed to find an engaging, immersive way to get this message across.
To bring this campaign to life, BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Asia worked closely with its creative agency, VMLY&R Singapore. It was an end-to-end collaboration, spanning from the initial conceptualisation and strategy stages, to the creative execution and community management, as well as critical steps such as video production and Augmented Reality (AR) filter development.
The campaign kicked off last month with an interactive video asking consumers who they want to become through the power of video games. Consumers were then invited to participate in a series of Easter Egg contests, where fans who spotted all the hidden messages – the Easter Eggs – would stand a chance to win a variety of prizes.
This also tied into offline activations that spanned three weekends in locations across the region: Bangkok, Hong Kong and Seoul. Named the ‘Cut-and-Play Salon’, gamers were given the chance to get their hair professionally styled into one of their characters’ iconic looks, in order to transform into their favorite character in real life.
There was also a strong social element to this campaign, as VMLY&R Singapore sought a way to extend reach beyond these offline activations. They worked with an AR developer to create an AR filter, which was then rolled out on the BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Asia Facebook page, allowing gamers to easily try out the hairstyles of their favourite characters and experience the transformation first-hand. Users were then encouraged to share these looks with their friends, with prizes up for grabs. Fans also had the opportunity to join in the conversation online with the identifying hashtag: #WhoWillYouBeToday on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“We were looking for a fun way to capture how every BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment game is immersive for the player, while seamlessly featuring all the various titles that make the brand so great. We were inspired by the in-game character selection screens because that’s where players have the chance to be someone new and become part of all the epic worlds BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment’s franchises offer,” said Joaquim Laurel, Creative Director, VMLY&R Southeast Asia and India.
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