As the biggest selling entertainment franchise on earth, Call of Duty is a firm fan favourite. The success of the title is tied to key beats in the campaign cycle and success is strongly indicated by pre-orders – a concept which is becoming harder to to ensure in an increasingly digital download market. In order to drive scale at pre-order, Activision needed to access the wider, less tech savvy, mainstream gamer which meant tapping into a mainstream news agenda.

With E-Sports on the rise as a legitimate sporting event, we saw an opportunity to hijack the media agenda and inject the game into popular culture in a nation obsessed with sport and competition.

Working alongside the Australian Institute of Sport, we created COD Academy, the nation’s first E-Sport athlete training program. Running as a course at their state-of-the art facility in Sydney the academy's first students were E-Sports team, Mindfreak and special guest star, NRL and NFL star, Jarryd Hayne. As a sports star who had switched disciplines twice and also applied for a spot in the Olympics, news that Hayne, a notoriously keen gamer, was now training with an E-Sports team created large media and public speculation.

We used the initial news of Hayne’s preparation to ignite a public feud between the Rugby star and one of Australia’s biggest rap artists, Seth Sentry, also a renowned gamer, which played out over Twitter in the days following the announcement.

Activision invited the pair to settle the score as the first players to go head-to-head on the new COD Infinite Warfare game – winner gets bragging rights!

We kept the anticipation high with specially created content of Hayne’s training released through social channels and traditional media.

The campaign played out across the crucial pre-order phase with the big battle happening live instore on the night of launch. The game was streamed live on Twitch and Facebook Live as events in their own right, reaching core and casual fans alike.

ROLE: Creative Strategy, Concept