Overview

Activision Blizzard UK asked Fourth Floor to create a campaign to win back lapsed Diablo IV players with the launch of its first expansion, Vessel of Hatred.

The campaign needed to appeal to lapsed players in the midcore and variety spaces, while accommodating for the 16-month break since the cliffhanger ending of Diablo IV’s story.
With no hands-on gameplay available until launch, the campaign needed to sustain engagement and excitement via strong and creative storytelling.

The ChallengeS

An initial internal insight session with a range of Diablo players and other service-game players (from active to lapsed) confirmed universal motivations and blockers that resonated with the client’s thoughts:

Players are driven to return by expanding story and gameplay journeys, and a distinctive world and atmosphere to explore.
Players drop out due to broken immersion, and an increasing emphasis on granular systems and grind over story and experience.
Players return for relatable continuations of beloved experiences, new story, peer excitement, and a clear view of what’s new and valuable.

Our Approach

A narrative-led, multi-service campaign with a consistent throughline of story, making the case for VoH being the perfect time to jump back into Diablo IV.

The journey started with an intricate, reality-blurring gift inviting creators on a journey to the epicentre of the expansion, the Nahantu jungle.
Creators were guided to an online quiz to unfold more of the story, and discover their personal alignment to VoH’s new Spiritborn class.
They finally united to take part in a four-player livestream in a fully immersive and branded set-dressed location.
The campaign used a combination of platforms to weave its story, and pull creators and their audiences along on the journey. YouTube Shorts and Twitter quickly spread brand awareness, while YouTube delivered continued evergreen content, and Twitch engaged dedicated communities in a real ‘event’ moment with the livestream climax.

PHASE One – AWARENESS & belief

Bespoke mailer to introduce the Diablo IV: VoH story

To start the narrative, we created the fictional Nahantu tourist board brand, then wrote and designed a set of printed collateral, inviting the creators to a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Nahantu jungle. The items were all placed in a large branded travel trunk, which had lights and a false floor concealing messages from in-game characters for continuity.

This striking physical component performed exceptionally well on YouTube, YouTube Shorts, and Twitter.

PHASE TWO – INVESTMENT & LAUNCHPAD

Build momentum with character selection and more story reveals

The second beat tackled any remaining barriers to entry by recapping the story so far, connecting it to VoH’s start point, and highlighting the new playable Spiritborn class.

By engaging the creators in an only-for-them online quiz to discover and assign a character to play, while revisiting Diablo IV’s ending, we drove investment that saw them go on to generate multiple organic streams and content pieces, creating a flywheel of excitement and momentum for the livestream showdown.

PHASE THREE – CELEBRATION & SUSTAIN

Immersive livestream, with plenty of gameplay and a creative narrative wrapper

The creators were invited to ‘Nahantu’ to play in co-op live on stream. Fourth Floor’s production arm, Explosive Alan, coordinated and produced a high-quality streaming set with two separate, ‘in-world’ spaces - one for gameplay, and the other for tempting betrayal and derailing player unity with lore-based, real-life challenges throughout the stream.

Creators’ communities were rewarded with game codes, as the stream progressed, with differing numbers on offer depending on whether the creators remained united or betrayed each other. The tasks and challenges Fourth Floor designed to fuel this dynamic elevated interplay between the creators, which in turn kept the four-hour stream at a heightened level of excitement and engagement to watch.

RESULTS

The first gifting beat was extremely successful and generated 1.8m views. The intriguing nature of the physical gift allowed creators to put together some interesting and stand-out, on-brand videos.

The second beat amassed 4,900 hours of watch time across all platforms, and the final livestream was a runaway success with 2.6M views, and total minutes watched of over 1M.