Clash of Clans, one of the world’s most popular games with over 2 billion downloads, now features soccer legend Erling Haaland as the iconic ‘Barbarian King’. 🤯
This partnership is brilliant and unexpected! But it is also working.
✅ They managed to land +20M views with one reel!
✅ Their behind-the-scenes (BTS) reel landed over 6M views.
Their secret sauce for success?
The Manchester City player is a genuine fan of the game. 🎮
Haaland has already built an impressive in-game village, which he’s defended from rival clans. Now, players can challenge his village, adding an exciting and immersive aspect to the campaign.
And I’m not even talking about the cinematic ad. It’s both dramatic and engaging! It adopts an action-movie style and features a unique ‘Haaland’ soundtrack that will get stuck in your head.
But there’s more.
This exciting collaboration, orchestrated by New York advertising agency DAVID, marks Clash of Clans’ first-ever in-game celebrity partnership.
Let’s see what else we can learn from this clever campaign.
Ready? Let’s roll. 👇
The making of the campaign
Axis Studios, under the leadership of director Olly Reid and executive producer Nicole Duncan, played a pivotal role in bringing Haaland into the Clash of Clans universe.
The creative production was a collaborative effort involving sports specialists from Founder Creative and Axis’s animation and visual effects experts.
Duncan highlighted that their prior successful collaborations with Supercell were a key factor in being chosen for this project.
“We already had a pre-existing, strong relationship with Supercell,” she noted, emphasising their deep understanding of Supercell’s IP and objectives.
One aspect that piqued their interest was the unique challenge of integrating a real-life football star into the highly stylised world of Clash of Clans.
Reid shared that working with Clash characters was incredibly rewarding, allowing the team to explore creative and playful solutions.
“Supercell consistently encourages us to explore creative and playful solutions to their needs,” he remarked.
Behind the Scenes: Preparation and execution
Axis Studios was deeply involved in shaping the campaign from the early stages.
This included tailoring the concept to fit within the allocated timeline and budget, ensuring its feasibility.
According to my research, a significant part of the initial work involved studying Haaland’s movements and characteristics to capture his essence accurately.
“We watched a lot of Haaland references so we could sculpt the story to reflect his character and capture his movement style,” Duncan explained.
Haaland for the Win! Clash of Clans x Erling Haaland: Behind the Scenes from Axis Studios on Vimeo.
The process of introducing Haaland into the Clash universe was meticulous and iterative. Each step, from initial thumbnails to final animation, was carefully crafted to bring out Haaland’s personality.
Reid mentioned that Haaland’s distinctive run and football movements were key elements in the story.
“We thought a lot about ways Haaland could help the Clash team using his football skills,” he said.
The BTS content was also a winner, just like we saw with
