God of War Ragnarok Launch Campaign

Role: Strategist, Concept Creation, Copywriter, Scripting

TLDR: I developed the strategy, concept, script, and campaign rollout for the multi-award winning/record breaking God of War Ragnarok spot.

As a strategist I love a clear goal, even when it’s a lofty one - and this brief had exactly that ‘Get everyone outside of the gaming world to care about this game launch.’ Everyone in gaming was already excited for the sequel to the critically acclaimed record setting 2018 installment, and if every single person who bought 2018 bought Ragnarok, it would be failure. No sweat.

My research showed that there was a major tonal shift coming off the success of the 2018 title after the introduction of Kratos’s son, Atreus. From a violent God to a struggling father, the internet suddenly saw Kratos in a different light, and gave us a surprising way in with humor (which actually was a major deviation from the brief).

That finding ultimately led to the idea - mixing the universal relatability of parenthood with a bit of the absurdity of people who make something their entire personality. Parents love sharing what works for their kids with their parent friends - so I thought, why not someone who resonates so deeply with Kratos as a father that they want to share that way of parenting with others?

Enter Ben Stiller, our Kratos evangelist, dressed in perfect Kratos attire down to the Leviathan ax paired with his son Quin, gathering his good celebrity friends LeBron James and John Travolta together with their kids Bronny and Ella Bleu, to sit down and hear about the God of War way of parenting. Three fathers you’d never expect to see in a room together, talking about something you’d never expect them to talk about with one another. The result of them in one room in this ridiculous premise speaks for itself.

The hero commercial debuted during the World Series, immediately catching the attention of a new audience who took to the internet to talk about what it was they just saw. Soon after, the extended version launched exclusively on Entertainment Weekly where over an additional minute of comedy was unveiled. Our celebrity stars and their kids then posted the spot across their social media platforms exposing the God of War franchise to hundreds of millions of fans that would have never connected with the game before.

Then the proof of reaching a new audience started to come through in the form of press coverage. God of War was a franchise that was no stranger to coverage in the likes of IGN, but the celebrities selected were chosen to strategically expand us beyond the gaming trades and the franchise suddenly found themselves written about in Forbes, ESPN, HypeBeast, Huffington Post, ScreenRant, Bleacher Report, Fatherly and more.

While a ridiculous amount of social engagement, press mentions, and rampant positive social sentiment is wonderful - the goal was to beat God of War 2018 - and we did much more than just that.