Agency / Omelet — Client / Warner Bros. — Strategy, Key Assets — 2018
How do you breathe new life into a beloved franchise?
Positioning — Creative Strategy — Research Management
We were tasked with bringing Hitman 2 to market, starting with the development of a core creative brief which would guide our own work and that of other agency partners. We faced a steep uphill battle — every metric among key audiences pointed away from Hitman and instead toward highly-anticipated Call of Duty titles Black Ops and Modern Warfare.
Respondents had been asked to compare an apple and an orange. Hitman isn't a shooter — it's a thinker. Among those who indicated an understanding of and preference for the genre, Hitman tested well. We didn't just have to market the title — we had to market the genre as whole. And we had to create separation from hyper-competitive shooters by leaning into a real product truth: your imagination can take you a lot further in an open sandbox like Hitman.
Menacing muffins and flying fish graced the halls of E3, leading toward an interactive booth where fans could choose their own deadly everyday object. Sean Bean headlined the launch trailer (above) and later made an in-game cameo. And our friends at DMM launched a call center activation during PAX West that recruited fans as potential ICA agents (link).
The game itself released in an unimaginatively competitive window, alongside not only the latest COD installments but also Red Dead Redemption 2, and yet still managed to hit the black faster than the previous Hitman franchise installment. The victory we all hold in our hearts, though, is the staying power of the campaign within the community. Reddit memes (below) [link] of your campaign, years later, is a vanity metric I'll track any day.
Copy: Blakeley Jones + Art: Kate Eglen + CDs: Andrew Rutledge, Jimmy Barker + GCDs: Josh Smutko, Raul Montes + Account: Andrew Krensky + CSO: Pete Talaba + CEO: Thas Naseemuddeen + many more — please shout if I've been a jerk and left you off here!
