Going Full Goblin Mode For Clash Royale's 7th Birthday

Context

The 6th Clash Royale birthday celebration of the previous year had been a flashy and impressive event, meant to celebrate the community and spotlight some of its most loyal figureheads.

However, the creator-led spectacle and tournament fell a little flat: the complex user journey made it difficult for fans to participate. With a particular spotlight on creators, the wider community felt like they were not included enough, and the rewards handed out were not seen as valuable and memorable enough for fans. 

As we started to think about the Clash Royale 7th birthday, we wanted to take these community insights and give the people what they wanted, and deserved.

WE WENT FULL GOBLIN

So, for the 7th birthday, Clash Royale were excited to go full goblin-mode and allow the whole community to benefit, with a story-driven birthday campaign that celebrated the mischievous Goblin. To get the party started, Waste and Clash Royale teased the community about incoming Goblin mayhem with a teaser shot of what it looked like inside a Goblin Hut...

Once the season started, we launched across social channels an upbeat and wild birthday party through our hero video, showing goblins chilling inside a party hut and preparing for arena battles. It features beautifully illustrated frame-by-frame animation, creatively designed kaleidoscope goblin fun, and mocap movement for the green characters. To keep players engaged in the game world, Game Play also featured the new ways to play and attack with the birthday feature, Goblin Hut Card!

The party was a full-scale affair, including illustrations, gifs, a whole host of player-focussed challenges and rewards — and, of course, music. During the campaign, awareness was driven through in-game challenges and social media channels that got the whole community celebrating 7 years of Royale mayhem. We wanted to make the event more memorable by dropping the bespoke track (called 'What Goes on Inside the Party Hut') on Spotify, so that the community could listen to it again and again. Turns out it's an ear worm; once you've heard it you'll be humming it for days...

Even after the party has ended. 😉