Battlegrounds Mobile India by Krafton Inc addressed the issue of irresponsible gaming, a challenge faced not just by gamers but also by their loved ones, through a video campaign, that highlighted the initiatives taken by the brand in this direction. The campaign won multiple awards at Spikes Asia
The case study takes a quick glance at how Krafton Inc received a total of 11Mn views on their Machine Gun Mouth campaign which won 1 Gold, 1 Silver, and 3 Bronze metals at Spikes Asia.
Category Introduction
As of 2021, the Indian gaming market is a $2.2B industry. According to projections by Redseer and Lumikai, the industry is geared to experience a CAGR of approximately 30%, resulting in a market worth $7B by 2025. This is a whopping 3X increase in a 5 year period.
Owing to the pandemic and subsequent lifestyle changes, the average weekly time spent on gaming has risen in the country to approximately 3.6 hours (a rise from the earlier 2.5 hours). Esports, social gaming, and streaming are on a steep rise, and the prevalence of regional and vernacular markets is steadily increasing.
There are currently about 400M active gamers in India, of which about 20% choose to pay for their games. By the end of 2021, 96M Indian gaming users are forecast to pay for games. In fact, the percentage of NPUs (new first time paying users) in India stands at 40% in 2020 (reaching 50% in 2021), making it the fastest-growing market in this regard globally.
Brand Introduction
KRAFTON, Inc. is a South Korean collective of independent game development studios brought together to create innovative and engaging entertainment experiences for gamers across the world. The company consists of PUBG Studios, Bluehole Studio, Striking Distance Studios, RisingWings, Dreamotion, and Unknown Worlds, each with its own unique expertise.
KRAFTON is responsible for premier entertainment properties including PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, PUBG: NEW STATE, The Callisto Protocol, TERA, and ELYON. As a technology-driven company that boasts world-class capabilities, KRAFTON seeks to expand its areas of business beyond games to multimedia entertainment and deep learning.
BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA is among the company’s roster of successes. Known commonly as BGMI, this game is an online multiplayer battle royale mobile game, in a multiplayer format. Released in India in July 2021, BGMI witnessed 10M+ downloads in record time and has been on an upward trajectory ever since, clocking 16M daily active users in the first month itself.
Spikes Asia Krafton Inc Case Study - Summary
Driven by the desire to foster a safe and healthy gaming environment, the Game Responsibly campaign by BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA tackles the problem of obsessive gaming in a light-hearted manner. It does so by speaking not only to gamers but also to their friends and family.
Humour is employed to drive home the features introduced by BGMI to combat over-gaming, including OTP authentication for minors and limits on daily in-game spending. The campaign embeds the problems of over-gaming and their subsequent solutions (offered by the new features of BGMI) into relatable, non-preachy narratives.
Game Responsibly is an unexpected take on an important issue.
Problem Statement/Objective
BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA was rolled out in July 2021 with several features built into the game to encourage gaming moderation among its young users.
According to the Spikes Asia Krafton Case Study the brand's core responsibility was to ensure a safe and fun environment to connect with other gamers, play in squads and uphold the spirit of gaming via its products in India. Hence, the primary objective of the brand was to speak to these audiences about the efforts taken by them to negate prevalent concerns.
The brief given to the agency was to craft a cohesive campaign that achieves the following key objectives:
To show players that BGMI is a fun and safe gaming environment
To showcase Krafton’s efforts dedicated to fostering a healthy environment for the gaming community
To clearly communicate the features introduced by BGMI to this end
Creative Idea
The safety measures implemented by BGMI allow parents to monitor and exercise control over their child’s excessive gaming habits, giving them the peace of mind they desire. Consequently, the previously annoying (and worrisome) behaviours of their gamer children need no longer be a source of incessant disturbance in their lives.
This observation led to the conception of the campaign’s headlining film – Machine Gun Mouth. The film tackles the core problem of over-gaming in a light-hearted manner that is characteristic of the BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA brand. The execution ploy used is the incessant playing of iconic sounds from the game as a metaphor for excessive gaming (shown by the film’s protagonist mimicking these sounds orally).
The idea is summarized by Vishnu Srivatsav, Regional Creative Director – Advertising & Digital, DDB Mudra Group, “When it comes to a conversation on responsible gaming, there’s no real benefit in talking down. People don’t like to be preached to. So, we took a lighter, more relatable approach. And we brought everyone into the conversation: gamers, their families, and their friends. The films are unexpected and fun, but always human.”
Challenges
As a campaign geared towards multiple target groups - players, their parents and family - it was crucial to reach all the audiences in an effective manner.
A key challenge was to strike a balance between a fun, sticky message that also conveys the game features and culture we set out to communicate.
Importantly, it was imperative for the communications to engage the various target groups while ensuring that the tonality does not come off as preachy or didactic.
The brand experienced overwhelmingly positive comments to the film on all its social handles, with the audience lauding their efforts
The humorous and non-preachy structure of the main film – Machine Gun Mouth – was particularly well-received by the audience,
The main campaign film has garnered over 11 million views on YouTube, with over 73K likes.
“We care deeply for our gamers, hence we acted. These changes have been made to ensure responsible gaming practices are adopted by gaming enthusiasts; especially minors. It also asserts the integrity and fairness of our business practices of putting the community first. Yes, we aim to offer our best entertainment and experiences to our gamers, but at the same time, mental and physical health of our players remains top priority” - Minu Lee, Head, BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA.
Editor’s Note
Awards & accolades such as Spikes Asia have often played an integral role, in bringing some of the most intriguing and impactful campaigns from around the world, to the front. While as an industry, we have a certain idea of which were some of the most amazing campaigns, there is often a knowledge gap as to how did these campaigns come into existence? What went behind making the campaign? What were the steps taken to execute and eventually distribute it?
Spikes Asia Case Studies is a small attempt by Social Samosa, towards understanding what goes behind making a winning campaign? First in our series is Stayfree’s It’s Just A Period, which won a Silver at Spikes Asia 2022. We then uncovered The Unfiltered History Tour by Dentsu Webchutney and Vice Media and Netflix’s launch campaign for Red Notice which won a Bronze at Spikes. In this article, we take a look at the Spikes Asia Case Study Better Half Recipes. The Krafton Spikes Asia winning campaign case study is next on this list.
Watch this space as we add the case studies to more campaigns from India that won big at the awards.
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