Hello hello - welcome to Edition #96 of The SEG3 Report all!

In this week’s edition - it was Super Bowl weekend - so we zoom in on how Supercell hijacked the ‘big game’ conversation without buying a Super Bowl ad.

Plus: How Coca-Cola is entering the James Bond universe & Crunchyroll’s addition of original games to offer fans more ways to engage with their favourite IP.

Without further ado, let’s get into it ⤵️

It was Super Bowl Sunday this weekend.

And whilst there has been a lot of debate about which ad won the Super Bowl, and Bad Bunny’s half-time show, it was actually another half time show that caught my eye.

To set the scene, anyone who’s spoken to me for more than five minutes knows I have a rather unhealthy attachment to Clash of Clans and Clash Royale.

So, when logging into Clash Royale for my daily instalment, I was not expecting to be greeted by Lil Wayne. And yet, there he was, and after 2m 47s of a half-time show complete with dancing troops and a Coldplay kiss-cam gag (will they ever get a rest?!), I found myself equal parts confused and impressed at what I’d just watched unfold inside a mobile game.

And once I’d taken my fan cap off and put my work cap back on, it got me thinking about what good creative mixed with well timed ambush marketing can do for your brand.

Well, it’s the Super Bowl. Every single marketer is looking for a way to be part of the conversation. It has truly become a unique moment in the calendar for brands given advertising is such an integral part of the spectacle and fan experience.

But, all that attention comes with a hefty price tag - with a 30-second Super Bowl slot in this years show costing roughly $8 – 10m.

Despite the substantial reach it offers (~125 – 130 million viewers), that level of investment puts it out of reach for many brands.

However, if you’re set on being part of the conversation, but cannot buy your way into the moment, how do you still show up with authority around it?

Instead of trying to outsmart other advertisers inside the same broadcast, Supercell leveraged what they already had; a platform, and a loyal fanbase that returns daily.

And with that, they turned Clash Royale into the stage. This gave them full control over the story they wanted to tell, the distribution, and how their IP could show up alongside the cultural moment they wanted to associate with.

And the activation they chose was the half-time show.

As much as the Super Bowl is known for its advertising, the half-time show is as much of a draw - with this year’s show by Bad Bunny reportedly peaked at a record 135.4 million viewers!

And so, if you’re going to aim to replicate and/or compete with one of the biggest stages in entertainment, the choice of who headlines it holds a lot of weight.

And this is where I think Supercell got it bang on.

As with many things across entertainment, attaching the right talent can turn a great idea into a home run. And with Lil Wayne, Supercell found the perfect sub-plot to elevate this beyond just an in-game concert.

Lil Wayne, after being overlooked for the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in his hometown of New Orleans, vowed to “never do a Super Bowl halftime show”.

And so with that backstory already part of public consciousness, Lil Wayne leading the halftime show inside of Clash Royale instantly gives it another dimension, and primes it to spread far beyond just the game.

And spread it has - with the performance attracting 50 million+ in-game views in just 24 hours, plus another 9 million+ views on YouTube in just three days.

In my view, there were three things Supercell and their agency partners executed on extremely well here.

First, they anchored themselves to a cultural moment that already had attention. Frankly, the Super Bowl has its own gravitational pull, and by getting creative, they were able to be part of the conversation without even using the official NFL branding. The timing of the release and smart use of copy like ‘the big game’ did the heavy lifting for them.

Second, they found a subplot worth leaning into. Lil Wayne’s history with the halftime show snub gave the activation cultural relevance and a narrative it simply would not have had otherwise.

And lastly, the activation debuted in-game, rewarding Clash Royale players with first access to the half-time show, and letting them carry the conversation onto other platforms. In other words, while Supercell has since put its marketing muscle behind the activation, the initial momentum came from fans and their organic distribution.

Closing thoughts

Lil Wayne saves me a lot of the summation I would usually insert here by saying:

This activation is a clean example of the convergence we spend so much time obsessing over at SEG3.

Music, sport and games are no longer separate arenas, but instead part of one big cultural playing field, and so it’ll be the brands and IP owners that learn to move naturally between them that will win the battle for attention.

Before we jump into the speed read, the themes we cover in this newsletter around fandom and convergence are exactly what SEG3 London is built around. We’re back this 18-19 June if you want to dig into them in person with leaders from across culture and technology. First Release passes are now live until the end of Feb ⤵️

Coca-Cola has partnered with IO Interactive to enter the James Bond universe via a crossover with 007: First Light, weaving Coke directly into the gameplay.

If you’re a regular reader of the newsletter, you’ll already be familiar with Coca-Cola’s strategy for entertainment and culture marketing.

If you’re new here (or need a refresher), may I recommend Edition #75, where we dive into Fanta’s Halloween promotions with Universal Pictures & Blumhouse – or check out Episode 3 of The Speakeasy, where we got the chance to sit with Coca-Cola’s Director - Head of Music, Entertainment & Culture Partnerships, Stefan Rothenbuehler.

This crossover with IO Interactive is an interesting test case because the Bond franchise is famously protective of its image - but it’s also been synonymous with product placement since inception (I mean, can anyone think of Bond without thinking of Aston Martin?), so they know how to integrate brands authentically into their story.

And as we know, Coca-Cola tends to show up in cultural moments by pairing a product experience with a digital one.

A product experience - 007 themed cans now available across Germany

With…

A digital experience - a playable mini-game inside the Coke app that rewards fans with downloads and DLC.

No matter the IP or medium, the goal is to find authentic ways for the brand to exist inside the 007 universe (we unpacked the Bond franchise DNA in more detail in Edition #54), and Coke seem to have a very good habit of finding smart ways to integrate into their partners worlds while pulling fans back into their ecosystem.

And as funding pressure increases across film, TV and games, studios will need to design opportunities for brands to be part of their story without alienating fans or straying too far from the IP’s DNA.

It’s this balancing act that many studios and developers need to navigate to be able to get their stories to market over the coming years.

So, I leave you with some food for thought:

Are you still just creating inventory for brands to sponsor, or are you designing ways for brands to be part of your story?

Anime media giant Crunchyroll is developing original video game titles under its Crunchyroll Games banner, created in partnership with Japanese publishers and global developers.

Crunchyroll is expanding its ecosystem beyond streaming, and games are the next layer.

Anime already attracts highly engaged fans, and superfans want more opportunity to participate beyond just episodic releases. They want spaces where they can explore the lore, interact with the IP and find community to share in their fandom alongside.

So as fandom becomes less linear and more cyclical (as we covered in Edition #94), launching original games will give Crunchyroll another way to meet fans at different stages of their journey - whether it be that they’re discovering anime for the first time through the game, or re-entering the ecosystem after a sustained break.

All of these options strengthen the flywheel; anime drives discovery, games deepen the engagement, and both feed into other parts of the ecosystem (merch, IRL experiences etc).

And by keeping the titles exclusive to their platform (Crunchyroll Game Vault), it also gives them tighter control over how fans engage with the IP - which is in line with what Darren Traub shared at SEG3 LA, that Crunchyroll structures its deals for long-term fandom, not short-term distribution.

I hate the word signal - but if there was ever cause to use it, this would be it.

Fandom-driven businesses are bleeding into each other faster than ever, and industries that once sat adjacent (but separately) are now becoming integral parts of each others flywheels.

Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!

That’s all for now everyone - thanks again for reading the latest edition of The SEG3 Report. If you found it of interest, please do consider sharing with a colleague or friend who’d enjoy it too!