Making zombies
empathetic in the 80’s
PikPok’s latest project Into the Dead: Our Darkest Days is their first premium-platform title after over a decade dominating the mobile game space. As a new zombie-centric title, entering an oversaturated space and somewhat tired genre, we had our work cut out for us in positioning this as a unique & valuable title to consumers. We also had to keep in mind that the games audience are suspicious and jaded, so being open, honest, and working within the game itself were paramount.
Keeping this in mind we were quick to set out 4 primary pillars on which we built our marketing campaign:
Building a sense of empathy for zombies; an entity that is dominant, yet dehumanised in media.
Grounding our world in 1980; an era steeped in societal woes and with a rich history in horror films.
Maintaining a rhythm of dread-filled tension and uneasy release; utilising and subverting expectations established in classic and contemporary media within the genre.
Establishing the idea that things will go wrong; happy endings are rare and will need to be fought for through careful planning, adaptive responses & tough decision-making.
The Announcement Trailer was our first campaign beat, and one we knew needed to make a lasting impression. We introduce a world set in a twisted alternate version of history, in which survival is paramount and teamwork is essential. On top of this we layer deeper intrigue with creatures familiar to anyone who’s seen a zombie film… but something is off. Using motion capture performers and a range of professional vocalists we set out to create a breed of zombies that were both hauntingly human and eerily unsettling. Violence is used sparingly, but brutally and with the intention to provoke thought and empathy around the zombies on which it is inflicted.
From the outset our audience saw Our Darkest Days wasn’t riddled with the same old tropes, and as a result engagement with the trailer exploded, reaping over a million views on YouTube alone.
Our Darkest Days’ following grew at pace after its announcement; we’d set ourself up with an overwhelmingly positive perception and built up exciting expectations we knew we needed to make good on. To do so, we knew the next major beat in the campaign needed to build on the themes we’d established in the initial beat, whilst showing off a bit of the core gameplay to satiate the suspicions of those who thought it might be too good to be true.
The Gameplay Teaser was our solution to the expectations of our eager audience; one in which we managed to weave even more tension through. We leaned into themes of a world slowly unravelling and contextualised it all through the lens of moments of captured gameplay, setting scenes as one might experience it, had they a controller in their hands. To hammer it home, we appealed to gamers’ ego ever so slightly, by giving them a grim ending, as if daring them to do better.
Our careful planning and consideration for our audience’s desires paid off, earning us nearly 800k views on YouTube.
Enthralled the momentum we were building with our campaign and intrigued by our unique take on the genre, it wasn’t long before we were approached to feature in the prestigious PC Gaming Show. With spots usually running from anywhere between $100k-$500k USD, it was a great honour to be given one for free based on our previous work.
With only 30 seconds to grab the attention of a global audience, our PC Gaming Show Teaser had to be snappy and satisfying. We decided not to reinvent the wheel here and kept things simple, straightforward and enticing. Choosing to release small snippets of intrigue, such as our first look at potential violence between human characters and what we had dubbed “The Wall”; a collapsed beltline highway which would serve as one of your main issues in escaping the city, a goal we were now firmly cementing in audience’s minds.
Between our own channels and the PC Game Show Livestream, this had well over 300k views.
With an audience absolutely bubbling with excitement, and over 150,000 Wishlists amassed on Steam, the development team were eager to bring a slice of the game for audiences to experience ASAP; this is a world which is best lived in and experienced to enjoy fully. So with a release date in mind, we set to work on our next campaign beat: announcing the demo.
The Demo Date Announcement is the most recent piece of work in the ongoing marketing campaign for Our Darkest Days and one where we really wanted to lean heavily into the idea that things will go wrong. We’d been tiptoeing around the concept in previous beats, but knew now was the time to really hammer things home; if you’re looking for a happy ending, chances are you weren’t going to find one here. We really leaned into some contemporary horror reference here, to help hammer home the sense of tension.
As of writing this has been live for about 48 hours, so the results are still TBC. However things are looking promising with already nearly 20k views and an onslaught of positivity from our audience.
