Clashing cultures revived game plan for Clash of Clans

WHAT do you do when your all-conquering gaming franchise starts to flag? That was the subject of Tuesday’s session The Power Of The Clash, a lively double-header involving Iwo Zakowski, global head of marketing, live games, at Supercell, and André Toledo, chief creative officer of David New York.

David’s André Toledo (left) and Supercell’s Iwo Zakowski

The game in question is Supercell’s Clash Of Clans, which was the top-grossing gaming app between 2010 and 2018, but which had lost some relevance coming into the new decade. Toledo and Zakowski explained how they reinvigorated the brand by stimulating word-of-mouth and interest from creators and influencers.

Toledo said: “The challenge was how to attract new players and remind existing ones that the game is cool. The answer to the problem lay in the name — clash”.

Sharing the narrative, Zakowski said that Supercell and David rolled out a series of content-led campaigns that clashed the game with other forms of popular culture. For example, when House of the Dragon was criticised for not having enough dragons, they created a film showcasing the wealth of fire-breathing lizards in Clash Of Clans — and backed it up with a new in-game scenario. Later work saw the creation of a true-crime podcast and collaborations with WWE and Manchester City soccer star Erling Haaland, the latter winning the Entertainment Lion for Sport Grand Prix.

Not every clash-themed idea has worked, Zakowski admitted, but that’s just part of the creative process: “You can’t be sure things will work. But if an idea fails, just learn and go again. The key thing is to be agile. You need to act fast when new ideas are com- ing through, because the social and gaming community loves that.”