Why Activision’s Test of ‘True Success’ With ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ Isn’t Sales, but Cultural Awareness
Did you know a new "Call of Duty" game is launching this week?
If not, Microsoft would probably pay to find out where you've been hiding, because the tech giant has shelled out a marketing budget comparable to any "major motion picture blockbuster that would be launching this year," according to Tyler Bahl, the chief marketing officer at "Call of Duty" studio Activision, to get "Black Ops 6" on every consumer's radar, from taking over People Magazine's iconic "Sexiest Man Alive" cover to infiltrating "Monday Night Football."
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The launch of "Black Ops 6" marks the first mainline "Call of Duty" game to be released since Microsoft closed its $76 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, the largest video game acquisition ever made, in October 2023. With the choice to offer the title to Xbox's Game Pass customers when it goes live on Friday , Microsoft is driving home the importance of its subscription service to its overall revenue strategy and putting a lot of faith in Activision's biggest franchise's ability to boost the product.
From Activision's Treyarch, "Black Ops 6," which will be available across Xbox, PlayStation and PC, is set in an alternate history 1991 following rogue operatives Troy Marshall and Frank Woods as they assemble a team of agents to hunt down Pantheon, a mysterious group that has infiltrated the CIA and targeted outsiders as traitors to the U.S. The game is also reintroducing the fan-favorite "Round-Based Zombies" mode to the franchise.
At a time when new AAA games are competing with thousands of mobile titles, MMORPGs and the never-ending "Fortnite" for gamers' attention, Bahl would of course be happy for you to buy "Call of Duty: Black Ops 6" on Day 1, but settle for you at least knowing there is a "Black Ops 6."
"Obviously, we want to generate sales, but I think overall, just awareness of the new game coming out," Bahl told Variety. "That's always a focus, making 'Black Ops 6' the No. 1 game this fall. Overall, I just want people to like the campaign and the work that we're doing as marketing group. I think some of the work is really innovative. Like we're not just making a spot, the Replacer is showing up in all these weird and different places that are truly exciting. That's what gets me excited, when he's on 'Monday Night Football' and he's doing something with Scott Van Pelt. And you everyone from my little brother to a grandparent is going, 'I saw a "Black Ops 6″ commercial on 'Monday Night Football,' and him chasing Scott Van Pelt with a football machine.' Obviously, there's hard metrics, but the litmus test for me is when we entered the cultural zeitgeist. That's when we see true success."
This Replacer character Bahl is referring to is a figure steeped in "Black Ops" marketing lore, whom fans sorely missed when he wasn't present in the campaign for "Black Ops Cold War" in 2020. After reading enough comments from the community asking where the Replacer was, Bahl and his team decided they had to "leverage" this Replacer withdrawal as much as possible by putting him on billboards, in TV shows, at live events and anywhere else they could ostensibly "replace" something prior to "Black Ops 6" dropping — including an NFL quarterback.
"The one we fell into was there was a stat the last few years about Kyler Murray, the quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, where basically someone went and figured out that when 'Call of Duty' gives double XP, our experience on a weekend, he performs worse on the fields," Bahl said. "Someone did the analysis; it was very scientific and had the charts and everything. And so we went and engaged him and said, 'Why don't we lean into this together and make a story out of this? Own up that you're an amazing quarterback, but also that you're a "Call of Duty" player.' And he did. And when we launched the Replacer campaign, the community started going, 'You should replace Kyler Murray. You should replace Kyler Murray. You should replace Kyler Murray.' And then all of a sudden, we dropped the Kyler Murray trailer."
The replacing hasn't stopped in the weeks since that trailer launched, with the Replacer showing up at a Los Angeles Rams football game this weekend to take over a few jobs at the stadium, including the mascot on the field.
As Bahl and his team at Activision are crossing the finish line for "Black Ops 6," they're actively working on not just the promotion for post-launch updates, DLC and patches, but also the campaign for the next "Call of Duty" game. It's a situation largely unique to the gaming sector in the entertainment industry, and potentially even more unique to "Call of Duty," which has strived to release a new title every year since the franchise debuted in 2003, and is currently on Season 6 of its free-to-play battle royale game "Call of Duty: Warzone."
"There would be a sequel to a film, and that would take years to develop," Bahl said. "You can renew a TV season, but you're still six months to a year out fro launch. And we're already developing years of content in advance and planning for the future. It's definitely something that makes the job a little bit more taxing, in the sense that you're always on and you're always planning for the next big integration."
All the while, Activision is trying to be mindful you don't get "Call of Duty" overload, a pretty easy affliction to come down with when a franchise is working over time to get your attention.
"We definitely try to space out the timing of different elements," Bahl said. "But I'll be honest with you, when we look at the data and are we putting out too much content at any one moment, I do think that the consumer is always looking for more from us. That's always the challenge of figuring out exactly how much to give and not to to put out too much content at any one time. But at the same time, you can see it in the chat when they're always looking for something new and all the comments and engagement."
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