Man points at case holding Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 game and controller beside two smiling women and a baby by a door
Submitted by BursonAgency IPI Score 9/100

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Safehouse Challenge

Influencer Marketing

Burson built a three-part influencer challenge series around a £100K first-home prize for Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which the agency reports drew 12.6M organic views.

316Pieces of Coverage
12.6MOrganic Views
+374KEngagements

Case in 60 seconds

Activision Blizzard wanted the UK launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to be the biggest Gen Z entertainment moment of the year, while intense competition and a saturated entertainment market made a discerning young audience hard to reach.

The campaign turns on a real-world worry rather than a game feature, because Burson recognised home ownership as a major concern for young people, so a deposit towards a first home carried more weight than in-game rewards.

The Safehouse campaign took the game's Safehouse, where players select their missions, and the theme "The Truth Lies", and turned them into a contest in which three UK influencers competed to win £100,000 towards a first home for one fan.

Three UK influencers competed in challenges across a three-part social media series filmed in a warehouse recreating the game's Safehouse, distributed through influencer content, Call of Duty channel exclusives and a targeted press story. A network of Call of Duty streamers and micro-influencers amplified the series, supported by tactical paid social promotion.

Burson reports 316 pieces of coverage, 12.6M organic views and +374K engagements, and states that the prize gave one Gen Z winner the financial freedom to start a life with his young family.

Strategy Breakdown

Gen Z in the UK, described on the page as a discerning young audience for whom home ownership is a major concern.
Burson treats home ownership as a major concern for young people in the UK, so a first-home prize placed the launch inside a real-world anxiety rather than inside gaming culture alone.
The page describes intense competition and a saturated entertainment market, so a game launch needed an activation that a discerning young audience would notice rather than one more trailer.
The game supplied the setting and the frame, with the Safehouse recreated as the challenge location and "The Truth Lies" as the theme, so the brand acted as host of the contest rather than as a sponsor beside it.

Creative & Execution System

Partners

  • Burson

Participation mechanic

  • Three influencers competed in a series of challenges, each playing to win £100,000 towards a first home for one of their fans.

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Pieces of Coverage316 pieces of coverage
Organic Views12.6M organic views
Engagements+374K engagements

Why Burson's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A prize that answers a pressing life problem for the target audience, such as a first home, gives a launch a story that travels beyond the category, because the stakes belong to the audience rather than to the product.

  2. 2

    Building the contest inside a recreated in-game location, the Safehouse, keeps a lifestyle prize tied to the product, so the content promotes the game rather than only the giveaway.

  3. 3

    Having influencers compete on behalf of their fans rather than for themselves gives each audience a direct stake in the result, which turns a branded series into something followers have reason to watch through all three parts.

  4. 4

    Layering a hero series with streamer and micro-influencer amplification, owned channel exclusives, a press story and paid social spreads one asset across earned, owned and paid surfaces rather than relying on a single route.

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