Dune: Awakening Trailers Generate 14M+ Views – A Marketing Case Study

We were asked to create the Gameplay Reveal, Release Date Reveal, and Launch Trailer for the highly anticipated Dune: Awakening - each carefully crafted to speak directly to core survival players and Dune fans alike. Together, the first two trailers are currently the game’s highest-performing marketing assets on the official Funcom YouTube channel, igniting fan interest across both communities and turning hype into over 14 million views and counting! With the Launch Trailer just freshly revealed, we can’t wait to see this number skyrocket even further.

The Challenge

Funcom needed to market a game that straddled two distinct audiences: hardcore survival players and devoted Dune fans. One group sought deep mechanics and open-world systems; the other was drawn to deep lore, emotive themes, and cinematic worldbuilding. Our challenge was clear: we needed a plan that would hit many targets at once without watering down the messaging, confusing the audience, or resulting in a trailer which attempts to communicate everything and ultimately achieves nothing. We needed to bridge both audiences authentically, without compromise.

Key Deliverables

We produced a total of 9 minutes and 75 seconds of trailer footage, split across the shorter Launch Trailer and Release Date Reveal Trailer, and the more in-depth Gameplay Reveal Trailer. On top of this, we created five supporting assets for the Launch Trailer, each between 20 and 30 seconds. For promotion on social media, we re-edited each trailer down to both a 30 and 15-second version, allowing them to be showcased across multiple platforms and targeting different audience streams.

The Solution

Our approach was designed to speak directly to different segments of the Dune audience - survival game fans and Dune IP enthusiasts - building a cohesive campaign that brought both groups together.

The Gameplay Reveal focused on deep, rich mechanics to win over the hardcore survival demographic. We captured extended, unfiltered gameplay footage showing mining, crafting, exploration, and combat, highlighting the systems that define the genre.

For the Release Date Reveal, we shifted gears to a more narrative-driven approach. Featuring custom in-engine shots and evocative imagery reminiscent of the Dune films, the trailer introduces a key character through voiceover narration, bringing emotional context and IP authenticity to the forefront.

Finally, the Launch Trailer unites both fandoms through a multi-faceted approach. The main trailer delivers cinematic scale and emotional resonance, telling the story of two friends torn apart by conflict, designed to speak to Dune fans craving a dramatic narrative experience. Around this, we built a suite of five gameplay-focused supporting assets, each 20–30 seconds long, spotlighting mechanics like survival, exploration, and base-building. Deployed across social channels, these shorter assets ensured our message reached specific player types with clarity and impact, together forming a campaign that was both expansive and precisely targeted.

Image source: Dune: Awakening