Waste Creative’s Global Launch Campaign for Supercell’s Brawl Stars

When the time came for the full launch of Supercell’s manic multiplayer battler Brawl Stars, they needed a global campaign that would ignite its community of young beta players into a frenzy of authentic online noise and turn the heads of mobile gamers everywhere – all without relying on paid media.

Keywords studio Waste Creative’s campaign helped drive five million pre-registration sign-ups in eight hours, achieved exponential social channel growth ranging from 188% on Instagram to 194% on YouTube, and ultimately helped Brawl Stars become the #1 iPhone app in 32 countries and earn over $10 million in its first week of release.

Waste had been involved with Brawl Stars since day one of its beta launch 18 months earlier, and so were perfectly placed to understand the game’s appeal and what would get online audiences talking. Having used social listening and data analysis to develop a comprehensive understanding of the existing player base, we devised a deceptively simple strategy based on two apparently opposing factors: Supercell’s reputation for killing games and players’ fervent desire for Brawl Stars to go global.

Announcing that the game’s existing social media would soon be deleted, we teased existing players with an ambiguous final post that left them wondering if Brawl Stars was about to bid farewell or on the verge of a new dawn.

With one static image, no explanatory copy and no paid media, we generated several million organic impressions and an engagement rate of 26%. No-one was certain what was happening, but everyone was talking: community speculation was pushed into overdrive, prompting tens of thousands of social posts, memes, conspiracy theory videos, songs, online petitions and the trending hashtag #dontkillbrawlstars.

a series of characters and the people drawing them

a series of social media posts wanting the game to be released

all brawlers including 'crow 50% bird 50% man 100% legendary' 'colt great guns amazing hair' 'poco gunshots are music to his ears' and 'shelly she'll leave you shell shocked'

cactus character with copy surrounding it reading

brawl stars character sitting down drawing a picture while wearing headphones

How it progressed

With a rapidly growing global public awaiting the game’s official launch, the next step was to foster good will and a sense of community among the millions of new sign-ups and the OBs (Original Brawlers) from the beta-testing period.

Over the next month, we created a raft of content to drive pre-registration, thanking the OBs for all their support, introducing new players to the game, and sharing sign-up rates from different territories to motivate competitive fans around the world to get as many of their peers involved as possible.

Supercell’s target of two million sign-ups in the four week pre-registration period was smashed, with the campaign reaching five million in the first eight hours and snowballing from there.

Launching In Style

We were there at the official launch event in Helsinki – along with approximately a hundred content creators – to celebrate and amplify the long-awaited day. We ‘brawlified’ a selection of the influencers, literally turning them into their own bespoke Brawl Stars characters and earning thousands of shares and massive engagement from their audiences.

We also chronicled the event, shooting and editing footage for Instagram Stories, holding a live AMA session for Brawl Stars’ 240k+ Instagram followers, and creating a true sense of global community by having the game’s most fêted players push the launch button.

room from which the game was launched showing a world map on the screen and comfy seating

Waste have been an invaluable strategic, creative and production partner right from the earliest days of Brawl Stars. Their no-nonsense approach to content creation and intrinsic knowledge of the game has been integral to the Brawl stars journey, from before we went into beta through to global launch. Waste have been there with us every step of the way.

Ryan Lighton

Community Manager