Scopely today revealed its new advertising campaign for runaway hit mobile title, Monopoly Go Featuring several recognizable actors, the โFriendship Paysโ campaign follows the adventures of three players in โGOville,โ where the real world is layered with the Monopoly Go universe. The cross-platform campaign features over 20 original videos, created in partnership with ad agency Omelet and directed by Henry Scholfield. Scopely debuted the new campaign this week.
โFriendship Paysโ stars Jason Momoa, Keke Palmer and Chris Pratt as the players who embark on hijinks inspired by Monopoly Goโs gameplay. Theyโre guided on their adventures by Mr. Monopoly, here voiced for the first time by Will Ferrell โ Scopely also confirmed that Ferrell will be Mr. Monopolyโs voice for this campaign and future endeavors as well.
The actors all expressed their enthusiasm for the game and campaign, with Palmer (a.k.a. โKeke GoGoโ) saying in a statement, โI love playing games with my siblings and friends, and let me tell you honey, when I play games, I play to win. Iโm so happy to team up with Monopoly Go, a game that is all about camaraderie and excitement and, of course, your daily dose of friendly competition.โ
Jason Momoa (a.k.a. โMomoneyโ) added, โMy approach to playing Monopoly Go is similar to how I play the bassโฆcreating harmony to bring everyone together for a good time. Iโm so stoked to be collaborating with Monopoly Go because playing with friends is my favorite pastime, and who better to team up with than Keke, Chris, and Mr. Monopoly himself.โ
Who built GOville and whereโd these players come from?
GamesBeat spoke with Jamie Berger, Scopelyโs SVP of marketing for Monopoly Go, about how the ad campaign came about, and how the ad campaign came to be, and the creative decisions behind bringing in Hollywood talent to the gameโs world. According to Berger, the campaign was in development for a year, when Scopely began to consider TV-level advertising for the game following its explosion in popularity.
โWeโre firm believers that Monopoly Go is a triple-A brand in the sense of quality and scale and global awareness, and we wanted to treat the brand and the game that way, with the talent and the quality and scale of production,โ said Berger. โWe also strongly believed it shouldnโt just be a โTV campaign.โ It needed to be something comprehensive that could live on all platforms.โ
The idea behind the campaign that Scopely dreamed up with Omelet, says Berger, was that friendship was Monopoly Goโs most important commodity. โWhat we liked about โFriendship Paysโ was that ultimately, what we are selling is that our biggest feature are your friends. The biggest feature that we want to get people excited about isnโt any individual element of the game itself, but that the game is best enjoyed when youโre playing with othersโฆ Thereโs this kind of crazy roller coaster you go through with your friends, where youโre both bankrupting each other and working together at the same time that we wanted to bring to life.โ
Pratt (a.k.a. โExtra Chrispyโ) echoed this sentiment in his own statement about the game, saying, โMonopoly Go is all about playing with friends, which we donโt get to do enough of in our busy lives. Itโs been fun to team up with a game that is so social and provides opportunities to go on zany adventures with friends โ while knocking down their properties and charging them rent. And Iโve learned that Keke and Jason are fierce competitors! The moment they had an opportunity to take all my Monopoly money, they did!โ
The value of triple-A advertising
GamesBeat also asked Berger about the value of an ad campaign like โFriendship Paysโ for existing players โ of which Monopoly Go has quite a few. The game was downloaded over 150 million times within its first year, and at one point had 10 million daily active users. It also generated $3 billion in revenue in just over a year. The mobile game became so popular that it eventually became its own separate board game from the original Monopoly.
Berger said, โOf course we want new players. But the other component of success is that our current players enjoy the creative and it motivates them to play more or share the ad with their friends. One of the most important elements of this campaign is we want to encourage current players to invite their friends into the game. Itโs always the number one and most important source of our long-term players is people who came in because a friend was playing the game.โ
Another part of it was encouraging lapsed players to return, he says. โA big part of the value proposition of these kinds of campaigns is they may reach people who maybe they left the game six months ago. Life happened and they left the game. What we find is campaigns like this are very effective at bringing those players back into the game and making them kind of say, โYou know what, I was having a good time. And I wonder if my friends still playing the game.’โ
Berger also emphasized the campaign is global, and Scopely is tailoring the campaign to fit players across the globe, even finding different voices for Mr. Monopoly that appeal to players in a certain region. The โFriendship Paysโ ad campaign rolls out across digital platforms, social media and television starting this week.