Scaling Global Awareness and High-Intent Traffic for 'The Midnight Walk' with 156% Higher-Than-Forecast Engagement
The Challenge
The objective was to support the global launch of the new title, The Midnight Walk, across key markets in the UK and USA. The primary business goal focused on building pre-launch awareness and driving high-quality traffic to PlayStation and Steam storefronts to stimulate sales. The campaign faced the challenge of identifying and engaging the most relevant gamers in a fragmented market during two critical phases: a pre-launch period focused on video completions and a launch phase pivoted toward driving direct storefront clicks. Success required a deep understanding of which specific audience segments would resonate most with the game's unique, handcrafted clay-based art style and narrative-rich gameplay.
The Solution
Fifty utilised its proprietary platform to conduct a large-scale analysis of 4.2 million individuals across the UK and USA who followed key competitors, such as Inside and Little Nightmares. This deep human understanding allowed Fifty to move beyond generic gaming categories and map the audience into more distinct tribes bespoke to The Midnight Walk. By decoding granular interests and motivations, Fifty identified and targeted three high-value segments: Multi-Genre Hardcore Gamers, Mainstream Media Gamers, and Indie Game Fans.
The media strategy was highly agile, leveraging YouTube for cost-efficient pre-launch awareness before pivoting budget toward Reddit and Meta to maximise storefront traffic during the launch. Fifty's team continuously optimised the creative mix, identifying that 6-second assets significantly outperformed 15-second videos in engagement and cost-efficiency, with the shorter assets achieving up to a 13% VTR compared to just 2% for the longer format.
The Results
Fifty’s ability to provide actionable audience insights revealed that Mainstream Media Gamers were the most engaged segment post-launch, driving 43% of all traffic following the release. This data-driven approach also highlighted Reddit as a powerhouse channel, delivering 73% of total video completions. Furthermore, Fifty demonstrated global scalability by managing performance across major territories, noting that the USA delivered a VTR 2.6 times higher than the UK on key channels. The campaign also successfully balanced storefront delivery, with PlayStation ads overdelivering on video completions and maintaining a consistent click-through rate alongside Steam.
