Clash of Clans, one of the world’s most popular games with over 2 billion downloads, now features soccer legend Erling Haaland as the iconic ‘Barbarian King’. 🤯

This partnership is brilliant and unexpected! But it is also working. 

✅ They managed to land +20M views with one reel!

✅ Their behind-the-scenes (BTS) reel landed over 6M views.

Their secret sauce for success?

The Manchester City player is a genuine fan of the game. 🎮

Haaland has already built an impressive in-game village, which he’s defended from rival clans. Now, players can challenge his village, adding an exciting and immersive aspect to the campaign.

And I’m not even talking about the cinematic ad. It’s both dramatic and engaging! It adopts an action-movie style and features a unique ‘Haaland’ soundtrack that will get stuck in your head.

But there’s more.

This exciting collaboration, orchestrated by New York advertising agency DAVID, marks Clash of Clans’ first-ever in-game celebrity partnership. 

Let’s see what else we can learn from this clever campaign.

Ready? Let’s roll. 👇

Axis Studios, under the leadership of director Olly Reid and executive producer Nicole Duncan, played a pivotal role in bringing Haaland into the Clash of Clans universe. 

The creative production was a collaborative effort involving sports specialists from Founder Creative and Axis’s animation and visual effects experts.

Duncan highlighted that their prior successful collaborations with Supercell were a key factor in being chosen for this project.

“We already had a pre-existing, strong relationship with Supercell,” she noted, emphasising their deep understanding of Supercell’s IP and objectives.

One aspect that piqued their interest was the unique challenge of integrating a real-life football star into the highly stylised world of Clash of Clans. 

Reid shared that working with Clash characters was incredibly rewarding, allowing the team to explore creative and playful solutions.

“Supercell consistently encourages us to explore creative and playful solutions to their needs,” he remarked.

Axis Studios was deeply involved in shaping the campaign from the early stages.

This included tailoring the concept to fit within the allocated timeline and budget, ensuring its feasibility. 

According to my research, a significant part of the initial work involved studying Haaland’s movements and characteristics to capture his essence accurately.

“We watched a lot of Haaland references so we could sculpt the story to reflect his character and capture his movement style,” Duncan explained.

The process of introducing Haaland into the Clash universe was meticulous and iterative. Each step, from initial thumbnails to final animation, was carefully crafted to bring out Haaland’s personality. 

Reid mentioned that Haaland’s distinctive run and football movements were key elements in the story.

“We thought a lot about ways Haaland could help the Clash team using his football skills,” he said.

The BTS content was also a winner, just like we saw with

The campaign’s live-action portion presented its own challenges, particularly in finding the right location and capturing Haaland’s performance. 

Reid pointed out that Haaland’s easygoing nature made him a joy to work with on set.

“We wanted to carry his easygoing attitude and personality into the animation,” he said. The animation team worked diligently to ensure Haaland’s character was full of life, accurately capturing his reactions and personality traits.

One of the standout features of this campaign was the seamless integration of VFX and live-action elements.

VFX supervisor Julian Stamos emphasised the importance of collaborating closely with the director and DOP. 

This approach maximised creativity and efficiency, allowing the team to push the creative boundaries further.

“One of the exciting creative challenges we encountered was interpreting Clash of Clans characters in the real world,” Stamos noted, drawing on their experience from previous projects.

Erling Haaland’s enthusiasm for the project was evident from the beginning. His engagement and excitement contributed significantly to the campaign’s success. 

I used my influencer marketing platform to learn more about Haaland. Here’s what I found:

📊 Haaland gets an average of 9.4M views per Instagram reel.

📊 His Clash Of Clans reel had an epic 4.35% engagement rate.

📊 He currently has nearly 40M Instagram followers!

📊 11% of his followers are interested in gaming.

According to my research, Haaland was thrilled to see himself in CG form and was fully committed to bringing the vision to life. 

Reid shared a memorable moment from the set, describing how they managed to get some authentic Viking yells out of Haaland, adding to the authenticity of his character.

The final result has been met with widespread acclaim. 

Duncan expressed satisfaction with the positive feedback from audiences and media outlets.

“It’s brilliant to see all the hard work was worth it,” she said.

The campaign has been praised for its innovative approach, combining influencer marketing, immersive content, and strong paid ads across social media.

In my opinion, Supercell has created a compelling and engaging campaign by leveraging Haaland’s popularity and seamlessly integrating his persona into the game.

Their behind-the-scenes content was just as successful; a fair reminder that repurposed content will always be handy. Just look at Tube Girl x Hugo Boss.