Advertising firm Wieden+Kenney and their partner Metacore Games reportedly took home two Gold Ogilvy Awards at the 2022 ceremony for their work on the Merge Mansion advertising campaign according to a press release provided to PR Newswire. The awards were for, respectively, "Best New or Emerging Brand" and "Electronics, Tech and Telecommunications” and were awarded for their work on the “What’s Grandma Hiding?” advertising campaign.
The Ogilvy awards are a relatively significant event in the world of advertising. Described as such, “The ARF David Ogilvy Awards for Excellence in Advertising Research celebrate the extraordinary and/or creative use of research in the advertising development processes of research firms, advertising agencies, and advertisers.” The win definitely indicates an appreciation of the success behind Wieden+Kenney and by extension Metacore Game’s efforts to increase the visibility of the Merge Mansion brand.
The Astronomer Ogilvy
The “What’s Grandma Hiding?” campaign is a series of short adverts featuring renowned actor Kathy Bates (Misery, Titanic) that set up the mystery atmosphere intended by the puzzle game Merge Mansion.They feature Bates and actress Grace Rex as the latter plays the Grandmother’s daughter uncovering all sorts of suspicious behaviour. According to the awarding group, Hypothesis, their work alongside Wieden+Kenney helped to inform this campaign.
“Mobile gaming is a notoriously competitive space. Research in the category leans heavily quantitative and usually focuses on gameplay and optimization. Hypothesis helped Wieden+Kennedy achieve a deeper understanding of the Merge Mansion core audience – Millennial women.” As noted by Hypothesis group, quantitative data has been a major part of working in the mobile gaming space ever since its inception, now more than ever.
It’s not the first time Merge Mansion’s unusual narrative-focused advertising has garnered attention. Their previous CGI advertising campaign became a viral sensation last year and arguably helped the game pass $40m in revenue. It mimicked the earlier Tactile Games' Lily's Garden campaign, although this time with more genuine plot elements rather than twists made for the videos.
