Zynga's Words With Friends is the number one mobile words game of all time, but the brand was concerned about declining mind share as it neared its 5th anniversary and the release of a massive product update. Ayzenberg was brought on board to launch a social campaign to re-activate 85 million lapsed users and reinvigorate a slumbering community in the lead-up the launch of the New Words With Friends.
Operating from a social media playbook developed by Ayzenberg, the social campaign helped the launch of the New Words With Friends reach number two on the iTunes download charts, second only to Facebook Messenger. Multi-pronged, multi-platform sustain campaign spurred competition among players and educated the community about the game's new features. Facebook served as hub for conversation and content, including short-form animations. Twitter was used for real-time interactions with fans and brands, including the "Tile M for Murder" stunt that saw fan-posted word plays worked into a Murder Mystery told in real time. visually driven and mobile friendly sub-campaigns such as "Life's Tiles" were created to launch the Instagram channel and continue to expand reach.
Words With Friends was a brand that quickly rose to dizzying heights, became the talk of the town when Alec Baldwin famously wouldn't stop playing before take-off, and soared to 100mm+ users. But as mobile gaming exploded, users soon turned to the next big thing and Words With Friends popularity - while still substantial - saw a steep decline from its peak. The "May The Best Friend Win" campaign deserves to win a Shorty for breathing new life into the brand, and shifting a by-the-numbers social campaign into a joyful and unexpected celebration of tiles, wordplay, and competition. As much fun as "likes" are, the campaign sought to spur sharing even more. Sharing is the ultimate compliment a community member can bestow on your work, not to mention the power of the share to enhance reach into new feeds and create new page likes. The Words With Friends Facebook page has grown steadily in numbers from Day 1 of the campaign, and after overcoming some early push-back about the New Words With Friends (we often fear change, do we not?) we have been enjoying a bit of a love-fest. The Agency/Client relationship has been marked by growing trust and shared joie de vivre, hopefully the result of taking some creative risks together and seeing how genuine the community response was to an unexpected breath of fresh air in their feeds. Ultimately, we are commenting on the world around us as we see it, a fantasy version of Earth where tiles walk among us, where competition is always friendly, and where spelling and chatbox cleverness reign supreme. Our demo is different than most mobile games, a bit older, a bit more female, and we've embraced the opportunity to dare to be smart, to risk sophistication in a dumbed-down world, to brazenly awaken curiosity and stir conversation. The gameplay of Words With Friends is classic, but the community that plays it daily is growing again and showing their #Wordie pride by participating in our stunts, sharing our content, and zinging us when we need a good zinging. #MayTheBestFriendWin indeed.
