Hell is More Fun Together with SlayPals

This was The Many’s first time working with Blizzard Entertainment and it was a HELL of a time!

The campaign followed the October 8th release of Diablo IV’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred. The game is set in the region of Nahantu and features the addition of mercenaries — in-game characters with extraordinary abilities that players can hire to help them in combat, slaying demons, and surviving the hells of Sanctuary.

We were tasked with telling the world that mercenaries were now available in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred (VoH) in a way that breaks beyond endemic gaming media, and create a high-profile moment that puts Diablo at the forefront of gaming culture; reenergizing and exciting core and lapsed fans, and reintroducing Diablo IV to the masses.

Our Goal:

We wanted to spark cultural relevance with gamers by driving earned media buzz (measured by press and social mentions) and fan engagement (measured by likes, shares, and comments).

Our Strategy:

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred is hard. The enemies are brutal. The dungeons are terrifying. The challenges are frustrating. But the new addition of mercenaries makes things a little easier because with them, you never have to fight alone. We wanted to focus on the mercenaries as your best friend in battle, so every player can feel more confident taking on hell.

Our Challenge:

As the first expansion, Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred is the next big chapter for the game. In 2023, the initial launch of Diablo IV quickly made it the fastest-selling game in Blizzard Entertainment history, generating $666 million in revenue within the first five days. While incredibly successful at launch, the challenge for the expansion, and by extension this campaign, was to re-energize fans and bring back lapsed players by giving them a reason to purchase Vessel of Hatred, while also engaging the game’s massive core audience.

The Execution:

Mercenaries are a solo player’s best friend, giving players warm and fuzzy feelings, so we reimagined mercenaries as “SlayPals” — diabolically demented dolls reminiscent of everyone’s favorite childhood companion toys from the 80s and 90s, complete with their own jingle and commercial parody. Along with the hero spot, we created various social posts and a sing-along video to further extend the campaign. Additionally, exclusive “SlayPals” merchandise with custom campaign illustrations was available on the Blizzard Gear Store. The t-shirts represented the first time Diablo has created a Capsule Collection of merchandise for a campaign, rather than the game title.

Our Collaborators

• The commercial stars Colin Stanley — a renowned TikTok & Instagram comedy content creator, and up-and-coming standup comedian.
• The SlayPals dolls were created by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios — the SFX studio behind Robot Chicken and a multi-Emmy Award winning animation and special effects studio.

The Results:

The SlayPals campaign is among the top post-launch assets for Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, driving 800k+ impressions across all social platforms and, on YouTube specifically, saw engagement rates around 11% which are well above channel averages for Diablo. In addition, social profiles were flooded with player engagement with comments asking about where they can purchase their own SlayPals. The campaign garnered over 500MM earned media impressions getting featured by IGN, MediaPost, Wowhead, and was named an Ad Age Editor’s Pick.