Activision Blizzard × AYMI

AAA pre-order campaigns reward two things — reach and noise. The cost is a wave of pre-orders that don't convert to engaged players, refunds that spike post-launch, and a community signal that hits the wrong frequency.

The brief: rebuild the pre-order funnel around player quality. Volume was the byproduct, not the goal.

Five movements: Discovery, Strategy, Creative, Launch, Optimize. Each one feeds the next; the loop closes on Optimize and starts again on Discovery.

1. Step 01Discovery

   Player-quality model built from historical engagement data — retention, session length, in-game spend by cohort. Identified the cohorts most likely to convert AND stay.

2. Step 02Strategy

   Spend re-weighted toward quality cohorts. Wishlist became a mid-funnel proxy, not a vanity metric.

3. Step 03Creative

   Creative system anchored on the title's signature world, with gameplay reveals timed to franchise calendar beats rather than weekly cadence.

4. Step 04Launch

   Coordinated rollout across Meta, TikTok, programmatic, and store-front advertising. Store wishlist instrumented as a funnel checkpoint.

5. Step 05Optimize

   Daily cohort burn-rate during the conversion window; spend pulled hard off cohorts that wishlisted but didn't convert at expected rates.

Pre-orders outpaced the prior comparable title, and — critically — each player cost less to acquire as the quality-weighted model concentrated spend on cohorts likely to convert and stay. Pre-order revenue ran ahead of prior benchmarks, and more wishlists turned into purchases once wishlist was treated as a real funnel checkpoint.

Post-launch refund rate held below the franchise's historical baseline. Volume rose; quality didn't get traded for it.