Clash of Clans embraces its fake history in 10th anniversary campaign

Supercell game's campaign from Wieden+Kennedy includes partnerships with General Mills, Champion and more

Published On
Aug 02, 2022

Editor's Pick

Clash of Clans turns 10 years old today, and to celebrate, it took a trip down a fake memory lane.

The anniversary campaign from Wieden+Kennedy Portland imagines 40 years of faux Clash of Clans history and looks at how the mobile game would celebrate if it had lived through the gaming trends of the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s.

To help create such “historical moments,” Clash of Clans partnered with several other brands to lean into nostalgic products from the last 40 years. General Mills made an actual cereal called “Barb’s Choco Boom Booms” that is available on Walmart.com.
 

Clash of Clans General Mills cereal

Trading card brand Topps made more than 20 Garbage Pail Kids cards with Clash characters.

Clash of Clans Topps

Sportswear brand Champion made a capsule collection that included fashions from the ‘80s until today.

Clash Champion '80s

Clash of Clans was created by Supercell, a Finnish mobile game developer, and was released for iOS on August 2, 2012. The multiplayer game lets users build their own village and raise an army to expand their territory. In the last few months, the game has stayed within the top 100 free games in the Apple app store, and has over 1 million downloads worldwide, according to Sensor Tower data. 

On top of the brand partnerships and videos, W+K imagined what the game would have looked like in past decades in the form of three mini games. The agency created an arcade game called Clash, a console racer by the name of Clash Dash, and an early 2000s open-world game dubbed Clash: Cradle of Darkness. All three can be played in the Clash of Clans app.

Clash Dash

The love for mobile gaming grew during the pandemic and the industry has held on to those gains. In the first quarter of 2022, there were 14.3 billion downloads of mobile games worldwide, up 1.4% from the same quarter last year, according to Sensor Tower’s 2022 state of mobile gaming report.

The anniversary rollout started last week with an animated film (above) that showed the game’s main Barbarian character being sucked back in time to a real-world arcade game. 

There was also a mockumentary (though it deceptively says “Official Documentary” in its title) about a fake origin story that runs for about 20 minutes.

 

The story culminated today in a final anniversary film seeing the Barbarian's return (of sorts). 

 

Clash of Clans has been known for its standout creative, with previous campaigns coming from the now-shuttered Barton F. Graf. The agency was behind the game’s buzzy 2015 Super Bowl ad starring Liam Neeson and had conceived elaborate animated ads that created back stories for the game’s characters.

 

Credits

Date
Aug 02, 2022
Client :
Clash of Clans
Client :
Supercell
Agency :
Wieden & Kennedy-Portland
Executive Creative Director :
Ana Balarin
Executive Creative Director :
Hermeti Balarin
Executive Creative Director :
John “JP” Petty, III
Production Company :
Psyop
Managing Director :
Jess Monsey
Creative Director :
Lawrence Melilli
Creative Director :
Darcie Burrell
Copywriter :
Will Curtis
Copywriter :
Nick Stoner
Copywriter :
Ryan Snyder
Art Director :
Liam McKay
Art Director :
Nick Howard
Art Director :
Katie Willis
Brand Management :
Danny Sullivan
Brand Management :
Kimmy Cunningham
Brand Management :
Jane Han
Brand Management :
Spencer Crain
Brand Management :
Demetrius Wallace
Executive Producer :
Ricara Stokes
Producer :
Kacey Klonsky
Producer :
Devin Brown
Producer :
Arpi Agdere
Design Director :
Mike Weihs
Design Producer :
Victoria Tengblad-Kreft
Design Producer :
Scott Meisse
Studio Designer :
Dave Hagen
Studio Designer :
Michael Auer
Studio Designer :
Morgan Searcy
Studio Designer :
Olivia Budiono
Studio Designer :
Chris Streger
Studio Illustrator :
Dave Hagen
Studio Production Specialist :
Matt Blum
Studio Production Specialist :
Liliya Dru
Studio Production Specialist :
Vicki Liu
Studio Production Specialist :
Beth Schuenemann
Studio Production Specialist :
Ken Berg
Studio Production Specialist :
David Carney-Fenton
Copyediting :
James Yu
Copyediting :
Lisa Kadous
Copyediting :
Erica Nikolaidis
Retoucher :
Frazer Goodbody
Retoucher :
Amy Ellars
Retoucher :
Greg Radich
Print + Fabrication Producer :
Ellen Osborn
Print + Fabrication Producer :
Denise Hanggi
Print + Fabrication Producer :
Kristin Holder
Motion Lead :
Adam Sirkin
Motion Producer :
Cameron Blake
Motion Designer :
David Mellor
Motion Designer :
Chris Huang
Motion Designer :
Konstantin Eydelman
Strategy :
Indiane Matine
Strategy :
Olivia Campbell
Media :
Stephanie Ehui
Media :
Mary Eliason
Media :
Jarod Diaz
Business Affairs Manager :
Kevin Moyer
Business Affairs Manager :
Chelsea Appleby
Business Affairs Manager :
Kristian Evanculla
Business Affairs Manager :
Tristan Martin
Creative Operations Manager :
Valentina Savarese
Creative Operations Manager :
Jaymie Steck
PR :
Danny Hernandez
Production Company :
Spark & Riot
Director :
Nalle Sjöblad
Executive Producer :
Ana de Diego
Line Producer :
Henkka Hämäläinen
Production Coordinator :
Paloma Mendoza-Klein
Director of Photography :
Mikael Gustafsson
2nd Unit Director :
Simo Liukka
2nd Unit Director, Photography :
Alexander Stanishev
Production Company :
B2Y Production
Service Producer :
Alexander Kenanov
Local Line Producer :
Ivan Ivanov
Production Coordinator :
Ivanina Burneva
Production Assistant :
Elena Asenova
Production Assistant :
Teodora Marinova
1st AD :
Denys Shvets
2nd AD :
Karina Kostadinova
Art Director :
Kristian Lekov
2nd Unit Producer :
Ivan Ivanov
2nd Unit AD :
Bojidar Peychev
Art Director :
Kristian Lekov
Art Department Coordinator :
Gergana Milovska
Prop Master :
Yordan Petrov
Loader :
Dimitur Kostov
1st AC :
Vanya Ivanova
2nd AC :
Veselin Hristov
1st AC B Unit :
Genadi Ivanov
2nd AC B Unit :
Kaloyan Mutafchiiski
BTS Stills :
Irina Ivanova
BTS Video :
Kristiyan Evtimov
Downloader :
Bogomil Georgiev
Stylist :
Georgy Yakimov
Make Up Artist :
Iskra Parladijska
Hair Stylist :
Ivayla Stancheva
Gaffer :
Petar Todorov
Key Grip :
Vihar Nikolov
SFX :
FireVision
Stunt Coordinator :
Antoni Davidov
Editorial Company :
Joint
Editor :
Steve Sprinkel
Editor :
JB Jacobs
Additional Editor :
Eric Hill
Cutting Assistant :
Molly Preston
Assistant Editor :
CJ Duncan
Assistant Editor :
Ian Devore
Executive Producer :
Kathleen Russell
Head of Production :
Catherine Liu
Post Producer :
Zen Freese
Associate Post Producer :
Izzie Raitt
VFX Company :
Joint
Executive Producer :
Nirad 'Bugs' Russell
Senior Producer :
Sarah Zerina Usmen
Production Coordinator :
Zai Outlaw
2D Lead Artist :
Mikey Smith
2D Artist :
David Jahns
2D Artist :
MB Emigh
2D Artist :
David Stern
Color :
Blacksmith
Head of Production :
Perry Tate
Colorist :
Mikey Pehanich
Color Producer :
Ashley Goodwin
Color Assistant :
Sam Howells
Executive Producer :
Charlotte Arnold
Audio Mix & Sound Design :
Joint
Producer :
Louise Woodward
Engineer :
Natalie Huizenga
Associate Engineer :
Candace Mortier
Animation Company :
Psyop
Director :
Trevor Conrad
Global Head of Production :
Christine Schneider
Head of Production :
Jamie Pastor
Executive Producer :
Amanda Miller
Senior Producer :
Jim Brattin
Associate Producer :
Ksenia Strelets
CG Supervisor :
Chris Sage
Animation Lead :
Jean-Dominique Fievet
2D/Comp Supervisor :
Ryan Raith
Asset Lead :
Alan Yang
Head of 3D :
Christian Bach
CG Modeling :
Krista Albert
CG Modeling :
Marina Czarnecki
CG Modeling :
Daniela Gomez
CG Modeling :
Ivan Joy
CG Modeling :
Thelian Arzate
Rig :
Nelio Naut
CG Lighting :
Marina Czarnecki
CG Lighting :
Grace Hwang
CG Lighting :
Chris Santoianni
CG Lighting :
Rafael Braga
Effects Lead :
Steve Hallquist
CG Effects :
Nicolas Donatelli
CG Effects :
Anders Ericsson
CG Effects :
Cristina Camacho
CG Effects :
Luis Gallegos
CG Animation :
Ryan Moran
Matte Painter :
Andrew Park
Technical Animation :
Nelio Naut
Technical Animation :
Josh Sobel
Technical Animation :
John Bloch
Technical Animation :
Origami Dollar
Compositing :
Ryan Raith
Compositing :
Danny Song
Compositing :
Eva Flodstrom
Compositing :
Herculano Fernandes
Storyboard :
Paul Cohen
Storyboard :
Michael Deweese
Design :
Tobias Trebeljahr
Design :
Misha Oplev
Design :
Stephanie Stromenger
Design :
Joshua Harvey
Design :
Henry Kim
Edit :
Eli Harrigan
Edit :
Almog Avidan Antonir
Flame Artist :
Kim Stevenson
Flame Artist :
Brandon Sanders
Previz Animation :
Origami Dollar
Supervisor :
Dan Barker
2D Animation :
2Veinte
Creative Director :
Pablo Gostanian
Design and Animation :
Gabriel Fermanelli
Executive Producer :
Agustin Valcarenghi
Producer :
Pilar Megna
CG Tracking :
Chaya Pictures
Supervisor :
Tatchapon Lertwirojkul
Music Company :
Butter
Composer :
Max Schad
Composer :
Josh Canevari
Executive Creative Director :
Tim K
Executive Producer :
Annick Mayer
Senior Producer :
Stone Irr
Associate Producer :
Sonia Ohan
Audio Mix & Sound Design :
Field Day Sound
Sound Designer :
Morgan Johnson
Sound Designer :
Noah Woodburn
Executive Producer :
Leslie Carthy
Illustrator :
Sam Kennedy
Distribution :
Canary Marketing
Printer :
Premier Press
Partner :
General Mills
Partner :
Champion
Partner :
Topps x Garbage Pail Kids

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