About Capcom
Founded in 1979 and helping to accelerate the 1980s arcade and home video game boom, Capcom is a mainstay name in the gaming community to this day. Capcom’s genre-defining Resident Evil series started in 1996 and each new entry in the long-running series pushes the horror game category it defined even further.
Client Location
Osaka, Japan
Campaign platform
YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
Campaign snapshot
Views on YouTube and TikTok
Overdelivery on viewership goals
Units sold
(as of Jan 2023)
Value-add impressions and views
The big question
How does a mainstay gaming brand find new audiences outside the obvious?
The background
Unexpected Audiences Drive Campaign Success
Horror gaming fans look forward to each new installment in the long-running Resident Evil series.
With gaming audiences already familiar with the series, Capcom was looking to reach new audiences with the launch of Resident Evil Village. The challenge, then, becomes to find new, receptive audiences while still honoring and engaging the core gamers who helped make the series into the gaming mainstay it is today.
Tapping unexpected but aligned audiences including horror, cosplay, film and more allowed Resident Evil Village to break out, introducing the terrifying Lady Dimitrescu character, a 9-foot tall vampire, and creating a whole new group of fans while generating content that the core gaming demo would also engage and enjoy.
The AI
So Smart It’s Scary
BENlabs AI helps to make every campaign a success and it learns even more with every single engagement.
Here’s how BENlabs AI helped Resident Evil Village reach new heights for the long-running horror game series.
Smart Clustering
BENlabs AI identified the online “neighborhoods” where gamer audiences spend their time and attention. Smart Clustering discovered these clear crossover points between gaming and other related but non-gaming interests to unlock receptive new audiences. Audiences who had perhaps never played a Resident Evil game but whose broader “nerd culture” interests aligned.
Smart Creator Matching
Breaking out of typical gaming verticals, BENlabs AI mined its ever-growing database of more than 13 million qualified, verified content creator influencers. Smart Creator Matching surfaced and stack ranked creators in “nerd culture” niche verticals—cosplay, horror, visual effects, even food and metalwork—to create authentic crossover content relating to Resident Evil Village and its main characters.
Predictive Analytics
With AI deep learning acquired through thousands of successful campaigns, Predictive Analytics looks into the future to predict campaign outcomes. With BENlabs AI surfacing predictive campaign results early, the campaign was able to lean in on early creator success to drive incredible results, finishing the campaign strong with a 1.5x overdelivery on viewership goals.
THE CREATIVE
Engaged Creators Engage Audiences
Content creators were clearly excited to share Resident Evil Village. BENlabs worked closely with popular streamer Corpse Husband on a concept, freeing him to create authentic content for his audiences. Before the campaign began, he tweeted to share his excitement for Resident Evil Village, netting an incredible 2.1 million impressions. The excitement continued; with a diverse audience clearly responding to his streaming gameplay during the campaign, he decided to keep at it for another day, streaming an additional three hours of gameplay after the campaign wrapped.
Content creator, Corpse Husband, streaming Resident Evil gameplay
Meanwhile cosplayer Yaya Han turned her attention to the game’s main villain, the vampire Lady Dimitrescu. Cosplaying as the terrifying character (and talking through her cosplay process), she shared Resident Evil Village with new, receptive audiences in authentic and on-brand content. So authentic that she continued creating and sharing on all her channels after the contracted period, delivering an additional 400K views on Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok.
Content creator and cosplayer, Yaya Han, revealing her cosplay process
In addition, content creators in other niches including food, metalworking, film, and visual effects (VFX) created content around Resident Evil Village that spoke authentically to their niche and audience. Unexpected niches produced memorable results with a metalworker content creator crafting a replica weapon from Resident Evil Village and a VFX creator creating a zombie attack short film in the style of the game.
The results
A Strong Launch and Staying Power
All told, with amazing subject matter for creators to mine along with BENlabs AI and expertise, the campaign exceeded viewership goals by 1.5x, securing nearly 3.5M views across YouTube and Instagram.
Because creators were so well aligned, the campaign net an additional 2.1M added value impressions (Corpse Husband, Twitter) and 400K added value views (Yaya Han, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter).
The takeaway
Smart Content Influencer Strategy Unlocks New Audiences and Opportunities
When a solid product is supported with a smart influencer strategy with aligned content creators, the results are incredible. Tapping the power of BENlabs deep learning AI, the results are also predictable and scalable.
The success of the Resident Evil Village influencer campaign can be seen in more than just hard numbers. Tapping niche content creators to break out of traditional gaming content to introduce the game to a new group of fans helped to secure Resident Evil’s place in not just gaming culture but broader “nerd culture.”
Resident Evil Village saw favorable reviews and won 2021’s Golden Joystick Awards for PlayStation Game of the Year and Ultimate Game of the Year along with other accolades.
A great game, building on a strong legacy, working with BENlabs to introduce its latest gaming masterpiece to new audiences with results that speak for themselves.
