National Marketing Blitz in Collaboration with Barrett Hofherr Marks First Major U.S. Campaign for Niantic’s Groundbreaking Real World Mobile Game
The real-world AR company Niantic, in collaboration with creative advertising agency Barrett Hofherr, have launched the national “Hunt Anywhere” advertising campaign for mobile game Monster Hunter Now. The new 60-second live-action “Hunt Anywhere” spot underscores the fundamental joy of exploring the real world together using Niantic’s proprietary AR technology that turns a map of the world into a playground. Available now on mobile devices worldwide, Monster Hunter Now is faithfully based on Capcom’s popular Monster Hunter franchise and lets players venture out into their own neighborhoods to discover and hunt mythical monsters.
“After our initial success in Japan, our first major push for Monster Hunter Now in the United States is an exciting opportunity to remind gamers of all types how fun it is to get outside and explore the world together,” said Archit Bhargava, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Niantic. “Working with Barrett Hofherr, we’ve created a campaign that truly captures the surprise and delightful moments of playing Monster Hunter Now in everyday life.”
In its first sixth months of availability, Monster Hunter Now achieved more than 15M downloads globally, with players exploring their neighborhoods and towns to hunt some of the most epic monsters from the Monster Hunter franchise. With a focus on the United States, Barrett Hofherr, devised a simple strategy to show that if players and their friends have 75 seconds to spare in their everyday life, Monster Hunter Now can turn that moment and their surroundings into a thrilling hunt.
The Hunt Anywhere campaign is currently featured on Roku through a marquee home screen takeover on devices across the U.S. Additionally, the new commercial will aim to reach a diverse audience by being aired across key social networks including on X, Meta, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok and Twitch.
“What’s so fun about Monster Hunter Now is that it’s additive to whatever you’re doing, so anyone can become a Monster Hunter anytime, anywhere”, said Todd Eisner, Executive Creative Director at Barrett Hofherr, “To demonstrate that, we leaned into the immediacy of the Monster Hunter NOW name and created a copy device that showcases what our Monster Hunters were doing THEN – the moment before they started playing.”
Since the initial release of Monster Hunter Now in September 2023, Niantic has continued to add new and exciting features, including the recent Dimensional Link feature which makes it easier for players around the world to team up together. With additional in-game events and updates coming throughout this summer, there’s never been a better time to join the hunt and play Monster Hunter Now.
The Hunt Anywhere campaign complements a major collaboration with MrBeast, the world’s most popular YouTube content creator. A MrBeast quest line is available in game through September 2 and is geared at helping new players quickly dive into Monster Hunter Now.
Monster Hunter Now is available now on the App Store and Google Play.
Credit list:
Niantic:
Mike Quigley, Chief Marketing Officer
Archit Bhargava, Sr. Director Product Marketing
Dan Inamoto, Sr. Director Product Marketing
Crystal Chen, Associate Product Marketing Manager
Corey Finn, VFX and Creative Lead
Spencer McCall, Video Production
Mark Van Lommel, Director of Communications, Games and Influencer Relations
Barrett Hofherr:
Conor Duignan – Head of Production, Partner
Todd Eisner – Executive Creative Director, Partner
Liam Berg – Writer
Michael Simon – Art Director
Corinne Santoro – Account Supervisor
Robert Woods – Associate Partner, Head of Accounts
Tricia Krasneski – Business Affairs Manager
Kevin Albrecht – Associate Partner, Associate Strategy Director
Adrianne Offril – Strategist
Kelli Bratvold – Agency Post Producer