The campaign that had the internet asking “What’s Grandma Hiding?”
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Launched in 2020, Merge Mansion is a mobile game with a storyline revolving around family drama, a condemned mansion, and secretive Grandma Ursula.
The rich lore that raises more questions than gives answers has earned the game a devoted fan following and cult-like internet status.
But to break out of niche internet fame we needed to get the masses interested in “What’s Grandma Hiding?”
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We tapped into our fan’s appetite for lore – but spiced it up by giving it a true crime spin and introducing a new character.
Enter detective Tim Rockford, played Internet darling du jour by Pedro Pascal, our star investigator who would amplify fan fiction into mainstream entertainment.
Then, instead of a traditional ad campaign, we took our fan community and the Internet at large for an entertainment and reality-bending ride across platforms.
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For a full breakdown of how the campaign unraveled, keep scrolling.
Be warned! There has been A LOT of content created around the campaign. Luckily, you can get a comprehensive overview without viewing all ads and videos.
TEaser
“Hide your knives. There’s a new detective on the Merge Mansion case. Guess who? #WhatsGrandmaHiding”
The first clues of the new character and Pascal were shared on Merge Mansion’s social channels. In a matter of minutes, he was recognized just from his backside - and the rumor mill started churning.
“Honestly, I don’t even know where to start.”
The first film of the campaign, the movie trailer-ish A Twisted Game was released on the weekend of HBO’s The Last of Us also starring Pascal.
Soon after it was followed by two other films: Think Like a Grandma and A Recipe to Die For, which further deepened the story.
The three films got nearly 40 million views on YouTube alone.
“Y’all got pedro!?”
The Internet. Went. Nuts.
The films didn’t just make a splash; they released a tidal wave of headlines and reactions that plastered every social platform – recruiting millions of investigators from around the globe.
“Some pretty insane marketing. People have been talking about this non-stop.”
The reactions to our new detective ranged from incredulous to praising.
For example, YouTuber Danny Gonzales joined the discussion by creating a humorous 10-minute-long reaction video, accumulating over 2.8 million views.
But that was just the beginning…
“Every family has secrets - But few have a mansion full of them…”
After the release of the films, Pascal was joined by celebrity detectives, content creators, and a handful of lucky super fans for an on-site investigation inside a replica of the game’s mansion.
Part live-action theatre meets escape room, and part Instagrammable lore museum on steroids, the guests were immersed into the world of Merge Mansion.
The surreal adventure blurred the line between entertainment and reality as participants crawled through fireplaces, dug through pies for clues, and solved escape room style puzzles to uncover Grandma Ursula's secrets.
What! Is! grandma! hiding!!!!!
Even before the post-event film, the experience was broadcast to the world through the participants’ social channels.
Participants for the event were specifically chosen to align with the themes of the game, with an emphasis on influencers whose followers predominantly consist of so-called casual gamers, a category encompassing the majority of mobile game players.
Among the attendees were such murder-solving experts as Jesse Williams from “Only Murders in the Building” and Ashley Benson from “Pretty Little Liars.”
Notable content creators included for example Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, known for their work on the BuzzFeed web series "Unsolved Crimes."
“What do you think, Detective Madej?”
In addition to live feeds and stories, the participants created post-event summaries and theorized about What's Grandma Hiding? on their accounts.
A notable highlight was a 16-minute YouTube video by Mathew Patrick, known as The Game Theorist, where he shared his theory with his 18.8 million subscribers.
To save the judges some time, we can reveal that, according to his theory, Ursula murdered her husband and chopped him up into a pie. However, we cannot disclose whether the theory is accurate or not...
results
Mobile game data is guarded as closely as state secrets—or in this case, Grandma Ursula's secrets. However, a rough estimate of the campaign's success can be inferred from the fact that, after the campaign's release in March 2023, the game's downloads surpassed the 50 million mark, up from under 45 million earlier in the year.
In total, the campaign garnered over 1 billion impressions across various platforms and more than 300 press hits globally. The three films featuring Pascal amassed 38 million views on YouTube, received over 218,000 likes on TikTok, and garnered 891,000 likes on Instagram.
But most importantly, fans worldwide were obsessed with the campaign, joining the investigation to search for answers and share their theories, even igniting rumors of an actual Merge Mansion Movie.
“A central goal for all of our game marketing is to speak to our audience and start conversations around the game, its story and its central characters. Based on fans’ reactions to the campaign and the stir it’s caused, it seems like we’ve met if not exceeded those expectations.” - Sandra Fenyo, VP of Marketing Metacore