Deploy & Destroy
- Brand
- Expendables 2
- Year
- 2012
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Simulation & Strategy
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Soap Creative Australia
Objective
Roadshow Films needed to cut through a packed summer blockbuster season and reach young men aged 15–30 — The Expendables 2's core audience — on the turf where they already spent their time: games, not ads. Rather than treat a game as a trailer sidebar, the studio built the whole campaign around it, betting that a game people wanted to play, share, and embed on other sites would do the work a viral video normally does, while still funneling them toward the trailer and the box office.
Solution
Players land on deployanddestroy.com.au, or the same game embedded on a cinema or ticketing site, and pick a three-man squad from the Expendables cast, each fighter carrying a different weapon and special ability. The movie trailer autoplays before the first level (skippable), then it's straight into pixel-art tower defense: players place turrets on preset points across the map and hold the line as waves of infantry, tanks, and helicopters advance on their HQ. A "Buy Tickets" button sits fixed in the top-left corner the entire time, jumping straight to showtimes and checkout whenever a player is ready. Clearing levels unlocks wallpaper rewards, with cinema tickets, game vouchers, and a PlayStation 3 given away along the way.
Results
The game drew more than 10 million visits in its first two months, with players averaging over 13 minutes per session. It generated 100,000 shares across Twitter and Facebook combined, and the campaign was credited with 220,000 cinema tickets purchased.
- 1
The player opens the game at its own web address or an embedded version on a ticketing site, landing on a retro pixel-art title screen for a film-tie-in tower-defense game. The main menu offers four choices: watch the trailer, view achievements, read how-to-play, or start playing. A "Buy Tickets" button sits permanently in the corner so the player can jump to buying a ticket at any moment.
- 2
Before the first level opens, the film's trailer plays automatically inside the game, though it can be skipped.
- 3
A training level introduces the core loop directly: one hero unit, a handful of turrets, and a single lane of oncoming enemies.
- 4
The player builds a three-member squad from the film's cast, each with distinct weapons and abilities.
- 5
On each level map the player places turrets — minigun, cannon, rocket, or shock type — on preset spots, and tapping a placed turret opens a menu to sell, upgrade, or repair it.
- 6
Waves send infantry, tanks, and helicopters down multiple lanes toward the player's base; alongside turret fire, the player deploys a battle arsenal (gatling guns, rocket launchers, EMP blasts, airstrikes, mines) and triggers hero special abilities, such as a berserker rage move.
- 7
After training, the player advances through a five-level campaign of rising difficulty, unlocking new film characters as levels are cleared.
- 8
An achievements screen tracks unlocked milestones, which reward the player with wallpaper downloads.
- 9
A separate endless mode lets the player assemble their own three-hero squad and play on a map distinct from the story missions.
- 10
The game runs prize draws for movie tickets, vouchers, and a game console, and the player can share the game on Twitter and Facebook.
