Battle Cats: Cat God Helpline - Case Study

To promote Japan’s hit mobile game The Battle Cats, a hidden phone booth allowed lucky gamers the rare opportunity to speak directly with the infamous in-game character ‘Cat God’ for tips and cheats. Clues to its secret location were teased to crazed fans which sparked a city-wide phone booth hunt that fuelled hype and engagement.

 

My Involvement:
[Asset Management / Design / Editing / Animation / Sound Design (Offline)]

I was given a storyboard, script, voice over and assets from the campaign to develop this video to the vision of the creative team by means of design, animation, editing and sound. I also came up with ideas for the narrative as we moved along, using music and sound to direct changes in the vibe as well. I repurposed graphics from the campaign to work bespoke for this video as well as building some elements myself. I came in on this case study video from the beginning as a video project and I was the sole motion designer working on this case study video up until this version of the video presented here. It was a fun project to work on, I really loved the campaign, the humour value never gets old with this one! And the teams at both R/GA Sydney and Tokyo were amazing to work with as well, I’m very glad this case study video helped them get some awards for this campaign (listed below).

I brought static assets from the campaign to life in the world of motion, carefully incorporating contrasting animation styles to emphasise the theme of contradiction present throughout the game of cute vs cryptic.

I enjoyed bringing this cryptic brush style text to life with animation to give a hand written feel to the animation and emphasise the brush strokes of asian calligraphy.

 

Project Details
Agency: R/GA Sydney & R/GA Tokyo
Client: PONOS Corporation / The Battle Cats
Year: 2025
Executive Creative Director: Masaya Nakade
Producer: Kyle Belcher
Creative: Alex Morris
Senior Motion Designer: Alex Ardino

Campaign Awards

Battle Cats - Cat God Helpline has so far won the following awards:

  • Webby Awards - Honoree, Best Use of Online Media (Advertising, Media & PR)

  • Clio Awards - Silver, Branded Entertainment 

  • ADC Awards - Best in Discipline, Integrated Campaign - Gaming & Marketing Campaign - Gaming - Gold

 

Kind Words From The Client

“Alex was a joy to work with - balancing storyboards and feedback with his own crucial builds and insight to push the work to the best it could be.”

— Alex Morris | Senior Creative
— R/GA Sydney