The title might sound a bit provocative, but not that far from reality. “The game from Belarus enjoyed worldwide”, this is the tagline on the rebranded passenger aircraft that belongs to the national flag carrier Belavia. This is the way Wargaming reasserts the success of its massively popular World of Tanks, free-to-play multiplayer online game.
The plane was repainted in Ostrava, Czech Republic. It took 300 liters of paint, 450 m2 of stencil and 1,800 hours of staff time. Now black-and-orange Boeing carries the logo of Wargaming’s World of Tanks together with Belarusian national ornament on fuselage and wings.
The crew enjoys the new Wargaming aircraft. Image credit.
The company was founded in 1998 in Minsk, Belarus by programmer and businessman Viktor Kisly, and the suit of its games (World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Airplanes) has more than 150 mln registered players worldwide. As of today it has 15 development offices around the world, moved the headquarters to Cyprus.
WG is famous for organizing original and impactful marketing campaigns for its products, close collaboration with Belarusian and Russian mobile operators and numerous historical restoration projects.
For example, the company held a marketing campaign together with Burger King in Russia offering original black “tankburgers” with in-game currency and invite- and bonus-codes for game accounts. Also, Wargaming partnered with Sony Pictures on joint promotion of the film “Fury”, starring Brad Pitt. WG’s historical consultants helped achieve the necessary realism of tanks on the battlefield and after the premiere of the movie the developer released the Fury tank in the game.
In 2013 Wargaming launched a global initiative “Remember Everything” aiming to restore and conserve armored vehicles of the World War II to inspire people to study the past of their countries. The company actively cooperates with war history museums and volunteers (lots of them are World of Tanks players). Several projects within the initiative have already been successfully completed. In Russia, Wargaming participated in restoration of the legendary tank Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus and lifted the Soviet heavy tank KV-1 from the bottom of the Don river, where it lay for 70 years. In Great Britain, Wargaming sponsored the lifting of Dornier Do 17, a WW2 German light bomber, from the seabed of the English Channel. After spending 73 years in salt water the bomber will be on display this autumn at Royal Air Force Museum.
Cover image credit.
