Verizon & Xbox
OLV, Social
Verizon became the exclusive telco partner of Microsoft’s Xbox All Access program.
So what?! You can get an Xbox anywhere.
So we had to win the hearts and minds of gamers — a famously hard-to-impress crowd—with a campaign that spoke to them in their language, using quests, hidden treasure, and lovable Non-Playable Characters (NPCs). And we had to do it where they live — on Twitch—with our campaign’s focal point being an innovative, interactive, gamified livestream.
A quest-themed OLV and an NPC-centered retail stunt set up the campaign’s climactic moment: an interactive livestream on Twitch, gamers’ streaming platform of choice, starring @AverageJonas, one of the biggest gaming content creators in the industry.
We wrote a branching, interconnected, choose-your-own-adventure style gameplay narrative, rented a warehouse, designed and built four larger-than-life game-themed levels, and loaded them with gaming Easter eggs. We hired and trained our NPCs — Elevator Man, Auto Mechanic, Toolsmith, and Sentry. And we put it all together in a live 75-minute playable Twitch stream. As Jonas explored the levels, Twitch viewers called the shots. They voted in chat to determine his actions — we’d prepared for all scenarios ahead of time — and guided him through a series of challenges and NPC interactions toward his goal.
A surprise cameo: The Sentry removed his helmet and revealed himself to be DrLupo — another top content creator, back on Twitch for our stream after a recent move to YouTube. Chat went into a frenzy.
The action culminated in a futuristic Verizon-branded vault where Jonas unlocked Xbox All Access, giving it and the hundreds of prizes he’d collected on the quest away to viewers.
Results
The campaign smashed impressions and engagement benchmarks, and, just as importantly, we convinced a huge new audience of Verizon’s gaming cred.
626K people viewed the livestream (+56% vs 600K BM), casting 7,500 votes for the player’s actions (+70% vs. BM).
Our stream was #2 in the US and #11 globally on Twitch that day, and Verizon’s #1 most engaged Twitch stream ever.
Social posts for the campaign earned 376K impressions and were received with 84% positivity.
We nearly doubled projected benchmarks for total engagement (38K vs. BM 22K) and concurrent views (26K vs. BM 15K).
We had 9,000+ hashtag mentions for the livestream giveaways (+78% vs. BM).
Awards & Honors
Shorty Awards - 2023
Winner in Live Video
Silver Honor in Other Platform