Creative Strategist / Creative Strategist / Social Media Strategist
Campaign objective
After years in traditional sports, BMW wanted to enter esports to capture a new, young audience in an authentic way. They wanted their entry to be louder and more entertaining than their competitors, as well as alongside partners who were front-and-centre with the hardcore esports audience.
Strategic insight
I knew exactly the most authentic part of our audience: the rivalries.
G2 Esports and Fnatic had formed a 'European derby' years prior, which I had knowingly stoked with some juicy back-and-forth. Working directly with contemporaries at G2 Esports, public bantering between the two clubs became the norm.
In the meantime, Cloud9, a team with equal history to Fnatic and G2 over in North America, had a comparable tone of voice. If G2 were the Joker, I wanted Cloud9 to be our North American Robin. In 2020, the North American-European team friendship culminated in Fnatic and Cloud9 releasing a Valentine’s special edition range of collab merch. An authentic love-triangle-cum-rivalry had formed.
Idea and campaign
BMW revved into the scene and allowed the G2, Cloud9 and Fnatic online love triangle to butt heads in the perfect way: “United In Rivalry”. Rather than manufacture a new storyline, the loudest one was built upon.
#UnitedInRivalry was an always-on campaign that meant it was kept in mind during every scripting session, every reshoot and every potential off-the-cuff meme across social media. If ever there were an occasion to prove that we compete and don’t hold back, we'd be #UnitedInRivalry.
Results
18 million views on Fnatic's social media pages.
350K engagement with Fnatic's #UnitedInRivalry posts.
1.14M engagement with BMW-related posts on Fnatic's social media.
36% increased favourability towards BMW amongst Fnatic fans.
United In Rivalry won the 2021 European Sponsorship Award for best Esports Sponsorship.
What they said
BMW:
“As part of the partnership with BMW and in line with esports’ culture, the teams will challenge and try to outdo each other prior to matches, using the #UnitedInRivalry hashtag on channels like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, WeChat and various streaming platforms across the world. These mutual wind-ups are meant to increase each team’s motivation, but above all they also serve to entertain.”
