2020 Silver Utilities and Telecommunications

Agency: Essence and AnalogFolk

Client: BT

Campaign Name: BT x IGN: Overpowered broadband for gamers

Campaign Overview

Gamers get the OP from BT

The broadband giant set out to show 2 million hardcore gamers that better broadband can help them win.

Strategy

BT Broadband has unbeatable latency. For serious gamers that's the difference between (virtual) life and death. Every millisecond of lag gives their opponents a crucial advantage.

Gamers are an important audience for BT. They’re willing to pay a premium for quality broadband, but the brand hadn't spoken to them in a tailored way before and consideration was low.

The challenge was to build credibility by showing that BT understood the gaming world. Focus groups identified that gamers are hungry to get an edge over their competition, even if it feels a bit like cheating. A popular gaming term to describe this is 'OP' - Overpowered - which led to the campaign idea: “Get OP with BT.”

Creativity

BT devised a gaming tournament that pitted the IGN UK editorial team against former colleagues in an attempt to outgun each other, after being 'overpowered' with top gaming tech, a pro trainer and unbeatable latency thanks to BT fibre.

Across a three-game online tournament, the two sides battled head-to-head at Forza Horizon 4, Street Fighter 4 and Overwatch in an attempt to outgun each other.

The episodes were posted on IGN and RKG channels and supported with pre-roll trailers in paid media. Each 12-minute video helped the gaming community raise their game and shone a light on BT's latency broadband proficiency.

Results

• 8 in 10 people who saw the videos claimed to take action

• 88% uplift in brand familiarity (benchmark uplift +10%)

• +172% uplift in overall opinion of BT from people who recall seeing an ad (benchmark uplift +11%)

• +161% uplift in brand advocacy (benchmark uplift +7%)

• Viewers 2x more likely to consider BT moving forward

• 58% viewers watched the 12-minute Forza video to completion

• 46% average VTR across all videos

The Team

Essence Global - Patrick Bell, Media Planning Manager - Scott Cranshaw, Senior Activations Executive
BT - Tom Hazelden, BT Brand Campaigns - Luke Souchard, Head of Brand Campaigns AnalogFolk - Jake Doran, Creative - Simon Richings, Executive Creative Director - Darren Custance-Jones, Design Director - Roddy Taylor, Account Director - Miles Zilesnick, Strategist - Thomas Scovell, Executive Strategy Director
IGN (ZiffDavis)- Daniel Kilby, VP & Global Creative Solutions and Operations - Stuart Galbraith, Group Head of Sales - Rob Cheng, Senior Account Manager