As a 60-year-old brand, Excedrin needed to find a way to appeal to a younger target—namely, 18–24-year-olds. Research revealed two things: 1.) These people love video games, and 2.) Nearly everything about gaming causes headaches.

With gaming reaching an all-time high due to the pandemic, Excedrin saw a natural opportunity to transform the brand in order to engage with a younger audience that wasn’t treating or even acknowledging its head pain. No other OTC pain brand had directly addressed this group about the connection between gaming and headaches. While there was risk in entering a new space like gaming, Excedrin recognized the larger opportunity.

Gamers didn’t want to be told not to game simply because it causes headaches and they didn’t want an OTC health brand disrupting their favorite activity with a message about headache relief. The gaming industry itself was becoming oversaturated with brands going after this audience.

So how could Excedrin break through in the gaming space?

To help educate gamers on the connection between gaming and head (and give them the tools to help avoid it) Excedrin became the first-ever brand to adopt one of the least-favorite—but most important—characters in video games: The Healer. Healers aren’t glamorous, and they don’t get the glory that other characters do. But just like Excedrin, healers have the power to keep players in the game—making them the perfect centerpiece for “Game Over for Headaches,” a multifaceted campaign rooted in gaming culture and crafted to appeal to this audience.

To generate meaningful earned conversation and resonate authentically with our audience, first we sought to validate the problem. Through a brand-owned study and talking to real gamers, we discovered that 70% of participants said head pain adversely affected their focus and performance; 79% felt they could play better if they were able to manage headaches more effectively; and less than half regularly take pain relievers for gaming headaches.

Those insights informed our campaign strategy: To make Excedrin an ally for gamers by helping them keep their heads in the game.

To reach this audience and appeal to media, we created a mindful gaming routine designed to avoid head pain. We also engaged prominent gamer Matthew Haag—AKA “Nadeshot”—to expand our story across media verticals to reach a wider audience, pairing him with clinical psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Seng, who spoke to the emotional and physical impact of head pain among gamers.

The campaign was based on 4 key pillars:

1. A 6-step mindful gaming routine, grounded in research, developed to help gamers avoid head pain in the first place;

2. Original content created for OLV, display, and social, featuring six diverse healers—each tied to a specific headache trigger, and crafted to meet the visual standards of our audience—as our core creative asset;

3. The first-ever OTC partnership with Twitch, with a diverse team of influential streamers using and sharing our mindful gaming routine while playing as healers;

4. Using prominent gamer Matthew Haag—AKA “Nadeshot”—to generate buzz and attract earned attention for the brand’s story via a dynamic media strategy spanning endemic gaming verticals and health, lifestyle, and business media. He shared his personal experiences with gaming-related headaches with media and fans on social media and Twitch, while clinical psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Seng illustrated the physical and emotional impacts of headaches.

Every part of the program was based on insights around the gaming community and common gaming-related head pain. This heightened earned coverage and positive consumer attention, and ultimately drove meaningful business results.

Reach:

500+ million earned media impressions across 190 placements.

47+ million paid media impressions on Twitch.

52+ million paid impressions across paid social and programmatic media.

Engagement:

26,211,877 total online video views.

1,121,746 total social engagements, including 271,672 on Twitter for E3.

Display CTR 140% above benchmark.

3x increase in site traffic to Excedrin.com.

3% lift in CTR among gaming-related search terms vs. non-gaming campaigns.

Twitch:

Brand lift amongst Twitch users outperformed platform benchmarks, including:

76% increase in unaided awareness across all ages.

213% increase in message association for users 18-24

All 12 Twitch influencer streams also surpassed platform benchmarks:

Minutes watched: 1-2M+ per stream | benchmark = 600K-700K

Views: 400K-700K+ | benchmark = 300K-400K