Solidifying State Farm’s relevancy with the 18–25-year-old audience is critical to State Farm’s long-term business success. As the insurance purchase cycle is very short – shopping and purchasing happen within days of each other – State Farm must be in the top 2 insurance considerations to win. Requiring State Farm to become a household name with the generations that are coming of age.

Securing that top-of-mind awareness early on was objective #1. However, how do you resonate with an audience that doesn’t care or understand the value of insurance?

The challenge was developing a campaign that would resonate with and educate this fickle target market about insurance in a fun way they would embrace and find entertaining. We identified gaming as the perfect way - continuously growing with the younger audience and a white space for State Farm due to limited competition in that space.

State Farm determined to achieve Gen Z market success; they needed to meet this audience where they consume video game content most — through live streaming and social influencers.

However, merely reaching the target audiences in these spaces wouldn’t drive traffic or interaction to their gaming tournament. The media strategy was rooted in building a campaign that went beyond the standard advertisement, providing opportunities for engagement with State Farm.

• Prioritizing timely high-profile media placements that cut through the clutter of traditional media to promote the live stream on the day of the event. Doing this could capture our audience in real-time to help increase viewership

• Leveraging key gaming influencers, which provided additional opportunities for State Farm to connect with the audience in an organic way

• Developing customized gamified units to keep audiences engaged throughout the series, helping State Farm interact in key moments of the tournament.

State Farm created the renowned five-episode event called The State Farm Gamerhood Challenge. Tapping into SF’s Good Neighbor theme, in what became a signature element of every episode, Jake presented the opening round trivia winner with a State Farm Special Delivery package — a helpful gift for the next insurable mishap.

To further promote audience engagement and allow viewers to play along at home, SF developed TWO groundbreaking Twitch extensions — synced in real-time across multiple channels. Viewers played for prizes in trivia competitions and Draw That Thing —a Pictionary-like game. With every episode streamed simultaneously on 10 Twitch channels (State Farm’s, players, hosts) and Rooster Teeth’s subscriber site, the Gamerhood celebrated spectacular viewership numbers.

State Farm also generated massive Gamerhood interest by having players reach their audiences through social channels and YouTube video-on-demand (VOD). Using creative storylines and behind-the-scenes footage, players shared VOD clips that nearly doubled total viewership!

By every metric, the revolutionary Gamerhood Challenge was overwhelmingly successful. It resoundingly delivered on the company’s goal of appealing to younger audiences and generating future demand. Taking a multi-tiered approach, the all-things gaming competition utilized Twitch, YouTube, and the talent’s social media influence to achieve unprecedented success, with 1+ billion impressions! The ACV was staggering, putting the Gamerhood Challenge in the company of the leading, established events in the gaming space. The Gamerhood Challenge solidified brand recognition by accelerating State Farm’s awareness and growth in a unique and innovative way.

Measurable results:

Twitch channel followers: +340% — 100% goal — +240%

61,477,000 episode reach — 41+ million (M) goal — +49%

5M Twitch/Rooster Teeth site views — 3.5M goal — +43%

178,000+ ACV (Average Concurrent Viewers) (35,675/episode) — +20%

64M VOD reach — 51M+ goal — +25%

4.2M VOD clips viewed — 3.4M goal — +24%

122M+ social reach