To celebrate both the fans and the launch of the remastered version of the original Gears of War video game, Gears of War Ultimate Edition, we created "Gears Ink" – a fan-centric effort that remasters fans' Gears tattoos just as the new edition remasters the original game.

The program was first introduced during E3 with a documentary showing diehard gamers getting their various Gears tattoos updated by renowned tattoo artist Steve Soto. In the subsequent weeks, using the documentary, we encouraged fans to share their own Gears ink on social media for a change to get their own tattoos remastered by Steve Soto during San Diego Comic-Con. In addition, to mirror the dedication of the fans, franchise developer Rod Fergusson asked us to give him his first ever Gears of War tattoo, which we gladly did.

Gears Ink was executed in multiple phases throughout the summer of 2015. In mid June, around E3, we released an in-depth documentary surrounding four Gears of War fans and the stories behind their ink. Upon revealing their freshly re-designed tattoos in the documentary, we prompted fans to submit photos of their own tattoo for a chance to have theirs re-mastered by world-renowned tattoo artist Steve Soto during San Diego Comic-Con.

We received hundreds of submissions until the contest came to an end in early July and a few winners were selected. Then, we brought those winners to San Diego to give them a chance to share their stories, re-master their ink, and give them a sneak peek at Gears of War Ultimate Edition.

Gears Ink garnered 2.18 million impressions with 14,400 total interactions, all with no media and entirely on owned channels. Importantly, Gears Ink social sentiment was 43% advocating, 56% engaging, and only 1% dissenting, indicating that we reached our goal of tapping into the interests of core Gears fans and getting them excited for the remastered game.

Owned Channel

- 2.18M Total Impressions

- 14.4K Total Interactions