Esports has reached Massive scale with 56 million fans in in the US. However, 81% of fans only follow a single esports genre, such as fighting or shooter games.

So how do you launch Game Fuel, a product dedicated to competitive gaming, with a fragmented audience?

Competitive gaming fans and players spend significant time playing as well as watching top influencers and esports athletes on channels such as Twitch and YouTube. At the same time, we know that 61% Twitch esports viewers don’t watch TV at all. If Game Fuel wanted to be perceived as endemic to gaming, a traditional/digital campaign alone wouldn’t do. We needed to deliver on key principles that drive gamers: Entertainment, Engagement and Reward.

To create immediate awareness and drive adoption of Game Fuel we deployed a strategy that led with authentic voices, esports events and games. A three-pillar campaign introduced the audience to Game Fuel:

• Align With The Stars: Leverage top esports athletes to create a series of long form video and social posts introducing Game Fuel as the drink specially for gamers. Partner with top esport leagues to build awareness with the millions watching at home or in person.

• Power The Future of Competitive Game Talent: Create a narrative that aligns the brand with performance improvement for all those aspiring champions.

• Deliver Game Content for The Broader Game Audience: Partner with top game publishers to deliver exclusive early access to highly anticipated game releases.

Throughout each pillar, we sought opportunities to organically integrate Game Fuel within the narrative and drive early adoption from pre-orders to launch.

The pre-launch kicked-off with content and activations with a Game Fuel sponsored team and a high-profile eSports event. Product integration within live broadcasts along with an on-site activation and sampling immediately put cans in hands, while teams and leagues' social channels amplified the message.

During pre-launch, we continued to build anticipation and drive pre-orders with content from top gaming talent and an exclusive chance to play a highly anticipated game with a Game Fuel pre-order.

Game Fuel launched with a growing fan base, many of which pre-ordered the product or learned about it directly from their favorite esports team, pros or streamers.

But it didn’t stop here. TV commercials, live streams, video series, social posts from teams and leagues, a showcase at one of the biggest eSports events in the world with tens of millions watching, and content drops for a highly anticipated game resulted in a can’t-miss campaign.

• Before any media launched, esports teams and game content exclusives contributed to Game Fuel taking the #1 spot on Amazon’s top selling energy beverage page (when the product was only available for pre-order!)

• Game Fuel was front and center of four major esports events, delivering over 538M total views across event broadcasts

• Over 1M views across ten esports team-produced originals offered fans unique and entertaining content

• eSports teams and leagues delivered over 635M impressions via social posts highlighting Game Fuel

• Twitch streamers naturally weaved Game Fuel into their broadcasts and provided exclusive product discounts to their fans, yielding an additional 489K unique viewers

To date, Game Fuel has over delivered versus expectations:

-Reaching 130 index to plan

-1.32B media impressions YTD (digital, TV and earned media)

-A 40% repeat rate in addition to 47% consumer awareness of the product just weeks after launch