The International Red Cross (ICRC) upholds the Rules of War to protect the humanitarian rights of people in conflict zones all around the world. But these rules are being broken as the world watches, in dozens of conflicts happening right now, from the Ukraine to the Central African Republic.

For this campaign, the ICRC sought help raising awareness and educating people about those rules. We aimed to make a difference in real life by reaching soldiers who could find themselves on the battlefield, in situations requiring a clear understanding of the Rules of War.

We created Play by the Rules, a campaign that challenged gamers to play FPS by the real Rules of War and help make a difference on battlefields IRL.

To bring the challenge to life, we worked with top gamers from the most popular FPS games: Pub G, Call of Duty, Fortnite, Escape from Tarkov & Rainbow 6: Siege. These gamers are key members of their community, with a collective following in the millions—many of whom are in the right demographic to one day become soldiers themselves.

Our gamers tested their skills and played by the rules in a livestream on Twitch, hosted by an expert from the ICRC. In the livestream, we also debuted a custom Fortnite mode, with the Rules of War built directly into the flow of the game.

Every day, millions of gamers play war right from their couch. In first-person-shooter games (FPS), players act as soldiers but play without rules or consequences.

A large portion of these gamers actually become soldiers. In fact, over 50% of newly enlisted soldiers play video games. Recruiters value gamers’ reflexes and hand-eye skills. But today’s online FPS players have also had to learn team communication, cooperation, and strategic problem-solving under pressure.

Strong players value greater difficulty and realistic challenges. And a surprising number of players watch, share, and talk about gameplay in real time, across the world: 66% chat to friends on game devices, 41% share gameplay images/videos, and 45% watch livestreams on Twitch.

To tap into this community before they ever reached the battlefield, we partnered with gamers from the top FPS games, challenging them to Play by the Rules and rally their robust followings to do the same.

The Twitch livestream was the cornerstone of the campaign, complemented by a social push from the ICRC channels and the gamers who would be streaming live. A microsite also added context, as well as detailing the Rules of War and ways to augment gameplay to follow these rules.

The event itself ran for about 5.5 hours on Twitch, with each of our five gamers getting an hour to test out the new style of gameplay live. As each gamer raided the stream, they brought with them thousands of their loyal fans. Their audiences watched as they implemented this whole new set of rules, and gameplay was gently guided by our host MC from the ICRC. His knowledge of both the gaming world and International Humanitarian Law balanced the tone incredibly well and ensured we were talking in an authentic way about both playing war games and war itself.

During the 5-hour and 20-minute livestream, over 784,000 minutes were spent with the livestream among viewers. Each viewer spent at least 5.5 minutes learning about the Rules of War via a non-traditional educational platform. These viewers were driven to the livestream using paid media tactics that were planned to increase livestream viewership. By targeting gamers who played the same titles of the streamers, these paid media campaigns delivered over 3.3 million impressions, exceeding the goal by more than 90%. Facebook and Instagram ads had an engagement of 16.83% and more than doubled the impression goal. In the week following the livestream, we saw articles published across major news, entertainment, and gaming publications like USA Today and Gamespot. Microsite engagement increased from 72 visitors on livestream day to over 8,400 in the days that followed, driving continued interest in the brand and mission.