With rising concerns surrounding the mental wellness of the new generations of gamers, it’s important to promote self-care and encourage people to game responsibly, so that it continues to be a positive experience.

We wanted to remind gamers that it’s ok to take a break from time to time, especially when they’re feeling the pressure.

Working with Intel and their partners, we created a playful campaign twisting the expected verbal and visual language of ‘wellness’ and infusing it with game specific references; that would attract the attention of gamers; giving them something they could identify and engage with.

Our brief was to create a campaign which would highlight the importance of mental health to the gaming community and involve Intel’s gaming partners. We needed to create positive sentiment and increase engagement amongst enthusiast gamers.

We playfully twist the expected verbal and visual language of ‘wellness’ and motivational quotes, by infusing them with game specific references. By doing this, we highlight a serious issue in a playful way that resonates with gamers, placing their favourite games in an unfamiliar context.

We were able to rally Intel’s gaming partners (games publishers and gaming hardware partners) around this cause and show gamers that Intel understands their world.

Gamers don’t like to be preached at. We knew that if we came at them as a figure of “authority,” our efforts would be met with eye rolls. Our strategy was to speak to gamers in their own language: the language of memes, combining elements of pop culture with elements of their favourite games to create a campaign that encouraged gamers to press pause. For it to truly involve the gaming community and our partners, we needed to develop content that would only really be fully understood if you were a true gamer.

We carefully crafted each post, recreating generic ‘wellness’ imagery, such as water ripples, and balanced stones (used to give a sense of calm) and infused these scenes with game and gaming hardware references.

We applied the same technique to the copy writing, using the using the language of wellness and motivational quotes, and twisting it to include games and hardware product references, in a playful way.

Intel’s gaming partners were eager to collaborate on the campaign - generously supplying original images, 3d models and product photography.

The posts were published on Intel’s social channels, and their partner channels. The call to action for the campaign was to drive audiences to Intel’s wellness section of their website, via the social posts. Once there, visitors to the site could participate in a prize draw, for the duration of the campaign, with prizes of ‘wellness packs’ comprising high spec gaming gear.

• Social engagement increased by 500%

• 97% conversion rate on the microsite

• Average break time 1.5 minutes (based on a playful take on the dwell time, which showed they weren’t gaming at the time)