For many years Outback Steakhouse has been the official restaurant of Comic Con in Brazil. For the 2021 edition, more than 7,000 burgers were prepared exclusively for the event. But due to the high rates of Covid cases and the delay in vaccination, Comic Con went to a 100% virtual format.

Our big challenge was to find a way to sell these 7,000 real hamburgers to a completely virtual audience.

Outback Steakhouse is the official restaurant of Comicon in Brazil. For the 2021 edition more than 7,000 special hamburgers were prepared for the event. But, due to the delay in vaccination, Comicon went to a 100% digital format.

To be closer to the geek community and engage them with our story, we needed to be where they were: in games.

We built an Outback store inside the biggest GTA server in Brazil. In this restaurant, the player could get a code for his avatar to eat the burger in-game, and at the same time receive a coupon to buy the burger in real life. An entire story was created to engage the public on launch day, and everything was streamed live on Twitch by a team of influencers.

We turned GTA Online into a meta-commerce platform.

Formed by an overwhelming majority of geeks (fans of comics and video games), the audience of Comic Con in Brazil usually gathers in virtual spaces. The main one of them: the game GTA5 in Roleplay mode. Specifically, in an exclusive server for the game in Brazil with more than 6 million daily views on multiple platforms.

The alternative Roleplay mode allows players to incarnate characters and perform roles within the GTA universe, under roleplaying rules determined by the creators of the server. It is also possible to create buildings for trade and custom services within the game.

With this data in mind, naturally, the idea of creating an Outback restaurant in this metaverse emerged as the perfect solution to engage the event's audience and consequently sell the 7,000 hamburgers.

During the entire week leading up to the event, OOH media pieces were distributed throughout the city in-game. Billboards and even a headline in the virtual city's main newspaper told players about the news and invited them to go to Outback's newest store.

Targeted posts, on Facebook and Instagram, were also used to guarantee a full house for the opening night.

Players who went to the Outback in-game won promotional codes to buy a burger in the metaverse, and also receive the burger in real life.

But of course, in the comic book universe, we couldn't miss a good plot, full of heroes and villains. For the launch day, a whole story was created to engage the players, including a hunt for the villain who threatened to break up the party. The whole thing was streamed live massively on Twitch by a team of influencers.

Far exceeding expectations, more than 21,000 units were sold. A sales result that exceeded the target by 300%, becoming the best result for the Epic Burger in Outback's history. Even the burger buns were completely out of stock throughout the restaurant chain.

More than 5 million people watched the launch via streaming on the Twitch homepage, the official ComicCon/Omelete website, and the channels of 5 of the biggest Role Playing streamers: The Darkness, Drkz, Jota, Weuler, Paty Landim and Julieta.

We have taken Outback to a new metaverse and its legacy will remain: the virtual restaurant will be maintained indefinitely and the brand will constantly create new in-game activations.

A work that blurs the line between the real and the virtual, opening a new avenue of opportunities for brands.