The gaming industry is the largest in the entertainment sector, surpassing the music and film industries combined. Millions of microtransactions occur within games every minute, where real-life money is used to purchase in-game currency. With this in mind, we integrated in-game currencies into Mercado Pago services, creating a new transaction journey in the most popular games. We used native tools to enhance consumer engagement with our brand and enabled transactions that ultimately correspond to real money. The campaign leverages gamers' passion and willingness to buy items, transforming a simple commerce function featured in the most popular games: player-to-player gifting transactions.

The Brazilian financial sector is highly competitive and increasingly commoditized, resulting in little differentiation and perceived value by consumers. On average, Brazilians have up to 4 accounts in different banks.

In addition to this scenario, Brazil has one of the largest gaming communities in the world, growing at a fast pace, representing an overall 5.1% year-over-year growth, and this community is dominated by our biggest rival, which sponsors professional teams and big Esports tournaments. It was a challenge for Mercado Pago to engage with such a large community and showcase its unique differentiation: the highest-yielding account in Brazil. This campaign represents a strategic effort to engage with a new generation of consumers in a significant way, highlighting Mercado Pago as the best option to maximize the value of money and offering gamers a real benefit in their gameplay.

Mercado Pago, Latin America's #1 Digital Wallet, launched a top-interest-bearing account as a new value proposition to acquire customers. Our strategy was to position the brand as the enemy of idle cash - making every penny out there generate income. At the same time, gamers represented a huge and strategic audience dominated by our biggest rival, which sponsors professional teams and Esports tournaments. So, we aimed to engage with this community in a native and meaningful way, showing that Mercado Pago was the smart choice for managing their money.

In every game, the player's most desired item is its currency - used to purchase items such as new characters, maps, weapons, and skins. However, there is one thing gamers can't do with this money: invest it. So Mercado Pago decided to step in and offered players a way to invest the money they make in the game. By using a native tool featured in most games - "send a gift to a friend" - we integrated our financial services into the gameplay. First, we registered a Mercado Pago username in some of the world's most popular games - such as Call of Duty, League of Legends, and Brazil’s most-played title, Free Fire - then, we invited gamers to add us as a friend, send the coins they wanted to invest, and earn daily interest until they redeemed the money by sending us a message in the game chat.

The strategy behind the campaign was based in a deep understanding of the Brazilian gaming community's behavior and preferences. Recognizing the size of this community and their familiarity with in-game currencies, Mercado Pago leveraged this insight to position itself as the main financial solution for gamers. By integrating Mercado Pago's top interest-bearing account with in-game transactions, the campaign targeted gamers who were already accustomed to managing virtual currencies. This approach not only engaged the gaming audience but also showcased Mercado Pago's top interest-bearing account in a context familiar to gamers. Furthermore, community building and management were central to the strategy, with Mercado Pago collaborating closely with Brazil's top streamers to drive engagement and adoption. This approach fostered a sense of trust and credibility within the gaming community, ultimately leading to increased participation and awareness of Mercado Pago's offerings.

During 2 weeks, we took our offer to the next level: for every received in-game currency transfer, we returned it with a 20% daily interest. We spread the word about it with dozens of live streams and more than 250 minutes of content, including Brazil's top streamers Bak (14.5MM followers), GabPeixe (3.2MM followers), and Yayah (1.4MM followers), who played different games with Mercado Pago's username to give it credibility and engaged with the community throughout the commerce journey. During the campaign, gamers could invest and watch their in-game money grow on our platform. While the live streams happened on Twitch, the campaign took place on YouTube, Meta, Adsmovil, and TikTok, capitalizing on each platform's reach and engagement. This execution effectively resonated with both gamers and potential customers, driving engagement and adoption.

In just 2 weeks, thousands of users made in-game transactions, and millions more were impacted by the benefits of Mercado Pago - driving the opening of new accounts to invest real money. The outcomes were remarkable, making In-Game Investors the brand's most successful campaign ever targeting the gaming community:

+5MM Minutes of Content Watched on Twitch (+1.7MM live viewers)

+20MM Gamers Impacted on Social Networks (+75k interactions)

+ $16MM In-Game Money Invested (by 14,237 unique users)

+ 13% Increase in New Accounts During The Campaign (YOY)