Wasteland with a V

Background

V Energy drink was experiencing declines in sales and relevance amongst younger drinkers. Research found that while “The Massive Hit That Improves You a Bit” was an effective message for 18-24’s, it wasn’t reaching them. Since large segments of this audience were now spending most of their time on gaming platforms, V needed to find a way to engage with them there.

Idea

Gamers were always looking for fresh content long after a game’s release and for new mods (modifications) that would change and improve the experience.

Tapping into this interest, the creative approach was to find a popular game and introduce branded mods into it.

Partnering with Bethesda Softworks, Fallout 4 was identified as the perfect game for V to get involved in.

Research among gamers informed the content of the ‘Wasteland with a V’ mod. The file edited the game, allowing gamers to increase their energy, strength and agility when they drank V in the game.

(The drinks were to be found in branded vending machines labelled ‘Property of Shameless Product Placement Inc.’ scattered around Fallout 4’s post- apocalyptic wasteland setting.)

Then, fan requests were made a reality.

For example, a Reddit user asked for a better rifle, so a new one was created and named after him. Another asked for new quests, so two hours of new story content was created, complete with recorded dialogue. Along the way, V Energy was there, helping the players, continuing to spawn in the game-world indefinitely.

Results

V received immediate love from the gaming community for making their requests a reality. Over the three days the campaign was live, there were more than 10,000 downloads, securing 5-star scores from over 50 ratings and the mod’s pages received more than 150,000 views before any media spend came in to effect. Then, two top Australian Twitch streamers played Fallout 4 with the ‘Wasteland with a V’ mod, broadcasting their session to 600,000 highly engaged gamers. Thousands of Australians spent their Friday night and Sunday morning streaming four hours of V-branded content, effectively reconnecting the brand with the audience.

Our Thoughts

One of the big changes to marketing today, I think, is that brands need to learn to give. In the old days, they just took the money. But in a world where we are spoilt for choice, you will prefer the brand that gives you an experience of some sort. V Energy has got this sussed, listening to its core customers and giving them an enriched experience of a popular game. Their customers, for their part, understand the value exchange perfectly. If a brand is interesting or illuminating, then it has permission to get a shout out in social media. If it’s dull, if it sells too overtly and too hard, then it can f**k off.