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State Farm Gamerhood Challenge

A brand new ‘gaming neighbourhood’, State Farm Gamerhood Challenge was the groundbreaking result of US insurance giant State Farm’s aim to connect with Gen Z and millennial audiences. Akin to an interactive gameshow, it featured a cast of popular streamers dealing with a litany of unpredictable-but-insurable events such as burst pipes, blown-out windows and UFO crashes, presenting a challenging target audience with an entertaining way to learn about the virtues of insurance whilst playing their own related trivia rounds.

Bringing the concept to fruition was Infinity Marketing Team (IMT), a member of the Pico Group, appointed by State Farm to oversee everything from strategy and concept development to design, production, social media strategy and talent sourcing.

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Insight

By airing episodes live on popular platforms, and enabling viewer participation, the campaign would squarely target the US$208 billion casual gaming market. For both the client and the project team, the central challenge was to create a campaign that would resonate with millennials and Gen Z, a demographic known to have generally little interest in insurance. The need to engage this audience led to the concept of a physical neighbourhood set in which a cast of players would deal with programmed ‘insurable mishaps’, creating a series of entertaining and educational moments.

Solution

The IMT team managed and directed the conceptual, pre-production, execution and post-production phases of the Gamerhood Challenge, including more than 200 pieces of related creative content. 

Within the 50,000 sq. ft. neighbourhood set itself, a carefully selected cast of influencers, gamers and content creators – each boasting their own followings – interacted in amusing and unexpected ways as they triggered various precision-engineered disasters upon themselves. These ranged from UFO crashes to more down-to-earth problems such as snow invading players’ houses, plumbing maladies and exploding popcorn – all engaging scenarios which familiarised the audience with the brand’s service offerings.

Each episode was broadcast live on Twitch and YouTube, while viewers could also actively compete for prizes – and learn more about insurance – in trivia rounds via two custom-designed Twitch extensions synched in real time. Further personalising the experience were options such livestreamed simulcast content and a choice of 10 behind-the-scenes videos-on-demand (VODs).

Results

The activation achieved unprecedented results for State Farm, generating more than a billion combined impressions and a 340% increase in State Farm Twitch channel followers. In detail, these included:

  • Over 4.92 million total episode views, with a total episode reach of more than 61 million
  • Over 4.18 million VOD views, with a reach of over 63.9 million
  • Social media reach: 122 million+
  • Social media views: five million+
  • PR impressions: 57 million+
  • Paid media impressions: 153.4 million+
  • At-home trivia challenge participants: 50,000+

Awards
The activation also struck gold at the 2022 Tempest Awards for the ‘Best Non-Endemic Brand Activation’ category, with State Farm winning ‘Brand of the Year’ at the same event.

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