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Dept x SteelSeries
The Danish gaming brand SteelSeries has been the market leader in eSports equipment for more than 20 years, and their contribution to eSports has changed gaming forever. The brand can boast achievements such as the world’s first glass mouse pad and the world’s most awarded gaming headset. And as if that wasn’t enough, Steelseries wasn’t just the first to collaborate with esports players; professional esports players have also won more money with Steelseries than with any other brand. In short, Steelseries has long since cemented its position as pioneers in the world of eSports. However, until 2021, Steelseries’ rapid growth was primarily driven by the enormous success of their products. The successful brand had not yet begun to explore the golden opportunities that lay in taking ownership of their brand narrative and basing it on their unique story and the pivotal role that the brand has played – and continues to play – as the challenger to the status quo within gaming equipment for e-sports. As Steelseries’ 20th anniversary approached in 2021, it became clear that the time had come to share the brand’s Glory Story. For two decades, Steelseries had fired up the gaming industry by creating innovative new products designed specifically for eSports and passionate gamers around the world. With the continuous influx of new gamers around the world in mind, Steelseries set out to find an interesting way to share the brand’s proud history. It was the starting point for the development of a brand story that would prove to resonate with gamers all over the world. Together with Steelseries, developed a campaign that turned 20 years of brand history into a 20% increase in brand awareness. The strategy: to develop ads that gamers will share It was clear to both Steelseries and DEPT® that the brand’s history was a goldmine of untapped growth opportunities. But before we started exploring the two decades of material, we first had to deal with a number of challenges. The central questions were: - How do we create an engaging story that doesn’t get bogged down and become boring and self-indulgent? - How do we strategically select the right stories or achievements to focus on? - How can we best communicate the good stories to the gamers, who are not in the habit of watching 30-60 second commercials on flow TV? First of all, we had to find ways to communicate with different types of gamers. It was clear from the start that relevance was the key to success. In order to drive and maintain gamers’ interest, we had to find the right messages and share them on the right channels. SteelSeries- social ads - The solution: ad sequencing with tailored narratives In order to create exciting content that appealed to the right target groups, we chose to focus on three elements: hiring leading creative talent, selecting two core target groups and using ad sequencing for tactical storytelling. Strong creative talents It was crucial to ensure that the campaign would feel just as cool as the digital worlds gamers were used to navigating. Steelseries hired some of the industry’s best creative talent to portray the world gamers know and love: the game. Smart targeting for smartere storytelling We identified two core target groups and tailored the narratives in the brand story to them: PC console gamers: We showed them that we understand them and that Steelseries is, always has been, and always will be, a brand created by gamers for gamers. It was visualized through a series of gaming moments that make gamers feel glorious . We also showed them our long line of innovations in gaming and how our products have made gamers around the world even better. Esports gamers: We showed them our huge commitment, support and dedication to the esports community, based on the fact that professional esports players have won more money with SteelSeries than with any other brand. SteelSeries user journeys Ad sequencing for tactical storytelling in the digital world of gamers After sketching out our main idea and planning how to tailor the message to each target group, we wanted to ensure that we not only met the gamers on their preferred platforms but also showed them exceptional content. The campaign had to be more than just an ordinary advertising campaign. To capture gamers’ attention and make them watch, we used first-class visual content, strong storytelling and daring messages like “if you suck, that’s a problem we can’t solve”. However, early tests of non-skippable ads showed that they didn’t have the big impact we needed. It was therefore necessary to find another tactic to pique gamers’ curiosity. With the help of ad sequencing on YouTube, we were able to divide our narratives into shorter segments and translate them into sequences that were tailored to each target audience to increase the chance of capturing their attention. If a gamer skipped an ad, we also used tailored messages based on the gamer’s most recent interaction with our content with messages like “we know you skipped our last ad, but you’re really missing out”. As the results quickly showed, the combination of ad sequencing and tailored messaging gave a significantly higher likelihood of the gamer’s attention being captured and the rest of the sequence being watched. SteelSeries comments The results: 85 million views and a 20% increase in brand awareness A year later, the campaign has been viewed more than 85 million times across 30 countries. Across social media, gamers are expressing their love for the campaign with hundreds of enthusiastic comments such as “the first ad I’ve watched in its entirety” and “this is the mother of advertisements”. The result is crystal clear: with a 20% increase in brand awareness, the effect significantly exceeds YouTube and Facebook’s benchmarks. With the Glory Story campaign, Steelseries has succeeded in using 20 years of brand history to boost brand awareness among their core audience. And that’s just the beginning, says SteelSeries’ CMO Kathryn Martinez: “It’s been great to see that we have a story worth sharing. It was a gamble to jump into it, but thanks to this campaign, we know there’s an audience out there that really wants to hear from us. And we have much more in mind – there are many more levels in this game.” Credits Brand: SteelSeries Creative Agency: Dept Account Director: Victor Marcus Lunde
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