Ever since Travis Scott premiered his concert in Fortnite in April 2020, brands have been trying to find the best ways to engage with the huge audience–because gaming is the new social. There are over 223M active players every month in Fortnite (Source: ActivePlayer) and Shell wanted to reach this new audience. This was their first step into gaming and we needed to create an experience that felt genuine.

EssenceMediacom brought me back after working on the award-winning Pokémon & Post Malone video, to work closely with the CCO, Benjamin Vendramin and the client on how to best leverage the unique qualities of the game, manage the client and resonate with gamers.

Shell Ultimate Road Trips brought 6 of the best Fortnite map creators together to design 6 of the most beautiful and challenging terrains, all in 1 gameplay map; unlike anything done in Fortnite Creative. The goal? Share screenshots from the most iconic in-game locations, for a chance to win the ultimate road trip in the real world. We partnered with content creators to promote the game map through their different social media platforms and engaged with gamers on YouTube and Twitch livestreams.

Gaming platforms such as Reddit, IGN, and Twitch created custom content to further drive the message. We delved deep into behind-the-scenes videos that showcased how the map creators ideated and built their different terrains. IGN created live gameplay content for true Fortnite fans, identifying the different easter eggs that we left throughout our map and videos showcasing how your car was truly tested for speed and performance.

The campaign promotion concluded with a tournament at TwitchCon. Shell Ultimate Road Trips held an all-day event where gamers could compete on stage and online for prizes.

Results went well beyond projections revealing that gamers loved discovering the different road trips and challenging themselves on the different terrains, with a playtime average of 20 min, 92% higher than the industry benchmark. New gamers visited our map consistently, with a 75% increase in Daily Unique Player (compared to benchmark). The campaign garnered over 230MM impressions. And, in the end, the brand saw 38% uplift in purchase intent, confirming what we set out to do, redefine the perceptions of Shell’s premium gasoline,