KitKat was looking for ways to engage the gaming community and encourage them to turn to the brand for snacking during breaks. Working with JWT London and Google, KitKat developed a concept that gave them a way to talk to gamers directly in gamer language.
Case study summary
• Nestle brand wanted to engage gaming community
• Created video of two top YouTubers playing out characters from mobile game Crossy Road
• Ran TrueView ads to promote full-length video
The challenge
The idea was to turn the traffic-dodging mobile game Crossy Road into a three-minute video featuring top YouTubers Miniminter (Simon Minter, 4 million subscribers) and TBJZL (Tobi Brown, 2 million subscribers).
The solution
Using an elaborate life-sized set to recreate the game in human scale, the film depicted the two stars dressed as characters from the game hopping out of the way of traffic as they competed against each other – all while being cheered on by real fans!
By collaborating with the game’s publishers, Yodo1, KitKat was able to feature multiplayer functionality in the film, which had just launched in the app. The video was hosted on Miniminter’s YouTube channel, with edits running as TrueView ads.
The results
The campaign resulted in 8.7 million views for the long version of the video on Miniminter's channel and 1.6 million views for the short version. YouTube comments revealed great audience engagement, while the activity produced a 44% lift in ad recall and 9% lift in brand consideration.
8.7 million views for long version
1.6 million views for short version
44% lift in ad recall
9% lift in brand consideration
The secret to success? The YouTubers brought their massive audiences and easy authenticity on camera, while KitKat built the spectacular set to achieve captivating entertainment that neither the brand nor gamers could have done on their own.
