AT&T Fiber laid more than 60,000 miles of Fiber in the U.S. in 2022, and has been looking for an impactful platform to convey this accomplishment to younger audiences. The data transfer statistics are especially pertinent to this audience, as AT&T Fiber supports more than 594 petabytes of data traffic on an average day, the equivalent of streaming nearly 40 million 2-hour long movies in HD.
Where does a majority of streaming data happen for younger consumers? Our initial research found a YouGov report that 65% of adults are active gamers, making for an audience of 3 billion active gamers per six hours each week. Of that audience, Gen Z and millennials spend about 11 hours weekly playing video games, according to additional data from Deloitte.
Though a traditional 30-second ad faces obstacles for brand recall, data shows a strong correlation between gamers’ “lean back” relaxation and their willingness to receive an ad. This attention is underpriced, as gaming holds only a 6% share of digital advertising spend according to IAB data. Forward-thinking brands are turning to creative game marketing to recapture the imaginations of audiences, especially Gen-Z and Millennial gamers.
It was time for AT&T Fiber to join their ranks. We needed to find a way to introduce AT&T Fiber into the metaverse, raise awareness among the elusive gaming audience, and authentically demonstrate the high speed data transfer and true-to-life visuals that AT&T Fiber enables to Gen-Z and millennial gamers, making it an unmissable product in their gaming setup.
With a swelling audience of gamers, developers have poured even more data into their creations, resulting in increasingly intricate map designs and character capabilities. Audiences crave ambitious gaming projects, which often drive massive earned media for their outlandish developmental feats.
We knew if we partnered with the right developers, we could collaborate on a game update that fully utilized the superior high speed data transfer and true-to-life visuals of AT&T Fiber for an audience that would savor each detail.
Fortnite stood out as a pertinent partner with massive reach. With 223 million average monthly players, their audience was primed to respond to an impressive update of their beloved games.
Through a series of Fortnite Creative map releases, we would show our target audience what AT&T Fiber was capable of. In game, we’d show gamers a realistic view of three different markets: Atlanta, Dallas, and Los Angeles, built in realtime in the metaverse.
These markets were particularly crucial, as they offered high saturation of gamer enthusiasts (both Gen-Z and Millennials), represented high-priority AT&T Fiber markets, and radiated local pride that would translate to real-time enthusiasm of encountering recognizable landmarks within the maps.
Together with developers, we created each map in stunning detail. They showcased each local market’s most significant landmarks, unique layouts, and ever-changing atmosphere, offering gamers a real-world experiential interaction in a platform that often leans toward the fantastical. In each map we also organized three different mini-games, from Fortnite Football to Vehicle Derby, to ensure players had more reasons to explore the different maps.
To promote our Fortnite appearance and impressive streaming strength we collaborated with high profile gaming influencers. We selected our partnerships with significant audience saturation in each of our target markets including influential Hispanic gaming creators ( a crucial audience in the LA market), introducing them and their followers to our new map builds via organic social posting.
We used these posts to tease livestream Twitch events, inspiring massive tune in from our desired demographics. As users joined the livestreams of their favorite Fortnite streamers, they would be introduced to the scale of our new map builds via livestreamed gameplay using AT&T Fiber.
Our brand would be integrated seamlessly, a provider of quality for an audience fully captivated and qualified for our product’s best features.
Tapping in an even broader audience, we teamed up with athletes who had strong ties to each map build city, who would challenge our gaming talent to participate in one-on-one challenges within the new map. This expanded our audience to be cross-sectional and non-overlapping, while still ensuring we were speaking to a high interest audience.
Between our social teasers and our Twitch livestreams, we demonstrated firsthand the considerable streaming power of AT&T Fiber.
This campaign marked AT&T Fiber’s successful debut in a Web3 environment, and effectively communicated its bandwidth capabilities in form of intricate maps and enhanced game play and graphic and brought awareness of AT&T Fiber to our intended captive audience.
On YouTube and Display, we successfully engaged a substantial audience, resulting in a more than 5% increase in video completion rate and an over 100% increase in click-through rate compared to partner benchmarks.
Though we generated strong awareness of AT&T Fiber capabilities, we also wanted to inspire other gamers to test out the capabilities for themselves. And so we did.
By introducing three new map builds, we not only dominated the Fortnite conversation but also encouraged Gen-Z and millennial gamers to explore our creations. The enthusiastic responses in our comment sections, praising the maps' vastness and the fun of multiplayer mini-games, highlighted the authentic connection we forged with our audience.
With that attention, AT&T Fiber drove strong brand recall with over three-quarters unaidedly mentioning AT&T as present during their respective livestreams.
After watching the livestream, over two-thirds are likely to learn more about AT&T Fiber and similar numbers mention the livestream has a positive impact on their perceptions of AT&T Fiber.
These findings showed the effectiveness of our communication: authentically engaging with our audience and showcasing the real-world advantages of Fiber, we provided gamers with more reasons and opportunities to immerse themselves in the expansive worlds we created – and while doing so, consider AT&T Fiber for their gaming setup at home.
