Born on a kitchen table in 1935, MONOPOLY has seen it all - from economic struggles, a world war, and every season of Happy Days, The Simpsons and The Real World. With over 1 billion players across 114 countries, MONOPOLY has never had an awareness problem, but the 2015 goal was to eventize the brand's 80th anniversary in a relevant way.
To celebrate the brand's 80th anniversary, MONOPOLY teamed up with social news and entertainment company BuzzFeed to create a fan-powered campaign that brought the MONOPOLY Here & Now Edition game to life. MONOPOLY enthusiasts were invited to help author the story through a property space vote that elected the cities that were later featured on the MONOPOY Here & Now: World Edition game and U.S. Edition game boards. In addition to voting on the list of destinations, MONOPOLY fans were invited "write in" their favorite cities big and small for the two brown property spaces in the games during "Wild Card Week." A social campaign on MONOPOLY's owned social channels and BuzzFeed's platforms encouraged fans to vote, with the cities later being unveiled to our Facebook community.
With nearly 4M votes cast in 182 countries, MONOPOLY fans around the world selected their favorite cities to become property spaces on the MONOPOLY Here & Now Edition game board. The final list of cities was revealed on March 19th- the brand's official birthday and the first ever World MONOPOLY Day. Lima fans united to place Peru's capital city as the top property in the World Edition game while Pierre, S.D. secured the most votes for the top space in the U.S. Edition game. The games became available in fall 2015 and feature iconic landmark tokens and new gameplay where players race round the board to visit as many locations as possible, collecting passport stamps along the way.
In addition to more than 1,200 global press placements and 1.3B global press impressions, the campaign garnered 7.3M direct engagements with a reach of 827M through BuzzFeed content. Other highlights include:
-521M media impressions in the U.S. including coverage with key outlets including the Associated Press, CNN.com, People.com, CBS This Morning and Bloomberg
-35 local organizations, eight mayors and two political influencers rallied to get their cities to vote
-MONOPOLY wrapped up World MONOPOLY Day at the NASDAQ closing bell with photos on social and traditional media
-In Peru, there were tweets from celebrities, journalists, athletes, and bloggers, celebrating Mr. MONOPOLY's birthday
-In the Netherlands, there were more than 550 tweets supporting Amsterdam and Giethoorn- which won the "write in" vote- including tweets from reporters at TV Shows, news anchors and aldermen
