All Work
Creator Partnership — Branded Entertainment
LACS 5
How a car brand became the savior of a gaming community.
Client
Toyota
Role
Creative Direction
Year
2023
01 — Challenge
Break through to buyers who tune out car ads.
Toyota needed awareness and purchase intent for the all-new Prius Prime among older Gen Z and younger Millennials — practical, economical buyers who reflexively tune out auto advertising.
02 — Insight
The audience was already gathered — and grieving.
I found that audience almost exactly inside the Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ludwig Ahgren fanbases. The community was reeling from the shutdown of a beloved tournament organizer.
A brand that filled that gap wouldn’t be tolerated. It would be embraced.
03 — Approach
Don’t buy attention. Give the community what it lost.
Rather than buy attention, Toyota partnered with Ludwig Ahgren to stand up a reimagined Melee tournament — letting the brand enable the exact thing the community wanted, so the Prius narrative rode in on goodwill instead of a media buy. We pushed further into branded entertainment, including Ludwig’s own spin on Cash Cab.
04 — The Work
A tournament worth thirty hours of live attention.
A reimagined competitive Melee tournament headlined by Ludwig. Roughly 30 hours of live content across three days, plus custom long and short-form video.
Results — Box Score
47M+
Total Impressions
69.3%
Impressions Driven by Ludwig
22%
Live Broadcast Engagement
466K+
Watch Hours
30HRS
Live Content / 3 Days
RECOGNITION