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Branded Entertainment / Original Format

Ludwig’s Flying Aces

Ludwig ran his own version of Top Gun’s flight school live on stream for the next class of creators.

CLIENT

Paramount Pictures / Top Gun: Maverick

MY ROLE

Creative strategy, creator partnership, live production

YEAR

2022

Atrioc, in aviators, and Ludwig, in a Top Gun flight suit, at their mics on Ludwig’s stream

CHALLENGE

The goal was to build awareness ahead of the theatrical release and get people into seats. We didn’t want the usual creator posts telling people to go see it, we wanted a full program that could stand on its own and stick with people longer than a single post.

INSIGHT

A mentor finding and training the next class is the story of the film, and it also happens to be a competition format that works really well on Twitch. Giving rising creators a chance to learn and get featured alongside established names is what made it work, because when the prize is real career momentum, the audience actually cares who wins.

A contestant in a flight suit and red headband talks among flight suits and aviation memorabilia

1 / 4

APPROACH

Twenty-four up-and-coming creators competed over four weeks and were eliminated week by week until one was left. Ludwig hosted as Maverick, with other established creators coming in as Maverick Mentors to judge and coach, and the film’s content was built into the stream so it never felt like it was being played at the audience. The best moments came from the community itself: contestants Evan Gao and Gunnar became recurring characters, chat started #TopGunnar on its own, and a clip of Atrioc cracking an egg on Ludwig’s face made it to r/LivestreamFail without any push from us.

RESULTS

17.3M+

Creator-driven impressions

17K

Average concurrents

31.6K+

Organic chat mentions

24

Contestants

4

Weeks live

TALENT PARTNERS

Ludwig Ahgren / Myth / QTCinderella / Atrioc / Sydeon

Chat mentioned the program more than 31,600 times without being prompted, and the contestants got four weeks in front of an audience averaging 17,000 concurrent viewers.

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