The brief was to create a Christmas campaign for KPN which would stand out among the many other more traditional Christmas campaigns, especially those by the major supermarkets, and make KPN top of mind during this important business period. The challenge was to avoid Christmas clichés, while still communicating a clear Christmas story within KPN’s ongoing ‘Feel Free’ campaign, which centres around connecting people with the world around them.

We chose to shine a light on a subculture that is growing fast and is quickly becoming a massive target group: online gamers. A subculture with close friendship groups and completely idiosyncratic codes of behaviour. We brought together a band of international online gaming friends who had never met offline before. By doing so, we demonstrated how online gaming can lead to important friendships, and helped other audiences understand the bonding power of online gaming - to the delight of the Dutch gaming scene.

The gamers’ Christmas dinner is recorded in a short online road movie, in which we follow a few of the gamers and speak to them prior to, and on their way to the Christmas dinner. They talk about what online friendships mean to them in comparison to conventional friendships. This documentary was then broadcast as a TV commercial in a shortened version.

In order to make KPN top of mind during the busy holiday season, our aim was to tell a story that would not only resonate with gamers, but that would transcend the subculture and appeal to all demographics. We searched for an insight that would feel very relatable to the gaming scene, but that would also be understood by the rest of the Netherlands. The idea that gamers built up important friendships online without ever seeing each other offline felt like something that would not only make a great story, it would also help other non gamers to understand the appeal of playing online games, while positioning KPN as a brand that brings people together.

We then moulded this insight into an extensive campaign and added a relevant new proposition for online gaming: fast internet including lots of free Playstation gifts.

To make this film authentic we needed REAL gamer clans who had been gaming together for a long time but had never met in real life. We actually found many stories and willing groups to collaborate.

Mats’ squad made the cut by sheer enthusiasm, energy and humour. 7 young lads from 4 different countries. With a true bromance without ever meeting IRL.

We gave them all the freedom they needed. All we asked was “Would you like us to document your real-life meet up?”. They chose where and how. We followed their road trip to the rendez-vous.

However, we did plan meticulously how the group would meet for the first time.

We kept them apart and timed when they met. But we did not direct anything from the moment Mats and Dylan first saw each other (just two cameras to film, one fixed and one with a DOP).

Our Christmas campaign went on to become one of our most effective brand campaigns for KPN in recent years. Not only did it lead to a significant increase in brand consideration and an extensive boost in sales, it scored over 20% above KPI for brand engagement specifically for the gamer audiences, and led to significant increases on all relevant brand associations for all audiences. Its impact can be best summarized with a single tweet posted by one of its viewers: “KPN won the Christmas ad war this year”.