Despite 83% of Black teens identifying as gamers (compared to 71% of White teens), they are underrepresented in the billion-dollar esports industry, with Black professionals making up just 4% of the space.

In 2020, on the heels of PepsiCo’s 5-year, $400MM commitment to investing in Black communities, MTN DEW created the Real Change program to discover, challenge, and uplift the next generation of doers.

While Year 1 of the program focused on elevating Black entrepreneurs, there was an opportunity to amplify impact and create a more ownable platform. The 2022 Year 2 iteration had a refreshed focus on increasing Black representation in esports, capitalizing on MTN DEW’s legacy in gaming.

MTN DEW set out to help close the opportunity gap Black gamers face in exploring esports as a viable career path by providing a platform for HBCU student gamers to take a tangible step forward in reaching their full earning potential.

To provide a platform and community for Black gamers to showcase their talent to the broader gaming industry, MTN DEW partnered with the HBCU Esports League (Cxmmunity Media) and Twitch to produce a bracket-style Call of Duty tournament for HBCU students with a total prize pool of $500,000.

Over three months, teams competed in fighting for their spot in the final four at The Ultimate Game– a live event, final showdown where 1st place took home an $80,000 grand prize.

MTN DEW engaged gaming fans with social content that drove them to Cxmmunity’s Twitch channel, where all matches were broadcasted live for viewers to tune in and follow the tournament.

At the end of the tournament, four students that demonstrated standout performance and sportsmanship were selected as the MTN DEW Real Change Challenge All-Stars. Each All-Star received $50,000 from MTN DEW, along with mentorship and unrivaled exposure to esports pros.

To uncover the barriers Black gamers face in professional esports, MTN DEW facilitated roundtable discussions with 10 experts in Black culture and gaming. Through this insights work, three barriers were determined as areas MTN DEW could best impact:

● Lack of Resources à Give Black gamers the ability to cultivate their skills & gaming acumen

● Lack of Amplification  Amplify their skills on a big stage

● Lack of Always-On Support  Facilitate a multi-year investment and commitment

We assembled an integrated team of partners to help craft the program:

• Cxmmunity Media, a Black-owned organization dedicated to future-proofing diversity in gaming, to build on their platform giving Black students exposure and resources in esports

• 3BLACKDOT, a Black-owned content powerhouse with an endemic YouTube series, Gaming While Black, to create custom content

• Twitch, to engage the community through live streams and provide broad reach & scale

The MTN DEW Real Change Challenge built a powerful platform for Black gamers, embedded in the behaviors & channels critical to their success:

● Live broadcasts on Twitch garnered +9MM Live Minutes watched, equating to over 17 years of watch time

● Broadcasts on Twitch resulted in +3MM Livestream Views

● During each broadcast, we had +340K Live Unique Viewers on average

● Across social, we saw a total reach of 1.23B with a 97% Positive Sentiment

● Since the MTN DEW Real Change initiative launched in 2020, we’ve seen significant growth year over year in terms of earned media reception:

o Year 2 saw a 64.4% growth in impressions over Year 1, garnering 250.8MM impressions

o Sentiment in Year 2 also shifted in an upward direction with 100% Positive Sentiment vs. 81% in Year 1

● 3BLACKDOT custom content resulted in +9.5MM impressions with a 97% Positive Sentiment