New Balance is a growing challenger athletic brand with a global footprint and reputation that it sells products more suitable to Gen X than Gen Z. Given the rise of eSports as both a younger consumer passion and legitimate athletic category, New Balance wanted to enter the eSports arena while remaining true to their "Fearlessly Independent Since 1906" mantra.

The brief was simple: Create a shareable experience for eSports players and fans, that connected with the brand’s hometown of Boston and didn’t involve guns. Given the top global games are all first-person-shooters and New Balance didn’t want to touch violence, that last part was a true challenge.

The objectives were twofold: First, generate awareness within the eSports community for New Balance as a brand they could wear and share. Second, use paid impressions to generate earned impressions.

We reinvented race sponsorships for New Balance after more than 100 years in business and hacked Fortnite with an endurance course modeled after the Boston Marathon.

We partnered with Jack "Cizzorz" Cizek, a professional Fortnite player with a large social following and a reputation for using custom map tools in Fortnite to develop incredibly difficult maps. The design of our map was inspired by the Boston Marathon route through New Balance’s backyard and we challenged all Fortnite players to give it their best shot.

Winning times would receive cash, shoes, charitable donations on their behalf, and uber-exclusive apparel from a New Balance X Cizzorz collaboration that could only be won, never purchased. Lastly, we'd refer to the program as a "Fun Run" but as a deeply sarcastic name since we had every intention of making the map as grueling as a marathon.

We conducted a large quantitative study of 2,300 Millennial and GenZ consumers, screened to find those with a shared mindset, interested in the sport and style category, and familiar with/interested in New Balance. We called them the Independents, and Running With Cizzorz was a response to a brief filled with insights about this unique target. Among those insights:

-65% are gamers with 30% spending 20-plus hours per week gaming.

-They're 107% more likely to choose watching eSports over an NFL or MLB game.

-3x more likely than genpop to visit Twitch frequently and 4x more likely to engage with influencers on Twitch.

-30% watch gaming content on YouTube.

-60% expect brands and influencers to support causes they care about.

Armed with those insights, we felt confident in picking the right platforms for the right idea and could focus on creating an authentic experience with organic reach and minimal media support.

Cizzorz designed the Fun Run map in Fortnite with seven levels, each inspired by Boston but with a distinctly Fortnite-friendly twist. For example, Heartbreak Hill, the race section Boston Marathoners dread, inspired the lava-floored level in the Fun Run called Heartbreak Hell.

Cizzorz supported the race with teaser, introduction, launch, reaction, and winner video content uploaded to Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter for his 6.6 million combined followers to watch and react to, for a total of 20 pieces of custom video content.

The “Fun Run” was announced on 3/31/19, the course revealed on 4/6/19, access to the course opened for one week on 4/8/19. Reactions to player submissions went live on 4/15/19 and top 25 winners named on 4/17/19.

Our tongue-in-cheek approach to creating a challenge for Fortnite players that was the opposite of fun paid off as players and their fans relished in the anguish of difficult endurance test.

-35M+ total race video views (2.5M were guaranteed)

-40M+ total impressions (2.5M were guaranteed)

-1M+ estimated players tried the map

-2.1M social engagements (Likes, shares, comments) fueled a 6% engagement rate, more than 6x brand benchmarks.

-60% of the views were driven by influential players who tackled the “Fun Run” without us telling them it existed or offering payment. A truly organic moment.

-They broadcasted their attempts on Twitch during 900 unique streams.

-And of the 657 Fun Run clips uploaded to YouTube, 5 trended worldwide.

-The wildly positive reactions to the Cizzorz X New Balance winners-only hoodie collection inspired New Balance to consider significant future investment in support of fearlessly independent players across even more games.