Activision, owner of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, had never done an ad campaign in Brazil. Due to the country’s economy today, the game needed a boost to sell more. How to talk millions of people who lost their jobs in the middle of a pandemic into buying a video game? One word: passion. We chose Charlie Brown Jr., Brazil’s official skateboarding band – thanks to lead singer Chorão. A former pro skateboarder, he encouraged his fans to ride their skateboards. He died in 2013 and would have turned 50 in 2020, the year Tony Hawk's 1+2 was released. We used that occasion to encourage fans to ask the game to feature the band. It worked. The song "Confisco" was included in the game, and we created an official music clip featuring more than 170 hours of unreleased footage of the last days of the lead singer.

Video games try to simulate real life. The more real a game looks, the more perfect it is. When it comes to a skateboarding game, the closest thing to real life is to skateboard while listening to your favorite music. So, to bring Tony Hawk 's Pro Skater 1+2 as close as possible to real life for Brazilians, we included in the game a song of the band that stands for skateboarding in Brazil: Charlie Brown Jr. For the first time ever, a campaign included a song in the official soundtrack of a game.

Strategically, the key thing was to break out of the bubble of the gamer community and make the new release fall into the mainstream by being covered by lifestyle, celebrity, variety, culture and music media – not to mention technology and gaming publications. Because all media would be executed via PR and partnerships with content creators, we needed to plant conversations in the exact right places, by combining public profiles who were fans of the franchise, fans of Charlie Brown Jr., people obsessed with all things 1900s/2000s, and potential buyers of the game.

The song "Confisco" was included in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2’s official soundtrack and saw its name mentioned in every promotional material. There’s always a lot of buzz around the bands featuring in the game. It was not different this time. When the soundtrack was announced, the whole world learned that Charlie Brown Jr. was on it. Brazilians fans felt honored and appreciated, helping make the game a best seller. In addition to that promotion, we launched a video music for the song in Brazil, with more than 170 hours of unreleased footage of lead singer Chorão in his last years. The fact that the song features both in the game and in a YouTube video increases the range of that communications piece, as it can be consumed by anyone with an internet connection. Plus, they will never stop running.

The campaign had a massive impact on social media, reaching beyond the gamer community and becoming a Trending Topic on Twitter and YouTube. The asset generated more than 6.3M in impact and 1.2M organic views. According to our initial results on Week 1.33k units were sold. Top 3 countries: Brazil #1, leading the sales with 51% share; Mexico #2 with 16%; Chile 13%. The game was extremely strong on Digital with 77% total share. Local flavor in game (athletes and BR song) and local assets on THPS Launch campaign with CBJr music video went viral and reached a massive level on social media. More than 6.3 Million in impact and more than 1.2M viewers. YouTube views: 1.5+ organically. Official Playstation account post: 6.2+ impression / 19.5% engagement.