Similar to the music industry, the energy drinks market is a crowded and competitive space in which it’s almost impossible to make it to the top. Red Bull’s ubiquitous cultural presence, and Monster’s huge global footprint means there isn’t a lot of limelight left for any of the many challengers.

Far from an actual rockstar, Rockstar Energy was lacking awareness, relevance, and was rarely top of mind - especially at the point of purchase. After years of inconsistent communications, most people didn’t know what it was, and the ones that did, didn’t know what it stood for.

It was time for change.

Rockstar was in need of a big moment to reconnect with an evolving audience mindset. In order to cut through a crowded category, it needed to be innovative, impactful, fresh, and entertaining. The goal was to drive cultural relevance by creating a meaningful association with music.

To match our audience’s mindset, and increasing desire for fun in the face of toxic hustle culture, we developed a new creative platform: Press Play. This positioned the brand as the provider of the emotional and physical lift our audience needed in transitional moments, to help them Press Play on the things they love.

To bring this idea to life, we partnered with the world’s biggest music platform, Spotify, to create the first ever multiverse concert experience on the platform, with one of the UK’s most entertaining and chart-topping artists out: Stormzy. Users could switch seamlessly between 5 different worlds and 5 different Stormzys – from a real life Stormzy on stage to a virtual Stormzy performing inside a Street Fighter-inspired game – simply by tapping their screen. Each world was a representation of our audience’s interests, further amplifying the emotional lift they were looking for.

On Friday, 21st July at 5pm, as people were ready to unplug from work, we hosted the first-ever multiverse concert experience on Spotify, featuring not 1 but 5 different Stormzys, in 5 immersive worlds.

In ‘City Nights’, Stormzy performed against mesmerising neon-lit nightscapes, creating an electrifying performance. Drawing inspiration from his love of gaming, the ‘Gaming’ world immersed fans in scenes inspired by popular action-adventure games. The 'Abstract' world showcased a striking silhouette of Stormzy against colourful backdrops, amplifying the energy through artful settings. Finally, the 'Explore' world transported viewers to see the global artist take the stage in awe-inspiring supernatural landscapes.

We created this experience by capturing Stormzy performing live, we then recreated the performance in a motion capture studio – with Stormzy serving as his own body double.

We matched each moment from the original performance move for move, angle for angle before using the data to recreate his performance in Unreal Engine – developing 4 more unique worlds, 4 more Stormzy avatars, and ultimately, 4 additional versions of the concert. We developed 21 stages across these five worlds, crafted with details that drew inspiration from our audience’s interests.

With our 5 different versions of the gig, we allowed users to switch seamlessly between the 5 different worlds without skipping a beat – from the man in the flesh to a gaming world Stormzy – the camera angles, his body position, and the audio remaining perfectly in sync throughout.