The Genesis Curry Flow harnessed the celebrity influence of Stephen Curry and the power of community to result in a sold-out campaign. The campaign bet on the influence and community of gaming platforms to drive sales and attention, and ultimately generate hype among consumers. Instead of banking solely on the celebrity name of Stephen Curry, we bet on the gamers who are active in Discord, the NFT community, and gaming platforms to spread the word in their circles about Under Armour’s first true metaverse wearable.

In December 2021, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was closing in on the world record for 3-point shots. Our client, Under Armour, planned to launch a highly anticipated sneaker in celebration of this incredible accomplishment, but unfortunately, global supply chain problems meant the shoe would not reach the market in time. It also meant there would be very little budget available to celebrate such an important moment. While the world watched in awe as Stephen “changed the basketball game for good,” what could we do without a traditional product and budget to live up to the moment and get Under Armour back into the cultural conversation it had lost to its competitors Adidas and Nike?

Our task was to do something that lived up to the stature of this moment and drove the brand back into a leadership role in culture.

Just as Stephen was changing the game of basketball for good, we changed the metaverse for good by launching the Genesis Curry Flow, the first wearable a player can take with them as they move across platforms. By doing this, we created the first true metaverse wearable, an accomplishment that could live up to the importance of this moment.

We launched 2,974 unique NFTs in five discrete rarities, each one coming with a “shoe locker” where we designed the Genesis Curry Flow into the unique languages of the leading metaverse platforms of Decentraland, The Sandbox, Gala Games, and RKL, giving Stephen’s fandom and the NFT community alike a chance to own a piece of history. The locker connected directly to the platforms, meaning that for the first time, the game player for could enter the distinct worlds with the same unique sneaker, changing the game and the metaverse for good.

It’s one thing to have an insight about the gaming world or even a great idea about “changing the metaverse for good,” but when you have $0 to market your idea, that presents a different challenge. With no traditional media and no influencers to hype up our drop, we instead developed another strategic first by turning gaming platforms into media. Gaming platforms don’t do commercials or much of what might be seen as traditional marketing, but they have large, loyal gamer audiences on Twitter and Discord engaged in conversation with about games. We created high-quality video assets, essentially teasers, for our drop and invited the platforms to get as excited as we were about achieving the first true landmark of metaverse interoperability by sharing with their audiences. The strategy worked beyond our wildest dreams.

The lead-up to the drop began with a simple video asset — a “loot box” that gamers recognize as the sign of something exciting to come. This was distributed throughout the gaming social channels of Decentraland, Gala, The Sandbox, and RKL followed by a video asset of our “Shoe Locker” teasing the interoperability. A 30-second video of our Curry Flow moving through the metaverse platforms, starting with real-life Steph Curry, was dropped to the same gaming audiences. The video captured the core idea by revolving on an axis from one “world” to the next, keeping the sneaker and player central to each world. The 2,974 Genesis Curry Flow NFTs are 3D high-fidelity video assets in five distinct rarities, each focusing on a unique aspect of Steph’s game. Each variant, airdropped to our locker, came with its own specific utility, adding to the value of the holder.

At the time of the drop, over 25 million people had visited our site. When the drop went live, 4.5 million tried to buy the digital sneaker, ensuring the shoes sold out in minutes. All proceeds from the initial sale went to Under Armour’s charities, resulting in $1 million raised for Access to Sports. Secondary sales followed and continue to rise, with over $17 million in volume, contributing to greater funds for the charities, paying for the cost of the entire marketing campaign more than twice over and setting a new standard for how to generate a true metaverse product.

Our campaign was No. 1 on Polygon for over a week, earning over 1.3 billion impressions with $0 paid media and an overall 98% positive sentiment. The campaign was also picked up by over 30 media outlets, including Time, WSJ, Hypebeast and CoinDesk, proving this truly was a cross-platform campaign.