Pringles wanted to become the ultimate gaming snack. So to standout in the epic world of gaming, we connected an unmissable gaming experience to the cultural zeitgeist of human vs. machine: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to land the world’s first paid virtual job in a game. Stocking a Pringles vending machine of course.

Pringles are on a mission to become the ultimate gaming snack; to become as much of a gaming accessory as the gaming headset itself. Our chip is perfectly designed for gaming: with less grease and less mess than other snacks, we help gamers to stay focused on their game. But to get gamer attention we had to really prove its power to keep gamers in the game.

There’s no harder place to do this than the world of gaming. A fiercely competitive space - not just between brands, but also among the gaming experiences this audience is there for.

In addition to raising awareness that Pringles is the perfect snack for gamers, the campaign creates a buzz by giving one lucky member of the public the chance to become an NPC in the Train Sim World 3 game in European markets.

We had to get the attention of hard-to-impress-seen-it-all-before gamers and prove that Pringles are the chip that helps you stay in the game more than any other snack. But to get this message across in the gaming world, our strategy needed to go beyond traditional comms and create a shared cultural moment the gaming community would genuinely engage in.

How could we demonstrate Pringles’ ability to keep gamers in their game, in a way that felt culturally relevant and sparked conversation? We tapped into the world’s biggest moral panic of the moment: machine vs. human. With AI in the spotlight, there’s a huge global conversation around robots taking human jobs. We saw an opportunity in gaming to fight back on behalf of humans, and put our chip at the centre of this debate in a humorous way.

The world’s first paid job in a game. Working with XBOX and the game Train Sim we offered gamers the chance to become a non-playable character whose role it was to restock Pringles vending machines in the game. The job paid $25,000. You had to be human to apply. This ‘annoyed’ existing NPCs, whose virtual rage we used to promote the job offer. The robots were used to taking human jobs - they didn't like it when we took one of theirs.

The successful applicant would then be transformed into their virtual NPC selves to begin work and stay in the game, indefinitely.

Our recruitment campaign started on 20 June, 2022 in the real world with experiential and OOH but quickly moved into the virtual space, with recruitment ads inside popular gaming titles - unmissable in-game OOH, as well as social platforms. We also created a supporting series of films highlighting the disgruntled NPCs from the Train Sim game.

We worked with Xbox and Train Sim developers to ensure our NPC was a true likeness of the winner, and fit seamlessly into the game.

On 8 November, 2022 the successful applicant was announced and transformed into an NPC live on Twitch and transported into the game to begin work. And in the game they will stay, indefinitely.

The campaign ran in the European market, focusing on UK, France and Germany.

Our objectives were attention and engagement around our ‘stay in the game’ message. We went beyond functional messages about our chip, and created an attention-grabbing experience that got gamers to take notice.

Our world-first gaming stunt got gamers’ attention, with over 42m total impressions. People were keen to prove why they would be the best NPC - one made an entire game just to prove they should be our NPC, one built a 3m tall can, several made life-size 'vending machines', others put themselves and Pringles in gaming titles eg Minecraft. And we got them hooked on our livestream transformation with over 2.8m minutes watched, 528,000 viewers and 20,000 engagements, smashing our KPIs based on our previous gaming campaigns by over 40%. In a space full of new game releases and innovative tech news, we also made gaming headlines, with 91 pieces of press, including national coverage.

At the heart of this idea was a blurring of lines between the real and virtual worlds. In a world where AI and machines are taking more and more human jobs, it was an opportunity for us to strike back on behalf of humans and get gamers excited along the way.