Lenovo: We Are The Silver Snipers [Supporting Images] 2

Credits & Description:

Brand LENOVO
Entrant EHRENSTRAHLE DDB STOCKHOLM
EHRENSTRAHLE DDB Stockholm, Sweden Entrant Company
EHRENSTRAHLE DDB Stockholm, Sweden Idea Creation
LINKFILM Uppsala, Sweden Production
EHRENSTRAHLE DDB Stockholm, Sweden PR
TEXT 100 Stockholm, Sweden PR
TOTAL MEDIA London, United Kingdom Media Placement
LENOVO Kista, Sweden Additional Company
Joakim Estemar Ehrenstråhle Creative / copywriter
Oskar Ferm Ehrenstråhle Creative / art director
Jonna Peltonen Ehrenstråhle Production Manager
Anna Mattsson Ehrenstråhle Social Media Manager
Victor Söderblom Ehrenstråhle Digital Data Strategist
Mia Kleist Ehrenstråhle Account Manager
Lisa Thunander Ehrenstråhle Graphic Designer
Susanne Andersson Ehrenstråhle Final Art / Editing
Sofia Rönnqvist Ehrenstråhle Final art / Editing
Markus Bjurman Ehrenstråhle Creative Director
Published: February 2017
Synopsis:
This is not a campaign. This is doing things different. E-sport is the fastest growing sport in the world and this makes it the arena for new tech brands to be seen at. So, what could we do to make Lenovo stand out in an already busy and aggressive playing field? Well, we started with Lenovo’s belief “Different is Better” and took it from there. In November 2017 we embodied ´different´ in the shape of a never before seen Counter Strike team of elderly folks between 63 and 81 years of age. After two weeks of fierce training we hi-jacked Dreamhack, one of the biggest gaming events of the year, and entered our ´Silver Snipers´ to take on the international pro-teams of skilled youngsters in the competition. And it was an outstanding success. No tv-campaigns, no posters, no celebrities, no paid for influencers or clicks. Only a very different and lovable team entered at the center stage of a hard-to-reach scene, a website and a few social posts causing a stir in 157 countries, appearing on over 400 news sites, reaching the no 87 most upvoted story of all time on Reddit and even seen on state owned national TV in China. And most importantly, Lenovo’s very different team of Silver Snipers have gone from a quiet life of tea and cakes to e-sport idols for gamers all over the planet, now embarking on their first world tour.
Synopsis
Situation: E-sport is the fastest growing sport in the world with 113 million fans worldwide / 147 million occasional viewers (2015). The competition between brands wanting to make an impression is fierce and the gamers themselves are a notoriously hard to reach audience.
Brief / Challenge: Lenovo wanted to promote their brand and line of gaming computer hardware ‘Legion’ to this audience. The budget was limited (Approx $20, 000 in total), which immediately cancelled out any major production and ATL media campaign. It also challenged our use of bigger names within influencers among the gaming industry, which could have helped us. Another challenge was to find the best way of reaching the gamers on our market, when most of them consume media on a global scale.
Strategy
Target Audience: Young gamers and fans on our market.
PR planning & approach: As our audience consume game-related news on a global scale rather than local, we had to re-imagine the tools on how to reach them, be effective, stand out and mind the budget. We chose to launch our team on a website and enter ´different´ in shape of an actual living pro-team of elderly into a real live event where the world is watching. A combination of digital, social and real live event.
Relevancy
We saw an opportunity to reach right into the heart of the gaming community by entering our campaign vehicle at one of the biggest gaming events of the year, using it as a springboard for our campaign. Instantly it spread around the world, among the hardcore gaming fans and out into the general public only aided by a website and some social media posts.
Outcome
- People from 157 different countries visited the Silver Snipers website
- 144 000 upvotes on Reddit
- 116 million in total reach
- Social Media Engagement target: 100.000
- Social Media Engagement result: 679.911
- 434 780 views on Imgur
- News coverage from 400 websites
Execution
In November 2017 we embodied ´different´ in the shape of a never before seen Counter Strike team of elderly men and women, between 63 and 81 years of age on our website. After two weeks of training (shared on social media) we hi-jacked Dreamhack, one of gaming’s biggest events of the year and entered our ´Silver Snipers´ to take on the international pro-teams. A very different and lovable team entered at the center stage of a hard-to-reach scene, a website and a few social posts causing a stir in 157 countries, appearing on over 400 news sites, even reaching national TV in China.
Campaign Description
When looking at e-sports, we found that it as a culture attracts mainly young men (10:1 ratio 2018), both playing and following, excluding not only women, but also older people. The elderly are also seen as the digital underclass. We started with Lenovo’s belief “Different is Better” and found that doing something different could really be about challenging the norms of the actual players taking part. Because gaming really isn’t about physical status or about who you are or where you’re from. Anyone should be able to take part. As a result, we created the world’s first senior CS:GO team – The Silver Snipers.