Eleven PR and Sony PlayStation win gold at Pressies for “The GT7 Celebrity Race Off”

Eleven PR and Sony PlayStation put pedal to the metal with their 2022 Pressie Award-winning campaign “The GT7 Celebrity Race Off” which took out gold in the Best Media Partnership category. This action-packed campaign spoke to a wide-audience and pushed the boundaries of what is expected from a media partnership. Angelina Farry, Managing Director at Eleven speaks on what fast-tracked this campaign to success.

What was the most compelling insight behind this campaign?

Right at the start of the campaign we identified a couple of key insights that would influence how we executed the GT7 Celebrity Race Off. 

The first is that the gaming audience is far from what you would expect, it’s not just spotty teenagers in their bedrooms. It’s huge, diverse, and required an approach that ensured we engaged those new to the game, as well as those familiar with its 25-year legacy. We tried to reflect this diversity in our choice of talent, recruiting high profile names such as Portia Woodman, Steve Dunstan, Che Fu and Sarah Walker. 

The second is that people no longer just play video games, there is a huge and growing audience that watches them too. This has been happening for a while on platforms like Twitch and nurtured by Let’s Play Live, but the pandemic really turbocharged this esports trend, attracting more viewers and for the first time exceeding $ 1billion USD in market value.  This was a huge catalyst driving the involvement of traditional sport broadcasters.

Why do you think it won gold?

It was a media partnership that delivered a branded entertainment broadcast without precedent. It was simulcast live on Sky Sport, still the biggest place for sport in NZ, and Twitch – a platform with 30 million daily active users consuming 2.3 billion hours of video a month. 

The action packed, 90-minute live celebrity show hosted by Kara Rickard and with Greg Murphy on racing commentary was watched by an estimated 60,000 people – that’s similar to a Super Rugby game. Add to this six subsequent repeats plus those who watched on the Twitch stream and viewers exceed more than 100,000. That’s 100,000 people putting 90 minutes aside to discover the power and gameplay of the PS5, that GT7 is out and is fun and playable by anybody, no matter your skill level.

It pushed the boundaries of what you’d expect from a media partnership and what a PR agency can deliver. We blended fast cars, diverse celebrities and an innovative media partnership that leaned into the limits of technology to create a truly special entertainment package

What was the biggest challenge you faced while creating the campaign?

The technology that made the experience possible, was also our biggest challenge. We had 10 people streaming live from all over the country while in various stages of lockdown – that’s 10 cameras, microphones, and internet connections to rely on and worry about. There was a huge amount to do to get everyone prepped and ready to ensure the output felt smooth and cohesive. It looked seamless, but there was a lot of work that went on behind the scenes to achieve it. 

Doing all this during a lock-down environment certainly made it harder, the easiest way to execute would be to get everyone together in a space you could control. This wasn’t possible so we had to come up with new ways to execute and ended up delivering in a way that had never been done before.

What was your biggest learning?

A media partnership like this was new territory. It was also executed in a way that was new to our partners so required a lot of collaboration and sharing of experience and expertise. We learnt about production and what goes into making the incredibly technical and complicated become a slick TV package, ready to be broadcast live on Sky Sport and simultaneously via Twitch. 

The best piece of feedback we received came from our media partner, Sky Sport. Convinced by the execution and the audience it attracted, they want to repeat the whole thing again.

What does it mean to you to win a gold at The Pressies in 2022?

It’s fantastic. A recognition of the innovative, creative thinking and hard work that went into pulling this campaign off. And not just for Eleven. But for PlayStation, Let’s Play Live, and Sky Sport. Everyone worked their socks off to make this happen and we are grateful to be awarded a gold in a category that traditionally would be dominated by media agencies.

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