How do you get gamers to even consider buying gaming products from a mobile carrier?

Verizon was launching +gear tech accessories, hoping to attract gamers to buy equipment direct from them. But Verizon isn't Best Buy, Amazon or Newegg to gamers. So Verizon partnered with one of the biggest gaming streamers in the world, DrLupo, and asked us to launch +gear in a way that felt authentic to his 4.4M followers.

Armed with some decent discounts and a few prizes to promote the launch, we gamified a giveaway in a sponsored Twitch stream called Goals for +gear.

We gave DrLupo a list of challenges that he had to complete in the smash-hit battle royale shooter, Apex Legends. Every challenge DrLupo beat unlocked bigger +gear discounts for his viewers, driving them to the +gear store to redeem. Below are some highlights from the sponsored stream. 

We couldn't have DrLupo beat the challenges too easily. We also couldn't have a Verizon sponsored stream where he didn't hit unlock any discounts leaving chat pissed off at Verizon. As a gamer who's played Apex Legends once or twice-million times, I curated the below goals list with a range that would sustain the stream while entertaining DrLupo's fans as he gleefully tried to beat them.  

We achieved the impossible: we had gamers on Twitch literally spamming THANK U VERIZON I LOVE YOU VERIZON in the chat.

Verizon +gear was a wild success at launch. goals for +gear helped smash Verizon's sales targets by 63%.