Get Lost in the Game
Respawn is gum and mints for gamers, by gamers. We had a micro budget and the hardest audience in advertising, so we launched it the only way they’d respect: we built the brand like a game. A target to win over, a boss to beat, and three levels to clear.
The objective
Launch Respawn by building the brand like a game. Not a campaign about games. A campaign that plays like one, with objectives, levels and achievements, so gamers would recognize the rules before they recognized the ad.
The target
Gamers. Constantly online, hard to reach, used to speed, hooked on constant excitement, and allergic to outsiders posing as community. To win, we needed a campaign that keeps them locked in. The line wrote itself: Get Lost in the Game.
Level 1: Earn trust
Objective: spawn inside gamer circles with real stories. We interviewed real gamers and creators, then built each spot’s hero character out of their answers, right down to the gear. A space soldier with a laser and two ships. A fire‑boss fight. A getaway supercar. Five products, five flavors, five stories, five spots.
Achievement unlocked: characters built from real gamers.
New boss approaching
Then the comments came in. “Is it just me or did you think these were vapes?” The sleek packs looked like vapes, or a loot drop. Every game has a boss. That was ours.
Level 2: Product education
Objective: show gamers Respawn isn’t a vape (or a loot drop). The product sits at the center of every spot and every transition, and the worlds are built out of the flavors themselves: Watermelon Guava Rush became a guava‑and‑watermelon island with a fruit‑kart race through it. We used practical effects on set, previsualized every room down to the rug, and kept the pack on screen until nobody could mistake it.
Achievement unlocked: maximum product clarity.
Level 3: Amplify
Objective: create more spots, for every type of gamer. One micro‑budget production turned into a wall of spots and cutdowns for every feed and every kind of player.
The result
Two Platinum MarCom Awards, and a gum brand that walked into the gaming world like it belonged there.
