Why is this work relevant for Media?

As the world’s most popular mobile game, King of Glory’s userbase had dramatically changed, with female gamers now outranking men. However, despite this, the gaming world had not adapted in line to give female gamer’s their due representation in-game. By creating an owned media in the form of an avatar in game, Pizza Hut was not only able to win over the 100M+ community of female gamers, but ensure that it received permanent brand placement free-of-charge in one of the most typically expensive sponsorship environments.

Background

King of Glory (also known as Honor of Kings) is the No.1 mobile game globally, with over 50M DAU and 200M players (Source: Tencent). Because of its popularity, it has an extremely high sponsorship cost. Each year, King of Glory allows its gamer community to vote for one new community-created avatar to be brought into the game as a regular character. As a long-term partner of the game, Pizza Hut wanted to ensure it got in on the game and connected with players, helping to prevent entry from other competitors looking to make their mark in the lucrative eSports world. So, when King of Glory reopened the competition, Pizza Hut knew that this was its door into the game for free, without having to overcome the hurdles of high sponsorship costs.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

The Rise of Girl Power: As a long-term strategic partner of King of Glory, Pizza Hut had just the insight no other partner had to help it win the competition: King of Glory’s user base was changing significantly. Originally 10% at inception, its female user-base had grown to an impressive 52%, with female gamers now out-ranking males (Source: Jiquang). Despite this, more often than not, male avatars won the competition, depriving female gamers of their due recognition in-game. So, Pizza Hut created 'Little Magic Cook', a female avatar adored by female gamers for her strength and intelligence. While she is attractive, she is a recognized symbol of feminine power, unlike the vast majority of sexualized female avatars in King of Glory.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

To give female gamers their long-overdue recognition, Pizza Hut created 'Little Magic Cook' - a powerful, yet non-sexualized female avatar to inspire and connect with King of Glory's 100M+ female gamers. Creating a social competition, Pizza Hut encouraged all female gamers, as well as their boyfriends, to unite behind Little Magic Cook and hack the annual avatar vote, defeating the abundant male characters in the game.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Creating a social competition to hijack the annual vote, Pizza Hut encouraged all female gamers to unite behind Little Magic Cook to defeat the other characters. To hijack the avatar vote, Pizza Hut needed to provoke a social movement amongst the gamer community. PRE-VOTE: Pizza Hut ignited a social revolution on Weibo and Douyin (TikTok). Calling on the female gamer community to unite forces, Pizza Hut created content and encouraged fans to create their own UGC to drive votes. In addition, Pizza Hut promised discounts on a win. DURING THE VOTING PERIOD: Pizza Hut inspired the female gamer community to get strategic, encouraging them to post UGC content on male vertical communities, namely Bilibili and HuPu Sports, asking their boyfriends as well as male gamers for their support. POST-VOTE: Pizza Hut kept to its promise and offered 70% discount coupons to gamers, amplifying the win with pro-team and KOL endorsements.

List the results (30% of vote)

With $0 media budget, Pizza Hut successfully got Little Magic Cook permanently integrated into the game, winning over 73M votes to take the No.1 spot - the first female character to ever do so in the game’s history! As a result of the social movement, Pizza Hut earned nearly 400M media impressions for free across different platforms (Source: Pizza Hut). In addition, Pizza Hut created much needed support for female gamers in the community, with more than 10 top King of Glory eSports clubs taking to social media to commemorate the historic first female avatar win, finally giving female gamers their due representation.

Please tell us how disruption in your market place inspired the work

As a long-time supporter of the eSport’s world, Pizza Hut wanted to promote the slogan ‘必胜’ – ‘Must Win’. As part of this, Pizza Hut noticed that although the userbase of King of Glory had dramatically shifted, female gamers weren’t winning when it came to equal representation in game. Having originally created Little Magic Cook back in 2016, but having failed to win the vote, Pizza Hut decided that now was its time for female gamers to unite behind Little Magic Cook to win the vote once and for all. In doing so, Pizza Hut was able to ensure that female gamers not only got their due representation, but also that a female avatar finally won the vote for the first time in the game’s history.