Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

With almost zero brand awareness, OMEN needed to stand out in a highly competitive PC gaming market. While the competition talks about specs and technical terms, we took on a cultural message deeply rooted in how gamers feel. We discovered that 74% of South Koreans believe “society betrays hard work.” The insight: in PC gaming, all users are equal. Players start with the same amount of resources, time and rewards based upon effort. OMEN took a stand against unfairness, celebrating the spirit of PC gaming in a way that created nationwide conversation about fairness in gaming and beyond.

Background

Context: OMEN PC’s are purpose-built for the best gaming experiences, but OMEN is relatively new to Koreans. Research found that Korean gamers tend to be more competitive compared with other countries, in order to survive social inequalities. We saw a great opportunity to ignite conversation around this privilege and encourage gamers to stand for the fact that your skill is not given, it is earned. Brief: Get enthusiasts and proud gamers to recognize OMEN as a differentiated brand that stands for equal opportunity through PC gaming, by igniting conversation with the brand’s provocative point of view. Objectives: Drive awareness and differentiate the OMEN brand to establish a unique brandworld that would continue to generate conversation.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

In a society that helps you progress in life due to your background, your family connections or your looks, we showed that OMEN stands for progress that is fairly earned, not given. The campaign ‘We Don’t Care’ goes head on with the cultural challenges people face, taking a stance as the only gaming brand where you define yourself by your skills, not anything else. In the hero film, we launched our brand point of view, going against parent connections, cryptocurrency and other avenues that helped people progress in life, showing a clear way out with the world of PC gaming. We also created influencer personalized key visuals to strengthen our point of view in the gaming community, with LCK pro gamers and gaming streamers who share the OMEN philosophy.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

HP OMEN believes in ‘Play To Progress’. They champion gaming and gamers by supporting them as they progress. Throughout our research about Korean gamers, we found found that 74% of South Koreans in their 20s experience unfairness or injustice, feeling that South Korean society betrays hard work. For them, PC Gaming is the place where they can escape from reality. Many Korean gamers plunge themselves into gaming to cope with problems at home, financial instability, or the pressures of living in a society that views academic excellence and a college education as the only legitimate avenues to a good life. However, PC gaming is the only place where you have equal opportunities to progress and realize a sense of achievement and pride that is fairly earned. Thus, we wanted to define ‘Play to Progress’ in Korea: OMEN is the place where achievement is earned, not given.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

At the beginning of the holistic brand campaign, we created a manifesto film to show what kind of privileges dominate our gamers’ thoughts in Korea and tapped into it with the statement: “We Don’t Care. The only thing we care about is your skill in the game”. To spread the message effectively within the gaming community, we found that League of Legends is the fairest game, where skill is the only thing that matters. So, OMEN partnered with LCK (League of Legends Championships Korea), and showed each LCK pro player’s statement in bold key visuals. Also, by collaborating with popular League of Legends streamers in Korea, they helped us demonstrate our brand philosophy through their story and game, in real-time livestreams throughout the LCK summer season.

List the results (30% of vote)

With 35 Millions views, 59 billion impressions, and 256k engagements, the campaign didn’t only become a heavily debated topic in the gaming universe, but scaled to a wider cultural conversation around unfairness. Many South Koreans stated the campaign hit the truth of how people feel, and celebrated the spirit of gamers in a way never seen before. Comments: “A message containing the zeitgeist of the 2030 generation who are angry at ‘double standards’ and being asked ‘what does your father do?’” “Through the ad, even those who are negative about PC games can realize that PC gaming is a place where they can compete fairly.” With almost no brand presence or awareness in South Korea, we successfully raised mass awareness (increased from 16% -> 27%), tripled the OMEN market share, and generated new records in revenue (+198% YoY), differentiating the OMEN brand away from PC specs, into a cultural conversation.

Please tell us about the challenger brand and how your campaign challenged / was different from your competitors

While competitors mainly focus on their technical specifications, OMEN went beyond that to add more value to the brand. Throughout this campaign, we clearly positioned OMEN as the gaming brand and PC that truly recognizes Korean gamers for their hard work and fairly earned progress, and we encouraged the community to take a stand for fairly earned progress.