Title	FIRST PERSON LOVER
Brand	BJÖRN BORG
Product/Service	SPORTS APPAREL
Category	C01. Use of Digital in a PR campaign
Entrant Company	GARBERGS Stockholm, SWEDEN
Advertising Agency	GARBERGS Stockholm, SWEDEN
PR Agency	PATRIKSSON COMMUNICATION Stockholm, SWEDEN
Production Company	ISBIT Stockholm, SWEDEN

Name	Company	Position
Anna Frick	Garbergs	Account Director
Ida Tenggren	Garbergs	Production Manager
Lotta Mårlind	Garbergs	Art Director
Sedir Ajeenah	Garbergs	Copywriter
William Löthman	Garbergs	Interactive Art Director
Hampus Mattsson	Garbergs	Co-creative
Michael Ring	Garbergs	Digital Co-creative
Mattias Alfborger	Garbergs	Digital Creative
Robin Lidbom	Garbergs	Agency Assistant
Lina Söderkvist	Björn Borg	Global Marketing Director
Jonas Lundberg Nyvang	Björn Borg	Marketing Director
Annika Kopp	Patriksson Communication	Ceo And Partner
Sara Bourke	Patriksson Communication	Account Director
Carl Von Wachenfelt	Patriksson Communication	Senior Pr Account Director
Michaela Hamilton	Patriksson Communication	Account Manager

The Campaign

Our brief was to launch sports fashion brand Björn Borgs collection and reach their target group. For Björn Borg, that means 18-25 year olds, and knowingly, gaming is one of the most popular activities amongst them.As a welcomed diversion from the fashion norm, the idea of First Person Lover was born. The game introduced a new platform for e-commerce; in-game shopping. We launched First Person Lover at Stockholm Fashion Week, with a fashion show inspired by the game. The models wore masks from the playable characters. Thanks to the innovative approach, it became the most talked about show during fashion week and we gained free media coverage on prime time national TV. Closer to the game launch, we released trailers on YouTube. The game was available at firstpersonlover.com where visitors could play it in their browser or download it to their PC or Mac, follow a live leader board and view the new collection. As we developed the game, we spent a lot of time including elements that gamers would pick up and spread, hoping to reach influencers that would try out the game (and talk about it). This included everything from internet jokes to political references. Post game launch, an outdoor campaign with our playable characters as fashion models was rolled out. We also showed a live global scoreboard on digital billboards on train stations. First Person Lover was covered in international media such as CBS News, The Washington Post, Spiegel Online, The Verge etc.

The Brief

Lately, young men’s media habits have fragmented, and they are over-represented in using media that they actively opt in for. The challenge for us was to create communication that would reach our target using media channels that they already was using and not drive them to our media channels. We would have to adapt and conform to their world, in a credible way. Based on the insight that the majority of our target audience are gamers, we decided that we would launch our new collection through an actual game. Hoping to attract the gaming community, and therefore, the right audience.

Execution

We launched First Person Lover at Stockholm Fashion Week, with a fashion show inspired by the game – the models wore masks from the playable characters. Thanks to the innovative approach, it became the most talked about show during fashion week and we gained free media coverage on prime time national TV. As we developed the game, we spent a lot of time including elements that gamers would pick up and spread, hoping to the reach influencers that would try the game (and talk about it). During launch week, it was reviewed on Kotaku, one of the largest gaming sites in the world – calling it ”one of the most fabulous things I’ve ever seen” – and featured in gamer PewDiePie’s (the world’s biggest Youtube account) videos. Shortly after, international media started to report about First Person Lover.

Several media have reported, including Spiegel Online, The Washington Post, Fast Company and CBS News - leading to an estimated PR worth of €9,5 million. The success generated over 300 articles and blogs with a high affinity in the target group and it has been shared 15.000 times in social media. Many gamers got passionate and over 700 fan/review videos have been uploaded to YouTube (with over 23 million views so far). The game has been played in 190 countries by over 512 000 unique players. The total reach was 44 million that in effect generated a 20% increase in consideration in the target group. The business impact of the in-game shopping feature resulted in a 40% increase in sales on the its webshop (YoY). Still today the game is the largest traffic driver after Google. And yes, Björn Borg increased their market share.

The Strategy

To follow Björn Borg´s mission to ‘take an active stand for more love in the world’, we had to find a common denominator. As the majority of games are about shooting each other, we decided to take on the gaming world´s violent nature and parody the first person shooter-genre. As we developed the game, we integrated various PR elements that we hoped the gaming community would pick up on and start talking about. If we got people talking about the game, eventually influencers would pick up on it and pass it on to their fans - organically adding credibility to the game. As the game was at the heart of the launch, it inspired every piece communication outside the game such as the fashion show to the interactive look book. The game also introduced a whole new platform for e-commerce; in-game shopping without even leaving the game!