HP OMEN - Only Skill Matters
Helping an unknown gaming brand breakthrough in Korea, by championing hard work and skill, not privilege.
We were tasked with launching OMEN in a highly competitive PC gaming market. So we needed to find a way to break through in culture. We discovered that South Koreans increasingly feel life is unfair, with 74% of South Koreans in their 20s reporting experiencing unfairness or injustice, saying “South Korean society betrays hard work”.
While the real world might be unfair, this doesn't exist in the PC gaming world. In the world of PC gaming, there is no privilege or special treatment. Every player starts with the same resources, time, and skills, and only hard work gets rewarded. The most successful esports player, Faker, saved $2 each day from his bus ticket so he could compete at PC bangs, and like many other Koreans, he has risen to the top without privilege.
We partnered with the legend and his team, SK T1, to bring our philosophy to life during the League of Legends Championships. Together with the community, we created an OMEN Rule book, celebrating the values and philosophies of today’s most competitive gamers.
Launch Film
The film struck a cord in South Korea, highlighting the biggest inequalities South-Koreans face, with a direct nod to the housing scandal happening in Seoul.
Results:
The campaign was an instant hit in the gaming community.
The launch film accumulated 76 million views, the campaign generated 941 billion impressions in the gaming community, and there were 256k interactions through the LCK partnership on social media.
More importantly, we achieved our key objective of breaking through in culture, raising awareness, and making OMEN from the unknown to the #1 gaming brand in Korea.