Fortnite Kid Laroi Outdoor Digital Advertising Case Study
Fortnite/Epic Games
The Client
6.8 million in one week
Times Square digital billboard impressions
739,000 in one week
Downtown LA digital board impressions
2.732 million in one month
Times Square 42nd Street Subway Digital Network impressions
Kid Laroi + Fortnite Launch New Game Modes
Developed by Epic Games, Fortnite is a popular online video game blending action, building, and survival elements. The game features different modes, but the most well-known is Fortnite Battle Royale. Fortnite’s demographics are pretty broad, appealing to a wide range of players. While the game has a big following among teens and young adults, it is also gaining traction with younger children ages 7-12. The game’s cartoonish style and emphasis on teamwork make it suitable for families.
Promote an in-game concert experience featuring Kid Laroi
The Kid Laroi is an Australian rapper and singer, real name Charlton Howard, who gained popularity in 2020 with his hit song “Without a Fight” featuring Juice WRLD. Kid Laroi’s music often explores themes of heartbreak, loss, and personal growth.
Fortnite created an in-game concert experience featuring the rapper called The Kid Laroi’s Wild Dreams. The event featured a virtual island designed to reflect Laroi’s journey to stardom. Players could explore this island, complete quests, and eventually attend a live concert performance by the artist as well as an afterparty. The concert ran from January 27 to April 27, 2023.
Fornite wanted to promote the concert with a teaser a few days before The Kid Laroi’s entrance to the metaverse and spread general awareness of the experience in high foot traffic areas in cities such as Los Angeles and New York City. This would create an organic way for The Kid Laroi to connect with his audience while also dropping new music for fans.
Achieving the client’s goals on a short timeline
The client wanted to execute outside-the-box ideas, such as glow-in-the-dark painting on murals or special ink on printed vinyls that would show different creative under blacklights. Those are possible, but time was unfortunately not on our side as the media planning took place right before the Christmas break, and the client wanted to be up by mid-January. These special types of executions typically require three or four weeks of preplanning.
Instead, we pitched highly impactful digitals that were located in premium/high foot traffic areas in LA (downtown) and NY (Times Square) that would command attention and show off the artwork in a big and impactful way.
Deploying digital ads in high-impact areas
We opted for full-motion digitals in both cities to reduce the overall lead time required and take advantage of a fun and eye-catching placement in major hot spots in the city. We also pitched a corner wall unit to print and showcase a “double-sided” artwork playing off the light and dark versions of the game reveal in Brooklyn. This way we implement unique creative but in a timely and cost-efficient way.
We emphasized the quality of each individual location (high foot traffic) to the client. We also pursued mainly digital media to avoid the typical production lead times needed for painted wall murals.
The client wanted to include a printed board or wallscape, but instead of going with a standard flat/2D board or wall, we looked for something with dimension. We found a unit that allowed us to take up two sides of the corner of a building, letting two different creatives show without paying for two different placements.
Relying on organic social reach
We didn’t implement a formal social element to the campaign, but people did share photos of and reactions to the creative on their accounts.
Hitting all the major digital hangouts
The campaign timeline looked like this:
- Client call to discuss the campaign strategy and their goals
- Researching creative, outside-the-box ideas to implement (mural locations, special effects, paints/lights and their costs)
- Pitching locations and providing special effect costs and lead times
- Revising the media plan due to time constraints
- Researching new digital and static locations
- Pitching new findings to the client
- Doing media review and booking
- Hiring special photographers to capture high-quality photos, video, and time-lapse
- The LA board was at Marriott LA Live. It and the Times Square digital board ran January 23 to 29. The Brooklyn painted wall and Times Square 42nd Street subway ad stayed up for a month, January 23 to February 19.
More than 10.6 million impressions generated
The campaign generated impressive numbers totaling more than 10.6 million impressions:
- Downtown LA digital billboard: 739,000 weekly impressions (one week)
- Times Square digital billboard: 6.8 million weekly impressions (one week)
- Brooklyn printed wallscape: 88,000 weekly impressions, or 352,000 total impressions (four weeks)
- Times Square 42nd Street Subway Digital Network: 683,000 weekly impressions, or 2.732 million total impressions (four weeks)
Be upfront with the client about possible delays
We had previous experience with executing the type of outside-the-box ideas the client initially requested. However, we also knew they required a little bit of lead time to get right, which we told the client.
Instead of risking any delayed starts, we used our expertise to pitch strong alternatives that would prove to be time efficient, making sure the new approach didn’t dilute the client’s creative thinking about placement and messaging.
“The client appreciated how forthright we were about the timelines involved. This allowed us to consider alternatives early enough to pivot into a new direction and find placements that the client loved just as much.” Gino Sesto, founder & CEO, DASH TWO
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