State Farm Gamerhood Challenge

A top U.S. insurance provider, State Farm (SF) wanted to create a groundbreaking activation in the gaming space to connect in an innovative and original way with Millennials (ages 26-41) and Generation Z (18-25).

While many brands focus on Esports, worth $1.38 billion in annual revenue, State Farm strategically targeted the all-encompassing $208 billion casual gaming market to create a first-ever, all-things-gaming competition: The State Farm Gamerhood Challenge.

Set in a specially designed gaming neighborhood of eight homes, this 50,000-square-foot “Gamerhood” was the largest-ever physical build for a gaming environment. The Gamerhood consisted of strategically selected popular, diverse players and hosts — professional gamers, influencers, and content creators — whose massive followings have a collective reach of 61+ million.

Infused with a 1990’s sitcom vibe, the Gamerhood Challenge featured three gaming segments in every episode: trivia (with audience participation), popular video/mobile games, and traditional yard games. The winner of each episode took on SF’s famous brand ambassador, Jake from State Farm, in 1-on-1 yard games like basketball, cornhole, street hockey, Giant Jenga, and Connect Four.

To creatively tie in the insurance narrative, SF constructed remote-controlled, custom-built machinery to program ‘insurable mishaps’ that triggered bursting pipes caused by a ruptured water main, blown-out windows from a tornado, an avalanche of exploding popcorn from a heatwave, and UFOs crashing into the Gamerhood! Gamers played through these hysterical mishaps, yielding incredible viewer engagement.

To further promote audience engagement and allow viewers to play along at home, SF developed TWO groundbreaking Twitch extensions — synced real-time across multiple channels. Viewers played for prizes in trivia competitions and Draw That Thing, a Pictionary-like game.

State Farm also generated massive Gamerhood interest by having players reach their audiences through social channels and YouTube videos-on-demand (VOD). Using creative storylines and behind-the-scenes footage, players shared VOD clips that nearly doubled total viewership!

With every episode streamed simultaneously on 10 Twitch channels (State Farm’s, players, hosts) and Rooster Teeth’s subscriber site, the Gamerhood celebrated spectacular viewership numbers, exceeding expectations with over 14 million views and 1+ Billion impressions!