Billion Dollar Boy picked up the Gaming Campaign of the Year Award at the bCreator Awards 2024, driving online awareness for the Candy Crush All Stars in-app tournament and achieving over 50 million views. We caught up with them post-even to find out what made “Sweet Just Got Serious” such a success…
What made the “Sweet Just Got Serious” concept such a unique fit for Candy Crush?
To mark the fourth Candy Crush Saga All Stars in-app tournament, the brand wanted to drive players to compete for a share of the historic $1,000,000 prize pool in the Live Final. King wanted Candy Crush All Stars tournament to be the sweetest sporting spectacle in mobile gaming for its core target audience by tapping into their love of sports.
In line with the overarching “Sweet Just Got Serious” creative ambition, we drove excitement by seamlessly injecting Candy Crush All Stars into suspenseful moments inspired by sports.
However, a digital-only in-game tournament launch lacks the physical spectacle and buzz that traditional sporting events generate. To resonate with the audience, a fictional, high-energy IRL “sporting arrival” was created to inject Candy Crush All Stars with the same thrilling atmosphere as a major sporting match.
We paired a WWE legend known for iconic sporting entrances with a viral social media sensation celebrated for creating his “arrival” videos to create a dynamic real-life showdown. The collaboration leveraged the athlete’s strong association with sporting events and the creator’s established audience reach, creating a powerful synergy aligned with our arrivals concept. This combo capitalised on celebrity appeal and the familiar ‘sporting event’ trope.
How did you approach creating content that was both engaging and reflective of the Candy Crush brand?
The campaign combined bold creative elements, such as a custom Candy-inspired set and branded wardrobe, to reflect Candy Crush’s colourful and playful identity. Content leveraged sports-style storytelling to engage audiences, featuring an iconic “arrival moment” and suspenseful narrative. The result was thumb-stopping content that resonated with the target audience while remaining true to Candy Crush’s brand.
What’s one of the campaign’s most notable achievements in engaging players?
In total, “Sweet Just Got Serious” achieved exceptional reach and engagement, with content generating 626,000 engagements. The campaign’s strong engagement helped to highlight its ability to captivate and mobilise players, reinforcing its success as a groundbreaking gaming initiative and solidifying Candy Crush’s fun yet competitive brand ethos.
How did you measure success with such a wide-ranging and interactive campaign?
Success was measured by the campaign’s ability to deliver both reach and engagement. The campaign also drove 51.4 million views, equivalent to 24,500 hours watched, exceeding expectations and demonstrating widespread impact.
Are there future campaigns for the gaming community that you’re excited to develop?
King is continuing to explore new and innovative ways to engage different audiences in the gaming community. Its latest campaign, ‘Music Season’ 2024 has just wrapped. To celebrate its music-loving mobile gamers, King launched an in-game event inviting players to compete to win epic, personalised live music experiences with Candy Crush’s ‘Sweet Sound Passport’.
Fifteen creators with an affinity to music and dance joined forces with King in a three-week campaign, driving 17.8m views to promote the competition and celebrate the brand’s music. They surprised friends, fans, and family members with pop-up personalised performances of Candy Crush’s in-game tracks, or an original track inspired by the in-game music. The Music Season 2024 campaign is another example of how King is leveraging creators to engage its community and cement the brand’s cultural relevance, with plenty more exciting campaigns to come for gamers… watch this space!
Nominations are open for the ITV bCreator Awards 2025 until 30th April at 11.55pm BST