Challenge Although Valorant is a young brand, it’s already a strong contender in the esports world. To continue this growth and develop the Valorant brand, Riot wanted to turn one of their big leagues (Valorant Regional Leagues) into an aspirational lifestyle brand for a Gen Z audience where fans would be proud to watch and be a part of.

To do so, we needed to raise brand awareness, nurture the brand’s love for their communities and increase the brand’s appeal to newcomers.

Our Approach Previously, other brands have tried to connect with fans by introducing leagues that trigger national pride. This barely scratched the surface and only gained a fraction of the players' commitment. Through this, we can see that at its core, cultural resonance based on shared values and reference points is a lot more powerful. However, the issue is that from constantly seeking this type of performance challenge in all sorts of competition, it results in them not being loyal to any specific brand at all.

As a true lifestyle brand, Valorant was able to deeply connect and express a rich, cultural connection with every region and their ambition, and nurture their dreams of ascension.

Through fans and demonstrations, we realized there were distinctive ways they showed their passion and claimed the streets as their own. We decided to delve further into this, by highlighting their confidence in their identities, reaffirming their true selves, and by demonstrating they’re never afraid to fight for their values and culture.

Videos

Results During Stage 1 of the Leagues, there were over 2.72 million hours watched overall. These strong graphic identities were immediately appropriated by the fans and teams.