Real Change Challenge 2022
Mountain Dew Commits to Leveling the Playing Field in E-Sports With Half A Million Dollars—the Biggest Cash Pool In the History of E-Sports— All for HBCU Gamers
A staggering 80% of Black youths play video games, yet only 1 in 15 count as gamers or content creators in esports. MTN DEW came to us for a solution to address those disproportionate numbers.
We created the Mtn Dew Real Change Challenge, designed to level the esports playing field. The Real Change Challenge focuses on increasing Black representation by spotlighting HBCU student gamers and fueling their drive into the competitive world of esports.
In Year 2, we upped the ante, teaming up with MTN DEW, Call of Duty, Twitch, and HBCUSports to launch the Real Challenge tournament for HBCU students. The competition featured the largest prize pool in HBCU Esports to date. Every student participant was ensured a piece of MTN DEW’s $500,000 prize pool.
Twitch livestreams of the Real Change Challenge generated 9.1MM total minutes watched with an average of 1.3MM per stream. Our custom docuseries spotlighting players in the tournament saw 1.1MM custom content views across YouTube and social media with 9.5MM custom content impressions. Awareness and conversation around #MTNDEWREALCHANGE had 251MM PR impressions, 1.23B social reach, 100% POS/NEU sentiment, and 87.5% of PR articles led with or featured the brand story.