TRENDING…. Purposeful Gaming: A Winning Combination for Brands and Players…
Gaming and Purpose may not immediately seem to go hand in hand, but the combination is making a difference to many categories of business, from consumer goods to nonprofits.
In 2022, during an interview with the forward-thinking Pete Blackshaw, while CEO of the Cincinnati-based Cintrifuse, he foresaw the convergence of “Green and Gaming.” Pete, a veteran of P&G and Nestle, and now a serial entrepreneur, believed that engaging gaming content could speak to the climate change passions of the gamer generation through ideas like Carbon Crusaders, EV Road Race, Footprint Fighters, or Solar Hero. View a Quick Clip.
Then, we noticed a larger trend.
The Internationalist case study award winners started to reflect that gaming was truly purposeful. We’ve seen repeatedly how the best cases from around the world can be harbingers of trends—or opportunities, particularly as “gamification is sowing distrust and frustration within Gen Z,” according to Elle Ashby, insights researcher at Dalziel & Pow, the global strategy and design studio based in London.
Today, more gaming Innovations show a clear evolution from pure entertainment to purposeful engagement, especially regarding areas like health, animal rescue, and the environment. Some actively solicit donations, as in the case of Ukraine. We have seen how gaming platforms can make a difference by engaging their users by doing good in the world.
Examples include:
- CUPRA x Padel blends sports, gaming, and digital culture in Germany
- France’s La Société Protectrice des Animaux (La SPA) and animal rescue
- The British Heart Foundation used Twitch for CPR education
- Long Covid Mode used gaming to create disease awareness in Europe
- United24’s Fortnite integration raised funds for Ukrainian reconstruction
- Knorr’s ModTheVeg promoted healthy eating through game modifications
- WWF’s “Save What You See” protected 1.7 million square meters of rainforest
This was one of the earliest case study examples of purposeful gaming, having won the Internationalist Awards for Innovative Digital Marketing Solutions.
La Société Protectrice des Animaux (La SPA) in France partnered with the release of Stray. In this game, players control a cat by integrating avatars of real adoptable cats from their shelters into the gameplay, letting players bond with virtual versions of real animals and then adopt them in real life.
It reflects purposeful gaming by merging gameplay with a social mission: raising awareness of pet abandonment and increasing cat adoptions. Instead of relying on traditional emotional appeals, La SPA used immersive play and influencer engagement to inspire real-world behavior change.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS WINNING CASE STUDY
The British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) “Streams of (Un)consciousness” campaign from the UK creatively engaged Gen Z by leveraging Twitch, a popular gaming platform, to promote its RevivR CPR training tool. Fourteen high-profile streamers, with a combined audience of 11 million, simulated sudden cardiac arrest disruptions during live streams, mirroring the unpredictability of such events and immediately capturing viewers’ attention.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS WINNING CASE STUDY
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched UNITED24 as the principle platform for collecting charitable donations.
To rally Fortnite enthusiasts to support Ukraine, a specially designed Fortnite map of Kyiv’s famous Independence Square was built into the game. When players connected to the map, funds were generated based on the map’s popularity and length of gamer involvement.
The goal was to raise funds for the reconstruction of a bombed hospital. The money generated on the map is collected directly via the UNITED24 account.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS WINNING CASE STUDY
The Long COVID Mode campaign by Long COVID Europe reimagines gaming as a vehicle for public health education and empathy-building, without any marketing budget. By tapping into the popular culture of “Challenge Runs” in games like Elden Ring, Minecraft, and The Witcher 3, the campaign created custom mods that mimic real Long COVID symptoms (e.g., fatigue, brain fog, and memory issues) in gameplay. This transformed gaming into a purposeful experience, helping younger audiences feel what it’s like to live with Long COVID— something traditional health messaging struggles to convey.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS WINNING CASE STUDY
Knorr’s #ModTheVeg campaign cleverly used gaming to challenge negative perceptions of vegetables among Gen Z. Spotting that veggies were portrayed as weak in video games—mirroring real-life attitudes—Knorr created custom “Veggie Mods” that turned them into powerful in-game assets. With a high-profile Twitch launch featuring Ninja and influencer support, the campaign rebranded vegetables as cool and valuable, even pushing for better veggie representation in games through a global petition.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS WINNING CASE STUDY
The WWF “Save What You See” campaign is a standout example of innovative, purpose-driven digital engagement.
Faced with donor skepticism and fatigue, especially around the vast, abstract issue of saving the Amazon rainforest, WWF sought to make the impact of individual contributions immediate and visible. The campaign used interactive, full-screen mobile banners that showed users exactly how much rainforest they could protect, matching the screen size to the land area saved.
While not traditional “gaming,” it uses game-like mechanics—like the “first click free” concept—to simulate an immediate reward (saving a portion of the forest) and draw users into deeper engagement.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS WINNING CASE STUDY
The CUPRA x Padel campaign reimagines brand engagement by blending sports, gaming, and digital culture to connect with Gen Z in a truly immersive way. Rather than using traditional advertising, CUPRA introduced padel—a rising, under-the-radar sport—into Fortnite, making it the first brand to bring this real-world sport into a gaming universe. CUPRA’s use of digital platforms extends beyond entertainment to serve as a sports incubator and brand-building tool.
They turned gaming into a gateway for discovery, learning, and participation in a physical sport, which in turn elevated the brand’s cultural relevance, built community, and even boosted car sales.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS WINNING CASE STUDY
