World Wrestling Entertainment Summerslam

Client Scenario

WWE asked Millions of Us to introduce them to the Gaia virtual world community, the largest forum on the net, to promote its biggest event of the year, Summerslam.

Approach

The WWE wanted a new way to attract teenage fans into the rivalries, battles and mayhem that make it the most popular professional wrestling organization. MoU created a 5-day scripted experience that enabled the WWE to take over the Gaia forum. It was the first original content for Gaia created by an outside developer.

First, international WWE superstar world champion John Cena hit the Gaia forums to answer questions from fans. He posted with a custom avatar and let users ask him whatever questions they wanted. Within minutes tens of thousands of excited users swarmed in to talk directly to the legendary champion.

The next day, a Gaian user named RKO began harassing Cena. Chaos erupted out across the Gaia forums as the user RKO hacked the website and managed to ban the site administrators and wreak havoc on the superstar's appearance. As the mayhem peaked, it was revealed that RKO was actually Cena's rival and opponent at Summerslam Randy Orton. This classic, pro-wrestling-style plot-twist, brought Gaians right into the heart of WWE action.

Soon, virtual goods associated with these wrestlers that MoU created became highly coveted. Gaians used them all over the world to show other users just who they were behind.

Results

By the end of the week-long drama, the Gaia community had become deeply invested in our story, which concluded on live TV at WWE's SummerSlam event. The campaign achieved millions of unique impressions, with hundreds of thousands of participants in the forums and over three thousand separate discussion threads related to the promotion. For the record, John Cena won the match that night.