M&C Saatchi Abu Dhabi’s ‘Flame-Grilled Challenge Run’ Hijacks Hit Game Elden Ring

In 2022, an overwhelming buzz around a character in hit video game, Elden Ring, took the online world by storm due to its uncanny resemblance to Burger King’s renowned ‘King’ mascot. Burger King Kuwait responded to the hype by turning its iconic proposition, 'Flame-grilling since 1954', into an immersive brand experience specially designed to capture the gaming community and address Elden Ring players’ unique love for self-imposed challenges.

After many brands had tried and failed to tap into gaming culture, Burger King Kuwait collaborated with M&C Saatchi Abu Dhabi to create the 'Flame-Grilled Challenge Run'. The challenge enabled players to participate in a brand campaign that wholly understood the content they like to play and watch daily. Designed to test the skills of even the most advanced Elden Ring enthusiasts, the challenge involved defeating all the game's formidable main bosses while only using fire damage to 'flame-grill' everything in their path. This meant that players lived entirely by Burger King's brand values for the tens of hours it took them to complete the challenge.

"It's an amazing feeling for Burger King Kuwait to get the stamp of approval from a community where brands aren't typically too welcome, with a campaign that sticks to the brand values on a 100% level," said Zeinab Hassan Najjar, marketing director at Kout Food Group, Kuwait.

The campaign kicked off in Kuwait through Kuwaiti influencers Gamer-Snack, who have 1.93 million subscribers on YouTube. The challenge was then tackled by fellow content creators with a more international audience, including prolific Elden Ring challenge runners Zero Lenny and Baron's Castle. 

Baron's Castle, who has over 138K subscribers said: "Thirty-four. That's the number of sponsorships I've turned down since my channel took off. But when Burger King Kuwait challenged me to beat Elden Ring by flame-grilling everything in sight, while giving me the freedom to do a video I normally would, I couldn't say no."

The campaign's success was bolstered by countless community-created memes, which spread across platforms including Discord, Reddit, Twitch, and YouTube. Overall, the 'Flame-Grilled Challenge Run' garnered 15.5m impressions, 721k views, and 33k likes on top game streaming platforms YouTube and Twitch.