The AA Teams up with Iconic Street Fighter Characters Ryu and Ken in DOOH Campaign

UK’s leading driving services business The AA has launched a new campaign starring Street Fighter, after the release of ‘Street Fighter 6’ in June 2023. DOOH and social media assets by The Gate Worldwide have been distributed in major cities in the UK, and across social media platforms. Drawing from the famous bonus level scene from Street Fighter 2, the campaign sees characters Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter destroying an unlucky civilian’s car with their signature martial arts moves. However, thanks to The AA, the innocent man doesn’t seem too concerned about his vehicle!

In order to assist the next phase of The AA’s integrated marketing campaign, Born Licensing managed the entire character licensing process of Street Fighter from start to finish.

Street Fighter characters spark strong feelings of nostalgia

Street Fighter is one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time, selling over 50 million units since it originally launched in 1987. The series continues this year with Street Fighter 6, the latest game in the franchise that has entertained countless fans for decades, and which released to critical and commercial success, boasting 2 million copies sold since its release in June.

Born Licensing were brought on board to help with the extensive process of acquiring assets, managing creative approvals, and negotiating commercial terms with Capcom. The licensing of the iconic characters from Street Fighter perfectly serves the purposes of the campaign, and effectively highlights one of the main values of the company: whatever drivers face in their driving lives, members can be confident that the AA will be able to help them.

The campaign premiered on Monday 31st July 2023 with hand-selected pedestrianised, high-impact full-motion sites in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Reading, Nottingham, as well as across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter. Given the cultural importance of Street Fighter, and the love and feelings of nostalgia people have for it, the campaign resonates with the target audience and sparks massive interest.

David Born, founder and CEO of Born Licensing, says, “Incorporating a popular franchise like Street Fighter into a campaign allows brands to tap into a high level of pre-awareness as there is an existing fanbase who already love the IP. Using assets from the classic 1991 game Street Fighter 2 creates a strong sense of nostalgia, which has undeniably proved to be a successful tactic across advertising”.

Lucas Peon, chief creative officer of The Gate, says, “We wanted our campaign to extend in a way that would really resonate with people, so partnering with Street Fighter allowed us to take our campaign to the next level and show AA members they can be confident no matter what happens.”