Race to Prestige - Best Buy & Call of Duty Endowment
To promote their Gamers Club Unlocked membership program directly to gamers in an authentic voice, Best Buy aligned with the Call of Duty Endowment around the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, one of the biggest game releases for of the year.
“The Race to Prestige” is a video game marathon live stream featuring five YouTube personalities whose fan bases center around Call of Duty and gaming. From November 5-10, 2015, five gamers live streamed themselves playing the newly released Call of Duty®: Black Ops III around the clock relay style on Twitch, where millions of fans could watch, comment, and donate to the Endowment to help veterans get back to work.
This was the third year that the Race to Prestige existed as a fundraiser for the Endowment, but it was the first year in which there was corporate sponsorship (Best Buy) in support of the nonprofit and also the first time that Activision promoted the event as the official live stream of the launch of the new Call of Duty game.
Best Buy offered donation rewards to participating viewers, program support as well as social media support to bolster viewership and participation. In return, the live stream featured ads and links for Gamers Club Unlocked.
The Race to Prestige was an astounding success in terms of viewership, engagement, and media coverage and drove awareness of and traffic to Gamers Club Unlocked.
The Race to Prestige raised $451,554 for the Call of Duty Endowment from corporate sponsorship, viewer donations, and the Activision matching gift, which translates directly into 645 quality jobs for veterans. Of that, viewers donated $204,228, a 1,360% increase from the previous year’s effort.
