Submitted by Golin

Body Royale

Influencer Marketing

Golin Ketchum built Body Royale, a Fortnite map made entirely of body hair in which trimming was the only way to win, for Philips OneBlade, and reports 28% sales growth.

173Mimpressions
173Mgameplay sessions
173Mgameplay sessions vs custom maps
32,000hours of Twitch watch time
32,000hours of LAN gameplay

Case in 60 seconds

Razor advertising had relied for years on mirrors, muscles and exaggerated masculinity, which Gen Z tuned out entirely, so OneBlade could not interrupt the gaming and creator worlds its audience lived in with conventional ads.

The campaign appears to turn on Gen Z skipping ads before they load because attention sits inside games and streams, so a brand has to become part of play rather than an interruption to it.

Body Royale was a Fortnite world built entirely from body hair in which moving, competing and winning required trimming, which made OneBlade the mechanic that powered gameplay rather than a product placed alongside it.

Golin Ketchum launched Body Royale at TwitchCon, where creators dropped into the map live, then scaled it across Twitch as streamers played with their audiences and sparked community challenges. The experience spread across Europe through social, gaming events and in-stream shopping, which gave the map a route from play to purchase rather than a separate retail step.

Golin Ketchum reports 173 million impressions, 34,500 gameplay sessions and 30x more sessions than regular custom Fortnite maps, alongside 32,000 hours of Twitch watch time and 55,000 hours of LAN gameplay. The agency also reports 590,000 stream starts in the Nordics, 68% over target, 50% awareness among men aged 18 to 30 and 28% sales growth.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Gen Z who live in digital worlds shaped by gaming, creators and community, with awareness measured among men aged 18 to 30.
Grooming advertising kept speaking in the language of mirrors and exaggerated masculinity while the audience it wanted had moved into gaming, creators and community, so the brand had to meet a culture that had already left the category's conventions behind.
Razor ads had all looked the same for years, which reads as a category where sameness rather than absence of spend caused the tune-out, so a new execution of the familiar format would have been skipped alongside the rest.
OneBlade was cast as the mechanic that powers gameplay rather than the sponsor of it, which gives the product a function inside the entertainment instead of a logo on top of it.
Based on the available evidence, the work treats ad skipping as a default rather than a judgement, because Gen Z skips before an ad loads, so the only reliable route is time the audience chooses to spend.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Fortnite
  • Twitch

Partners

  • Golin Ketchum (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • Audiences played the map themselves, producing 34,500 gameplay sessions, joined the community challenges streamers sparked, and could buy through in-stream shopping rather than only watching creators play.

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
impressionsBody Royale generated 173 million impressions, 34,500 gameplay sessions, and 30x more sessions than regular custom Fortnite maps.impressions
gameplay sessionsBody Royale generated 173 million impressions, 34,500 gameplay sessions, and 30x more sessions than regular custom Fortnite maps.impressions
gameplay sessions vs custom mapsBody Royale generated 173 million impressions, 34,500 gameplay sessions, and 30x more sessions than regular custom Fortnite maps.impressions
hours of Twitch watch timeThe campaign drove 32,000 hours of Twitch watch time, 55,000 hours of LAN gameplay, and 590,000 stream starts in the Nordics, 68% over target.performance
hours of LAN gameplayThe campaign drove 32,000 hours of Twitch watch time, 55,000 hours of LAN gameplay, and 590,000 stream starts in the Nordics, 68% over target.performance
stream starts in the NordicsThe campaign drove 32,000 hours of Twitch watch time, 55,000 hours of LAN gameplay, and 590,000 stream starts in the Nordics, 68% over target.performance
stream starts versus targetThe campaign drove 32,000 hours of Twitch watch time, 55,000 hours of LAN gameplay, and 590,000 stream starts in the Nordics, 68% over target.performance
awareness among men 18 to 30Most importantly, it delivered 50% awareness among men aged 18 to 30 and 28% sales growth.performance
sales growthMost importantly, it delivered 50% awareness among men aged 18 to 30 and 28% sales growth.performance

Why Golin's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Building the product into the win condition appears to convert a demonstration into a reason to play, because a trimming mechanic cannot be skipped the way an ad roll can while the audience is trying to progress.

  2. 2

    A live event launch followed by open streamer play reads as a way to seed and then compound a branded map, because TwitchCon supplied the first audience while streamers supplied the repeat sessions and the community challenges.

  3. 3

    The 30x gap against regular custom Fortnite maps suggests that gameplay design rather than branded presence drives session volume, which makes the mechanic the variable worth investing in on in-game work.

  4. 4

    Placing in-stream shopping alongside the play appears to shorten the distance between attention and purchase, because the buying surface sat on the same screen as the gameplay rather than in a separate retail visit.

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