BBH has announced its appointment as the strategic creative brand partner for Free Fire (Garena), one of the world’s most popular mobile games, achieving a record of 150 million peak daily active users globally in August 2021.
Earlier this year, Free Fire challenged the agency to launch its first-ever global brand campaign with its new brand identity, Battle In Style. Almost one year on, BBH has unveiled not only the usual launch teaser and film but a holistic campaign extending from an integrated brand activation to a virtual concert and a Free Fire Anthem, composed in partnership with Unisonar – all to inspire gamers (and beyond) to live every battle in style: in gaming and in life.
“Free Fire has the ambition to go beyond simply being a game but a bona fide brand with a purpose and belief that resonates with their gamers,” said Kelly Pon of BBH. “Today’s Gen Z is saddled with increasing pressures and anxiety where every day can seem like a battle. We wanted to show and inspire the Gen Zs that if you can take on Free Fire’s in-game battles in style, you can take on all of life’s battles in style. Essentially, it’s about embodying a positive, authentic spirit and outlook in life while giving Free Fire a relevant meaningful voice that sets it apart from other mobile games.”
To kickstart the campaign, BBH created a film called “Life is a battle, battle in style.”
Directed by Ernest Desumbia, the film shows an ordinary teenager leaping between the game world and real world, as she brings her personality and style into both. It is now airing globally.
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From here, BBH launched a teaser campaign on social channels hinting at something
big: a live performance featuring T.R.A.P. – Free Fire’s virtual band.
Finally, it was time for T.R.A.P.’s interactive performance, live-streamed on YouTube on 27 November. Blending gameplay, 3D creation and responsive emojis, viewers could influence the performance in real-time, using live chat to vote on Moco’s dance moves or choose Kelly’s pet – two of many unexpected twists throughout the show.
After four solo performances by Miguel, Antonio, Kelly and Moco, the Free Fire gamers finally got to see the reunion performance. Conceptualised by BBH and the Garena Free Fire music team and produced by Unisonar, the anthem was created by blending four genres (country, electronic, rap and pop) over one another – the final piece in the #BattleInStyle puzzle.
Christine Ng of BBH, added: “It was the best gift for the agency when we were selected as Garena Free Fire’s global strategic creative agency partner earlier this year. We are thrilled to have embarked on this journey of brand-building with Garena, impacting every touchpoint that connects with the Free Fire audience. It’s exciting for our teams to be working with one of top most downloaded games in the world and to be able to shape the game’s brand identity from the ground up. We share common and fierce ambitions for the brand in the long-run and look forward to continuing to infuse Battle in Style into the lives of youths around the world through this partnership.”
Since ‘Battle In Style’ launched, Free Fire players clocked in 150 million ‘Booyahs’ (victories) to unlock the live T.R.A.P. reunion performance on 27 November.
See T.R.A.P.’s live-streamed performance:
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Listen to the Battle In Style anthem and album:
Go behind-the-scenes of T.R.A.P.’s live performance:
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Credits
Client: Garena
Agency: BBH
Production Company: Filmate
Executive Producer: Priscilla He
Producer: Enzo Deng
Post Producer: Sunny Xu
Director: Ernest Desumbila
DOP: Daniel Aranyo
1ST Art Director: Oscar De Grado
Art Director: Antoni Castells
Grip: Service Vision
Service & Post Production – Sauvage.tv
Executive Producer: Eva Laffitte
Project Manager: Teseo Cuadreny
Producer: Montse Urniza
Production Manager: Marta Del Rio
Line Producer: Aldo Guenther
Coordinator: Agustin Capandeguy
VFX Supervisor: Carlos Navarro
Post Producer: Yukio Montilla
Post Production Coordinator: Marta Silva
Editor: Joâo Teixeira
Colorist: Xavi Santolaya
CGI Supervisor: Carlos Puigdollers
3D Environment TD: Carlos Martinez
Lead Lighting Artist: Juan Leon
3D Modeler, Texturing & LookDev: Joan Grassot
3D Modeler, Texturing & LookDev: Pau Reñe
Rigging: Carlos Puigdoller & Aimar Espinet
LEAD FX TD: David Berrocoso
Lead Animator: Toni García
Lead VFX Compositor: Sergi Soley
Concept Art & Matte Paint: Rafael Teruel
Audio: Fantasy Studio
Battle In Style Anthem and T.R.A.P.’s solo tracks
Music Director: Garena Music Team
Producer: Unisonar & Garena Music Team
Arrangement: Unisonar & Garena Music Team
Post-Production: Unisonar
Live Performance:
Production Company: Unit9
Production Team: Katie Dolan, EP; Sara-Lee Rost
Senior Producer: Michael Orwell
VFX Producer: Adam Sargent
Graphics Producer: Ludovica Musumeci
Project Managers: Rose Hung, Paulina Pawlak
Creative director: Stephan Bischof, Maximilian Niemann
Art Director: Kacper Chlebowicz
Motion Graphic designers: Lukasz Schaefer, Bart Miko, Norbert Mikolajczyk,
Designers: Michał Jakbsze, Szymon Łucarz
UX Lead: Francesco Bagni
Tech Lead: Tobiasz Dziubinski
Sound designer: Dani Valkova
Illustrator: Sam Dunn
Choreographer: Del Mak
Assistant to choreographer: Laura Reeve
Dancers: Ashley Simon, Hannah Swift, Kane Silver, Petra Hadjuk
Visuals:
VFX Production: Fin Design + Effects
Director: James Chappell
VFX Director: Segundo Fernandez
Executive Producer: Emma Daines
Senior VFX Producer: ChyeYee Chow
Senior Technical Producer: Ty Curtis
Head of 2D: Joseph Tsang
Head of 3D: John Svensson
Motion Graphics Designer: Jeepeng Chow
3D and Unreal Artists: Carlos Loggiodice, Yichen Gu, Agustín Cordes, Emanuele Salvucci, David García, Oliver Cook, Stephen Davidson
Compositors / Designers: Echo Zhao, Ted Tsui, Camille Shen, XiaoXu Ran, Alison Feng, Nako Chang, Steve Shen, Allegra David
Behind-the-Scenes visuals:
Director: Louis Fonseca
DP: Danny Lawson
Motion Capture: Centroid
Facility Manager: Iain Silvester
Post Production Supervisor: Gary Hewson; David Moore
Post Production Manager: Joe Ells
Streaming Partner: Flux
Producer: Ben de Montagnac
Head Of Commercials & Company Director: Chris Pleass
Office/Operations Manager: Camilla Buckthorpe
