CASE STUDY GAMING WITH A GREATER PURPOSE A worrying spike in the number of children experiencing domestic abuse during lockdown inspired the development of an angelic Fortnite avatar which connected kids in volatile situations with vital support network L’Enfant Bleu. Fabrice Plazolles, Creative Director Havas Sports & Entertainment Paris, tells us more What situation led to the development of this project? influencers to share the message. They have huge teenage Global quarantines meant that for more than two months, audiences and were the perfect way to explain the support children were locked down at home without the relief of network offered by the avatar and advise on how to get in school or social clubs. For children in abusive homes, touch with the avatar through the game. this was extremely difficult and in France,therewasa huge increase in domestic violence. Emergency calls to We partnered with two professional Esport teams, MCES our national emergency services increased by 20% in the and Prism and were very lucky to count on them for this first few weeks of the pandemic. Sadly, 80% of children activation. It was important to get the approval from two who are abused experience that violence at the hands main players of Fortnite in France and connect with their of a family member, and so being trapped inside for so audiences. They chatted about the activation on Twitch long made a terrible situation even more volatile for theseduring their streams. Each time they spoke about the children. We knew we had to act. campaign, we noticed a huge increase in the number of friends requests for our character, which was amazing. Why was Fortnite chosen as a platform and how did We also partnered with various Tiktokers, Instagramers or children encounter the avatar during the game? Snapchaters. In just one month, the avatar connected with Fortnite is the most popular video game played by this 1,200 children and 350 confided serious personal issues campaign’s target, children between 13 and 18 years old. with L’Enfant Bleu. It’s a cross-platform game, which means you can play on your smartphone, PlayStation, Xbox, or PC, and so we Does the organisation plan to continue utilising this could interact with children on many levels. It’s also a freeplatform for outreach? game which makes it accessible to so many. These factors When lockdown ended and schools re-opened, we shut made Fortnite an obvious choice for us. down the character and we launched a huge PR plan to make people aware of what we did during this difficult What was the creative vision behind the winged angel period. From the beginning, the mission of the association character? wasn’t to create a persistent mechanism. We wanted to We wanted this character to be reassuring. It was importanthelp during a critical moment and to launch a debate: video to have a blue character to create a link between it and games are not only for fun. the mission of L’Enfant Bleu. In the end, the character took the form of a blue angel, who was able to interact with We are working together with government ministers, children who needed them. The character had to be very video game editors, Police and influencers to brainstorm recognisable to avoid ambiguity. It was important for the about how video games can become a new way to gather kids to immediately feel comfortable with it. children’s speech.We had a kickoff meeting last week with French Minister Adrien Taquet and we already have plans The campaign roped in video game influencers to for 2021. Stay tuned! spread the message to young fans. Why was this a good way to spread the word? A huge consideration of this campaign was to make sure endangered children could use this support without alerting their parents or abusers. To do that, we collaborated with 54