Kia created "Outdoor Legends," an innovative gaming experience that brought League of Legends players out of their homes and into a secret forest location for a nighttime tournament powered entirely by Kia's electric EV6 vehicle. The campaign leveraged Kia's fifth consecutive year sponsoring the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) to build deeper connections with gen Z gamers in the Netherlands. By partnering with influential Dutch streamers and creating a cross-platform strategy spanning Twitch, Reddit, IGN, and Discord, Kia successfully transformed its "Movement that Inspires" philosophy into a unique experience that resonated with a traditionally static gaming audience.
Kia aimed to leverage its League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) partnership to create brand familiarity, credibility, and preference among gen Z gamers in the Netherlands — the future generation of car buyers.
For five consecutive years, Kia had been investing in its relationship with younger demographics through LEC sponsorship. However, the brand recognized that an international partnership alone wouldn't create meaningful connections with Dutch gamers. With increasing competition from other brands in the gaming space, Kia needed to stand out while addressing an inherent contradiction: how to align its "Movement that Inspires" philosophy with a community known for being sedentary.
The campaign targeted gen Z gamers in the Netherlands, a tech-savvy demographic that uses ad blockers and remains skeptical of non-native entries into their community. This audience has its own language, codes, and platforms, making them particularly difficult to impress with traditional marketing approaches.
Kia developed a strategy that would literally bring movement to gamers' lives by creating an outdoor gaming tournament that mirrored the League of Legends game environment. The campaign leveraged the Kia EV6's Vehicle to Load (V2L) technology to power the nighttime event, demonstrating the car's capabilities while creating an unforgettable gaming experience.
The media strategy focused on platforms where the target audience spent most of their time: Twitch, Reddit, and Imagine Games Network (IGN). To build credibility, Kia partnered with two influential Dutch streamers, Daniel Lippens and Linktijger, whose authentic voices would help the brand reach otherwise unreachable gen Z gamers.
Kia's integrated approach seamlessly combined online and offline elements to create a comprehensive gaming experience. The campaign launched with the streamers going live for one hour each, playing League of Legends and completing Kia-sponsored challenges while explaining the "Outdoor Legends" concept and encouraging sign-ups.
Heavy advertising on Twitch's main page drove traffic to these streams. Daniel Lippens incorporated Kia Outdoor Legends into his popular Twitch talk show and shared content across his Instagram and Discord channels, giving Kia access to this typically closed platform.
A promotional video, display ads, and social content promoted the event across gaming platforms. Kia first organized an online qualifying tournament, followed by the final event hosted by Daniel Lippens. The six finalist teams competed in the middle of the night at a special forest location illuminated by Kia EV6 vehicles. The winning team received all-inclusive tickets to the LEC finals in Montpellier, France.
This approach successfully bridged online and offline realms, creating an omnichannel experience that resonated with gamers across all platforms while showcasing Kia's vehicle technology in an authentic context.
The Kia Outdoor Legends campaign achieved impressive results with a notoriously difficult audience. The event attracted 11 teams totaling 55 participants who competed in the forest tournament. Across the three gaming platforms, the campaign generated over 10 million impressions, achieved an 83 percent video completion rate, and maintained a contact frequency of 6.2 during the approximately one-month campaign. The initiative drove more than 20,000 clicks to Kia's Outdoor Legends platform.
A brand lift study conducted on Twitch showed significant uplift in key performance indicators: ad Awareness scored 229 (against a baseline of 100), brand consideration reached 167, and brand preference hit 178. Metrics indicated that the audience found the ads "newsworthy" and that they "stand out" — particularly meaningful results in the competitive automotive sector.
The campaign's impact was evident in live stream comments from the target audience, with remarks such as "I'd love to drive a Kia," "Kia is dope," and "My dad just got a Kia, it's such a great car." By making an international event feel locally relevant and creating a unique gaming experience, Kia successfully connected with Dutch gamers in a memorable way that enhanced both their gaming experience and perception of the brand.
