BBH Unveils Global Brand Campaign, Live Concert and Anthem for Free Fire Game

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 their 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.

Kelly Pon of BBH, said: “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. 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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP4HK3ERBlg

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.