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In collaboration with Wunderman Thompson Dubai & Riyadh, stc developed a custom Fortnite island, Baity Battle, the first game mod synced with real-time to help Saudi gamers keep up with meal-time during Ramadan
We all know that during Ramadan, people observing fasting need to follow strict times for eating, all based on sunset and sunrise.
However, with shorter working hours and long active nights, Ramadan sees a significant rise in gaming hours among Muslims. And when players are having fun, they lose track of time and might miss a meal.
So, stc in collaboration with Wunderman Thompson Dubai and Riyadh teams came up with 'Baity Battle', a custom Fortnite island, built using Fortnite’s in-game Creative toolset, where time on the island is synced with the real world. That means that when the sun approaches the horizon in real-life, it will do the same in Baity Battle.
That way, gamers can tell when the times for Iftar and Suhoor, the two main meals of Ramadan, are approaching while playing Baity Battle. Specially that stc also introduced its Baity Fiber Play, a plan with an impressive 150 Mbps upload speed, promising the smoothest gaming experience ever.
Fortnite creative is a sandbox game, developed and published by Epic Games, part of the video game Fortnite. It allows anyone to design with their own vision Fortnite games and experiences that can be published and shared with friends online. And this is what the teams at Wunderman Thompson did for stc. It developed a smooth, natural in-game solution for a real-world problem, inspired by a strong cultural insight.
The custom island is based on the map of Saudi Arabia, with mountains, cliffs, deserts, the sea, a modern city, and a traditional village. It also has challenges and side-missions inspired by Saudi hobbies, like camping, falconry, and dune bashing.
The custom-built island in Fortnite Creative has been promoted online via Saudi Twitch streamers inviting players to join the map and attest to the synchronism. stc social media pages also published a launch video to create engagement and bring people to the map.
Baity Battle was featured on Fortnite’s Discover page for the first days of Ramadan. It kept receiving weekly updates until the end of Ramadan, keeping gamers engaged and returning to play with friends and family.
“Ramadan campaigns and activations often fall under the same topics, year after year. What makes this campaign so interesting is how we solve a problem that is very true to a specific audience, that is often overseen this time of the year,” said Tiago Bastos, Creative Director at Wunderman Thompson Dubai.
“stc is a gamer-favorite when it comes to the internet because they do offer superior connection standards. That’s great for 99% of the year, except right before Ramadan mealtimes. Owning that and coming up with the solution is a lot of fun,” commented Rayyan Aoun, ECD Wunderman Thompson KSA.
“Mixing gaming with Ramadan is not the first-place brands are willing to go during this time of the year. That makes this idea so fresh, it’s unexpected, but it makes sense,” added Pablo Dachefsky, ECD at Wunderman Thompson Dubai.
Credits:
Client: stc
STC Senior Media Analyst: Wajd Almusallam
STC Digital Media Director: Abdullah Alotaibi
STC Commercial Marketing Communication GM: Faisal Al Saad
Agency: Wunderman Thompson Riyadh & Wunderman Thompson Dubai
Chief Creative Officer, MENA: Chafic Haddad
Executive Creative Directors: Pablo Dachefsky (Dubai), Rayyan Aoun (KSA)
Creative Director, Dubai: Tiago Bastos
Associate Creative Director: Marcelo Zylberberg
Senior Art Director: Tiago Bastos
Junior Art Director: Yamin Inayah
Senior Copywriter: Sara Ibrahim
Copywriter: Benjamin Kirby, Mohammed Binkhudhair
Motion Designer: Aashim Kadayikkal
Business Director: Jad Haddad
Account Director: Joseph Elhage
Account Manager: Ahmed Al-Ajami
Production Company: XCave Studios
Executive Producer: Camila Vulcanis
XR Creative Director: Rod Hurtado
Game Director: Paulo Furtado
Producer: Rafaela Aquino
Lead Technical Artist: Harry Jekyll
Technical Artist: Breno Giovanelli
Game Artist: Pedro Alvez
Game Operations: Felipe Falkiner