truth® Levels-Up with Minecraft Creator Tournament on Twitch

truth®, the proven-effective and nationally recognised youth smoking, vaping, and nicotine public education campaign from Truth Initiative, is launching a series of activations to support young gamers in living a healthy, nicotine-free lifestyle. Nearly 96% of gen z teens and young adults play video games, according to YPulse research, making gamers a rapidly growing community to reach with the facts about vaping and nicotine use. The ongoing partnership will include a Discord server, custom Minecraft in-game cosmetic items, a Minecraft Creator Twitch tournament with Minecraft community events.

Young people are currently facing two colliding crises – mental health and vaping – that are linked in ways that many people do not realise, with nicotine addiction being shown to increase feelings of stress and anxiety. Many young people turn to gaming as a form of stress relief and young gamers have also shared the sense that more of their peers around them are vaping nicotine, which is why they are a critical audience to reach with information about nicotine use and mental health.

To connect with young gamers and build value in the gaming community, truth efforts launched on November 1st with a new gaming Discord server. Engaging the highly active Minecraft community, gamers who joined the Discord were offered codes for a custom Minecraft in-game cosmetic item available for free to players during the activation period. Since launch, more than 14,000 members have joined the Discord server and the custom cosmetic items have been downloaded more than 140,000 times.

Building on this momentum, on November 18th, truth brought together 40 of the most popular Minecraft players for a two-hour charity tournament on Twitch in a collaborative effort from GALE, Moonrock Labs and Mojo Supermarket. The virtual event, which generated 447k views, was hosted by professional Minecraft players JoJo Solos and Lewis Fulham in addition to being co-streamed by all participants of the event. The event was promoted on the front page of Twitch and a custom Minecraft Interstitial video aligned with truth messaging was played during the session. Top players who participated in the competition include Tubbo, Captain Sparklez, BadBoyHalo, Punz, and others.

“The truth campaign connects with youth and young adults through venues they understand and trust,” said Elizabeth Kenny, chief marketing and strategy officer at Truth Initiative. “We meet them where they are and go where culture is headed. In the past, this included taking our iconic truth trucks to music venues and festivals. With gaming continuing to rapidly expand among young people, we knew we needed to be there to help young people find healthy outlets and live nicotine-free lives.”

GALE director emerging connections Max Bass said, “Our aim with truth was to deliver our message in a modern method that is endemic to the gaming space and supports young people. We put the truth brand in gamers’ hands through in-game giveaways and custom maps that provide an authentic environment to educate about the harms of vaping and nicotine. By building an engaging experience, we’ve been able to drive thousands of downloads, create community in Discord and, most importantly, inspire vape-free lives for our audience.”

The competition prize pool was $50,000, with $25,000 split between the top four teams. The first-place team won the chance to give the remaining donation to the Trevor Project, one of three organisations pre-selected by truth. 

The efforts from truth will culminate at The Game Awards on December 7th. The annual award show, sponsored in part by truth, is the gaming industry’s biggest night and celebrates the best in video games. During the awards, truth will premiere two new 15-second spots developed with Mojo Supermarket that subvert gaming tropes and aim to educate gamers that nicotine addiction can make stress worse. Following The Game Awards, the new creative will be rolled out in targeted gaming media placements.

truth gaming efforts are being done in collaboration with Moonrock Labs and GALE. Moonrock Labs has specialised in game design and development for a decade. GALE is the media planning and buying agency for the truth campaign. truth collaborated with creative agency partner Mojo Supermarket on the custom spots airing during The Game Awards.