LA Gear is stepping back into the spotlight with a nostalgic twist, leveraging the power of retro gaming to reintroduce itself to a new generation. 

The Retro Gaming Challenge, a collaboration between LA Gear and consumer engagement company Thece, invites participants to showcase their skills in Street Fighter II, a beloved classic from the 90s. 

This campaign taps into the resurgence of interest in retro games, offering tiered rewards catering to hardcore gamers and casual players. 

“The idea was that ‘Retro’s cool. Why don’t we do a retro challenge?’” says Zachary Rozga, Thece’s founder and CEO.

By choosing a widely accessible game proposed by retro gaming influencer Perfect Pacman, the authority on video game records and Thece’s partner, LA Gear aims to maximize participation and create a shared experience that transcends generational boundaries.

They also collaborated with influencers experienced in creating gaming challenges to ensure the competition is engaging yet not overly difficult.

“Retro games are easier to create challenges or leaderboards against because they’re built for that,” Zachary notes. “That’s how video games started, [with] the top score [visible] in an arcade.”

The campaign’s success will be measured by its ability to generate earned media, evoke nostalgia among Gen X gamers, and attract younger players.

“The primary objective is just to show that they’re doing something [that] the other big companies aligning with retro are not doing,” Zachary states.

Zachary reveals the intricate strategy behind this campaign, exploring the intersection of nostalgia marketing, community building, and brand engagement in an AI-driven world.

Crafting Effective Gaming Challenges

Creating gaming challenges that align with brand objectives and audience preferences begins with audience identification. 

“We start with [identifying] the audience you’re trying to reach. Then, we work backward to figure out a challenge we can design that will reach that audience,” Zachary explains. 

Next comes challenge design and constructing the challenge to encourage the most people to participate.

The final step involves audience reach, determining the most effective channels to connect with the target audience.

Thece is also developing partnerships with media companies in the gaming space to offer brands comprehensive packages. 

“They can buy an entire program from us that has the reach built in, whether that’s media platforms, [or] influencers,” Zachary notes.

The company’s approach is flexible, accommodating various brand objectives. 

Zachary provides an example of how digital and physical can come together: “Let’s just say we’re with a ride-sharing company, and all they want you to do is show you with your friends in the backseat of your rideshare, playing a game inside one of their vehicles, and that’s all you have to do.”

This strategy aims to connect brands and consumers. As Zachary puts it, it’s a community-building exercise by brands that involves understanding, trust, and rewards.

Building Virtual Communities Through Inclusive Gaming Competitions

Thece’s Retro Gaming Challenge for LA Gear is designed to create a sense of community among participants while offering multiple opportunities for rewards.

The challenge is score-based, with participants required to record themselves playing specific levels of Street Fighter II. 

“Whoever gets the highest point level across those levels, shows up on the leaderboard, and submits their video evidence of them doing it wins if our proprietary adjudication engine verifies that they didn’t cheat,” Zachary explains.

Crucially, the challenge features tiered rewards to encourage broader participation. 

“Even if you don’t feel like you’re the best player, there’s still a chance for you to get something,” Zachary states. The top four players will receive free shoes and a 50% discount, with subsequent tiers offering 50% and 25% discounts.

This approach aims to create a “waterfall experience,” incentivizing players to climb the leaderboard while ensuring that even less skilled participants feel rewarded. Zachary notes that some upcoming challenges may offer consolation prizes to all participants, further encouraging novice players.

He also believes the tiered reward system contributes to the challenge’s community-building aspect. 

“People who don’t know each other, that might live on opposite ends of the world, are coming together for a common, shared experience,” says Zachary, likening it to the camaraderie felt at a sports event, where strangers bond over a shared moment of excitement.

This community-building element is particularly valuable in marketing. 

Zachary points out recent discussions with industry leaders about brand building in the AI era, where automation has sometimes stripped away authentic human interactions. In this context, challenges like LA Gear’s offer a way to recreate genuine shared experiences in a virtual environment, with the brand at the center.

The Value of Human Connection in an AI-Driven World

As automation and AI-driven marketing gain traction, Zachary notes that “human experience and interaction are more valuable.”

This insight drives Thece’s approach to gaming challenges, which aims to create meaningful interactions among participants. 

Zachary takes pride in developing solutions that build communities, noting, “I don’t know that there are a lot of other companies out there that are trying to create solutions that do this.”

The company’s gaming challenges also offer a unique opportunity for influencers struggling with content creation. 

“They’ve basically become content factories, and they’re running out of ideas,” Zachary explains. Thece’s challenges, typically lasting two to three weeks, provide influencers with sustained, engaging content directly involving their audience.

This approach creates a “glue that’s an interaction between the influencer and their audience,” Zachary says. 

It offers continuity beyond the challenge itself, potentially extending the conversation for weeks as results are released and new challenges are proposed.

Strategies in Gaming Marketing

As Thece continues to innovate in the gaming influencer space, Zachary reveals a shift in how brands approach their gaming challenges. There’s a growing trend towards secrecy and surprise in campaign launches.

“Most of the brands that we’re working with, with few exceptions, don’t want to talk about the challenge until the challenge is live or even 24 hours before the challenge goes live,” Zachary reveals. 

According to him, this strategy stems from multiple factors, including the desire to create a “surprise and delight” element for consumers and to maintain a competitive edge in the market.

Zachary notes that brands see these challenges as innovative marketing tactics and want to be perceived as pioneers.

Experience has also shaped this strategy. Zachary mentions that pre-teasing campaigns proved less effective than anticipated. 

“There’s no point in driving traffic to the challenge page until it’s open,” he observes, noting that the initial burst of engagement occurs when the challenge page opens, followed by a lull as participants engage with the game.

Measuring Brand Engagement Through Shared Experiences

Thece’s approach to measuring the success of interactive campaigns goes beyond traditional metrics, focusing on a key indicator: time spent with the brand. 

This metric encompasses various engagement activities, including making submissions, viewing and commenting on others’ submissions, and voting on potential cheating.

Zachary highlights the depth of engagement their challenges create: “If you become invested because you like this and you want to be a part of this, you become invested, not just a one-way message.” 

This investment translates into significant time spent interacting with the brand, with Thece’s campaigns averaging minutes of engagement compared to the “fractions of a second” typical of platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Nostalgia plays a crucial role in this engagement strategy, particularly for brands like LA Gear. 

“Gen Z is pretty lonely… we’ve created isolation with all this automation and all this technology,” Zachary remarks. In response, Thece’s challenges aim to recreate the shared experiences and personal interactions that older generations remember fondly.

“We’re encouraging play instead of fight,” Zachary states, highlighting the positive community-building aspect of their approach.

The CEO acknowledges that while criticism is inevitable in today’s online environment, the focus is on positive interactions. “As long as 75% to 80% of the engagement is more towards fun and positivity, then we feel like we won,” he tells us.