Pair of Thieves

Pair of Thieves

Building Awareness and Loyalty Among Gen Z

Gen Z men tend to think all socks and underwear are equal – but Pair of Thieves set out to change that with premium, stylishly-designed products featuring their unique “SWASS” (that’s anti-swamp ass) material. To stand out in an already-cluttered essential apparel space, and with legacy competitors outspending them at every turn, they needed a media strategy that was as disruptive as their brand to mitigate the spending gap and help grow their fandom.

Starting with Pair of Thieves’ fun brand messaging and assets developed by Partyland and internal teams, we developed a media campaign that made soon-to-be fans feel right at home during the summer months, meeting them where we knew they’d be, and delivering the right message at the right time.



APPROACH

Podcasts. Social Meme Accounts. Irreverent, comedic influencers (both mass and micro) all served to build awareness among the uninitiated. And, of course, lifestyle brand integrations like Complex’s Sneaker Shopping piqued the interest of younger tastemakers — building equity where we needed it most. 

The hot summer months of LA/NYC, which saw increased foot traffic as social distancing restrictions eased, were the perfect timeframe to showcase Pair of Thieves’ SWASS messaging — especially in strategically-selected sweaty environments, like gym screens, treadmill/stationary bike screens, and NYC subway platforms. Each media placement showed off Pair of Thieves as the only place for people to get the SWASS relief they desperately needed.

Paid social support helped us reach more people with our messaging more often — allowing us to optimize our impact and make every dollar count. We homed in on Gen-Z-led platforms like TikTok, where we amplified paid influencers — increasing visibility at the top of the funnel.

RESULTS

The SWASS media campaign drove an incredible 82% YoY Growth in new users visiting the Pair of Thieves retail site, increased their TikTok brand following by 22.3k followers, and generated 25% Campaign over-delivery/added value and increased awareness among young male audiences. Hey — we all have SWASS sometimes. So we felt pretty darn good about helping men everywhere learn about Pair of Thieves.



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Mana

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Mana

Mana

Game the System

GAME THE SYSTEM

We worked with Mana to launch their flagship financial product, transparent and secure banking–without any BS– for younger cardholders and gamers. 

In a crowded category, we created a disruptive yet approachable brand voice and visual identity for Mana that highlights their uniquely gamified approach to banking.



CONSUMER PROMISE: PAY WITH POWER

In the visual system, the harnessed magical energy of Mana itself is a constant. This energy lives in balance with the secondary element, Damascus steel — Mana’s gamer-friendly, ultra-rare answer to premium metal credit cards.

Magical energy and rare metal are present in every asset we created: the design of the card, launch trailer, custom packaging, print designs, animated in-app icons, and more.



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Final Fantasy Exvius Universe x Chillhop Music

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Cashman Casino TV Spot

Cashman Casino TV Spot

Product Madness
TV Spot

We created a fun TV/digital spot showing how Cashman Casino can make a humdrum night at home a lot more VIP. The ad is built to be modular – the middle section of the ad highlights a selection of the well-known real slot machine games and characters that appear in the Cashman app, and the offer on the end slate is editable. The ad can be easily updated and optimized for different audiences and platforms.

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Final Fantasy Exvius x Chillhop

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Sonic: Unstoppable

Sonic: Unstoppable

Sega

To help celebrate Sonic’s 30th birthday, Sega asked us to help them create a love letter to the fans. As the centerpiece of a year-long celebration, this emotional video looks back across the years, from the 90s to the present day.

 

It was incredibly well-received by fans around the world. The community was instantly abuzz with discussion of cameos, special details, and hidden easter eggs — like the original game’s release date hidden in the runners’ bibs, and a lightning-quick glimpse of footage from an upcoming, unreleased Sonic game.

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Steve Aoki x Arknights

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Final Fantasy Exvius Universe x Chillhop Music

Final Fantasy Exvius Universe x Chillhop Music

Square Enix

With War of Vision’s first anniversary approaching, we wanted to create an unforgettable event for the tight-knit community of fans. An official collaboration with Chillhop Music was the perfect fit. Chillhop’s leading YouTube channel is host to a passionate fan base of over 3M subscribers with an enormous crossover into the FF fandom.

 

Liquid collaborated with Chillhop and their top artists to create remixes of fan-favorite Final Fantasy tracks in the iconic Lo-fi style. The custom tracks were coupled with original animations that fused the worlds of the popular Chillhop Raccoon with the Brave Exvius universe, creating an exciting, easter-egg-filled story that unfolded through the hour long live musical event. 

 

For added surprise and delight, we created and distributed custom Emotes through Giphy, earning an additional 90 million impressions. The playlist continues to be a fan favorite, with view counts increasing every day. The full playlist will also be released on Spotify, Apple Music, and other major platforms.

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Steve Aoki x Arknights

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Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter Rise

Capcom

Following the success of their all-time best selling game, Monster Hunter World, we partnered with Capcom to help launch Monster Hunter Rise, their newest release for Nintendo Switch.

 

We created a strategic digital marketing campaign that drove new and legacy fans to “Rise to the Challenge.” The campaign’s creative look & feel brought the pages of ancient Japanese lore to life, transforming it into a kinetic, eye-catching and consistent aesthetic in the coordinated social and digital media rollout.

 

The social campaign featured multiple unique motion series designed to capture the attention of hardcore Monster Hunter vets, as well as more casual action and open-world gamers looking to try their skills as a Hunter for the first time. 

 

Showstopping AV trailers brought cinematic, must-play urgency to our Rise to the Challenge messaging, and the massive media campaign strategically placed MHR top of mind for gamers everywhere, resulting in sales of 5 million units within a week of launch.

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Steve Aoki x Arknights

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STORY OF SEASONS: Pioneers of Olive Town

STORY OF SEASONS: Pioneers of Olive Town

xSEED

AN ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

With the 25th anniversary of the “Story of Seasons” franchise aligning with the launch of XSEED’s newest expansion, “Pioneers of Olive Town,” the timing for awareness-boosting activations couldn’t be better. 

To celebrate, we developed a brand integration with Imperfect Foods, allowing fans to cook and enjoy their favorite dishes from the game. Recipes like “Potato Potage and Mixed Vegetable Salad” were a hit with influencers, who prepared the dishes using Imperfect foods and shared what they loved about the game.

LIMITED EDITION PRINT GIVEAWAY

We created even more buzz around the release by commissioning original “Pioneers of Olive Town” posters from popular LA artist Kehasuk (Kris Kehasukjaren). Fans entered to win limited-edition prints by retweeting Story of Seasons posts on social media.



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Steve Aoki x Arknights

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Fuser Key Art

Fuser Key Art

NC/Harmonix
Visualize the Sound

In Fuser, the latest music game from the makers of Rock Band, aspiring DJs find their own sound by mixing a huge catalog of classic songs and current hits—and, for the first time, sharing their creations online.

 

In line with the brand strategy we developed for the game, our key art brought the magic and energy of the world’s first always-on global music festival to life.

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Steve Aoki x Arknights

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Steve Aoki x Arknights

Steve Aoki x Arknights

Yostar Games

To boost awareness of Arknights around the world, we partnered with Steve Aoki and his label, Dim Mak, to create a custom soundtrack.

 

Rolling out over the course of 2020, the soundtrack includes two new singles from Steve Aoki, as well as tracks from Bear Grillz, QUIX, and the world-renowned DJ duo Yellow Claw. In addition to creating the tracks, Steve worked closely with the Arknights team on two high-energy music videos End Like This and Last of Me. Steve and the Dim Mak artists also promoted all of the releases on their social channels, building excitement and momentum for the fast-growing mobile game.

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AFK Arena x Assassin's Creed Case Study

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