THE SIGNAL

CCXP is the largest pop culture festival on the planet, a magnet for one of the most engaged, most brand-skeptical audiences in Brazil: digitally native fans of comics, gaming and internet culture. As the event's official restaurant partner, Outback's problem wasn't visibility. The sponsorship slot was already secured. The problem was legitimacy.

Fandom communities can spot an inauthentic brand insertion from a mile away, and a logo on a livestream backdrop earns nothing with an audience raised to detect exactly that. The brief was to become part of the universe fans were already immersed in (not a sponsor interrupting it) while driving consideration and Add-Ons growth with a demographic that had never had a reason to think of Outback as "for them."

THE BET

We built IP instead of a campaign. CCXP's own theme that year was the Multiverse, so we used it as the engine for a story fans could help write themselves, told in their language, across two years and two very different technologies.

THE WORK

2020, the interactive comic

When the world went virtual, Outback became the first brand to co-write its own fandom. A CTA film kicked things off, inviting fans to shape the story. Then came the War Room: three days of CCXP Worlds, a live 30-hour broadcast where artists drew the Outback Multiverse comic in real time, 2 to 3 pages an hour, with fans voting on Instagram to decide where the plot went next. What came out of it was the first interactively produced comic book of its kind, shaped by more than 85,000 user interactions, complete with original characters, villains and Outback's own menu woven into the story. Built in two weeks, drawn live over three days, later published in full on Outback's site.

2021, the metaverse

The second saga opened with a recap film and separate origin stories for each hero, Aussie, Léo, Tás and Sidney, bringing fans back up to speed. Then Outback went further than a comic ever could and became the first restaurant brand inside GTA Cidade Alta, the largest roleplay server in Latin America, with skins built from the Multiverse cast. During CCXP21, players wore those skins on a mission to save the virtual Outback restaurant from the saga's villain, broadcast live by six streamers to a combined 5 million views. Anyone who visited the virtual restaurant walked away with a real delivery coupon, and the story turned into product again with Burgers Lendários, a limited pair of burgers launched in restaurants and on iFood.

THE OUTCOME

First brand to publish an interactive comic on Instagram, first brand inside GTA's biggest roleplay server in Latin America. Over 85,000 user interactions shaping the 2020 storyline. 5 million combined views on the 2021 in-game mission. Burgers Lendários sold three times above forecast. Two straight years as CCXP Worlds' official restaurant partner.

THE TAKEAWAY

Fandom doesn't reward brands that sponsor the content, it rewards the ones that become part of the canon. Outback didn't run ads inside CCXP's Multiverse. It published a chapter of it, then let fans vote, watch and eventually play their way through the sequel.