Colonel Sanders becomes kickass plus...5 more awesome avatar and skins campaigns.

Capcom's Street Fighter 6 game is the first game to allow players to fully custom their own playable avatars and share "recipes" to replicate the appearance of characters from various TV shows, movies, and popular video games. Taking advantage of this gaming tool, KFC Canada, in collaboration with agency Courage, have designed a muscular rendition of their very own renowned mascot, Chef Colonel Sanders.

In a further step, KFC is offering real-life rewards to Street Fighter players who utilize this virtual model. This move signifies another brand embracing the realm of esports to authentically engage with gamers while creating a value exchange that aligns with the gameplay experience. In a 45-second video spot shared across KFC Canada's social media platforms, viewers get a glimpse of the colonel in action as he unleashes his signature attacks like the "big crunch," "boneless," and "bucket combo." The posts also include the character's code and encourage players to record videos of him executing a combo, providing them with a chance to win a $50 KFC gift card for real-life combo meals.

Here are 5 more creative campaigns that brilliant leverage avatars and skins.

Degree Metathon | Degree | AMV BBDO | 2022

Make the metaverse more inclusive by hosting a marathon that disabled users can participate in using avatars that represent them. Along with Degree, AMV hosted the world's 1st marathon in the Metaverse, to make lasting change for people with disabilities in the new virtual world. The Degree Metathon covered 26.2 miles of the Vegas City Sports Quarter, the largest district in Decentraland and had the highest engagement in Decentraland history. Working alongside Paralympians, rapper Fat Joe, and a panel of disability experts, the brand agency partnership designed the first prosthetics, wheelchair and plus size avatars so registrants were able to create an avatar representative of their identity.

Cultural Avatars | Orange France | Publicis | 2022

Highlight African and Middle eastern culture in video games. Video games typically feature non-Western protagonists. Recognizing this, Orange and Publicis Conseil launched Cultural Avatars #MaxYourIdentity to include the significant growth of gamers in Africa and the Middle East. The campaign provided players from these regions with a sense of representation by allowing them to customize popular game characters with digital adaptations of traditional outfits. To ensure authenticity, young stylists from the respective regions were involved in the project. Yasmine El Tazi contributed to the Middle East and northern African costumes, Ibrahim Fernandez focused on the sub-Saharan region, and Marie-Laure Jaomatana worked on Madagascar.

Undercover Avatar | Association L'Enfant | Havas | 2021

Disguise a charity as an avatar in Fortnite to give children at risk of abuse someone they can befriend to get support. Undercover Avatar, created and produced by Havas Sports & Entertainment on behalf of the child welfare association l’Enfant Bleu, was named the world’s most awarded campaign in 2021. The campaign helped children who were victims of abuse by using the power of the video game Fortnite while highlighting the role of video games in raising awareness of this dramatic social phenomenon during the periods of lock-down. The campaign was supported by the French government and the European commission and used by the police force.

Pasta Assassins | Liamo | TBWA\RAAD | 2021

Give parents a way to virtually kill their kids online to get them to the dinner table. IIAMO was a new pasta brand looking to launch in Lebanon with a limited budget. To encourage their target audience to switch brands, the brand and their agency TBWA devised a fun concept: "Kill your kids." This program allowed parents to virtually hire skilled gamers to eliminate their children in video games, creating an opportunity for families to bond at the dinner table. Through an online portal, parents could select gaming assassins experienced in popular games like Fortnite and PUBG to frustrate their children, prompting them to join the family for a meal featuring LIAMO pasta. Pure evil genius!

Glow: Anti-Bullying Skin | Fortnite + Samsung | 2021

Give gamers a cool skin that can be donated to those who use default skins and so help fight bullying. In Brazil, Samsung partnered with Fortnite to combat a specific form of cyberbullying targeting players without skins, who are derogatorily referred to as "Defaults." To address this issue, they launched the Aura Glow skin, a brand skin that can be donated to players, including those who don't possess any skins. Prominent Fortnite influencers in Brazil were invited to participate in this movement by donating Glow Skin to Default players during their live streams, while also encouraging others to do the same for their friends. This collaborative effort aims to address and challenge the toxic behavior associated with the unequal distribution of in-game cosmetic items.