Outplayed and outgunned? Lenovo and Leo turn in-game frustration into sales opportunity

Lenovo India, in collaboration with Intel and Leo India have launched their latest campaign – Gamers on Duty, which targets gamers while they are playing to make a strong case for upgrading to the Lenovo Legion – Lenovo’s premium line of gaming laptops with high end graphics and advanced ColdFront cooling technology.

In the world of shooter games, one of the most hated ways to play is “camping” – meaning, to hide in a corner and shoot, instead of playing out in the open, thus also spoiling the fun for all. Lenovo Legion, a brand built for gamers, with their cutting-edge machines designed for speed, skill, and serious gameplay decided to call out the campers and help improve the game play for all.

Speaking to gamers, the brand realized that gamers in India are forced to turn into campers as many of them play on outdated laptops – dad’s work laptops, brother’s old hand-me-down laptops or just outdated hardware. With games getting heavier and more detailed each year, most Indian gamers are plagued by inadequate, overheating systems that make the gameplay laggy, and as a result, they turn to camping because it becomes an easier way to play.

Lenovo and Intel recognized that to change the game they needed to get rid of the campers! By deploying 12 of India’s biggest gaming influencers with 20+ million cumulative reach as undercover agents known as “GAMERS ON DUTY”, into one of the most popular shooter games. As agents of Lenovo, their mission was to catch campers and offer them discounts to upgrade to a Lenovo Legion laptop – Lenovo’s best-in-class gaming series.

The campaign leveraged a unique gameplay feature in this popular shooter game that allows a player to sneak up on a camper, hold them as a body shield, and have a 15-second conversation in-game. These agents used the perfect moment to strike up a conversation, when campers are caught and vulnerable, to offer them an upgrade and discount on the Lenovo Legion series.

Turning this game feature into an untapped sales channel for Lenovo and Intel, this smart, in-game intervention reached hundreds of campers battling lag and low performance right in the moment they felt it most.

The result? A wave of hilarious, highly shareable content that captured the gaming community’s attention and amplified the message far beyond the battlefield. More so, this was one smart way to get the gaming community to watch hours of Lenovo ads disguised as in-game content.

“At Lenovo, we believe gamers deserve to experience every moment of their gameplay at its absolute best. With this campaign, we wanted to connect with them not just through screens, but in the heat of action — at the very moment when outdated devices hold them back. Lenovo Legion is engineered to deliver uncompromised performance, so gamers can play fearlessly and experience their full potential. By meeting players exactly where they feel the need for better performance, we’re not just showcasing our technology – we’re empowering them to level up, quite literally,” said Chandrika Jain – CMO, Lenovo India.

Rajdeepak Das, CCO, Publicis Groupe, South Asia and Chairman Leo, South Asia, added: “This is a great example of how data and tech come together to create a hyper-personalized campaign targeting campers who have been at the receiving end of hate from the entire gaming community. Our idea was to reach out to gamers while they were hiding because of slow laptops and put the brand’s message and offers in the right place, at the right time, and to the right audience.”

You can watch one of the 12 streams below: