Truth x Fortnite Pitch

The Brief: Help end the teen opioid crisis.

Simple, right?

The Pitch: Turn Fortnite’s lesser-known game mode into a full-blown interactive PSA.

AD: Landon Beamer

Agency: MONO

The Insight: 37% of Fortnite players play over 11 hours every week, with the median time spent being 6 to 10 hours. Furthermore, the highest number of players being 250 million. And Fortnite is regularly the top-viewed game on Twitch and Mixer.
Title Slide: A Fortnight of Fortnite
PR Headline: Truth to shut down Fortnite’s most popular game mode to “Save the World” from opioids.
A Fortnight of Fortnite. A fortnight is two weeks. And Fortnite is the most popular game in the world. But Fortnite’s most popular mode is a free-for-all game called Battle Royale – and if we’re going to beat the opioid epidemic, we have to work together, not fight each other. So for two weeks, we’re shutting down Battle Royale, and putting all eyes on Fortnite’s other mode: a team-oriented co-op mode called Save the World.
Save the World: A Co-Op Version of Fortnite. Every day, Truth will release in-game content for Fortnite: Save the World. We’ll rename and redesign enemies, inspired by the chilling side effects of opioids, and we won’t stop there. There will be boss fights, rescue missions, and exclusive loot all to encourage players to stand against opioids. The event will be broken down into three phases, with each phase emphasizing a different aspect of the fight against opioids. And it will all lead up to a big boss fight, where players symbolically take down the epidemic once and for all. All the action will take place in a previously unknown location: Isolation Island.
Launch Idea: Ninja Partnership. We’ll partner with Ninja – a Fortnite streamer with a follower count in the millions – to get the word out about A Fortnight of Fortnite. In the days leading up to the event, he’ll post teasers on social media to start some buzz. For instance, he could act like his Battle Royale is glitching out, so he’s gonna stream Save the World for the day. On day 1 of the event, he’ll stream the game all-day, inviting his followers to join in. And since Save the World is a co-operative game, a few of his fans would even be able to play with him, side-by-side against opioids.
Limited Time Mode 1: Enemy Waves. Alongside the main Battle Royale and Save the World modes, Fortnite always has one or two “Limited Time Modes” (known as LTMs) available to play, usually lasting for about a week. They feature similar mechanics to the normal game, but with twists — like only being able to use certain weapons, or having two teams of 50 fighting. On Days 2 through 4, an LTM called Enemy Waves will be live. In this mode, players will be dropped into a small, confined area. They’ll be faced with wave after wave of enemies, with breaks between rounds. They’ll earn better loot the longer they survive, but the drugs will get stronger, too.
Limited Time Mode 2: Pill Kill. In a normal Fortnite game, loot is scattered and hidden all over the map. Here, we’ll also scatter pills and pill bottles – because millions of unused pills are sitting in our medicine cabinets, waiting to be misused. As players play, they’ll collect and discard pills. The more pills they discard, the more they’ll be rewarded. Limited Time Mode 3: Boss Battle. On Days 11 through 13, players will fight to take back the island from opioids. Each day, a new, giant opioid boss will be unleashed onto the island, and players will have to work with each other to take the bosses down. They can try and do it all alone, but they’ll do more damage and level up faster if they work together.
Fortnite Festival: In-Game Concert. A Fortnight of Fortnite will end with a live in-game concert on its final day. We’ll partner with popular artists, ones who are vocal anti-drug advocates. Artists like Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar, and Kid Cudi are all known for their sobriety, and it only makes sense to partner with them when you consider the lives that the music industry has lost to prescription overdoses. To attend, players will buy tickets with in-game currency, with all proceeds going toward anti-addiction organizations.