The Mountain Dew soft drink brand has made three letters on the keyboard the focus of its latest marketing action aimed at the gamer community. The campaign, titled “Play No Dew” and developed by BBDO Guerrero, is based on a very specific insight into gaming culture in the Philippines: in many PC video games, the W, A, S, D, E and F keys are essential to move, activate skills or interact within the game. Coincidentally, three of those letters – D, E and W – also form the word with which the players refer to the drink.
Based on that coincidence, the brand posed a challenge: try to play popular video games without the D, E and W keys. To demonstrate this, several streamers in the country received personalized keyboards with those keys removed and tried to play live in front of their audiences. The result was a chaotic spectacle in which even expert players saw their characters become immobile or fail basic actions. The message was clear: without “DEW”, winning becomes practically impossible.
The initiative extended beyond the direct ones. During the broadcasts, the creators invited their followers to replicate the challenge by deactivating the same keys on their own computers and sharing the result on TikTok, Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #PlayNoDew. In its first two weeks, the content associated with the campaign accumulated more than 44.3 million views on different platforms.
The action culminated with an in-person event in which professional players competed without the D, E and W keys against amateurs and content creators who could use them. Even with the experience of the professionals, the full keyboard team ended up prevailing, reinforcing the creative idea of the campaign.
After the success online and of the event, Mountain Dew will also take the activation to the physical field through gaming cafes in different cities of the country, where players will be able to try the challenge for themselves using keyboards without the D, E and W keys. Spaces such as Kadiliman Café (Taft and also in Spain), TNC Café Cebu and NCGC Matina in Davao will allow them to experience first-hand the difficulty of playing without “DEW”.
According to Nicole Villarojo, Marketing Director at PepsiCo Philippines Beverages, the initiative seeks for the brand to go beyond sponsoring gaming and become an active part of the experience: ““Gaming is one of the fastest growing spaces of passion in the Philippines and demands brands that truly understand the culture.” For his part, David Guerrero, Creative Chairman at BBDO Guerrero, summarizes the creative approach: “Brands often try to add something to the game. We made an impact by removing something. Because every PC gamer knows that you can’t win without the D, E and W keys.”
