We partnered with Pixelberry Studios on an in-game educational campaign for the developer's flagship title, High School Story. The aim of the campaign was to deliver a fun storyline that young players would engage with while delivering important and potentially life-saving education. The High School Story team became aware of the growing problem that cyberbullying had become among young people and wanted to prepare their large player base for any difficult situations that they might find themselves in. Statistically, they knew that a large number of their players were being affected by cyberbullying and wanted to make sure that their players knew what to do if they were affected.
We worked together on a new educational storyline called Hope's Story, which allowed players to make choices for a girl named Hope when dealing with a cyberbullying problem. The story went on to deliver important educational advice to millions of children and young adults.
As part of the campaign, alongside High School Story, we celebrated Stop Cyberbullying Day by launching a giveaway with One Direction to offer players of the game the chance to win prizes, including a one-of-a-kind full collection of signed dolls of every member of the band and a paid-for trip to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to see the band perform. The giveaway received hundreds of thousands of entries.
Pixelberry Studios introduced in-game Cybersmile-branded products that players could purchase, and a portion of the proceeds were donated to us. These products still remain the highest-selling products within High School Story.
The Hope's Story campaign was supposed to run for 30 days, but due to the huge increase in revenue and player numbers that followed the launch, the campaign was extended for 15 months.
The campaign raised a total of $330,000 for Cybersmile, and the educational content was played through over 8.5 million times. In the first month of the partnership, the game jumped from 60th to 15th in the app store. Pixelberry saw a large increase in players buying products for the first time and players playing for longer, increasing net revenue and lifetime value.
