Wasteland With A V
Read the story- Brand
- V Energy Drink
- Year
- 2018
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- In-Game
- Agency
- TKT Sydney
Objective
V Energy was losing sales and relevance with 18-24-year-olds who'd shifted from TV to platforms like Twitch. Rather than buy into crowded esports sponsorship or slap a logo on someone else's event, the brand wanted to earn a place inside a game people already played — on the community's terms, with something useful instead of an ad. Its "massive hit that improves you a bit" line mapped neatly onto a stat-boosting item.
Solution
Players download the free mod for Fallout 4 on PC via Nexus Mods (later Xbox One) and drop it into their existing save. Out in the wasteland they find vending machines stocked with cans of V, stamped "Property of Shameless Product Placement Inc."; cracking one open gives a temporary boost to keep their character alive. That first can opens onto a full new questline — over three hours of extra story, seven new characters, hundreds of new lines of dialogue, new locations, weapons, and a V-branded suit of power armor, plus new loading screens along the way. A session ends whenever the player logs off, same as any other Fallout 4 run, just with a V-branded arsenal in their inventory.
Results
Over 30,000 downloads and 100,000+ hours of gameplay in the first month; reach of more than 2,000,000 people, skewed heavily 18-24; the Xbox launch's Twitch influencer streams drew over 600,000 engaged viewers; in its first week alone the Xbox One add-on hit a 5-star rating across 70+ reviews, 100,000 views, 20,000 installs, and a combined reach of more than a million.
- 1
Before the mod exists, the brand turns to the Fallout community itself: it asks Reddit how players would make Fallout 4 "a bit" better, and their answers become the content that ships.
- 2
The player finds the mod listed on Nexus Mods on PC (highlighted among trending mods during the campaign) or in the in-game mods menu on Xbox One, and installs it onto an existing Fallout 4 save.
- 3
There is no separate launcher: the player resumes a normal Fallout 4 playthrough, and the first visible change is a new set of loading screens.
- 4
Exploring the wasteland, the player finds vending machines stocked with V, jokingly labeled "Property of Shameless Product Placement Inc.," and collects cans from them; drinking one is a consumable action that grants a temporary stat boost, making the character "a bit" stronger for the fights ahead.
- 5
The cans unlock a branded questline built from the community's suggestions: over three hours of story, seven new characters to talk to across hundreds of lines of dialogue, and new locations to explore.
- 6
Progressing through the quest rewards the player with a new weapon and a new power armor set added by the mod.
- 7
Players who don't install the mod can still encounter it as a spectator: Australian Twitch streamers play it live (including a multi-hour stream), and French-speaking players get the content in a French translation.
