Dr. Squatch just hid a million dollars across four countries and dared its most obsessive fan base to go find it.
The natural personal care brand today launched "SPEEDRUN: Million Dollar Mission."
It was created with IShowSpeed, the 21-year-old streamer Rolling Stone named the world's most influential creator in 2025.
@rollingstone the #1 creator of 2025: @IShowSpeed’s #RollingStone office takeover. #creators #ishowspeed #ishowspeedclipz ♬ original sound - Rolling Stone
The partnership unfolds across 25 challenges in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, asking fans to hunt, film and shop their way toward a $1 million prize pool over nine weeks.
John Ludeke, Dr. Squatch's CBO, sees the mission as a way to pull fans off the sidelines and into a nine-week game, not another 30-second spot.
"We could have launched a traditional ad campaign with Speed. Instead, we decided to hide a million dollars and ask fans around the world to see if they could find it," he said.
IShowSpeed backed that sentiment himself.
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"I've done a lot of crazy things, but Dr. Squatch putting a million dollars out there for my community to find is on another level," he said.
Both the brand and the streamer know people will go all out for it, which is why Speed is "not sitting this one out either."
Where the Hunt Begins
Fans can chase the money three ways.
Weekly "briefcase hunts" hide gold-bar soap bricks worth up to $50,000 in cities across all four countries, with location clues dropping as each hunt unfolds.
Content missions modeled on Speed's own stunts, like challenging a stranger to a footrace or barking at a store display, ask fans to post their attempt with the hashtag #MillionDollarMission.
A TikTok Shop tie-in adds 25 more $10,000 winning scratchers, available through marked Loot Box Bundles or free by request at SpeedrunMDM.com.
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The whole run builds toward a single $250,000 grand finale, with details still to come.
More than 4,000 Walmart stores and other retail partners double as checkpoints, with in-store displays and QR codes linking shoppers to the live leaderboard and weekly challenge list.
Developed with creative studio Applied MSCHF, the mission continues Dr. Squatch's strategy of skipping a straightforward face-of-the-brand deal for something fans can do.
And Dr. Squatch isn't the only brand chasing a piece of Speed's audience.
KFC recently launched a menu item and a 60-second spot around the streamer's years of unpaid restaurant visits, targeting his existing fan community.
The common thread across both deals is common in celebrity marketing, where brands hand creators a game or product tied to something they're used to doing on camera.
The Prize Is the Pitch
Dr. Squatch is emphasizing a want that's been building for years.
Audiences are done with just watching campaigns unfold and want a shot at being part of it.
Deloitte's 2025 Digital Media Trends study found that half of Gen Z say they feel closer to the creators they follow than to any actor or TV host.
An Attest survey found that 46% of young adults actively take part in polls, quizzes, and other interactive content.
It's a habit that carries over from gaming into what they expect from brands.
Three ways other brands can apply the same thinking:
- Split the payout across formats: Briefcase hunts, content missions, and a Shop tie-in each give a different kind of fan an entry point, instead of funneling everyone toward one channel.
- Build in a reason to keep checking back: A nine-week run and a $250,000 finale keep the story alive well past a single launch week.
- Turn the store into a checkpoint: QR codes at 4,000 Walmart locations connect a purely digital hunt back to a physical purchase.
A prize pool spread this wide asks for a lot of a marketing budget, and it buys nine weeks of a fan base doing the talking a media plan alone couldn't manage.
Our Take: What's Really for Sale Here?
Most of the fans running around city blocks this fall won't find a briefcase.
But somebody eventually will. Hope is the product, and the soap is just what shows up in the mail after.
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We've watched brands chase creators for a decade now, but few have let the payoff be this uneven, this dependent on luck.
Dr. Squatch is counting on nine weeks of searching, filming, and posting being worth more to the brand than nine weeks of a guaranteed discount ever could be.
That's a bold move for a soap company, and we mean that as a compliment.
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