Gamers Delete Skins for a Cause in Vaseline Campaign

Unilever-owned Vaseline just unveiled the success of "Skins for Skin," a new campaign made with Ogilvy Singapore that addresses an often overlooked issue in Thailand: the need for skin transplant donors. 

According to the ad, 161 patients seek out skin transplants every day, but struggle with finding skin donors.

To address this, the petroleum jelly brand teamed up with Thailand's biggest pro gamers who were willing to give up their "most valuable possession" – in-game skins.

Popular Thai-based gamers, such as Mokuchii, Thames Malerose and The Ped, have deleted their skins to recreate the real-life skin shortage and bring awareness to this harsh reality. 

While character skins are seen as a status symbol within the gaming sphere, the efforts of the gamers to discard them were not all for nothing.

When popular streamers began playing using their most basic skins, it caught a lot of attention from the gaming community. This gave them the opportunity to invite their viewers to donate their own skin in real life. 

Launched three months ago, the first campaign video has garnered 18 million views on YouTube and 37 million on TikTok, with a total of over 780 million social media impressions. 

More remarkably, the overall campaign also boosted the likelihood of skin donations in the future to 17%, potentially making about 2 million new skin donors in Thailand.

"It’s no surprise that the topic of skin donations has never been tackled. It’s such a sensitive topic. Gamers, who know the value of skin, have been the perfect platform to launch a donation campaign," Nicolas Courant, Ogilvy Singapore's chief creative officer, said in a statement.

Additionally, Asia Managing Director for Unilever and Ogilvy Singapore Aanchal Sethi shares how the Gen-Z-marketed campaign is proof that relevant ideas evoking a sense of action can be effective.

"This approach provides us with the opportunity to leverage their immense influencing power and instigate meaningful change in society," she added.

Editing by Katherine 'Makkie' Maclang