Sky Broadband hosts 'Sweat Room' with David Beckham's Guild ESports

Created by McCann London with media handled by EssenceMediacom, the activation mimicks a sauna with temperatures of up to 150ºF

By Creative Salon

15 September 2023

Sky Broadband has revealed the success of its 'Sky Broadband Sweat Room' event which was hosted in partnership with global esports business Guild Esports and created by McCann London.

The Sky Broadband 'Sweat Room' activation, held on 31 August at The Beams in London, brought together gaming enthusiasts and content creators from all corners of the UK and Europe to crown Guild’s ultimate athlete, completing the roster for their first ever pro Street Fighter 6 (SF6) esports team, spearheaded by the team captain JoKeR JoKeZ ‘Landell (UK).

Competitors duelled it out in a bespoke cubic chamber that mimicked a sauna, with temperatures rising to 150ºF dependent on how ‘hot’ audience engagement was online. The hotter the chat, the hotter the game; and the more the competitor’s performance levels, talent and endurance were tested to the max. The activation, presented by Veracity and Iain Chambers and casted by Damascus, Tyrant and F-Word, was live streamed on YouTube and Twitter. Over 400,000 people tuned in, from around the world.

The activation commenced in style with avid gamer and Grime MC ‘P Money’ battling it out in the heat against fellow MC ‘Big Narstie’, to show competitors and those at home what it was all about. Suleymon, a life-long gamer from Glasgow who started playing SF6 in 2016, defeated TKR in a battle like no other, to take home the title of Britain’s Sweatiest Gamer, the Guild pro contract, and will now compete on the international stage as a legitimate Guild esport athlete.

McCann London’s creative directors Matt Searle and Olly Wood, alongside creative team Ben Conway and Lauryn Raymond, created 'Sweat Room' as a playful depiction of gamers avoiding stress-sweating over bad connection. The activation also nodded to gaming culture’s definition of a ‘sweaty gamer’ being someone who ‘tries too hard’, to instead reclaim the term as one befitting true commitment and blood pumping, high-performing, athletic gaming thanks to Sky’s Full Fibre – a service eSport pros at Guild trust with their digital lives when the tournament stakes are high. 

Post-event paid and owned creative including 30-second, 15-second and 6-second edits, are now live across social and digital platforms.

Sunny Bhurji, Marketing Director at Sky Broadband said: “Gamers are an important audience for us at Sky, so we had to show up in an authentic and entertaining way. We knew that such a unique and engaging esports tournament using one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time - Street Fighter, had the power to actively connect with this thriving community. As well as being an adrenaline fuelled livestream that showcased Sky Broadband’s speed and reliability, it proved that to be the best, you really have to break a sweat! We’re extremely proud of our first project with McCann London and look forward to Sweat Room 2.0. Watch this space.”

Laurence Thomson, Joint Chief Creative Officer, McCann London added: “Oh to be crowned the Sweatiest. I better brush up on my techniques. It’s truly a Creative’s dream to work with partners like Sky Broadband & Guild who are equally as excited by innovation and brand experience as us. Thank you to their extended teams for helping bring this vision to life, a brilliant idea which enables players to immerse themselves in the art of gaming. An entertainment platform that’s part endurance test, part competition it has to be the accolade any gamer would want…Bring on EA SPORTS FC 24 and I’m there.”