Riot gives League of Legends away and sells style, not power
Riot launched a hardcore PC game free when free-to-play meant casual, monetizing optional style and convenience — by 2014 it was the top-grossing online game.
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2,000 PUBLISHED CASES · REGULARLY UPDATEDTecate books street sweeper Macario onto the Pal Norte lineup within 8 hours — Clio golds
When Mexico City street sweeper Macario went viral in a Tecate jacket, the brand put him on its festival lineup within hours — 22.6M Spotify streams followed.
Read the caseDentsu's Stradivarius Timeless Journey lets you hear 300 years of one violin's sound
Blind-test headlines doubted Stradivarius; Dentsu's time-travel exhibit lets visitors hear one violin across 300 years of halls — Spikes 2019 Grand Prix
Read the caseShell's scenario planners saw the 1973 oil shock coming — and rose from laggard to leader
Shell swapped its single official forecast for rival stories of the future — so when the 1973 embargo quadrupled oil prices, only Shell was ready.
Read the caseCaloriMate's art-school exam film wins a 4th straight ACC Film Grand Prix
For its 10th exam-support film, CaloriMate follows an art-school applicant for the first time — and lets 20 real art students draw the station posters.
Read the caseHertog Jan tells beer buyers not to drink it, but age it
The Dutch brewer turned delayed gratification into a beer platform, asking fans to cellar bottles instead of consuming them.
Read the caseSão Paulo's Cidade Limpa bans all outdoor ads — 15,000 billboards down in a year
Mayor Gilberto Kassab's 'Clean City Law' outlawed every outdoor ad in São Paulo, stripping 15,000 billboards and 300,000 storefront signs.
Read the caseViatris replaces banned Viagra ads with an art film about intimacy — Pharma GP
China bans pharma ads, so Ogilvy made an unbranded time-lapse film of three couples — 350M impressions and the Cannes Pharma Grand Prix.
Read the casePueblo packs turn Spanish village roots into pride — Pentawards Food Platinum 2025
Simple Packaging Studio's Pueblo cured-meat line makes 'village' a badge of honour — bold name type, adobe and straw colours, kraft paper, a real curing rope.
Read the caseNamco's Katamari Damacy turns 'roll everything up' into a cult classic
Namco artist Keita Takahashi's 2004 PS2 game rolls a sticky ball over everything from thumbtacks to skyscrapers — and becomes a beloved cult classic.
Read the caseDwarf Fortress: 16 years free on donations, then $7.2M in one Steam month
Dwarf Fortress stayed free on donations for 16 years; its 2022 Steam edition sold ~500k copies and grossed $7.2M in January 2023 alone.
Read the caseClaritin's DiversiTree plants 200,000 female trees and cuts pollen 25% in one year
To fight America's top allergy trigger, Claritin plants female trees that trap pollen instead of shedding it — 200K+ in year one, 25% less pollen.
Read the casePiggly Wiggly invents self-service grocery: shoppers pick, prices sell
In 1916 Clarence Saunders opened a grocery where clerks handed you nothing — you took a basket, walked the one-way maze, and marked prices did the selling.
Read the caseadidas makes race number 321 a symbol — all six major marathons reserve it
adidas turns bib 321 (trisomy 21) into running's first iconic number for neurodivergent athletes — 252 races signed on, 278 runners ready.
Read the caseShiseido weaves motion-captured dance into a 100th-anniversary theatre curtain
Kabuki moves recorded with 60+ motion-capture sensors become crimson threads in a 23-metre curtain — ADFEST 2026 Gold, One Show 2026 Merits.
Read the caseW.L. Gore's lattice: no managers, just a diagram and a waterline rule
Bill Gore's 1976 lattice paper replaced bosses with direct communication, sponsors and a waterline rule — a 10,000-person company run without managers.
Read the casePiramal Finance lends on 'neeyat' not paperwork — and takes a 2025 Global Grand Effie
Cash earners in small-town India have no credit score; Piramal Finance's 'neeyat over paper' platform rebuilt that judgment — Global Grand Effie 2025.
Read the caseNew Zealand brands itself '100% Pure' — the slogan that made tourism its top export
One two-word promise outgrew every ad: '100% Pure New Zealand' turned a country's unspoiled landscapes into a product claim — and tourism into its top export.
Read the caseOperação Serenata de Amor: open-source Rosie AI audits Brazil's congress expenses
Brazilian civic hackers trained an open-source AI to flag congress expense fraud and tweet each suspect claim — meal spending fell about 10%.
Read the caseIKEA Spain's 'Trapped in the '90s' reality show sells newness — new-product sales +169%
IKEA replaced its dead catalog with a YouTube reality show — six people stuck in a '90s flat earn new IKEA products — new-product sales rose 169%.
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