The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024
Knorr mods vegetables into powerful in-game items across top video games
Knorr built 14 veg-powered mods into top game titles with gamers and developers, launching via streamer Ninja and a 20,000-signature petition to publishers.
Knorr (Unilever)
What it had to solve
Knorr's mission is to make vegetables matter more in everyday life, and younger audiences now spend much of their lives inside video games. The campaign decided that if vegetables deserved leveling up in the real world, they should get the same treatment in the virtual one.
How it works
Knorr's mission is to make vegetables matter more in people's everyday lives, and the insight behind #ModTheVeg was that younger audiences now spend much of their lives inside video games. If vegetables deserved leveling up in the real world, they should also be leveled up in the virtual one.
So the brand partnered with gamers and developers to create 14 different mods in some of the world's top gaming titles. The mods turned vegetables into items and rewards that gave players a real advantage inside the games, making the vegetable option valuable rather than a sacrifice.
The movement was kickstarted by Ninja, then the world's top Twitch streamer, and promoted by streamers in 10 countries. It grew into a petition signed by over 20,000 people and sent to the biggest game publishers — players asking the industry to keep vegetables powerful.
The D&AD archive lists the work in its Creator Content section, crediting MindShare UK as design agency and The Invaders as production company, with Knorr as brand. The page records no sales figures.
Why it lands
- Mods meet players inside the game itself, where the audience already cares, instead of interrupting them with an outside message.
- Giving vegetables real gameplay value makes the argument experiential: players try the veg item because it helps them win, not because a brand says vegetables are good.
- Recruiting gamers and developers to build and spread the mods turns a campaign into a co-created movement carried by streamers across 10 countries.
- The petition converts changed player behavior into a public demand addressed to publishers, extending the idea beyond a single ad burst.
What it did
Fourteen veg-powered mods went live across top gaming titles, streamers in 10 countries carried the movement, and the petition crossed 20,000 signatures before being sent to the industry's biggest publishers. The D&AD archive lists the work in its Creator Content section.
What you can take
If the audience's values are formed inside a game, change the game: give the product real utility in the virtual economy instead of interrupting play with an ad.
Since then
The D&AD archive lists #ModTheVeg in its Creator Content section, crediting MindShare UK as design agency and The Invaders as production company, with Knorr as brand; the page records no sales figures. The documented output is the movement itself: 14 veg-powered mods across some of the world's top gaming titles, a launch kickstarted by Ninja, promotion by streamers in 10 countries, and a petition of more than 20,000 signatures sent to the biggest game publishers.
Sources
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