Modelo and UFC Fans Celebrate the Fighting Spirit with VR Campaign – Sports Fan Activation

Constellation Brands elevates the beer category with quality, high-end beers that meet the consumers’ evolving preferences. One of their great beer brands is Modelo Especial. Modelo Especial is a beer born with the Fighting Spirit since 1925. And one of their key partnerships to bring the Fighting Spirit to life is the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC). Groove Jones updated the game to run on an Oculus Quest in order to fully realize VR potential in a fighting game. The original experience was released in an Oculus Go.

This Spring, Groove Jones was asked to create a new Modelo UFC Fighting Spirit VR Challenge that allows fans to step into the Octagon and face a fierce opponent to show their own “fighting spirit.”

The Modelo UFC Fighting Spirit VR Challenge is a key Modelo brand initiative and leveraged at bars and events across Texas and in Phoenix and Nashville during big UFC Fight Nights. Modelo brand ambassadors invite consumers to take the challenge.

In the game, you can choose who you will fight, Esteban Hernandez or Blatov Borisovich. Two fearsome fighters.

The Fighting Spirit

Over two months, the Groove Jones team worked with the CB Field Marketing Team to develop a virtual reality challenge that was a thrilling and enjoyable experience.

The UFC team wanted to make the game as real and visceral as possible as if you are stepping into the Octagon yourself, so our opponent needed to be fierce and challenging.

Making the Ultimate 1st-Person Fighter Experience

The simulation is a fully interactive real-time experience. Consumers are placed into the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, transporting them to the Octagon to face an almost impossibly tenacious and fully intimidating opponent, Blatov Brosovich – a 6’2” tall, 172 lbs. fighter with a 75” reach.

When the fight starts, Blatov immediately charges you, leaping off the mat and flying across the octagon to make his first strike. Make no mistake, he is on the offensive. From the start, we wanted to create a fighter that looked intimidating and impactful. In a flurry of fighting action, the opponent and the player use their virtual hands and feet to take each other down.

The development challenge was to have a fully immersive and visceral experience in a restrictive mobile virtual reality headset, the Oculus Quest. The production process was a triumph for mobile VR development.

The experience is fast-paced, and users must be swift to avoid, attack, and take down the opponent. During the fight, Blatov throws punches and kicks, negatively impacting your score.

Sound effects and taunts add to the electrifying realism of the experience. It is thrilling and intimidating to stand there in the Octagon with a formidable opponent.

About the Campaign

Being an on-premise campaign, the end product needed to be simple and portable. In addition to making the experience user-friendly, Groove Jones created multiple key technologies for the campaign, including a Customer Acquisition App, “The Modelo UFC Fighting Spirit VR Challenge,” and an engaging social media share component.

“This game gives us a unique consumer engagement tool that is sure to stand out in the on-premise with our Modelo and UFC fans. The Groove Jones team absolutely crushed it!”

Luis Moreno
Constellation Brands,
Field Marketing Manager

The Customer Acquisition App is leveraged by the Modelo brand ambassador via iPad to collect the user’s data for use with the fighting experience and collects information to properly deploy the social share component at the end.

“It was a pleasure to collaborate with the Groove Jones team. Our cross functional unit of field marketing, brand marketing, and UFC were very pleased with the final output. The game is compelling and authentic, and we are excited to share it with our consumers.”

Ryan McMullen
Constellation Brands
Field Marketing Director

The “Modelo UFC Fighting Spirit VR Challenge” has been updated to run on an Oculus Quest 2, allowing full fighting action.

Modelo and UFC are proud to continue celebrating the Fighting Spirit that unites us all. The Groove Jones Team was thrilled to show their Fighting Spirit and participate in this project!

Big Results

525 EVENTS ACROSS 5 MARKETS – Dallas / Houston / San Antonio / Phoenix / Nashville
35,000 – Customer Impressions
5,229 – Customers Played the Game
15,687 – Hours of Customers Engaging with the Brand