Client
Ogilvy Germany, Schwäbisch Hall
For Schwäbisch Hall, one of Germany’s largest banks and mortgage providers, Gen Z has become increasingly difficult to reach. While many young people still dream of owning a home, the road towards it often feels unrealistic, abstract, or simply out of reach.
At the same time, this same generation spends countless hours building detailed dream houses in games like Minecraft, The Sims, and beyond, where they are planning layouts, managing resources, and imagining future lives inside virtual spaces.
The opportunity was clear: how do you reconnect a traditional financial product with a generation that is already building, just not in the real world?
The campaign Ogilvy Germany created in collaboration with The Invaders for Schwäbisch Hall.launched #MakeItReal: a gaming-led contest that turned virtual house-building into a tangible first step towards real-world home ownership.
Rather than explaining financial products through traditional advertising, the campaign leveraged a simple but very relevant gaming insight: while Gen-Z might not actively be building their dreamhouses in the real world just yet, they are in many digital ones. With this campaign, Schwäbisch Hall invited players to do what they already love: build their dream home in the game of their choice. Any game was allowed, as long as building sat at the heart of the experience.
Players competed for substantial prize money, including a grand prize of €10,000, positioning the challenge not as a casual giveaway, but as a serious creative competition rewarding imagination, planning, and commitment.
The Invaders supported the campaign through gaming consultancy, advising on platform strategy, guiding the building of a Minecraft world where people could build their homes, and cultural relevance to ensure the activation felt genuinely native to gaming culture.
The campaign launched around Gamescom in Cologne, tapping directly into one of Europe’s biggest gaming moments.
Schwäbisch Hall partnered with two of Germany’s most influential gaming creators:
Both creators brought the challenge to life through Twitch streams, live evaluations, and direct community interaction, embedding the campaign in spaces where creativity and building are already central.
Beyond live streaming, the campaign expanded across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch, supported by digital out-of-home placements around Gamescom, podcasts, and additional digital media to extend reach beyond core gaming audiences.
#MakeItReal demonstrated how gaming can bridge virtual creativity with real-world relevance, even for a financial brand.
The campaign delivered:
Qualitative research also showed increased brand sympathy and spontaneous awareness, with participants describing the campaign as “unexpected” and “surprisingly relatable”.
By meeting Gen Z in a cultural space where they already invest time, creativity, and emotion, Schwäbisch Hall proved that even complex financial topics can become relevant.
