Beat Saber

VR has long been popular with gamers, but it has yet to go fully mainstream. Beat Saber, an immersive music VR game, is poised to bridge this gap.

In early 2023, SpecialGuest began work with Meta’s Reality Labs on a yearlong campaign to grow the Beat Saber fan base and make the game a real part of music culture. 

In the game, players use sabers to slash through the beats of their favorite songs. It’s hugely popular among gamers who know it exists. Meta and SpecialGuest knew everyone else would love it too if the brand could break out of the gamer ecosystem and appeal to a broader music- and dance-loving audience.

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The campaign kicked off with a dance music video promoting the Lizzo Music Pack, featuring “2 Be Loved,” “About Damn Time,” and more of the artist’s songs. The video was directed by VMA-winning Ukrainian director Tanu Muino and choreographed by Sean Bankhead. When Lizzo chose to share the campaign on her Twitter and Instagram, millions of followers—many of whom had likely never played Beat Saber before—were introduced to the brand organically. The video quickly became Beat Saber’s most-viewed Instagram reel.

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The campaign continued with the launch of The Weeknd Music Pack in a sci-fi music video directed by Christian Breslauer, featuring original artwork by Robert Beatty, the artist behind The Weeknd’s own album artwork. To reach The Weeknd’s millions of followers, we targeted them with an influencer-driven social blitz dubbed The Weeknd Weekend, in which the fans had the chance to win a Quest Headset by testing their knowledge of The Weeknd trivia.

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Next, we launched the Rock Mixtape, featuring some of the most beloved songs of all time, with Beat Saber’s first fully animated campaign. To do justice to the range of featured artists, including Nirvana and Guns N’ Roses, we evolved timeless rock iconography to fit with the Beat Saber brand.

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Meanwhile, the SpecialGuest team kept the conversation going on Beat Saber’s social channels, tapping into music and internet culture to grow Beat Saber’s relevance and following off the platform. The project was live for about three months, and in that time, we doubled Beat Saber’s following on TikTok.

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Any new technology, like VR, has a hump to get over, and niche audiences are never enough. By doubling followers on Beat Saber’s TikTok and resonating with music lovers across genres, the multifaceted Beat Saber campaign paid off: Meta doubled Quest Headset sales in 2022 and maintained its position as the best-selling VR headset on the market.