Engaging TikTok communities

Find Your #SimsSelves

Communications

MSM*

/ MSM

The challenge

Electronic Arts needed to bring The Sims' nearly 21-year-old brand message of self-expression to a young, TikTok-native German audience as part of its global "Find Yourselves" campaign. That meant finding a way to make a well-known franchise feel authentic and current to Gen Z, rather than simply advertising at them. Together with Electronic Arts, MSM.digital built a national TikTok hashtag campaign for The Sims, working with a curated selection of German TikTok creators chosen not just for brand fit but for their genuine involvement with their own communities.

Our solution

Using a custom TikTok filter developed jointly by EA and TikTok, we had six popular creators — JulesBoringLife, Twenty4Tim, MarvynMagnificent, Jeyisbaee, SunnyLove, and HannahSitte — explore self-expression through styles like "Pastel Goth" and "Dadcore," complete with the franchise's iconic green Plumbob. Each creator then invited their community to try the filter themselves and share the results worldwide under the #SimsSelves hashtag.

Results

By carefully matching creators to the campaign's tone and content style, the #SimsSelves campaign engaged more than 3.2 million people in the target Gen Z audience, bringing The Sims and its youngest fans closer together.

Both the campaign and the game revolve around self-expression and self-exploration, free of prejudice and gender norms — a natural fit for a direct, expressive target group like Generation Z.
Nils, Deputy Managing Director