State Farm’s reality-competition series “Gamerhood” will kick off its fourth season on Aug. 1, according to materials shared with Marketing Dive. This season of the streaming show features new talent, improved production and increased opportunities for consumers to play along. It also demonstrates the latest step in State Farm’s decade-long investment in gaming.
“Our entire category used to just do logo sponsorships at the bottom corner of the game… we’ve got intellectual property now,” said State Farm Head of Marketing Alyson Griffin about the evolution of gaming marketing. “We have people who know — without prompting — that State Farm does ‘that Gamerhood challenge’ every year.”
Helping State Farm engage with gamers is the world’s top streamer, Kai Cenat, who also featured in the brand’s “Batman vs. Bateman” campaign. As with that effort — which was originally intended to be a Super Bowl commercial before the brand pivoted due to the California wildfires — letting creators create is key to the authenticity demanded by consumers.
“[Creators] don’t want to be boxed in and be fake, and I don’t think a brand is doing itself any favors if you’re boxing creators in,” Griffin explained.
For the fourth season of “Gamerhood,” which airs every Friday in August at 6 p.m. ET., that means streaming the show not just on State Farm’s Twitch and YouTube channels, but across competitors’ own streaming channels. Along with Cenat, the season will feature returning team captains Ludwig, Mark Phillips and Berleezy, plus streamers Sydeon, LuluLuvely, Cinna, JasonTheWeen and CouRage, who will compete in both video games like Marvel Rivals and physical challenges.
“Gaming is huge — it’s not the NFL — but it’s huge, and we need to broaden the platform for gamers, democratize access to these gamers,” Griffin said. “[Gamers] are celebrities in their own right, but they’re not mainstream quite yet… We’re also looking at how we can use our platform [to change that].”
The last season of “Gamerhood,” which notched more than 23 million episode views in 2024, gave viewers a more intimate view of the featured gamers through the “confessional” videos popularized by reality TV. This season will lean into those tropes thanks to partner Smuggler, a production company with years of experience in reality and competition TV. The show was also developed alongside The Marketing Arm, with additional agency support by FleishmanHillard, Infinity Marketing Team and OMD.
As the gamers compete to benefit nonprofits and charities, viewers this season can take part in the State Farm Gamerhood Fantasy League, assembling fantasy teams of “Gamerhood” competitors and competing for a chance to win limited-edition, custom-designed gaming chairs each week. The at-home element adds to the overall sense of surprise and delight that State Farm is hoping to stoke this season.
“It’s just exciting to see this intellectual property evolve over time, and watch not only the gamers, their engagement together, their engagement with Jake from State Farm… I think it’ll come through in the broadcast,” Griffin said.
