Platforms like Fortnite are becoming essential channels for any brand or creator seeking to connect with Gen Z and Gen Alpha. And understanding why integrations succeed or fail offers valuable insights for anyone in gaming, entertainment, or brand marketing.
Take Michael Bublé, for instance. For many, Bublé's music is often heard during the holiday period in physical retail spaces and on the radio. But with Gen Z and Gen Alpha rarely setting foot in traditional stores or listening to the radio, getting holiday music to reach younger ears requires a completely different playbook.
That's why in December 2024, Chartis teamed up with Warner Music Group to bring the king of Christmas somewhere unexpected: Fortnite.
Chartis integrated Bublé's renditionof the Christmas classic "Winter Wonderland" directly into one of Fortnite's most popular experiences to maximize the number of minutes listened.
Breaking Down the Strategy
Building a new game from scratch and hoping players will find it rarely works for brands in UEFN. So Chartis partnered with Minigame Box PVP, one of Fortnite's top 20 creative islands, which boasts millions of players weekly.
The challenge they faced was integrating Bublé's "Winter Wonderland" in a way that was more than just background music while keeping the experience authentic. Previous music collaborations often felt forced, with emphasis on the artist over the gameplay. But working closely with seasoned Fortnite creators gave us insights into what the community really enjoys.
The result was Frosty Survival, a winter-themed chase where players are pursued by a massive snowman while "Winter Wonderland" grows louder as it approaches. Get caught by Frosty, and players become a snowman, creating a winter-themed last-player-standing challenge. The music wasn't just window dressing — it was part of the core game mechanic.
The Numbers Tell the Story
The campaign ran for three weeks and the results were pretty remarkable:
- 48M total plays of the minigame.
- 90M minutes of total listening time in-game.
- 36M plays of "Winter Wonderland" in-game.
- 1M-plus views across social posts.
What makes these numbers particularly impressive is the context: This was just one of over 50 rotating minigames, each lasting only 2-3 minutes. Players weren't seeking out a Bublé experience; they discovered it organically through gameplay.
“We see Fortnite and UGC gaming as the next frontier for music discovery,” says VP of Digital Innovation at Warner Records Jacqui Bransky, who worked on the campaign. “Younger audiences are spending more time in-game than anywhere else, and we're meeting them where they are with a player-first mindset.”
Why This Matters
Traditional holiday promotions usually mean spreading your budget across radio, streaming, TV, and social media. Here, a single gaming integration delivered concentrated, measurable engagement. And the engagement is highly active — those 90M minutes weren't just background listening.
Building and marketing your own branded game is expensive and risky. By integrating into an existing hit, you get instant scale and creative freedom without the overhead. As Chartis tells brands entering the Fortnite space: Creating a new branded experience and hoping it hits the charts is like launching a YouTube channel and praying for immediate virality.
A perfect example of this is Don Toliver’s custom Fortnite map, which was released in the fall of 2024. The map quickly peaked at 727 concurrent players, and then within a week had fallen well below 50 concurrent users. While it initially made for a great LinkedIn headline, it received only a fraction of the players our Bublé integration got.
Chartis chose Minigame Box PVP because the gameplay loop allows brands to add in their own minigame inside the map. The creators are also exceptionally skilled at incorporating brands and IP into their map, which makes it a great fit for newcomers to the platform.
For legacy artists like Michael Bublé, gaming offers a way to reach younger audiences without coming across as trying too hard; Fortnite players can quickly sniff out inauthentic advertising.
Lessons for the Industry
Music needs to do more than just play in the background. When it's tied to actual gameplay mechanics, engagement goes way up. This means getting your music marketing team and game designers in the same room early. The balance must be kept between the brand’s campaign goals and a fun game design.
Simply dropping music into a Fortnite experience rarely drives meaningful engagement. The key difference lies in creative integration: incorporating the music into gameplay mechanics, or as a way to enhance the environment in a way that makes sense to the game loop. Another example of a successful music integration is FPS Ops Gun Game's collaboration with NLE Choppa, which maintained its position among Fortnite's top 100 maps throughout December 2024.
A massive opportunity exists for creators, brands, and artists to partner with Fortnite creators to build experiences that reach millions of players. The success of these integrations will increasingly depend not on star power or marketing budgets, but on understanding how to create authentic experiences that enhance, rather than interrupt, the experience.
What's Next?
This campaign sparked organic demand for a full Bublé Fortnite skin, with fans flooding his Instagram comments asking for more gaming content. It's a clear signal that when done right, gaming integrations can create genuine cultural connections with new audiences.
For the music industry, this campaign offers a fresh template for holiday marketing. And for Fortnite creators, it demonstrates that thoughtful music integration can enhance the player experience.
As gaming platforms continue evolving into primary social spaces, I predict we’ll see more innovations in how music and gameplay intersect. While Epic continues to partner with talent directly, there is also a massive opportunity for artists to partner directly with Fortnite creators to build wholly unique experiences for millions of players.
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