Want to Market to Gamers? Here’s How Top Retailers Are Doing It
How many new hobbies have you taken up since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived two years ago? From baking to gardening, people are finding new ways to spend their time. For many gaming is a fun way to pass the time. This is a trend that started before the pandemic but in many ways the pandemic super charged it.
In 2020 there was an estimated 2.7 billion active video game players in the world and the size of the video game market will pass $200 billion next year. That makes for both a captive and lucrative audience. If you think you know what the average gamer looks like you might be wrong. A decade ago gamers leaned younger but now the average age of a gamer is 35. Not be left out, 41% of gamers in the United States are women.
Where eyeballs go brands follow. Nike is one of the retailers leading the way in trying to monetize these consumers. The footwear and clothing giant made its first foray into gaming in 2019 when in a collaboration with Fortnite, Fortnite players wore Jordan branded sneakers. Then in November it launched Nikeland on Roblox an online gaming platform with more than 40 million daily active users and a market cap of $41 billion.
Nikeland is a 3D virtual world modelled after Nike’s employee headquarters in Oregon. Gamers entering Nikeland can play games with their friends such as tag, the floor is lava, and dodgeball. Players are given rewards such as blue ribbons and gold medals for competing in games in NIkeland. Gold medals can be used to acquire virtual clothing for each player’s avatar. There is also a Nike showroom in Nikeland where players can dress their avatars in Nike merchandise including Air Force 1 and Air Max sneakers. Nikeland has had more than six million visitors since it launched in November.
Chipotle is the first restaurant brand to launch a virtual space, a restaurant, on Roblox. For a Halloween promotion called Boorito that took place last year, the first 30,000 players who visited the cashier in Chipotle’s virtual restaurant wearing Chipotle’s digital swag were given a code which they could use to get a free burrito IRL.
Chipotle made $1 million worth of free burritos available for the promotion. If a player was not within the first 30,000 visitors they could get a code to get a $5 burrito, bowl, salad, or taco entrée. "As a digital innovator, we are always experimenting on new platforms to meet our guests where they are," said Chris Brandt, chief marketing officer at Chipotle. "Roblox's popularity has boomed over the past year, and we know our fans will be excited to celebrate the next evolution of Boorito in the metaverse."
In 2019 Louis Vuitton entered into a partnership with Riot Games to design a capsule clothing collection for the both the real and virtual worlds. The collection included prestige skins for Riot Game’s League of Legends World Championship Finals. Players were able to purchase the Louis Vuitton skins for around $10.
Then Louis Vuitton released a League of Legends World Championship clothing collection for the real world with merchandise spanning a $170 bandeau top to a $5,600 leather jacket. At the time the collaboration was called the "first-ever collaboration between a global eSport [company] and a luxury fashion house."
Speaking about the mashup between the fashion and gaming worlds Liam Osbourne, a global client partner at FLUX says “fashion has always been used as a building block of identity, so what you wear says something about you, as a person in the real world.” “As we’re seeing things get more advanced digitally, it’s only natural that your avatar or virtual version of you gets given the same level of importance and attention.” “With virtual worlds being richer, you are allowed to experiment and play with makeup or clothes in a way that you couldn’t do — or afford to do — in the real world,” said Osbourne.
Do you like this content? If you do subscribe to our retail trends newsletter to get the latest retail insights & trends delivered to your inbox
Vans also has a virtual world on Roblox called Vans World. It has 3D virtual skateparks where players can practice their skateboarding tricks and participate in competitions. This is Vans’ first venture into the metaverse. The virtual skateparks are modelled after popular skateparks around the world. Gamers in Vans World can design their own sneakers and then buy the same pair in the real world. Vans World has had over 50 million visitors and people playing in Vans World have clocked more than six million hours.
Speaking about the growing number of partnerships it has with brands, Roblox’s vice president of brand partnerships Christina Wootton says: “we recently have started hearing about brands considering the creation of special metaverse teams, just like how they put together teams to focus on specific social media channels not too long ago. This is the future of how people will learn, play, consume entertainment, try on and shop fashion, and interact with brands.” Roblox is having many discussions with fashion and beauty brands who are planning to launch on Roblox this year.