Metaverses are digital worlds where anyone can do or be anything. The metaverse is a digital universe that merges both the virtual and real worlds. It allows remote work and concerts as well as global exploration.
The metaverse is a place where you can have a real life and interact with others. It’s more interactive than what is currently possible on the internet. It is not just an avatar-based world, where everyone can live their real lives. A metaverse has the power to change the way people live, work and play by blurring lines between the physical and the digital.
Imagine joining a coworking space within a virtual environment instead of a physical office to do your work. Wouldn’t it be also amazing, if you didn’t have to go shopping in crowded shopping malls and you could just try products in a metaverse using your avatar? This is just one example, but there are many others that brands use to successfully market their product.
Metaverses are a great place to promote brands. Many companies take advantage of this for their own marketing campaigns. Metaverses have already become very popular with millions of users and the numbers are expected to grow in the coming years. Metaverses are popular not just among gamers, but among those who enjoy connecting to their friends and gaining access to exciting new opportunities and experiences. Gen Z is particularly affected by this, as they are a digital-savvy generation. Metaverses are a great way for brands to connect with a larger audience.
Marketing in the metaverse has many benefits.
- The metaverse platform is rapidly expanding and has an engaged audience. According to Grand View Research, Inc., the global metaverse is expected to grow to USD 936.6 Billion by 2030.
- Metaverses are a great way for businesses to develop stronger customer relationships. Metaverses give the chance to communicate with your customers in a new and exciting manner. Brands and companies can reach out to their customers in a manner that is not available ‘through the screen’. Metaverses blur the lines between reality and virtual worlds, allowing customers to have a more personal experience with brands. Customers can be interacted with in a personal manner.
- Marketing and selling of products are no different. Metaverse users have almost unlimited opportunities to create immersive, unique experiences. Imagine that customers could see your product and even try it without physical limitations such as location or availability. Marketing and advertising are still very effective, even though metaverse selling may not work with all products. Holding events, playing games with brand influencers, creating virtual showrooms and interactive demos – the sky’s the limit!
In order to take advantage of metaverse’s abilities to market a product or brand, it is important that companies integrate themselves into one. To achieve this, advergames are a great way to run a campaign.
Advertising through Advergaming
Advergaming, also known as brand-focused gaming or video advertising, is when companies use brand-specific games to promote a new product launch or brand awareness. The Advergames can be customized to showcase the products and how brands wish to appear to target audiences. They are usually free to play and customized to direct users to enjoy the game and eventually be more interested in purchasing a brand’s products.
Advergames are great for hosting virtual experiences and events. They allow you to interact with your customers while promoting a brand. Advergames are a great way to promote brand awareness and launch new products.
Before metaverses were created, brands used advergames in the most effective way. Take, for example, Volkswagen’s campaign called ‘Polowers’ which used advergames as a tool of solving the problem of brand awareness. This campaign, launched in Spain to raise brand awareness among young followers and strengthen social media presence was designed for a more robust online presence. Apart from the creative touch applied to the name of the campaign “Polo + Followers = Polowers”, the power of competition was realized through an advergame.
Users must first follow the Volkswagen Spain account on Twitter. Once users become followers of the Volkswagen Spain Twitter account, they can start the game. They simply tweet using #polowers. Each time a polower tweeted, they got the lead in the race. Polo would be won by whoever was in first place when the race ended. It’s that simple!
By creating a game with simple rules and leveraging the ‘Competition and Accomplishment‘ core drive, the campaign could achieve a huge success. The campaign generated over 150 thousand tweets in just eight hours, at speeds of more than five tweets per seconds. It became the trending hashtag for Spain. Also, the game generated a vast amount of visits to Polo´s product section on their website reaching a record in its history.
Here is just one of many examples that show how effective advergames could be in promoting a particular brand or product. Advergames are now even more engaging and exciting with the advent of metaverses.
Metaverse is the key to marketing success in Fortnite
Fortnite comes to mind when it comes to metaverse advergames. Fortnite’s long list of partners who worked with Fortnite Metaverse to develop advergames makes it difficult to think of a more relevant example. Let’s look at some of the recent advergames created in their metaverse.
Fortnite x Coca Cola
In 2022 Coca Cola introduced a new product ‘Coca Cola Zero Sugar Bytes’, which they named to be ‘the first Coca Cola flavor born in the metaverse’.
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Coca Cola created a Pixel Point Island in the shape of a Coca Cola bottle to promote its Pixel-flavored beverage. On the island, players can compete with each other in mini-games and races.
Other food giants were not able to ignore the campaign. Adam Harter, SVP of media, sports and entertainment at PepsiCo said: “Gaming has exploded to such a massive audience. It’s not just about those competitive gamers … I see this now as an opportunity to become more surgical in how we reach consumers.”
Advergaming is not just for food companies. Companies from all industries, including automotive, apparel, sports, and more, see metaverses among the most important marketing tools.
Fortnite x Nike
Nike decided to collaborate with Fortnite to help promote its brand to the young generation. They created a Fortnite island called ‘Airforia’ that features the latest products in an exciting and entertaining way. Airphoria brings to life the future of sports experiences at the intersection of games and culture, removing the barriers of physical products and bringing together Nike’s iconic Air Max brand and the immersive world of Fortnite.
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Airforia Island offers users a variety of exciting and unique experiences. You can find out about special offers, play games, get gifts and discover the Nike-world.
There are many other brands and companies that have collaborated with Fortnite, including NFL, Marvel and UEFA. Ferrari, Balenciaga and Monopoly also contributed.
‘Assetto Corsa x Fiat’ Advergame
The Assetto Corsa Tournament, organized by Fiat Türkiye and Multiplayer Agency has brought together the most important names in the Turkish esports and racing worlds.
For this campaign, Fiat’s latest car models were modded into the Assetto Corsa game. This campaign was a leader in Turkish racing for its innovative marketing, and ensured that the gamer had an authentic driving experience.
Assetto Corsa Tournament was also a great success for Fiat. Thanks to the campaign, Fiat’s latest car models reached a wide audience. Many racing and esports enthusiasts closely followed the campaign. Therefore, the brand’s place in the racing world became stronger.
In summary, the marketing campaign is increasingly focused on integration into metaverses. It is an engaging platform, with a growing audience. The metaverse can be a great place to market products and brands. Metaverses can be used by companies to create stronger customer relationships, market products and services more innovatively, host virtual experiences and events, or build new, strong connections with their customers.
Advergames offer a unique way of engaging with consumers and promoting brands in the Metaverse. You can create and integrate them for events like product launches and brand campaigns. We can expect more engaging and innovative advergames to be created as metaverses grow.
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