3 billion hours are spent in virtual worlds each week (3 times the hours of TV watched). Online gaming in current state remains largely uncommercialized compared to this overwhelming opportunity.
In the next generation, hundreds of millions of people are expected to increase time spent in virtual worlds and online games.
How will brands and advertisers capture this attention and capitalize on this opportunity?
How will brands need to change, adapt, grow to enter and succeed in virtual worlds?
This article raises an interesting perspective on alternate realities and the potential for advertising as an integrated part of virtual worlds.
In short: brands can creatively integrate by providing virtual goods, skins, and brand experiences that are additive to the player's experience. A use case of this was shown through Wendy's "Keeping Fortnite Fresh" experience. They made a Fortnite character who went on a mission to destroy all burger freezers on the digital map. They streamed this on Twitch during a live digital event and hundreds of thousands of players joined to watch them live-stream for 9 hours straight. Top streamers on Twitch noticed and joined in, and thousands of gamers stopped playing and joined Wendy's in the mission to destroy freezers. The impact? 119% increase in social media mentions about Wendy's across all platforms.
1.5MM minutes of direct interaction with their target market consumers.
Wendy's was relevant, newsworthy, shared a message about their committment to non-frozen beef, and bonded with players through a virtual world. It didn't feel like an advertisement at all. And, it cost a fraction of what traditional advertising costs. If this is the future, brands need to think about attention-capture differently and more creatively than ever before. As some say, this may be the age of the virtual gold rush.
Advertising Gold Rush
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