We’ve come a long way since TV ads and billboards. Advertising isn’t just a one-way street anymore. Consumers can now interact directly with brands online and educate themselves about their products or services. The web has transformed the rules of marketing, and the pandemic has also disrupted, and even accelerated, that change even further. 

We also expect brands to reach out and engage with us. A survey by Sprout Social found that 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them. Customer expectations are changing, with 76% of consumers expecting companies to understand their needs and expectations. In short, customers want more personalisation and innovation, and the bars are set higher than ever before for brands. 

Brands are therefore constantly looking for ways to form a deeper connection with consumers. To differentiate themselves from competitors, some have recently turned to gamification marketing to experiment with new ways of growing their reach and adapt to our new reality. 

While the term “gamification” was coined in 2010, making it relatively new to the scene, the concept of using game elements in non-game contexts has been around for a while. Tactics like credit card reward points and Starbucks reward cards are some of the more well-known and effective gamification methods that are a far cry from actual games themselves. 

So while gamification tactics aren’t exactly new, some brands are taking the concept to a whole new level, while also targeting a previously overlooked user segment: gamers. 

An untapped advertising channel  

In today’s digital age, ad-blocking software is becoming more prevalent, and widely consumed platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime can stream content without ads. To adapt, brands have had to find more creative ways to reach audiences. 

Enter the gaming industry, which has been seeing an overall boom in users and engagement. As games are getting more diverse, a wider segment of users are spending an increasing amount of time playing video games. 

However this isn’t just limited to console games. Pretty much everyone has a mobile device now, which unlocks widespread accessibility for gamers worldwide. Lower barriers of entry such as cost and time mean that the number of gamers will only continue to increase in the future. 

Despite the upward trend, gaming and its global audience of 2.7 billion remains largely untapped as an advertising channel, even as digital advertising is set to overtake spending on traditional ads. 

The video gaming industry is predicted to generate over 160bn USD in 2020, with the monthly size of competitive esports gamers to reach 276 million by 2022. And yet, advertising is a considerably small source of income for developers. This is mostly due to the fear of intrusive ads and lack of scalable tech solutions for both the advertisers and game developers. When done right, however, in-game advertising can bring huge benefits to advertisers, developers and gamers. 

Gamer girls

Also long gone is the gamer stereotype of a young, male teen huddled in his basement, trying to get to the top of the leaderboard. Game analytics outfit Newzoo states that over 46% of gaming enthusiasts are women - as many as one billion people, largely due to an increasing variety of games on the market. 

In Southeast Asia, there is a rise in female gamers thanks to inclusivity and demand. Games such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang have a greater representation of female characters which widens the focus from primarily male taste, which was mainly catered to in the past. This is true in China too, where it is estimated females make up almost half of the country’s 530 million gamers. 

Marketers would do well to engage female gamers by building marketing initiatives that are relatable to them, such as in-game items that appeal to females. Beauty brand MAC did just that by partnering with mobile game Honor of Kings in China. In 2019, MAC launched five lipsticks based on the five Honor Kings heroes, and used the band Rocket Girls 101 to personify the heroes and expand their reach with their Weibo platform of 24 million. 

Two lipsticks from the range sold out within seconds, with visitors to MAC’s official website growing by 3000%. That’s a lot of love from a specific audience segment in a single mobile game. 

Virtual bling

Brand affiliation doesn’t just mean themed product launches. Brands are also producing their own ‘official’ lines of clothing within the games themselves. 
Take Animal Crossing, the Nintendo Switch game that has become a digital companion for many of the coronavirus era. The fantasy platform has been the worldwide population’s answer to stress and boredom during these uncertain times and brands have picked up on that, producing their own ‘official’ lines of clothing for players to purchase. The huge customisation options is a big draw, as players can express themselves from their skin tone, hairstyle to their outfits. There is even a dedicated Instagram page, @animalcrossingfashionarchive, that began posting the best outfits from the game. Run by visual artist and fashion photographer Kara Chung, it now has over 50k followers since its first post in March. Luxury fashion labels like Marc Jacobs and Valentino have even collaborated with Chung to release clothing lines for the Nintendo game.

A similar trend in 2019 saw EA games joining forces with Jeremy Scott and fashion brand Moschino, for The Sims 4 x Moschino Collaboration. The in-game pack not only unlocked virtual Moschino clothing, but also a whole new fashion industry-themed career paths and options. While the real clothing line had an unsurprisingly higher price point starting at $450, the game add-on was significantly cheaper at less than $13. Turns out you can make luxury fashion affordable, if only for your avatar to look good in. 

Engage with video game campaigns 

It’s not just in-game advertising that is on the rise -- brands are also taking it up a notch by releasing exclusive video game campaigns. 

As seen by Animal Crossing’s popularity, video games have become a more popular form of digital entertainment worldwide as people are stuck at home, bored and restless. Beauty brand Estee Lauder took advantage of this and gamified its beauty serum promotion with an online arcade. 

The microsite was promoted on Estee Lauder’s website and social channels, with four different games that provided a more immersive brand experience while educating its users about the product. A clever move by the brand was to let different sales channels customise the games with individual offers and promotions. This allows a wider variety of merchants such as Tencent’s WeChat messaging app or Alibaba’s Tmall in China to offer its products as the beauty brand innovates its digital sales channels. 

Fashion brand Burberry is also releasing customised video games to connect with a growing audience in entertainment software. It released several video games last year to promote different lines of clothing and accessories, such as its “B Surf” multiplayer game that lets players dress up avatars in its clothing and challenge friends to races around a track. 

“B Surf” also offers daily prizes to gamers, such as branded bucket hats and a limited-edition TB surfboard. There are in-game rewards too, such as an augmented reality (AR) in-game character and face filters. These hooks can help Burberry prolong brand exposure among casual gamers with an engaging branded experience. 


Partner up

Another brand that is gamifying the advertising experience is US fast food brand Jack in the Box. Partnering with Spotify, listeners can win free tacos by taking part in a quiz that is loosely based on the classic game “Two Truths and a Lie” on its microsite. 

Like Estee Lauder, the fast-food chain both entertains and educates players with general trivia and questions related to the history of the brand. At the end of the quiz, a link to download a coupon for free tacos with any purchase is provided. There is also a link to “Jack Box’s Party Playlist” on Spotify, which Spotify users can add to their music libraries and share with friends.

By leveraging Spotify's popularity as an audio streaming service, Jack in the Box is able to segment its audience and identity which Spotify listeners are likely to be loyal customers of the fast-food chain. This is a smart move, considering that Spotify’s ad-supported audience rose 31% to 163 million monthly average users in the second quarter from a year earlier. 26% of those users reside in North America, where Jack in the Box operates.  

Jack in the Box’s gamified campaign helps the business remain connected with its customers, as it recovers from the negative impacts that the pandemic brought on restaurant sales. 

Level up

Gamified content can help brands give consumers a more entertaining and engaging experience that creates a stronger emotional bond than a traditional ad placement. As such, brands should definitely consider incorporating gaming as part of their cross-channel marketing strategies with personalised messaging to resonate with their target audience. 

TL;DR:

  • Partly thanks to the pandemic, the gaming industry is experiencing a boom in users. Despite this, it still isn’t part of most businesses’ advertising strategies.

  • Many of these gamers are female, upending the once male-skewed industry. 

  • In-game advertising can exist in many forms; from themed product launches to limited edition game add-ons. 

  • Customised video game campaigns are another way of attracting casual gamers and giving consumers an immersive brand experience. 

  • Partner up with other brands to increase reach and gather valuable crossover user data.