Even a gaming newbie knows what Fortnite is, it has hit the headlines many times since it’s launch from Epic Games for good, bad and downright ugly reasons sometimes. Since launching in December 2018, the Epic Games Store has attracted 108 million customers, generating $680 million (£523m) in revenue. (GameDaily.biz, Jan 2020). Regardless of your thoughts and feelings of video games as whole, it’s undeniable that the Fortnite brand is here to stay and with 250 million global players, that’s a huge audience to tap into.
Of course, gaming is much bigger than just mobile games and (admittedly addictive) Fortnite. The global games market was worth $152.1bn in 2019, an increase of +9.6% on the previous year. The global market is expected to grow to $196bn by 2021. (Newzoo, Jan 2020) that’s a lot of spending potential, engaged audience numbers and eyes to market to.
Sure, brands collaborating with the video games market is nothing new. We’ve had movie tie-ins and music premieres within games for a long time, it’s nothing unexpected. However, as technology improves and creativity flourishes, marketers and content creators are finding new ways to market via video games. With the increased screen time that lockdown has brought us, we’re also seeing more gaming, so more chance to tag into this entertainment genre for creative and engaging marketing campaigns.
Premiering Content within Video Games
Fortnite’s first foray into movie tie-ins came with the launch of Marvel’s Avenger’s Endgame, where players could engage with a special Marvel gaming mode to collect the infinity stones to unlock a playable Thanos character. It wasn’t until February 2019, that we saw the first example of of Fortnite concert, where DJ Marshmello accumulated 10.7 million live players, who tuned in to watch and play-along.
Star Wars Previews Trailer in Fortnite Drive-In Cinema
For Star Wars fans, 2019’s official tie-in was a dream. The chance to play as many iconic characters, wield lightsabers and complete special Tie-Fighter crash site missions against teams of Stormtroopers to unlock special weapons and complete limited time missions. Sounds wonderful right? But that was not all, in addition to the playable Star War elements, Disney also took the chance to premiere The Rise of Skywalker trailer at Fortnite’s Risky Reels location, a in-game drive-in cinema. The premiere even featured an introduction from director J.J Abrams giving users an extra reason to sign up and login to Fortnite. Unfortunately, this premiere had a few technical glitches, annoying some fans. We couldn’t find the stats for this, but check out how the incorporated a video premiere with gameplay and the exisiting Fortnite landscape and imagine the excitement you’d feel being in such a small virtual group, experiencing these sort of exclusive content.
Travis Scott’s Record Breaking Fortnite Performance
In April 2020, hip-hop and style superstar, Travis Scott broke the records with an experiential in-game concert that played out over a number of pre-advertised time slots and dates. Users could find the gig posters on walls within the game or via social media. Once you logged into the session, users were treated to a visually stunning, psychedelic masterpiece of experimental gameplay featuring a giant hologram Travis Scott and a variety of physics tricks and visuals to emphasise the party atmosphere. A whopping 12 million users tuned in live to the in-game event with many more checking out the live streams and round-up videos on YouTube or Twitch during or afterwards, making the total viewer numbers a bit more challenging to nail down.
In addition to the live event, users could also win/unlock/buy exclusive Travis Scott skins and add-ons as well as being able to head over to Travis Scott’s Astroworld store, to bag themselves official real-life merch created to compliment the Fortnite tie-in and new music launches.
With new areas being added all the time in Fortnite and the current global lockdown situation, it’s likely that we’ll be seeing more versions of virtual concerts, shared viewings in digital environments and much more. Fortnite is just one example of a gaming franchise that lends itself well with popular culture brands, but there are many more to choose from to suit your niche.
Building Brand Loyalty with Video Games Skins and Tie-Ins
Animal Crossing Hype
Dubbed the “coronavirus therapy” by The Wall Street Journal, it’s pretty difficult to miss the kawaii, pastel colours of Nintendo’s latest gaming release, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Now, this isn’t a new game, it’s been around since 2001 and has a mobile version too, but with our new found lockdown lifestyles, there’s something particularly calming about Animal Crossing. Within three days of launching, Animal Crossing: New Horizons hit the top of the gaming charts surpassing excessively popular titles such as FIFA and Call of Duty. In Japan alone, almost 2 million copies of the game were sold within the first few days, so there’s no wonder that brands want to tap into this audience.
For what is essentially a more sophisticated, pretty version of Farmville, it may be surprising to learn that Animal Crossing has become a huge marketing opportunity specifically for fashion brands. Valentino, 1000 Thieves and Highsnobiety have all launched official in-game clothing collections this year, whereas other brands like Lazy Oaf are actively encouraging customers (with competition incentives) to recreate their favourite outfits within the game. There’s even an Instagram account run by Kara Chung where you can browse the latest Animal Crossing fashion drops, both official and fan created.
In addition to the fashion themes of Animal Crossing, it’s worth noting how well the game translates to social media as whole, with users heading to Twitter or Instagram to share their Dodo Codes in order to trade, socialise and game together it’s a new way to engage and distract yourselves. If you’re really lucky you might even have a Hollywood star like Elijah Wood, Brie Larson or Danny Trejo pop by to visit your island, seeking the best price for Turnips, some celebs have been known to slide into Twitter DMs to seek out the best trades. Anyway, we could probably write an entire article solely about the potential for brands to stay relevant by using Animal Crossing, but there are more examples we’d like to share.
The Sims 4 x Moschino Collaboration
In 2019, EA Games joined forces with Jeremy Scott and iconic fashion brand, Moschino for a in game stuff pack that unlocked virtual Moschino garments and new fashion industry themed career paths and options. With the brand and Scott being so well known for their tie-ins with popular culture, it’s a perfect match. Alongside the digital launch, a limited edition drop of IRL clothing was also released under the Moschino x The Sims moniker with a less affordable price point starting at $450, the game add-on was considerably more accessible at less than £10. Nonetheless, a very well executed and relevant collaboration.
Celebrating Fandoms in Fortnite
Prior to the experiential Fortnite experiments described in detail above, the game had tested the marketing tie-in concepts by selling official NFL skins for characters to great success. Once Fortnite confirmed they had something they expanded out to include DC’s Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey, John Wick, Deadpool and Nike Jordan’s Jumpman brand. We’re sure this list of collaborators will grow monthly, as the popularity of the game does not seem to fade.
Although the majority of brands will be looking at these tie-ins as a way to increase awareness, visibility and perhaps loyalty, many games do include in game purchase options, whereby you can choose to spend real (or in game earnt) currency to buy new outfits, new levels and such like. So although, the return on investment might not be perfectly clear to all, there is potential for brands to use gaming platforms as a more linear way to sell directly given the right project plan.
Video Games as Social Media Networks
Gaming newbies may not be aware that many gaming platforms are now also a form of social networking. Whereas video games of the past relied on us all being together in the same place to play a co-op game from the couch, improvements in technology and internet connectivity means we’re now more connected than ever when it comes to social gaming. We’ve now moved to the point that good couch co-op games are rare and that online multiplayer has become the standard, as annoying as that might be from another angle, we’ll skip that rant for now.
With a headset, you can chat to your mates live whilst you game together or use live chat boxes to type depending on what type of game you’re playing. If this feature doesn’t make gaming a social network we’re not sure what will. 41% of children in the UK communicate with their friends via online games and that’s not counting the veteran gamers, now very much in their adulthood. The New York Times states “like social networks, these games combine distraction with communication; people chat about the game, yes, but also about their offline lives” so why aren’t marketers treating games the same as traditional social networks? 2.5 billion people played online games last year and this number is set to grow, that’s a bigger audience than Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In addition, we also have a huge market for gaming related content on YouTube and Twitch, so users who enjoy watching others play and of course, this unlocks a whole new layer of influencer marketing culture.
Sure, you might be thinking that your audience doesn’t include gamers, but with such a massive number of users, it would be narrow minded to think only of the gaming stereotypes. In a survey in 2019, the Entertainment Software Association found that 65% of American played video games and that the gender demographic is now fairly split with 46% of gamers being female. The average age of an American gamer is 33 and most of these users have been gaming fans for around 13 years. If you have a product, launch or service that compliments the aesthetics or pop culture relevance of video games, perhaps it’s time to consider how you might be able to tap into this huge, engaged audience.
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Co-Creator @wearefoodscouts & @KitschInc. Digital Marketing & Creative Direction. Illustration, writing, creativity & style. Fan of films, TV, cartoons, colourful hair & clean beauty. Blogger since 2009.
