The impact of gaming on other industries: By next year, almost a third of the world's population will be playing video games
The core of marketing is people. The core of people is feelings. For sales to be successful, brands should not offer their customers a product but an emotion.
Think about it: whatever you buy, whether it's basic food items or the latest gadget, you will be guided by some feeling. Satiety is an emotion. The satisfaction of easier and faster work is also an emotion.
So, how should brands approach their target groups? By communicating through content they love. And this is precisely the reason why marketing, especially in the last ten years, recognizes and uses the influence of video games, as explained by Ivana Tomić, Smartpoint Brand Specialist.
The numbers will dispel any doubts you have that gaming is not for everyone. It is predicted that by 2023, the number of gamers will be almost 3 billion, which is a third of the world's population. The average age of gamers is 35-44 years, and even 41% of players are women.
Also, the fact that gaming is currently one of the most powerful industries is confirmed by the projection that its revenue will reach 225.7 billion dollars by 2025, more than what the film and music industries earn together.
Are video games a fertile ground for brand promotion, sales, and connecting with customers? Absolutely. But how did it come about?
Marketing is a "living organism." As such, it should feel the pulse of society, follow where attention goes, notice trends, and carefully choose the moment to catch the wave. Timing is everything. When Minecraft was officially released in 2011, it was just another game. Today, Minecraft is not only the most popular game of all time but an enduring global social phenomenon. And what is most interesting of all— for each player, it represents something different.
Minecraft has had a great social impact. Its virtual world has hosted many important projects at a given moment. The Uncensored Library provided access to censored media content, Build the Vote served as a creative platform for educating young people about the importance of voting, Outcraft represented a safe space where children with autism could freely socialize and find friends, and during the global pandemic, there were graduation celebrations in the Minecraft universe that could not be held live.
That's why the story of this game is actually a story of inclusiveness, creativity, education, and friendship. And when you know that such a world exists somewhere, even if it's virtual, of course, you'll want to be a part of it—and Minecraft has achieved its greatest success thanks to its fan base, which is growing day by day and is a true example of a dedicated community that brands themselves want to have.
The Lacoste brand has paid tribute to the values it shares with the iconic game by creating a Lacoste x Minecraft collection defined as "halfway between two worlds." The recognizable pieces of the brand are complemented with authentic Minecraft designs, creating a collection that true fans will not be indifferent to.
The endless fields and limitless possibilities for creativity that this game offers have also inspired the sports brand Puma. The PUMA x MINECRAFT collection has already sold out and included sneakers enriched with iconic graphics and colors taken from the game.
Of course, Minecraft itself is aware of its influence and has prepared a wide range of "merch" products for its community, which are available on their webshop, and on Amazon, you can also find a lot of various trinkets inspired by this game.
Six years later, the gaming industry was joined by Fortnite—a game that was declared a pop culture phenomenon in 2018. A massive fan base around the world has quickly connected and rallied around a title that is free to play, available to play even on a phone, and yet has an extremely simple concept.
Fortnite's breakthrough moment came when arguably the most famous gaming influencer, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, played the game with music stars Drake and Travis Scott. If influencers are "obsessed" with Fortnite, it must be a really good game!
In the years that followed, Fortnite collaborated with other big names such as producer Marshmello, singer Ariana Grande, tennis player Naomi Osaka, and then the Marvel franchise, brands like Balenciaga, Ferrari, Air Jordan, and many more.
Just one more piece of evidence that it truly is a global social phenomenon is the numerous Fortnite dance challenges that players from the game have transferred to "real" life, thus creating an extremely strong trend on social networks.
Serbia was no exception: "Through video games, the new younger generations are in constant contact with their peers around the world and are up to date with trends that are viral at the moment," explains Veljko Davidović, PR consultant of the Smartpoint agency, refuting the idea that our country is lagging behind trends, as was the case before.
McDonald's collaborated with the game Splatoon 2: SplashFest, promoting McNuggets and McFries; the already mentioned gamer Ninja was hired by Red Bull to create special cans, and Adidas collaborated with him to design a sneaker collection. Seiko created a collection of Pokemon watches, Casio Pac-Man watches, Louis Vuitton released its League of Legends collection allowing customers to dress up just like their favorite gaming heroes, while Duolingo, eBay, and Headspace applications were entirely inspired by games.
Beauty brand MAC Cosmetics designed a makeup line inspired by the most popular mobile game in China, Honor of Kings, and collaborated with the famous game The Sims, whose characters, just like in real life, could use some of the most famous MAC makeup products. ColorPop also launched a makeup line inspired by the popular video game Animal Crossing.
There are many good examples of cooperation between the gaming industry and marketing, which actually spills over into other industries that recognize the importance of interaction and visualization. When the end user can actively participate in the narrative, a special experience is created that activates emotions. In this way, users form their own narrative, they interact, choose, decide, influence, and play...
Globally, we are seeing great examples of brands using the moment of popularity of certain titles to connect with younger audiences in a way that is natural to them. Considering that, we can say that today everyone is a bit of a gamer. This is an excellent opportunity for domestic brands that have not thought in this direction until now to approach the gaming audience through a medium that is unique to them - video games," Veljko believes.
Socialization, connection, community creation, interactivity are increasingly powerful needs of people in all aspects of life. That is why gamification, using the best that video games can offer, is a trend that will be present everywhere in the future - it is our duty to accept it and develop it further.
For Telegraf website text written by: Ivana Tomić, Smartpoint Brand Specialist
Photo: Pixabay