IBlocky World Chipotle Burrito BuilderIn Chipotle, players don the uniforms of the Tex-Mex restaurant chain and make burritos for virtual customers. Available toppings are taken from Chipotle’s real-world menu; shirts and caps feature the Chipotle logo. And when the game launched two years ago, the first 100,000 players earned “Burrito Bucks” to use in their burritos. Chipotle website.
after that Hyundai Mobility Adventure You can test drive models made by Korean manufacturers. Samsung Galaxy Station Here’s a mockup of the company’s latest smartphone designed to help travel to extraterrestrial worlds. Telefonica Town The challenge is to climb an assault course made from products featured in the telecommunications giant’s catalog. Vans World They just hand you a skateboard so you can do a few kickflips in a park plastered with shoe companies’ logos.
These are just a few of the corporate theme parks available. Robloxis one of the world’s most popular online video game platforms, with an average of 77 million players per day earlier this year, and is especially popular with children and younger players (58% of users self-reported as being under 16 years old). The end of last year), Roblox lets you explore fantastical virtual worlds, jumping over obstacles, finding hidden collectibles, and role-playing different tasks just like a kid would on the playground.
But the platform’s biggest selling point is its basic development tools, which allow anyone with little to no computer knowledge to create and share their own video games. Though this toolset is limited by design, it has attracted many people over the past few years, and not just aspiring game developers. This toolset has made Roblox a favorite playground for corporate advertisers, who use the development tools to create branded Roblox games to share with the game’s millions of players.
These advergames (advertisements presented in the form of video games) typically sprinkle corporate branding onto a set of game mechanics simple enough for Roblox’s younger player base. Broader suspicions Criticism that Roblox does not adequately protect children (which the company denies) has led to companies rushing to develop ad-supported games. Brands from Walmart to Wimbledon, McDonald’s to Gucci, Nike to the BBC have launched ad-supported games on the platform. Some have garnered hundreds of thousands of hits, others tens of millions. Seeking more brand involvement By promoting its large, young user base as a major attraction in a competitive advertising market.
“In the context of the attention economy, where consumers are exposed to hundreds, even thousands, of ads a day, capturing and maintaining attention is crucial,” says Yusuf Ochi, associate professor of marketing at Bayes Business School, City, University of London. “We are exposed to thousands of ads every day, many of which we don’t remember. Advagames circumvent these filters more effectively by integrating brand messaging into games.”
Öç’s own research has found that ads that utilize interactive features like touching, swiping, and tilting a phone screen can influence consumer preferences and purchase intent. Roblox allows brands to bring these interactive elements into a ready-made, engaging space.
“Roblox’s popularity with a younger demographic opens up new avenues for us to reach and engage the next generation of consumers in a sector where we’re already investing heavily,” said Robert Jan van Dormael, vice president of marketing for consumer audio at Samsung-owned Harman.
JBL, one of Harman’s hi-fi brands, released an official Roblox game in February, where players can collect audio snippets and arrange them into custom tracks, explore pastel-colored worlds and collect virtual currency to spend on cosmetic headphones and portable speakers, all accurately modeled after real-life JBL products. Since its release, it has attracted 1.4 million players, with average playtime over six minutes and engagement metrics orders of magnitude higher than other games. A few seconds A person typically spends an hour reading a social media post…
Source: www.theguardian.com
