Picture this: You wake up, brush your teeth, take a shower and then get dressed. You put a pot of coffee on the stove, then a pair of VR goggles over your head. Your apartment is now a virtual wonderland, where you check in at the lobby seeing all of your friends and family who are online, doing all sorts of things.
Your surroundings change to your studio, where you send some messages to your clients and continue painting your digital 3D sculpture with brushstrokes that hover in the air. An alert tells you that today’s the day to claim 100 free coins from your regular burger haunt because you ordered from them last week. Nice! You plan to use it to get that special digital skin that makes your avatar look like a character from your favourite TV show. How would this gamification of marketing work in real life?
The Verse
The Metaverse is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for a digital world that combines work, play and real life into something of a video game, where users can immerse themselves in different environments with computer-generated 3D graphics. Currently there are VR chat rooms where people can adopt a cartoon persona and hang out with their friends in their personas of choice. Virtual reality headsets are used for games as well, allowing players to fight dragons and go on adventures, race formula one cars or fly supersonic jets. There are all manners of activities that virtual reality is applicable to; even some surgery is now being performed virtually by expert surgeons controlling robotic surgical tools from across the world.
The Market
Aside from the professional implications of specialists using remote methods to do surgery, the world is undoubtedly reliant on internet-based processes for almost anything we do, and it is big business. From e-commerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba to ride-sharing services, it’s all accessed online from your mobile phone. Gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry these days, as one of the major forms of entertainment out there aside from movies and music. In fact, it’s all merging into the same platform, powered by increasing computing power, AI and user-focused features to integrate more of our activities from banking to learning into the online world. Potentially, the market is limitless. But is VR really going to change the way the market works? Whether or not it does, the gamification of marketing systems is a concept that borrows modes and ideas from games such as scoring, competition, rankings and earning points into the business sphere.
Ordering online and earning digital rewards
The Game
Playing games triggers a chemical response system in our brains that releases endorphins when you score points, earn rewards and win victories. These methods have been integrated into things like reward cards, loyalty programs, contests and more for decades. Think back to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and the prize of the hidden Golden Tickets in candy bars. We all understand the idea and importance of winning, gaining prizes and becoming the champion. Therefore, an online marketing plan that takes advantage of these concepts, whether they do it in the Metaverse or not, has the potential to garner huge amounts of audience participation and loyalty. Here are some gamification systems that could work in your next campaign, applicable in a virtual world or real world alike:
- Points System – Give your customers the opportunity to win ‘coins’, points, tokens, whatever you call them. These are similar to the game mechanics in video games where players earn money or experience rewards that can be exchanged for power ups, or in your campaign’s case: Prizes!
- Competition – A contest typically encourages participants to compete against one another to win. For example your contest could be about spending the most on the product, submitting the receipts and making the highest spender the winner of a lucrative prize. This has been used very effectively to boost sales for countless brands of various products.
- Loyalty – If you want repeat customers, giving them a loyalty card, even if it’s a simple ‘collect 10 stamps and get a free __’ card, lets them feel like they’re working towards a goal with every purchase. This taps into the mindset of the customer where there’s a vested interest in the product, and breeds loyal followers and ambassadors for your brand.
- Collectibles – This one is an offshoot of merchandising and premium gifts that we all know and are intimately familiar with. However, creating collectibles that are successful depends on the IP franchise or many other factors such as the design. Even if it’s just the bottle, if it looks iconic, cute, cool or collectible, and it’ll get your brand far in the minds of a collecting customer.
The Collectors
On that note, the online world is rife with collectibles, and digital crypto currency markets have since given birth to the NFT, or Non-Fungible Token which are unique art pieces that have a blockchain tag and ownership that you can buy and sell, making them collectibles that can appreciate in value and be traded like an asset. The Metaverse would be the ultimate market for NFT collectibles such as these, where unique, one-of-a-kind avatars or digital objects would be traded if the world does decide to adopt a virtual reality-focused lifestyle and create a virtual marketplace around which everything is built.
The Bubble
Of course, we aren’t living in ‘Ready Player One’ just yet. That movie painted a picture of a world that completely changed after embracing virtual reality. Entire economies revolve around the makers of this virtual game. But our world isn’t shaped by virtual reality, and isn’t anything like the movies (thankfully). However, some might argue that with the ubiquity of video games and how many of us spend a lot more time online than we do face to face with other people, we might be a lot closer to that future than we think.
Over the weekend, I’m going to go hug a friend, play with my pet, and sit under a tree. We all need a little time to unplug. If you’ve liked this article, do check back with us here to get all your advertising, design, copywriting or social media needs met. We’ve got the ideas and solutions for your brand, tailored just for you.
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