Are you ready player one?
Gaming has become for many companies the last unconquered frontier, and maybe for some the missing piece they might just need to solidify their position in the ever growing metaverse and the world of streaming services.
Just recently, Microsoft announced their acquisition of video game creators Activision Blizzard for a whopping $68.7B usd. Most famously known for their role in creating one of the most iconic video games of all time: Call of Duty, a first-person shooter video game franchise that spans over 19 years since its first iteration. Despite all of its success the franchise really exploded into de stratosphere in terms of popularity and revenue for the company in the last 2+ years.
Just days before the pandemic started, on March 10th 2020 the franchise launched Call of Duty: War Zone, which is a free-to-play battle royale video game that all of a sudden enabled gamers everywhere to connect with friends no matter their location and battle each other for hours, purchase the latest weapons, uniforms and gadgets to become the coolest gamers on the block.
Why has Call of Duty: Warzone been so successful in my opinion? Well because it frees gamers from the constraints of a physical room and the limits set by a story plot set up by a bunch of programmers in Santa Monica, California to allow them to become part of a global social network of people that enjoy the same things with a different unexpected outcome every time they press play.
The reason I just rambled on about Call of Duty, is that gaming experiences like this and those of its biggest rival Fortnite opened a whole Pandora’s Box of possibilities for companies to collaborate with the platforms and advertise their products to gamers everywhere. It is estimated that 3.1 billion people are considered gamers across the world, and an estimated 1 billion are considered online gamers.
One great example of a company taking advantage of this newly found possibility is hard seltzer giant Truly who most recently introduced some of their products and their brand into the gamer universe through their partnership with 100 Thieves on a range of activations across its platforms. This includes co-branded content, social challenges, livestreams and giveaways. Lesya Lysyj, CMO at The Boston Beer Company said this about the partnership: “A space we know our drinkers love, we’re eager to bring Truly and Twisted Tea to the large-scale gaming community with a stacked roster of talent to connect with fans in new ways.”
The more brands can connect with consumers through shared interests, the more opportunities each and every one of them has to reach their target audience in the perfect setting. This can only be mutually beneficial as brands allow the platforms to grow and become more profitable; while at the same time allowing the same brands to reach consumers in new and creative ways to raise their overall awareness.
“Thinking differently and holding strongly to your strategy can disrupt an entire industry, and in a good way.” — Satoru Iwata
RH
