Virtual World Marketing of Media Brands Becomes Mainstream - But Does It Finally Have Good ROI?

The latest update to Fortnite has content tie-ins to the upcoming Keanu Reeves/John Wick movie (a recreation of Wick's house), and this is very shortly after Fortnite launched content tie-ins to the latest Avengers movie.

Which is to say, with little fanfare, using virtual worlds to market major media brands has become a mainstream, accepted practice. 10-12 years ago, this kind of marketing was in a very experimental phase. Back then, movie studios sponsored Second Life-based tie-ins with the movie 300, and A Scanner Darkly (also starring Keanu!) among many others. But all these campaigns quickly generated a heated debate (led by Wired magazine) as to whether this was a waste of marketing dollars. Did the virtual world content actually inspire consumers to pay real money at the box office?

Obviously Fortnite has a far more massive userbase than Second Life, so any marketing tie-in will inevitably draw in more eyeballs. But even then, I'd say the ROI question still remains:

Avengers: Endgame will soon become one of the top grossing movies of all time (at least not adjusting against inflation), and it's really doubtful the Fortnite tie-in had anything to do with its success, seeing as all the other Avengers movies were also huge hits.

The John Wick movies are a somewhat better test case, because in terms of movie tickets sold, the first one was a modest hit ($43 million at the US box office), as was the second ($92 million). So if the latest movie falls beneath or within that range, it's safe to assume the Fortnite marketing didn't help much. Fortnite publisher Epic can probably track some ROI, such as website visits from the game to the official John Wick website or social media pages. But as with Second Life, ROI will be difficult to fully gauge.

But having been in the thick of the backlash to Second Life-based marketing, I can guarantee this: After the novelty of virtual world marketing wears off (again), the corporate sponsors are going to start asking tough questions, and hopefully Epic is ready for answers.

Comments

[irihapeti]

it can go in another direction. Using VR/ST to stimulate real world experiences and sales

a link to the Microsoft/Muse Simulation Theory partnership. Muse is a music band

https://www.microsoft.com/inculture/musicxtech/muse-vr-games-simulation-theory-tour/

[Blaise Glendevon]

I kind of hope somebody at Showtime will get nostalgic and bring back the The L Word island, honestly. The show's getting a reboot. Why not the sim?