How gaming can help automotive brands to engage with their audience
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the automotive industry have significantly changed how business is conducted. For example, by April 2020, in the United States, sales had dropped 47% and 80% in Europe (1). To recover from the impacts of these unprecedented times, technology and gaming became an essential ally for the car sector to reach their sales milestones and engage with their audience.
The automotive industry constantly evolves by leveraging high-tech tools and systems through all the stages of its evolution – engine, software and leasing. However, the purchase process needs a boost. Unfortunately, the process is basically the same as 30 years ago. When considering buying a car, customers engage with a long multi-channel purchasing process – researching online or offline, learning about models, exploring car configurators, reading reviews, asking friends and family for advice, visiting dealerships, taking a test drive… phew! Yes, it is a long process, but each stage provides a brand new opportunity to enchant your customers and bring them one step closer to the final stage – the purchase.
Gamification provides myriad ways to make the discovery and purchase process fun. This article outlines the top three ways gamified experiences can turn cars' buying process and accessories into an entertaining experience.
1. Be where your audience is
For as long as we can remember, the gamer stereotype has always been the same: a teenage boy playing games all day long in their basement. However, millennials are the primary gaming audience. 38% of video game players are 18 to 34 age demographic. In addition, 46% of players are female, and 54% are male (2).
Times have changed, advertising has evolved, and numbers don't lie. The gaming sector has already surpassed the movie and music industries combined. Video games are a billion-dollar business. The mobile gaming market generated an estimated income of over 77 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 (2), and the global gaming market is estimated to be worth $256.97 billion by 2025. More than 2.5 billion people worldwide play games, and the number of active mobile gamers worldwide is over 2.2 billion (3).
- 56% of players in the U.S. own a car
- 47% of them are potential buyers
- 62% of the automotive customers are millennials
Porsche, Infinity, Ford, Mazda, BMW, and GM are some brands that are already using the power of games and gamification to leverage their brands to their customers.
2. Native advertising – bringing your brand to the game storyline
Native ads are one of the most successful in-game advertising formats. These ads units closely match the in-game environment and experience, making it a more subtle way to display your brand. The media world is saturated with advertising. To stand out, brands need to find meaningful ways to make an emotional connection with their audience. Native ads allow brands and their audience to be part of the game narrative while providing a unique experience.
Native ads can take many formats. Some of the most successful formats used in the automotive sector are:
Branded items & product placement
Branded boosters give an advantage to players by boosting the consumers' performance during gameplay. A great example of a successful native integration was with Michelin in Asphalt 8: Airborne. Michelin Thailand launched a new tire and wanted to extend its audience to millennials through gaming. This interactive campaign allowed gamers to perform better in the race by using the boosters sponsored by Michelin. As a result, Michelin had 600K unique users engaging with the brand.
Digital Venue
Digital venues offer brands the opportunity to host or create a digital event in the video game world. It allows brands to promote their brand or product inside the Gameloft games environment providing a singular opportunity for gamers to be part of an exclusive event. During those events, gamers are immersed in their participation, being more positively inclined to receive brands messages.
Lamborghini is another iconic brand that used the power of native integrations to support the launch of a brand new car model - the Huracán EVO Spyder. Together with Gameloft, Lamborghini put together a world premiere to simultaneously unveil the car: digitally in Asphalt 9: Legends and in real life at the 2019 Geneva Motor show. The event was a success, with more than half a million participants.
Esports
Esports is organized competitive video gaming. It is a gaming competition that happens in a highly organized competitive environment where teams compete against each other in tournaments for a specific goal/prize, such as winning a championship or prize money. Through Esports, you can engage your audience in-game by sponsoring a racing eSports competition.
Gameloft is an expert in mobile esports for brands. Our Asphalt franchise collects a vast history of successful sponsoring esports cases. One of them is with Porsche. The high-end German brand wanted to extend its audience to millennials for its 40th-anniversary celebration and arrival in Formula E through gaming. Gameloft and Porsche partnered to launch the 1st worldwide Mobile Racing eSports competition hosted in Asphalt 9: legends. The activation had various Porsche cars and two days live competition at Gamescom. For the big finale with the new Formula E car in exclusivity, broadcasted on Twitch & Youtube.
The Asphalt franchise has reached more than 1 billion downloads this year, being one of our most successful games. In addition, Asphalt 8 is among the World's TOP 10 most downloaded mobile games of all time.
The primary audience of Asphalt is 88% composed of men between 18-34 years of age – millennials – exactly the same target audience of the auto sector.
3. Entertain and reduce your purchase journey
Buying car accessories and cars in general usually demand considerable time to learn about the product, its benefits, and its brands. 53% of automotive internet shoppers use a mobile device to research cars and accessories (4). The automotive audience is already on mobile, so are the gamers. Offering an interactive gamified experience is a perfect way to connect with your audience while educating them about your products and services.
The automotive market is overwhelmed with branded content. As a result, brands need to use wise strategies to turn them memorable. Luckily, gaming brings a vast portfolio of options for brands to create meaningful connections and turn their interaction with their fans fun and profitable.
Infiniti, a luxury car brand, partnered with Gameloft to find an interactive solution to attract the millennial audience to test drive a new model available in China. A native incentivized form on racing games was created where users could subscribe to a test drive directly from the game - a smart shortcut to incentivize customers to take action while having fun.
Gaming - Connecting to convert
In-game advertising is a smart way to bond with your audience, deliver your message and put your brand out there. The gaming audience is diverse and open to receive ads (5).
- 41% of people are likely to pay attention to ads in mobile games
- 72% of people said they like interacting with ads in exchange for in-app currency or premium content
In addition, another study from Entertainment Research reports that:
- 46% of all gamers had played games with sponsored content
- 61% who have played games with sponsored content said it made the game more fun
People play to have fun, and while they are entertained, it is the perfect moment to interact with users, present your brand and boost your conversion rates.
Click here to learn more about our gamified solutions.
Sources:
- Mckinsey report 2020
- Statista survey 2020
- Gameloft first-party data 2020-2021
- J.D. Power New Autoshopper Study 2020
- Tapjoy 2019
