Biborg’s Entertainment Benchmarks: August 2020

1. Burger King hacks streamers and promotes their burgers.


Challenge

Containment has led more users to discover content platforms such as Twitch, and follow broadcast channels. For a brand, teaming up with a streamer can be very interesting to promote its products/services to a qualified audience, however establishing a partnership with well-known streaming personalities can be expensive. 
Burger King wanted to invest in Twitch at a minimal cost while ensuring their message reaches an interested audience in order to work on awareness and brand love.

Response

Burger King has delivered commercial messages directly into the streams thanks to an in-stream feature integrated by some broadcasters: donation alerts. The mechanic is simple: when a viewer makes a donation they can send a message that will be read out loud by a robot on the stream. 
Burger King has therefore made donations between $1 and $5 to many popular streamers and used these messages to promote the Burger King application and special offers. The donation amounts matched the prices of special offers: $1 for a mini-shake, $5 for a burger, and so on.

What do we think

As more brands seek to invest in the gaming ecosystem, there is a need to find innovative touch points to engage gamers. Here, Burger King manages to hijack a native feature available on the streams in its favour, which shows that the brand has been able to understand the players' codes and usages of the platform. However, some cautions should be taken with this type of activation as streamers can disable alerts and potentially be in conflict with the brand.

2. The Sims are getting a reality show.


Challenge

For EA, the objective was to work on the branding of its 'The Sims' license to engage active players, but also to work on the acquisition of new players. 

Response

EA has announced the creation of a new series entitled 'The Sims Spark'd'. 
This series will follow the format of a traditional reality TV show, participants are assigned a goal to achieve through the game and then a panel of three experts will judge their creations. The most creative participants will be rewarded with a $100,000 prize. 
Participants will be asked to tell and co-create stories directly from The Sims game.

What do we think

This initiative from EA shows us how video games can make a creative leap into other media. This Reality Show based on in-game creation is also a good way to generate brand content that can be used to promote the game and its various aspects (story-telling, creation, design, etc.).

3. Waste agency seeks creative talents in Animal Crossing


Challenge

The creative agency 'Waste' wanted to recruit new talent that they could not find through traditional communication networks while capitalising on the hype surrounding the game Animal Crossing: New Horizon. 

Response

The agency replicated its London office in Animal Crossing: New Horizon. 
In the middle of the island, on the village centre square, there was a creative brief posted on a large board. All visitors over the age of 18 were invited to participate in this brief and share their ideas with the agency. The most interesting answer will win a three-month paid internship in the creative department of the agency.

The brief invites players to select a brand and suggest a marketing objective to be achieved through the Animal Crossing game, with the aim being to explore all the creative possibilities that the game can offer to the brand. Participants are then invited to develop creative ideas whether it is through the creation of in-game clothing and decorations dedicated to the brand, setting up of partnerships with players or creation of community events. 

What do we think

The agency engages users in a gamified recruitment process and focuses not only on the candidates' background and professional experience, but on their gaming knowledge in order to find opportunities for brands to reach an audience that loves video games; using codes and dynamics which they are familiar with. 
Nowadays, it is becoming essential to address a message where the audience is, especially as games are becoming social networking platforms for exchange and interaction, just like social networks.

4. Animal crossing players create a real-life clothing collection with Amaro


Challenge

Containment has led brands to communicate through games, and particularly in Animal Crossing, due to its success. The clothing brand Amaro wanted to address gamers while offering an innovative and engaging activation to promote the brand and raise awareness.

Response

Clothing brand Amaro started a clothing line with the help of the Animal Crossing: New Horizons' players, using the outfits they designed as inspiration.
To participate in the design of this new clothing collection, players were first invited to join the island of the digital muse 'Mara', so they could visit the island and exchange with Mara and thus present their clothing creations.
The outfits were then selected by the brand to be produced in the real world as part of an exclusive capsule collection. The selected designers won rewards and discounts for the brand's products.  

What do we think

Amaro shows us how a brand can activate its products and services in a game by inviting users/players in a co-creative dynamic. Where many brands have used the “Animal Crossing” game to reproduce clothing collections, Amaro goes a step further by integrating the players in an innovative creative process. It is necessary to understand that the video game audience is not the same as the social network audience. 

5. Givenchy offers makeup in Animal Crossing

Challenge

Since the lockdown, an increasing number of luxury brands have been entering video games, and in particular Animal Crossing. We have seen brands such as Marc Jacobs, Sandy Liang or Valentino build communication mechanics into the game. Now it’s Givenchy who wants to communicate toward millennials by using the Animal Crossing Game Ecosystem to work on its brand love.

Animal Crossing and Givenchy campaign

Response

The luxury brand has provided players with looks and makeup available directly in game. For this project, Givenchy has teamed up with Nook Street Market to create and share the brand's iconic outfits. 
Givenchy also shared tattoos and cosmetic elements such as 4G heart and lip shaped tattoos, a reminder of products such as 'Prism Libre' or 'Le Rouge'. These tattoos were available in a wide range of colours and for all skin tones.
Finally, to access these creations players were invited to go to the Instagram accounts @givenchybeauty and @nookstreetmarket where they could find the different download codes.

What do we think

This activation is interesting because it shows us how Givenchy manages to find an innovative solution to set up a communication within the game 'Animal Crossing'. The brand does not limit itself to creating clothing but also offers cosmetic elements, making it the first luxury brand to offer make-up in the game. Finally, the social mechanics with the partnership set up with Nook Street Market on Instagram shows us that the brand has understood the players' habits and behaviours