Why brands need to act like game devs
Web3 loyalty and brand programs must tap game mechanics
I was admittedly late to the crypto game. Obviously not late given the first inning of this industry that we’re still in or the adoption of blockchain technology generally, but late compared to some of my peers. I remember tuning out a convo between tipsy SuperData coworkers at our holiday party years ago about a big drop in Bitcoin’s price and what’d they have to do now. It all sounded like an offshoot of similar conversations about Magic cards or Dota tactics. Nerdom stuff. Those weren’t my games, so I just ignored it. I had my nerdy things, they had theirs.
Crypto expanded; we suddenly had NFTs and consumer companies talking about using the blockchain to do all kinds of things. I realized my initial knee-jerk sentiment wasn’t that far off: it’s just folks talking about different “games.” Obviously web3 has pervasive implications, and it reaches beyond entertainment. But as brands from Starbucks to Porsche to Mattel entered the broader web3 universe, all of it has struck me as familiar. One way or another, consumer web3 taps elements that gaming had been doing for years.
So you want to sell digital goods using digital money to a global, engaged community? Welcome to gaming.
Even before the Fortune 500 crowd got deeper into web3, it was easy to see overlaps in crypto-native project/community tactics with gaming. These “brands” created during the NFT speculative bubble realized the power of gamification in building their digital collectible ecosystems. PFP projects used quests (basically on-chain micro game missions) to entice engagement or unlock access. They set up Discords, originally the home of game communities. Users developed their own jargon that transcended single projects or platforms—a mainstay of the hardcore gaming world.
Then things got explicit. When the NFT bubble burst, Bored Ape and others realized there was nowhere else to go except the natural conclusion: try to become game companies. Crypto-native creators, the ones who ostensibly felt like they were setting up ecosystems that had never before been seen, decided that the route to ongoing relevance with their engaged, digital goods owners was to make games. (Of course, TBD on whether they can pull it off…)
As non-endemic brands explored web3, their strategies seemed to converge on similar mechanics, in part driven by agencies and consultants who had seen what worked for PFPs, and therefore, games.
Where web2 loyalty programs base most points on spending, Starbucks’ Odyssey web3 loyalty program has used “Journeys,” i.e. quests to reward users for taking certain actions with NFTs.
Louis Vuitton actually built a game that sends players around a virtual world to collect NFTs.
Porsche created an NFT campaign complete with cosmetic items and user generated content.
Lots of the branded Sandbox land was sold with the idea that users could eventually go to Citi Bank town and play fun minigames.
There’s nothing surprising about brands leaning into gamification or full-on games for their web3 strategies, especially ongoing programs like loyalty schemes. What category of technology is better at using triggers to get users to make actions and ultimately buy something?
Where to go from here
Most of the branded NFT experiences in this vein are stunts: one-off campaigns that drop, have their moment, and then don’t go anywhere else. This leaves a lot of opportunity on the table, especially given the permanence of on-chain things. These items will live forever, but as the campaigns die off, they’ll be little more than passive reminders someone might see if scrolling through their wallet. Games are inherently made to last for years.
Louis Vuitton didn’t build its game with the intention that its play time would somehow match Roblox’s. That’s tough even for a real game company. But if brands really want to capture the kinds of benefits germain to gaming (meaningful conversion, long LTV, fierce engagement, avid fan love, offshoot communities) for ongoing loyalty and brand engagement, companies need to start thinking less like advertisers and even more like game creators.
As brands use web3 in more gamified ways, they’ll be increasingly competing for attention with actual, good games. To stand out and keep users enticed, they’ll need to reach par with gaming’s best practices. To me, this means everything I’d expect from the full cycle of game development and liveops. Starting with trailers; weirdly absent from most branded web3 experiences, but maybe even more necessary in making tangible a loyalty program’s offerings than a game’s play. Roadmaps that include years’ worth of conversion points and engagement, with multiple drops and new engagement “modes,” just as I’d hope to see from a game.
Fashion brands are used to seasons, and so is Fortnite—where are the monthly or quarterly refreshes of design and benefits in their web3 programs that we’re accustomed to with the game? Clothing brands would do well to eye Fortnite’s update cadence since it makes more than nearly every notable fashion house.
What about battlepasses? Monthly, on-chain tickets-to-ride that give users access to new perks if they satisfy a revolving list of achievements.
Lots of brands have used web3 to experiment with collectible items. What about collectible card games? Holders competing to complete their sets, rank, or battle against each other with branded rewards. The more that items (mapped to IRL goods) are given status in the game, the more coveted those items will seem when users go to purchase them.
Free-to-play: Gaming’s biggest cash cow is often ignored by brands, who opt for payment-gated experiences, sometimes with hefty price tags. Odyssey’s kickoff price was $100 and limited to 2,000 items. Even as that beta has expanded, the total haul of Starbucks’ NFTs (maybe a few $100k) likely doesn’t offset the value of moving more of its 29 million web2 loyalty program users over. Following an gaming average conversion rate of about 5%, even $5 from those transferred 1.45M users would be over $7M, magnitudes above the current Oddyssey NFT revenue.
And while we’re at it: multiplayer. One of the biggest misses in loyalty programs is that they’re solo experiences. No need to loop in your friends, no incentive to reach the top of the leaderboard and posture your achievements to others. With a few game loops, brands could turn loyalty program owners into armies of influencers and on-boarders.
There are tons of other game mechanics to explore in this realm, and a lot of brands have already started down the right path. The next phase of consumer brands in web3 will need to harness even more of the things that make gaming as far-reaching and powerful as it is, while not going into cheesy game-building territory where they won’t have the polish to compete.