Animal Crossing New Horizons – The rise of in-game advertising

 

Nintendo’s new video game, Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH), has become a must-have since its release in March 2020. Enjoying a perfect timing, it is well-known for having cheered-up many people during quarantine. 

In addition, in-game advertising has turned-out more relevant than ever in the context of this pandemic. While being under lockdown, people scrambled to acquire consoles and turned to virtual worlds as a way to forget the current grim reality. The key factor of success of Animal Crossing is to offer a non-violent escape - though not so different from real human activities - by creating an island, building decoration and furniture, collecting raw materials, fishing, hunting bugs, breeding flowers, farming, terraforming, visiting other people’s islands and so on.

With so many possibilities for virtual creativity, 2020 has become a turning point regarding marketing strategy. On the one hand, it became clear that fewer people watch TV, and by extension, adverts. The same phenomenon is also valid for other media, except for social networks which have been taking even more space in our lives. On the other hand, non-media channels lost significance with events being canceled, and billboards and posters displayed in deserted streets. Thus, while their budgets tightened and marketing spend dwindled, brands had to adopt strategies that allowed them to virtually interact with consumers, but differently than simple digital marketing. 

Therefore, various industries dramatically affected by the sanitary measures came up with various ways of using Animal Crossing New Horizons.

First and foremost, one of the game’s features is the ability to create custom designs. Players are able to upload their creation and download other people’s through QR codes, and then apply them on in-game articles of clothing, furniture, walls or floors. That is how players of the fashion industry took advantage of the game as a new way to promote their seasonal looks, after the cancellation of most fashion shows. More particularly, luxury brands such as Marc Jacobs and Valentino shared their new collections with gamers who could choose to dress their characters in these high-end clothes for free. 

The advantage was dual by unconsciously talking them into purchasing the clothes in real life to match their characters, and enjoying further exposure on social media when gamers share screenshots on twitter or Instagram (e.g. https://www.instagram.com/AnimalCrossingFashionArchive/). 

Likewise, youtubers and streamers also assumed the role of influencers through partnerships, such as Chase Crossing with the brand Tommy Hilfiger.

For their part, art institutions also seized the opportunity to bolster their visibility. For instance, the Metropolitan Museum of Art added a widget in its online collection that enables to transfer any piece of art you like into the game. 

Other institutions such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium decided to spread culture even more by streaming in collaboration with a fossil expert from the Chicago Field Museum. Animal Crossing islands contain a virtual Museum where all the fish, bugs, fossils and art pieces found in the game are catalogued – and based on real-world species and objects. The experts are thus commenting all objects and animals of interests they find, giving scientific information and fun facts (e.g. https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/stories/aquarium-animal-crossing).

ACNH has also been used to further develop a popular form of entertainment: talk shows. It is the case for Gary Whitta, a screenwriter known for Star Wars Rogue One, who created his own talk show called Animal Talking in which he invites celebrity guests such as Elijah Wood, Danny Trejo or Selena Gomez to promote their future projects.

Furthermore, fast-food chain KFC even chose a more direct and complete approach in the Philippines by creating a whole island with a virtual version of its quick service restaurants. Not only did they propose design codes just like other brands, but they also invited gamers to visit the island, being welcomed by Colonel Sanders who provided them with offer codes for real-life meals.

In the same way, the Chinese company Yummy House generated social buzz by publishing a job offer to recruit a designer, paid $2,500 to create an island in their name.

This enthusiasm for in-game advertisement even reached the sport industry with the football team Detroit Lions, which played on its visual image by tweeting QR Codes to download official NFL apparel designs and revealed its 2020 game schedule in a stream - maybe in a move to turn nerds into sport enthusiasts.

 

Last but not least, leisure brands didn’t hesitate to extend tourism marketing onto new digital platforms as well. Among them, Singapore’s Sentosa Island worked with agency BBH Singapore to recreate a virtual replica of their resort.

 

In conclusion, most sectors have been severely impacted worldwide since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. Nevertheless, standing as the 3rd best-selling Nintendo game of all time, ACNH offers a very wide audience to companies who know how to take advantage of it. The endless possibilities of this three-dimension world, as a complement to the new level of popularity of gaming since quarantine, turned out to be a very effective alternative to convey brand image, publicity and a customer experience which became impossible to provide physically.

Ludivine D.

 

Webography:

Fiona Gentilleau (8 September, 2020), « Animal Crossing : un canal marketing à part entière », (Accessed on 19 October, 2020)

> https://www.e-marketing.fr/Thematique/social-media-1096/Breves/Animal-Crossing-canal-marketing-part-entiere-352124.htm

Erin Zhang (15 July, 2020), « Brand Integration In Video Games: Case Study On Animal Crossing », (Accessed on 19 October, 2020)

> https://blog.hollywoodbranded.com/brand-integration-in-video-games-case-study-on-animal-crossing

Melissa Ledesma (June 26, 2020), « Brands Level Up With Animal Crossing: New Horizons Partnerships », (Accessed on October 22, 2020)

> https://insights.digitalmediasolutions.com/articles/brand-partnerships-nintendo-animal-crossing

MET Museum, (Accessed on October 19, 2020)

>https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11055?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&high=on&ao=on&showOnly=openAccess&ft=*&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=19

Erwan Lafleuriel (June 17, 2020), « KFC a ouvert un nouveau restaurant... dans Animal Crossing », (Accessed on October 22, 2020)

> https://fr.ign.com/animal-crossing-new-horizons-switch/50061/news/kfc-a-ouvert-un-nouveau-restaurant-dans-animal-crossing

Claire Domenech (May 17, 2020), « Un job de rêve pour les fans d'Animal Crossing », (Accessed on October 19, 2020)

> https://www.capital.fr/conso/un-job-de-reve-pour-les-fans-danimal-crossing-1370260

Lizzie Hillier (July 13, 2020), « The Animal Crossing phenomenon: More than just good timing », (Accessed on October 22, 2020)

> https://econsultancy.com/the-animal-crossing-phenomenon-marketing/

Nicole Carpenter (April 13, 2020), « A real aquarium is giving tours of Animal Crossing’s in-game museum », (Accessed on October 24, 2020)

> https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/13/21218993/animal-crossing-new-horizons-real-museum-curation-tour