gaming and marketing

“Gamification in fashion presents an enormous opportunity to communicate with and deeply engage loyal consumers,” James Gardner, founder of CreatetheGroup. “Fashion is itself a game, after all”. With games such as Farmville receiving over 700 million installs over the past decade (Wilson, 2019), it only seems logical that the fashion world incorporates this.

Most fashion companies are already prominent in the digital sphere with websites, editorial content, mobile commerce and social media outreach, so this new form of engagement is a tactical way that brands are hoping to increase brand loyalty. “When you reward a customer based on the success of their actions, the value and the perception from that consumer increases, thereby maintaining a brand image,” Macala Wright, digital marketing consultant, founder and CEO of Why This Way and editor in chief of FashionablyMarketing.me (Adams, 2012).

The first wave of experiential retail with the installation of tablets and other technology simply is no longer enough. Consumers now more than ever crave experiences and therefore technology savvy brands are offering compelling activations to entice consumers back into their stores. For example, Chanel Beauty jumped on the gaming band wagon in 2018, opening their first travelling beauty pop up, the Coco Chanel Game Center. This took the form of a multi-floor space that offered plenty of opportunity for all, from arcade-style visual merchandising to customised arcade games, Chanel delivered a unique, playful setting for its consumers to discover their new products.

Early May saw Nike launch a VR landscape, the Nike 720 Air Store, where shoppers could access limited edition items once they had earned credits from a previous real-life purchase. The pop-up store, which went live upon the launch of the new Air Max 720 style, can be visited by anyone whereas the items are only available to buy once the user has entered their order number for purchasing a pair of the new trainers. This essentially acts as a reward system for buying the new trainers, which provides pleasure and harvests a boost in consumer loyalty. Upon entering the order number, you are provided with ‘Air Credits’, which are put into a virtual wallet, and allows users to purchase the items that they can see on their screens. The collection includes digitised items such as Air Max 720-themed water bottles, socks and sticker. This virtual store also expanded into the physical realm, with an installation in the Oxford Circus flagship store in London (Bezamat, 2019).

' Gamification in fashion presents an enormous opportunity to communicate with and deeply engage loyal consumer, Fashion is itself a game, after all. '