What is Roblox? That is the million-dollar question. To some, it is a game for kids, to others, a game for adults. It’s a sandbox game, it’s a creative playground, it’s a Minecraft knockoff, it’s nothing of the sort, etc.
If we were to take the core point of Roblox, it’s a multiplayer game platform that encourages creation, that might have initially been aimed at children but has since been adopted by gamers of all ages. The idea is to create your own game that would look akin to a Super Mario level for other people to play. Like TikTok, it was chugging along nicely until the pandemic, when it exploded in popularity. Enough for marketers to take notice. Today it has over 52 million daily active users
So, how do modern media marketing managers get in on this massive audience? We explore this in this guide.
Roblox is a social media game
It’s worth noting first up that Roblox has a social media element to it, however, that element might not be too useful to marketers. Avatars in Roblox chat in bubbles above their head and have the ability to meet up with anyone around the world or people they are specifically looking for. The nature of Roblox doesn’t really lend itself to social media marketing in this sense, unless you were to hire a very dedicated brand ambassador to be Jared Fogle of your brand online, simply approaching other avatars and spreading the good word of your brand.
So, what is the other option?
Well, a lot of brands are actually making waves by creating their own Roblox level. As mentioned, Roblox is a space for players to create their own playground or obstacle course that other players can then use. So, a lot of big brands, Spotify, Clarks, NARS, Gucci, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Vans and Chipotle have their own branded levels available on the platform – and they’re getting noticed. Gucci’s Gucci Town has had almost 33 million visits, and Chipotle’s Burrito Builder level has over 17 million. Spotify’s level takes players on a scavenger hunt for artists, Nike’s lets players collect gear for their avatars, etc.
It’s an idea that’s a little out of the left field, but it’s getting eyes on it. And you can’t ask for more engagement than users literally playing a game level that you have created.
However, the hitch here is that there are a lot of big brands on that list. If your business isn’t one of the biggest names in your industry, it might be hard to compete with the quality of their levels. Unless you already have an avid Roblox fan on your marketing team, it’s not really something that can easily be DIY’d. You might have to hire someone like a developer, or just a good player, a content creator or such, to create your level for you so that you can market it.
What about influencers?
Roblox is refreshingly very encouraging of creators making content from their platform and concept. There is a creator marketplace available with all the tools a creator might need, including guides on how to create icons, thumbnails, record gameplay, create the best levels, etc. They even include tutorials on sound, lighting and FX, monetization, coding, scripts and more.
How does this affect affiliate marketers? Well, it turns out Roblox influencers make for very good affiliate partners. They draw crowds of all ages, but primarily a younger audience. And if Spotify itself is bringing in numbers of 33 million, you can imagine what some of the creators streaming and recording that content are bringing in.
The platform itself appears to be expanding and looking into other ways that Roblox can explore marketing, particularly since they expect to expand into the Metaverse.
“The types of experiences in the metaverse are going to be supported by engagement, they’re going to be supported by transactions and they’re going to be supported by advertising,” said Dave Baszucki, CEO of Roblox. “When we look at some of the types of experiences that we can imagine on the platform, there will be some experiences that are more and more subscription-supported, just like many of our experiences are freemium right now. So there is a range of functionality that we will be rolling out over the next few years to support those types of experiences.”
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