At the same time, Roblox has made significant efforts to attract brands and their marketing budgets, including creating an official affiliate program and developing a programmatic video advertising network within the platform, as well as numerous other tools designed to improve the experience for advertisers and developers. Brands looking to reach Roblox users now have more weapons at their disposal than ever before.

Because Roblox’s ad network is still in its growth phase, the majority of brands’ spend on the platform doesn’t go directly to Roblox. Instead, marketers pay development studios to help them establish their presence on the platform, often through customized in-game experiences or by integrating a brand into a popular, existing Roblox game – a tactic that has become increasingly popular over the past year.

Here are some of the creative methods brands have used to delve deeper into Roblox culture in 2024.

Trading in real life

Perhaps the biggest shake-up to come to the Roblox ecosystem in 2024 is the introduction of real-world commerce, which brands like Walmart and Fandango have been testing on the platform ahead of the tool’s full release. For the first time, Roblox users will be able to pay for the delivery of a physical product to their doorstep without having to leave the platform.

One reason Walmart was able to lead the way in Roblox e-commerce was because the company’s Roblox experience, Walmart Discovered, was designed with commerce in mind from the start.

“We often look for opportunities to go right when everyone is going left, and when we get that insight, we think about what the opportunity is, but also what the future will bring,” Justin Breton, Walmart’s director of brand experiences and strategic partnerships, said in an interview before the launch of the company’s first e-commerce test in March. “And that future question is: What could commerce be? How could commerce make sense here?”

Collaboration with creatives

As brands have become more experienced with the Roblox landscape, marketers have realized that simply building a brand experience and expecting users to show up is no guarantee of success. Instead, experienced brands have started working with dedicated Roblox developers to promote their virtual worlds—and literally spend time in them. It’s a tactic Walmart successfully used to launch its e-commerce test.

Another brand that has successfully partnered with Roblox developers to promote their presence on the platform is L’Oreal, which streamed its Paris Fashion Week presentation live on Roblox last year.

“Collaboration with creatives is key; it’s something we really discuss with the brands we push,” said Camille Kroely, global head of digital innovation at L’Oréal. “We’re very good at collaborating with influencers and creatives on social media, and that’s something we can do a lot more on the Roblox platform.”

As marketers become more adept at integrating with Roblox, developers working within the platform have created new and more efficient ways to incorporate brands into their experiences. For example, the developers of the Outfit Shopping Mall experience intentionally built a virtual mall where multiple brands can integrate without getting in each other’s way by replicating the layout of real-world malls. Currently, brands like DressX, Mango, and Spanish radio network LOS40 are all active and integrated into the experience at the same time.

“We’ve found that brand integrations are most successful when they feel authentic and true to the gameplay experience,” says Elisha Trice, whose studio Sandbox Studios developed Fashion Famous, another Roblox fashion game that currently features a Coach brand activation. “It gives players a new way to express their personal style.”

https://digiday.com/?p=553261