The online gaming platform plans to launch 3D immersive advertisements the next year in an attempt to go beyond the present in-game purchases. The gaming company said at its annual developer’s conference that Roblox plans to launch the immersive advertisements in 2023 after testing them with developers and a small number of marketers by the end of 2022.
The company said Roblox’s immersive ads would only target audiences aged 13 and above.
The current global economic issues are wreaking havoc on the advertising business worldwide. The declining income has also affected well-known advertising networks like Snap and Meta. As lockdowns ended and schools reopened, Roblox too suffered the effects as user spending was decreased by inflation.
To counter the declining demand, Roblox has turned to the metaverse. At its Roblox Developers Conference (RDC), held in September 2022, Roblox gave a sample of its brand-new immersive in-game advertising.
In 2023, the Roblox Immersive Ads are most likely to launch. The new ad format will allow for creating 3D portals that may carry Roblox users to unique virtual worlds. With 58.5 million daily active users, Roblox is presenting its new Immersive Ads offering as a way for businesses to build stronger customer relationships.
By adding a new dynamic that lets users manage the scarcity of their goods, Roblox is also expanding its Marketplace, where artists can sell their creations for the in-game money known as Robux. The launch of Roblox’s new monetization strategy coincides with a downward financial trend experienced by the gaming platform as a whole.
Roblox has already succeeded in luring businesses that want to test out the metaverse. Numerous well-known companies, like Nike, Gucci, and Gap, already have a presence in Roblox and have used activations specifically suited to the platform, such as persistent spaces that vary over time. Roblox is attempting to attract more advertising revenue from businesses hoping to profit from the Web3 medium by introducing an immersive advertisement option.
Posters for Roblox Vans World are all over the Internet. A “sponsored” disclosure is shown in a video that advertises the activities and is shown on an overhead screen.
The avatar is brought into a branded virtual area after entering a portal. Similar principles apply as the player passes through the portal to return to the original experience after leaving Vans World.
Brands will be able to advertise their own Roblox venues to audiences of Gen Z and Gen Alpha customers, who are generally difficult to contact. For the creators, the ads have the potential to be lucrative. As marketers pay to be showcased in well-known worlds that already entice users to spend time there, creators may monetize their efforts.
Instead of creating their worlds from scratch, many businesses are choosing to use existing Roblox experiences. To promote inclusion, American Eagle created a spring campaign that included a club in the well-liked Roblox role-playing game Livetopia, which has had more than 1.5 billion visitors.
The gaming platform sees the idea of creators making money through Robux as essential to expanding its creative economy.
The gaming platform said during the Roblox Developer Conference that it would spend more than $580 million on its developer exchange by June 2022. 2.7 million people generated Robux on the site from their projects in only the month of June.
Roblox also intends to offer producers on its Marketplace control over the scarcity of online commodities by enabling them to resell or exchange things to support individual business initiatives.
Through these technologies, Roblox is envisioning a future in which all products will have a finite quantity and where everyone can shop in a customized marketplace for the goods they love.
Roblox did not meet Wall Street’s revenue targets and user growth projections in its second-quarter earnings in August. Last April, industry watchdog Truth in Advertising filed a letter to the FTC accusing Roblox of deceptive marketing practices. However, in its RDC, the company announced that the new Immersive Ads on its platform would be labeled as advertisements.
Most of Roblox’s revenues are currently generated from Robux, its virtual currency, which players use to upgrade their avatars via in-game purchases of pets or accessories.
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