To Remain Relevant, Open Your Brand up for Play

As a true gaming fanatic, I play a lot of games and am always keeping tabs on new trends, innovations and collaborations. When I heard about Epic Games’ Fortnite teaming up with Dragon Ball Super, my excitement was instantly piqued, because this collaboration means the merging of true icons - and demonstrates that brands are starting to actively involve consumers in their IP, thereby creating new storytelling experiences.  

For the uninitiated, the Dragon Ball series goes back decades, and its anime adaptation was fundamental to introducing western audiences to Japanese animation. As a fan of the series, I was thrilled to see characters like Goku and Vegeta share space with western favourites like Marvel’s Spider-Man and DC’s Batman - whose pairing on the platform is a marvel of its own given their IP holders are in direct competition with one another. In other words, the world’s most iconic but competing IPs are now gathered together in one game, opening up rich storytelling experiences like no other - and that’s not the first time I’ve seen prominent brands join forces. 

Can you even begin to imagine pitching this creative idea to Toei Animation, Warner Bros and Marvel ten years ago? I can’t, because in terms of marketing, my generation has been taught to not get your brand intertwined (and potentially confused) with other ones in the spirit of protecting visibility. However, Gen Z and Alpha are mixing and matching brands whenever and wherever they can. Call it an act of anarchy or simply call it innovation, but what it comes down to is that younger generations are saying “why not?” They’re the future, so if you ask me, it’s best that we listen. 

Provide tools to facilitate self-expression. 

As gaming is becoming more mainstream, it’s also increasingly a space for people to connect socially, not just competitively. Modern consumers - especially Gen Z - more and more turn to digital platforms like gaming for identity construction, and so they expect to be able to play with the characters that resonate with them - it’s a more participatory way of engaging with content, which contributes to the shaping of the transformation of digital. As such, brands have a responsibility to affirm different identities and enable representation and self-expression in the digital experiences they offer. Rather than setting rules, focus should be on providing tools and letting people play around with them. 

The days of passive spectatorship are done, as consumers prefer to engage and help create - whether brands provide the instruments to do so or not. For instance, it's not uncommon for users in fan-driven metaverse platforms like VRChat to borrow character models or other assets from video games to use as avatars or populate worlds. Rather than encouraging unauthorised use of these assets or punishing fans for their creativity, brands can lean into their audience’s passion through official collaborations. Whether designing avatars bespoke for a platform or recreating worlds from favourite franchises in the metaverse, these cultural investments are likely to result in long-term relevance in the gaming space. 

Gen Z’s desire to help create explains the popularity of social platforms such as TikTok. This app has done a great job at putting the mantra 'give them tools, not rules' to practice by offering audiences a plethora of edit options, thereby making (almost) limitless space for creativity. It’s a digital creator’s world we live in, and so providing opportunities for creative expression is part and parcel of connecting with existing and emerging audiences. In some instances, that means letting Dragon Ball Z’s Goku use Darth Vader’s lightsaber to strike out his opponent. If that makes your fans happy, then it’s definitely worth it.

While the collaboration between Fortnite and Dragon Ball Super (of course) came with the commercial purpose to promote the latter’s latest film, it achieved so much more than getting people lined up at the box office: it launched audiences into new levels of immersiveness and between iconic IPs and made fans - including myself - feel like their calls had been answered. 

Going beyond your comfort zone to build brand loyalty.

Creating a top-shelf digital experience might entail teaming up with your competitors, just as some of our favourite fantasy figures and superheroes have done in Fortnite, or actively involving fans in your IP. This goes to show that with the rise of new trends and consumer behaviors, it’s a good time for companies to reconsider what role brand protection should play in their marketing strategy. 

I know it can be very scary to offer consumers (or another brand) the tools that enable them to add their own creative touch to your brand - who knows what they might do to it? However, I also know that Gen Z, Gen Alpha and so on will be better able to relate to and even embrace your brand in case you provide space for creativity, interpretation and self-expression, as younger generations prefer to branch out and rock several of their favorite brands at the same time. Ultimately, this will lead to brand loyalty in the long run. Why? Because it allows them to make your world part of their own. 

Funs Jacobs is category lead - gaming at Media.Monks