06 November , 2022
The world-famous sportswear brand, Nike, tested waters with the blockchain technology by successfully launching NFTs at an event. Post that, it has been racing in the Nikeland metaverse. Let us see how is it performing so far.
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Platform
Roblox is a global online gaming platform featuring many games. It is 595th most valuable company in the world with a net worth USD $30.52 billion. With more than over 230 million active players and 32.6 million daily active players, Roblox presents a community on the platter for brands that are looking to enhance their digital presence and get through to customers creatively.
Concept
Nikeland world is an outdoor sports theme amusement park planned with a metaverse experience. It is divided into multiple playing fields, a lobby area, and a showroom area. There are various track and field sports such as Soccer, Basketball, wall climbing, the floor is lava, and many others. Playing fields have stadium-like experience sounds and are stocked with minigames. There are various challenges for players to earn rewards. Using the reward points, players can buy Nike shoes, clothes, accessories, and merchandise for their avatar from the showroom.
Promotions
Nike planned a mix of online and offline promotions for its metaverse. It created Snapchat lens to give glimpses of Nikeland experience at one of its New York retail stores. The visitors were asked to use the Snapchat lens filter on their phones to play games, catch Easter eggs, and create avatars in the Nikeland. Visitors loved the augmented reality version of this amusement park planned on a sports theme by Nike. Apart from announcements through a press release on launch for media coverage, heavy promotions were put out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube through videos. Nike has a dedicated site NIKELAND on Roblox on its official website to inform visitors about the latest developments, updates, safety measures, and parental guidelines.
Nike is big on promotions. It has invited various sports celebrities for promoting the metaverse. During NBA All-Star Week, LeBron James visited Nikeland to inspire the community towards physical movement.
Current Experience
Nikeland is a sports person heaven with tracks, fields, courts, swimming pool, wall climbing, and various activity areas available. Visitors can play games, chat with others in the metaverse, create their own games, or shop gears for their avatars at the Nike showroom. Nikeland accepts only metaverse currency, which you can earn by playing games or through fiat money.
I joined Nikeland in a female character avatar. It is a basic avatar with no Nike gear. The design of the metaverse is pretty and functional. I particularly liked the football-shaped soccer stadium. As soon as you enter, instructions pop up to navigate in the metaverse. You can move around running, jumping, or flying on a hoverboard.
Currently, various field games such as track race, soccer, basketball, and the floor is lava, are available. I played basketball and soccer to earn reward points. Both the games were simple and I could easily earn coins and certain badges as well. I unlocked a few Nike gear such as a headband and shoes after completing certain tasks given in the instructions. Using the reward points, I could buy Air Force1 White shoes. These shoes showed improvement in the performance of my avatar in the game in runs and jumps. From the showroom, I also bought a t-shirt using the reward points ‘Robux coins’.
The concept is simple and presented in an equally simplified form. For players, the ability to ‘just do it’ is evidently coming out in each of the elements in the Nikeland metaverse. You feel the fun of actively participating in sports and the joy of flaunting the swags when you win rewards.
Success
It was a bold move of by the brand to venture into the virtual world as early as 2019. The move which was assumed to be a desperate publicity stunt turned out to be a smart strategic step to connect with the new generation on their level.
Reach:
As of writing this article, Nikeland has 21+ million visits. They have 2577 members on discord, the Facebook page has 8367 likes and the official Nike page on YouTube has received around 4 million views.
Engagement:
117k+ players have favourited it on the Roblox site. It has distributed rewards to more than 9 million players.
Conversion:
Nike aced the NFT market with $180 million revenues from NFT sales. The brand’s NFT primary sales were totalled $93.1 million, the secondary market transactions were $67.54k with volumes of $1.3 billion, and royalties were amounting to $92.25million.
Nike nailed every aspect of innovation in technology and utilizing a new channel of marketing. Overall, if Nike expects it can translate this fun and exciting experience into real-world sales, it isn’t wrong because I found myself checking out shoes at Nike’s online store after spending just an hour in the Nikeland metaverse.