American carbonated soft drink Coca-Cola has joined forces with TMELAND (China’s first virtual social music platform under Tencent Music Entertainment) to open a new metaverse zone for Coca-Cola’s Fan Festival. This year, the festival has gathered eight major brands, over 300 customers, and several entertainers in its deep dive into the digital dimension.
Accessible for the first time via Wechat mini programmes, users can create their own digital Coca-Cola avatar and explore the virtual space. Not only can they shop in the metaverse, but they can also play a variety of games, as well as snap a photo with virtual celebrity avatars such as Coca-Cola brand spokesperson Yang Yang. To further incentivise participation, Coca-Cola has created a rewards system in which points can be gained by buying bottles of coke offline, scanning QR codes and interacting with others in the metaverse.
Mainly targeting its Gen Z audience, Coca-Cola’s virtual community presents a myriad of marketing opportunities. Not only does the digital space break the time and space of traditional marketing, allowing virtual visitors to explore anytime and anywhere, but it also gives lesser known brands a platform to advertise and gain more commercial value.
However, Coca-Cola is not the first brand to have partnered with Tencent’s virtual space. In July, TMELAND teamed up with Pepsi to throw a virtual concert in the immersive three-dimensional realm. In July, the entertainment group joined forces with Adidas Originals to throw a virtual music festival.
In the future, as technology expands, TMELAND’s mini programme aims to allow brands to update the video content and products displayed in the virtual rooms. Moreover, with nearly 564 million monthly active Tencent QQ users and 1.24 billion Wechat users as of 2022, brands will be able to launch concerts and events in their own virtual corner, creating their own metaverse environment.
Overall, Coca-Cola’s latest metaverse marketing venture shows the potential future of brand experiences in China. Moreover, the customisation of the platform’s metaverse rooms opens the door to new marketing possibilities for incoming international brands.
