Why is this work relevant for Media?

The LG Healthy Home in Metaverse campaign is designed to deliver brand messages to consumers with new channel strategy that the existing home appliance industry has not tried. The media we chose to meet with consumers was Metaverse Platform, a playground which have grown rapidly since COVID-19. Instead of video advertisements through Social Media, which previously delivered messages one-way, we chose a new platform that can interact with consumers. In addition, we have discovered a new target ‘Game Audience’, away from the existing home appliance industry audience, and used various channels such as Twitch, Game influencer Channel, and Game Community.

Background

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, LG Electronics has been continuously communicating by positioning as ‘Health care home appliances’ in line with the needs of consumer who have increased their health concerns. In 2021, as health concerns continued due to the continued pandemic situation and positive WOMs for returning to daily life due to the spread of vaccines, a new way of brand experience was needed for consumers tired of continuous Covid-related marketing while communicating on health appliances. In particular, it was intended to build a brand image unique to LG health appliances and to refresh the brand for New Generation, which is difficult to think of a specific image for LG home appliances and thinks of it as an old image compared to its competitors.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

We found that global consumers continue to be highly interested in health and health care home appliances through a social listening tool called ‘Sprinklr’. In addition, when looking into the health-related keyword data, it can be seen that interest in creating a positive lifestyle is increasing, away from simply worrying about COVID-19. Therefore, LG Health Home Appliance attempted to design a campaign so that consumers can experience healthy lifestyle in pleasant ways. We implemented LG Healthy Home Map in Metaverse platform, which consumers use as their playground, and allowed them to experience LG’s health care home appliances and LG brands as game play. In deciding which Metaverse platform to use, we considered national coverage first through research in that it involves 23 countries, and considered the platform that can express home and home appliances well. So we selected Nintendo's life simulation game Animal Crossing and Epic Games' shooting game Fortnite.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We approached new generation and focused on allowing customers to experience LG products and brand. Therefore, it is designed to deliver the brand experience through virtual space by utilizing Metaverse platform. Genuine gamers in teens and 20s became our main targets and had to appeal to wide national coverage in 23 countries. Therefore, we selected Metaverse games that can cover these ages and countries, and to bring them to the game, we broke into various channels that many gamers use. Video advertisements and influencer broadcasts were conducted in Twitch, livestream channel specializing in games, and promotional posts were uploaded on Discord, messenger media used by gamers. In addition, reddit and more community sites were used as promotional channels. In addition, by motivating participation through empathy for public interest activities, it has since become popular with consumers' SNS authentication content, and many game users have voluntarily played the LG brand map.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We created LG's own space within each game. Although there were limitations in implementing maps in each game, we created LG's health care home appliances through original ideas and utilizing the in-game elements. In Animal Crossing, LG Home Island was created and three concepts were prepared: clothing care maze to experience the clean clothing care process, kitchen zone full of fresh ingredients, and air solution zone to meet clean air, allowing consumers to experience the value of LG products as pleasant experience. In Fortnite, the LG map is also implemented including home appliances at home and Habitat zone that was being completed according to the number of participating plays. In order to attract consumers to games, guide video advertisements, game influencer, and gamers' media channels were used, and many original game users voluntarily played the LG brand map as consumers' voluntary SNS authentication contents and influencer own events spread.

List the results (30% of vote)

Through this project, LG Electronics was able to communicate with New generation. About 3,000 game plays were participated in Animal Crossing and 55,000 game plays in Fortnite. In other words, a total of more than 58,000 consumers experienced the value of LG health care appliances through virtual space. In addition, more than 400 SNS uploads for identifying the participation occurred and online WOMs spread through secondary content by consumers. And a number of video contents, live streaming and SNS posts were created by famous gaming influencers. In the case of Fortnite, our LG brand map was exposed to the trending section showing real-time popular maps in the game, resulting in an explosive response of about 20,000 participation in a day. In result, LG Electronics could donate to Habitat Korea about $200K to support for providing homes for the housing vulnerable in Vietnam, Kenya and India.