Why Walmart entering Roblox is a lesson in metaverse marketing

Walmart is getting in on the metaverse action by launching two virtual experiences in Roblox — one of the hottest online gaming platforms in the world. And that’s a huge deal considering how massive its young audience is.

The first experience offered by the American retail giant is Walmart Land. According to the Roblox website, its full of experiences like mini games, events, easter eggs and obbys. No, that’s not a typo — ‘obby’ is Roblox-speak for obstacle courses.

There’s also virtual fashion shows, DJ booths, Netflix trivia, manicures and dance offs.

The Walmart Universe of Play experience seems to be aimed at a young audience. It offers users virtual versions of the year’s most popular toys, Jurassic World and PAW Patrol experiences and Razor scooter tracks.

Players can also trade in tokens for virtual merchandise (‘verch’) because capitalism, baby.

And it seems this is just the beginning of Walmart’s patronage in Roblox. New sections in these experiences will be launching in November and early 2023, according to TechCrunch.

Back up, what is Roblox and why is its audience so valuable?

If you have kids who game, they’re probably using Roblox. Or at least heard of it.

Launched back in 2006, it’s only been in the last couple of years that Roblox took off in popularity, primarily with kids.

It’s kind of difficult describe exactly what Roblox is. In my experience, the best description is ‘metaverse’. And it’s closer to any kind of metaverse currently being cooked up by the likes the Meta.

It’s essentially an open platform that can be explored as well as interacted with. They can even attend virtual concerts, screenings and even pop-up experiences.

And Walmart isn’t the first big-name brand to enter Roblox. Nike, American Eagle and Spotify all have virtual space in this metaverse.

Users can also build their own experiences within the Roblox ecosystem.

And by experiences, I actually mean ‘games’. However, ‘experiences’ is the term used by the company for legal purposes.

And while in many cases this is fun and creative — not to mention exposing kids to coding from a young age — it’s also created issues around child labour.

Back in August 2021 YouTube channel, People Make Games, even investigated the exploitation of young game developers on the platform.

Just how big is Roblox?

According to Statista, as of Q2 2022 it was clocking a casual 52.2 million active daily users. While it was already big pre-pandemic, COVID-19 saw the platform jump by around 20 million. And at the time of writing its market value is sitting at around $22.7 billion.

That’s a lot of very engaged users to market at.

Rick Salter is a game developer and founder of Hojo Studio. He has two children who play Roblox for several hours a day.

“My kids communicate exclusively via Roblox. It’s their town square, means of expression and meeting place,” explained Salter.

With a background in advertising and marketing, Salter isn’t surprised that a traditional retailer like Walmart is getting involved in Roblox and targeting kids.

“Big retail corporations are constantly looking for ways to engage the younglings, especially when they compare the profit margin in selling digital collectibles to kids versus selling janky slippers to boomers,” Salter said.

“It’s a bold move for a legacy brand like Walmart but in the end it’ll come down to the kinds of franchises and collabs they manage to get onboard. Successful metaverses know that’s the only way kids are going to care.”

And they do.

A trend I’ve noticed among parents with kids of a certain age is giving their allowances either partially or entirely in virtual cash such as robux — the currency used in Roblox.

“We dispense robux every week in exchange for chores or real-world work,” Salter said.

“My generation’s pocket money was spent on sweets or trading cards while robux are spent on digital cosmetics – but the principle is exactly the same.

“It’s not particularly insidious. Pocket money could always theoretically be spent right away — regardless of being real or digital. In the end it’s about your kids developing a sense of what value actually represents.”

How children are advertised to has been an issue spanning generations. In the case of the metaverse, it’s about the barrier to entry being lower than ever — easy access to both kids and the currency sitting in their virtual wallets.

“Coles, Woolworths and McDonalds have been using collectibles to market to kids for years, so this is really just the 2022 version of that,” Salter said.

“It’s natural that ageing CEOs have been asking their agencies what the metaverse is, and this is the result.”