What do you do when you're a brand marketer and the world has been plunged into a pandemic? The same thing the rest of us do: Not much. Maybe play some Animal Crossing?
So it's no surprise that, as advertising all but ground to a halt this spring, marketing teams looked for other ways to get you thinking about their products—while still trying not to be tone-deaf about the state of the world.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons quickly proved, as we've reported at length, to be one of the few safe and welcoming spaces for consumers and brands alike. Since brand integrations usually exist in quasi-isolation rather than being shoved down players' throats, they typically weren't invasive or obnoxious.
If I'm being honest, not all the ideas have been winners. I liked Gillette's skin-inclusive addition of new character designs that brought everything from acne and stretch marks to vitiligo and prosthetic limbs into the game. Cottonelle's toilet paper-inspired wallpaper designs? Eh, I could take or leave.
But this one might be my favorite: Ikea Taiwan recreated quite a few pages from its catalog solely by using items and character designs found in Animal Crossing.
The project is a blast to sift through, with some scenes being practically shot-for-shot recreations and others being hilariously inventive (an orb lamp is replaced by the back of a character's bulbous head).
How many more Animal Crossing brand stunts can we tolerate (or at least justify writing about)? Probably not many. But part of me will miss them once we've all moved on to the next distraction.
David Griner
Creative and Innovation Editor, Adweek
david.griner@adweek.com
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