This week, iHeartMedia launched iHeartLand, a space dedicated to music and gaming, in Fortnite, a virtual online game developed by Epic Games.
The metaverse destination is the game development team at Atlas Creative using Fortnite’s Creative toolset. Fortnite players will be able to visit iHeartLand to play mini-games and participate in exclusive parties with artists.
Interact with the audience. “Our target iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group CEO Conal Byrne said in a company statement: “From interactive performances and intimate backstories to immersive games, platform-native – this new world allows us to Being able to expand the reach of today’s biggest creators, artists and celebrities in groundbreaking ways, and is an important next step for iHeartMedia to expand our engagement with our users. “
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Metaverse LIVE EVENTS. IHeartLand will be the virtual venue for 20 events, including the inaugural Metaverse concert by Grammy-nominated artist Charlie Puth on September 9.
The concert and other events will take place on the virtual stage at State Farm Park, where the insurance company acquired naming rights in June.
Mini-games. Fortnite players visiting iHeartLand will also have the opportunity to play mini-games and win gold, the in-game currency. Players will be able to compete against each other in these mini-games and unlock other music-related experiences.
Mini-games include “Speed of Sound,” a racing game around the branded heart-shaped track, and a cloud-based obstacle course called “Leap of Faith.”
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Why we care. While Epic Games is tight-lipped about current user numbers, Fortnite is wildly popular and expanding through mobile devices Its impactful, free-to-play version. This underlines iHeartMedia’s mission to “meet audiences where they are.”
For Fortnite players who don’t immediately head to iHeartLand to play mini-games, they may Will be driven by headlines to watch virtual shows like Charlie Puth. Even some of Charlie Puth’s 44 million monthly listeners on Spotify who haven’t played Fortnite might dive into iHeartLand and watch. As they say in the Metaverse , it’s still early days. But Metaverse activations aren’t just about reaching a specific gaming audience, they’re about cross-promotion for a new generation.
State Farm Park at iHeartLand. Image: IHeartMedia
About the author
Chris Wood has over 15 years of reporting experience as a B2B editor and reporter. At DMN, he served as an associate editor, providing original analysis for the growing field of marketing technology. He interviewed leaders in technology and policy, from Canva CEO Melanie Perkins to former Cisco CEO John Chambers, and Vivek Kundra, who was named America’s first federal CIO by Barack Obama. He is particularly interested in how new technologies, including voice and blockchain, are disrupting the marketing world as we know it. In 2019, he moderated a panel discussion on “Innovation Theater” at the Fintech Inn in Vilnius. In addition to his marketing-focused coverage on industry sectors such as Robotics Trends, The Age of Modern Breweries, and AdNation News, Wood writes for KIRKUS and writes fiction, criticism, and poetry for several leading book bloggers. He studied English at Fairfield University and was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He lives in New York.
