---
title: How to Capitalize on Digital Status Symbols
description: How to Capitalize on Digital Status Symbols
---

<https://www.nlopchantamang.com/trends/signals>

# [How to Capitalize on Digital Status Symbols](https://www.nlopchantamang.com/trends/signals/signal/digital-status-symbols)

 Written by [Aja Frost @ajavuu](https://www.nlopchantamang.com/trends/signals/author/aja-frost-ajavuu) | May 26, 2020 7:16:43 AM

**The Signal:** Billions of bored, restless people stuck at home has been a massive boost for the gaming industry. From March to April alone, Microsoft reported a [130%](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/04/30/with-10-million-game-pass-subscribers-xbox-ecosystem-begins-coalesce/) increase in multiplayer engagement. Twitch, the most popular video game streaming platform, saw a [50%](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/05/12/video-game-industry-coronavirus/) increase in gaming hours watched (to 1.49B hours). 

The Nintendo Switch gaming console is also having its day in the sun -- it is sold out everywhere, leading to tons of sales (sometimes at [2 or even 3x](https://www.businessinsider.com/nintendo-switch-sold-out-coronavirus-expensive-where-to-buy-2020-4?IR=T) the $299 pricetag) on eBay and Craigslist. 

But the spending doesn’t stop there: People are also making in-game purchases of virtual goods. Player spending on Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, a relaxing game that lets you live a virtual life on a deserted island, reached an all-time high in April of [$7.9m](https://sensortower.com/blog/animal-crossing-pocket-camp-revenue-150-million). What are gamers spending on? A [camping chair](https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Special_Furniture_(Pocket_Camp)) will set you back $12, while you can expect to pay as much as $17 for a telescope (assuming [$0.05 / “Leaf Ticket”](https://animalcrossing.fandom.com/wiki/Leaf_Ticket): the in-game virtual currency). 

The virtual goods market is already huge -- [$50B](https://www.ft.com/content/59cb4152-1bf9-11ea-81f0-0c253907d3e0) to be precise (up by [30%](https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/industry-reports/virtual-goods-market) from $38B in 2017).  It makes up the bulk of total gaming industry revenue. Even before COVID-19, the industry was expected to grow at a [22%](https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/press-release/virtual-goods-market) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to $190B by 2025.

Some surprising products and services are developing around the Animal Crossing craze. For example, people are paying [interior designers](https://olivias.com/blogs/news/hire-a-virtual-interior-design-consultant-to-revamp-your-animal-crossing-home) ~$50/hour to help them revamp their virtual home. Secondary markets are also emerging: [Nookazon](https://nookazon.com/), for example, is a marketplace where you can trade Animal Crossing items. 

Unless you’ve been living inside a virtual reality headset the past few months, you’ve heard of Fortnite: a free-to-play video game with more than 350m registered players. The game has racked up more than $4B in in-game sales since its 2017 release, and has collaborated with a few “real world” brands so that players can:

- dress their avatars in limited-edition virtual Nike shoes for [$18](https://footwearnews.com/2019/focus/sneakers/jordan-brand-fortnite-collaboration-air-jordan-1-1202784234/) a pop;
- play as Keanu Reeves for [$20](https://www.inverse.com/article/55899-fortnite-john-wick-skin-price-challenges-character-bundle-ltm);
- buy a virtual NFL jersey for [$15](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/11/05/fortnite-epic-games-nfl-uniforms-football-gear/1889680002/) each.

A [Fortnite study](https://lendedu.com/blog/finances-of-fortnite-part-two/) found that some 77% of players spend money on virtual goods. The average per-player spend in 2020? Roughly $102 -- a 21% increase from $85 in 2018. [Half ](https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2018/06/26/study-says-69-of-fortnite-players-spend-money-on-the-game-85-spent-on-average/#3f4b02920606)spend money on character outfits, while nearly 10% hand over money for emotes (unique dance moves). Some big spenders we spoke to have spent as much as $2k each -- a number that was confirmed by others in [this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/FortNiteBR/comments/dr0ii1/players_who_spend_money_on_fortnite_how_much_have/).  

**The Opportunity: **There are opportunities for brands to:

- collaborate with popular games;
- create digital versions of their own products;
- provide products and services that support the burgeoning ecosystem (e.g., Nookazon).

Businesses can capitalize on the virtual product trend by targeting a number of games that are similar in style and premise to Animal Crossing, which have smaller but still engaged communities:

Opportunities exist for service providers like interior decorators to cash in, too. You could target your product or service at a specific niche, like [restaurants](https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/overcooked-2-switch/), [city planning](https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/cities-skylines-nintendo-switch-edition/) -- even [farming](https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/farming-simulator-20-switch/). If you are a city planner, you could consult with players on road design for traffic efficiency. This is a common FAQ in the City Skylines game, and there are plenty of YouTube videos (e.g., [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c91VI_-OrCI) with 154k views) dedicated to this problem.  

**Digital collectables and status symbols:** Capitalizing on the virtual goods economy goes beyond gaming. Virtual collectables, for example, have started gaining traction in recent years as the “show-off” economy has increasingly moved online. Who could forget [CryptoKitties](https://www.cryptokitties.co/), which has sold [$40m](https://www.investopedia.com/news/cryptokitties-are-still-thing-heres-why/) worth of digital cats since 2017 (with some individual kitties selling for more than $300k per piece)?

Artists from more than 170 countries have made $772k selling their digital art collectables on platforms such as [SuperRare](https://superrare.co/), which uses blockchain technology to create and sell unique, transferrable, digital one-offs.  

**The opportunity:** You could create and sell one-off virtual collectables based on your products. [Fanaply](https://fanaply.com/), for example, creates digital products for music, sports, and entertainment, including virtual, limited-edition merchandise to replace band t-shirts and the like. Fanaply is a “[social flexing](https://musically.com/2020/05/05/music-ally-startup-files-fanaplys-limited-edition-digital-collectibles/)” platform -- a way for fans to demonstrate their dedication and be rewarded (e.g., fans who own a digital collectible can receive news about secret shows). 

You could also use digital collectables as a marketing tool. Think about what Tazos did for Frito-Lay potato chips in the ‘90s. Tazos were trading card-like plastic collectable disks that transformed school lunchtimes in South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. They were distributed in potato chip packets and quickly became the must-have “[membership card for coolness](https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/evyxgj/meet-the-guy-who-invented-tazos-and-gave-meaning-to-school-lunchtimes).”

The strategy resulted in a [50% growth](https://hooklineandclincher.in/from-a-flavourful-pack-of-chips-to-an-interesting-pack-of-smiles-df4cd11dcddd) in sales for Frito-Lay. In some countries it boosted sales by as much as [200%](https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/child-is-the-father-of-marketing/207057). Why not use this strategy to drive sales by rewarding customers with digital collectables when they buy your product?

**Ecommerce:** Companies are using virtual goods, avatars, and even completely virtual [influencers](https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/lil-miquela-digital-avatar-instagram-influencer.html) to drive sales of their products. [Drest](https://www.drest.com/), for example, is an app that allows users to dress photo-realistic avatars in styling challenges, and then buy physical versions of the clothes on [Farfetch](https://www.farfetch.com/).

Drest is following in the footsteps of [Covet Fashion](https://www.covetfashion.com/), a game that lets users create outfits with real brands. The app had [600k downloads](https://sensortower.com/) in April 2020 and generated [$53.4m](https://glumobile.gcs-web.com/static-files/9109363d-5e93-48b1-9972-4ff56adfe042) in sales in 2018.

**Bonus opportunity:** Whatever millennials are spending on themselves, they are probably spending more on their babies (or fur babies). 

Ecommerce companies in the child- or pet-care space can capitalize on this trend by getting people to interact and fall in love with their products virtually first -- making their (physical) products irresistible to customers wanting to bring their virtual reality to life. 

[View full post](https://www.nlopchantamang.com/trends/signals/signal/digital-status-symbols)

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