eSports company launches the world’s first advertising campaign using social 3D printing media.

Drift Gaming is a Spanish hardware company that manufactures high quality chairs, used by both amateur and professional eSports enthusiasts. One traditional way for Drift Gaming to market itself is for example to sponsor award winning teams like The Giants, one of Europe's world's most competitive eSports teams. You'll also find their chairs in popular video game streams on Twitch.

Source: as.com

In December 2017, Drift Gaming became the world's first brand to advertise via social 3D printing media on MyMiniFactory.com

MyMiniFactory is a world-leading 3D printable object-sharing platform, where 3D designers all around the world upload and share digital objects, a sort of YouTube where instead of sharing videos, members share templates that can be manufactured into physical objects at home on consumer 3D printers. The adoption of these affordable desktop devices is growing (some of the most popular 3D printer models cost less than $200), and attracts a large user base of technology early adopters. 2017 saw the 1 millionth desktop 3D printer sold.

Source: MyMiniFactory, selection of Cosplay items

Drift Gaming used the MyMiniFactory platform to promote their brand by using sponsored 3D printable merchandising, targeted to users in the Fan Art and Cosplay categories, 2 of the most popular in downloads. A single file, modeled to create a replica of their gaming chair as a smartphone holder, was attached when a 3D printer owner downloaded the main sponsored object. In a way, this file can be seen as a YouTube pre-roll video advert, but taken into the world of home 3D printing.

Source: Drift Gaming chair smartphone holder object page on MyMiniFactory

Delivering this object through downloads on MyMiniFactory allowed Drift Gaming to reach early adopters directly at home with useful and valuable brand content. Imagine being able to insert your company's brand into the homes of millions of customers. Unlike a traditional online advert, Native Object Ads (or NOADS) don’t disappear with a click, but instead stay as a part of the users daily life. This world’s first social 3D printing media campaign replaced the design, manufacturing and distribution of expensive mass-produced goodies. NOADS - making use of MyMiniFactory and more generally the internet to skip the traditional supply chain - represent a better, faster and more efficient way to reach customers at scale with emotional physical products.

The Results

By uploading one 3D printable file, Drift Gaming delivered 5,060 Native Object Ads (NOADS) globally. Not bad at all for the first pilot project by a gaming company with this innovative media. The campaign - run over the course of 2 weeks - generated more than 18,000 organic impressions on social media.

Source: MyMiniFactory downloads of sponsored Drift Gaming smartphone holders.

Following past 3D printing projects by video game companies such as Bethesda, Capcom, ROCCAT or Playstation, this innovative campaign was a success for Drift Gaming. “Just like a gaming competition, there are a lot of highly skilled players and great teams, so you have to find different and new strategies to win the game”, said Ana Ibañez, Drift Gaming’s Social Marketing Manager.

MyMiniFactory, now in talks with other companies, aims to follow the “Cereal Box” and “McDonald’s Happy Meal” mindset, deliver valuable branded objects as desired as the ones they are attached to. “Physical objects offer brands a unique opportunity to reach new customers. With consumer 3D printing reaching scale, Native Object Ads (or NOADS) could even become an effective way for the creator community on the platform to monetise their work”, said Estefan Henao, MyMiniFactory Creative Director, who led the campaign at MyMiniFactory.

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GUEST BIO:

Estefan Henao is part of the new generation of active and digitally native creatives of the advertising industry. With work featured and awarded at the highest ad festivals such as Cannes, LIA, Clio, One Show, NY and FWA, the 24-year-old creative is now among the strong believers of 3DP as one of the highest forms of true creative anarchy, while working for MyMiniFactory as part of its creative innovation team.

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