Fast-casual Asian bao bun concept Wow Bao announced its latest foray into the metaverse: the company launched a virtual dance club and lounge on Roblox on Wednesday morning. This new gamified experience allows customers with Roblox accounts to don a “bao head” accessory for their avatar, link up their account with Wow Bao’s Hot Buns Club rewards program, and play a scavenger hunt for a chance to win free food.
While other brands like Starbucks have been inching away from Web3-based digital content, which had reached its apex in 2021 and 2022, Wow Bao has been slowly investing more in the metaverse over time. In Nov. 2022, the digital-forward bao concept announced the Hot Buns Club as a tiered NFT membership program as an extension of its Bao Bucks rewards program, as well as the launch of vending machines in the metaverse. Then, in 2023, Wow Bao began minting its first NFTs (known in-universe as “CollectaBaos”). Fans who purchase the NFTs would automatically be enrolled in the rewards club with perks like discounts and free meals.
“We’re just taking the rewards program to another level; it’s an enhancement to get more people through gamification,” Geoff Alexander, CEO of Wow Bao, told NRN. “We have always been early adopters…We are betting on this and believing in it because these last few generations are so involved in technology that we want to be where they are. Those who are in the space applaud us for being where they are.”
Here's how it works: Customers that have a Roblox account can claim one of 10,000 bao bun heads for their avatar to wear, hang out in the virtual lounge, and participate in the virtual scavenger hunt. Fans who are able to play and win the scavenger hunt will receive a coupon to redeem for a free box of baos at their local grocery store, and will be entered for the chance to win free Wow Bao for a year (a free box of baos per week for 52 weeks).
“NFTs might not be as big as they were before, but what we’re trying to do is to offer people the digital CollectaBao as a badge of honor… and we’re making ourselves available to people by offering that,” Alexander said.
The crucial aspect of this program, Alexander said, is the crossover from the metaverse of virtual lounges and digital bun heads to real-life rewards. The virtual gamification builds brand awareness – particularly to the younger generations who tend to use Roblo — while simultaneously rewarding players with free food (or a chance for even more free Wow Bao). If all goes well, in the future, Wow Bao could roll out more games for bao bun fans to play that could result in more real-life perks or even get delivery platforms involved somehow.
“I would love to see great enhancement with this, but it’s going to depend on user adoption,” Alexander said. “We could use education about our product in [the metaverse] and we can show people how to make baos in-game, we could do more contests…we have infinite ideas; it’s just about picking the right path to go down.”
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