Brand Engagement in the Metaverse: October 2022
Published 31 October 2022
Despite warnings of a ‘metaverse winter’ (rebuffed by youthful brands – see Claire’s x Roblox: Gen Zalpha), brand experimentation has developed apace. From Gucci’s crypto loyalist non-fungible token (NFT)-laden land in The Sandbox to Vogue’s oceanic metaverse featuring new digital artists, and Flipkart’s Diwali virtual shopping pilot, we profile the most noteworthy.
Gucci x The Sandbox: Locking in Loyalists
Early metaverse adopter Gucci is extending its existing permanent online space, Gucci Vault, into The Sandbox – the first major fashion label to have a presence on the platform.
Gucci Vault Land, available from October 27 to November 9, will be home to Gucci Garden – which formerly ran on The Sandbox rival Roblox in 2021, as the counterpart to the Gucci Garden centenary exhibition. Evolving the Roblox iteration, the initiative will allow visitors to complete mini-games centred on Gucci’s heritage and products, including restoring vintage handbags in the Vintage Lab and solving a riddle in the Room of Rhyme. Players will gain Sand utility tokens (The Sandbox’s Ethereum-based currency) when they complete the games.
The space will also house a selection of wearable Gucci NFTs, such as a hat that can be won and then worn in other The Sandbox worlds. Mirroring its early leap into the metaverse, Gucci was an early mover within crypto culture, releasing Gucci Grail NFTs (which unlocked avatar wearables) in partnership with NFT collective 10KTF. For more, see Demystifying NFTs: Brand Tactics.
Fans who bought into Gucci Grail NFTs will be rewarded with a Gucci Vault Aura wearable via airdrop, which their avatar can wear around the game to show their day-one loyalty.
Claire’s x Roblox: Gen Zalpha
While US research company Forrester predicts a metaverse winter, a slowdown due to the technological constraints facing the construction of the metaverse (see The Metaverse 360°) and a plateau in (older) consumers’ interest, such a decline is unlikely to affect brands attempting to reach Gen Z, who will fuel fruitful adoption of virtual proto-metaverse worlds.
American teen accessories brand Claire’s launch on Roblox speaks to this youthful charge. The brand’s customers, dubbed Gen Zalpha (meaning both Gen Z and Gen Alpha), are frequent Roblox users.
Claire’s Roblox world ShimmerVille allows visitors to build and decorate homes and buy cars in which to travel around the town. They can also adopt pets and accessorise both their avatars and their animals’ avatars. Many accessories bought in ShimmerVille are replicated IRL and are purchasable in bricks-and-mortar stores. Users earn Robux (Roblox’s in-game currency) by playing mini-games or through retail work.
Flipkart’s Diwali Launch
Launched for Diwali, Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart’s new in-beta virtual shopping world Flipverse is accessible via the brand’s Android app. Fans create an avatar, which then traverses the digital stores enabling them to examine products in 3D. By buying products (in IRL currency, not cryptocurrencies) from partners including personal care brand Nivea and sports brand Puma (both German), users earn reward points (SuperCoins) that can be spent on future purchases.
Vogue’s NFT-Backed Digital Fashion Gallery
Allying itself with digital fashion creators, as the art form gathers pace in tandem with the metaverse, Vogue’s new desktop-accessible digital environment Meta-Ocean lets visitors traverse an oceanic environment. Works by 24 digital artists, including Indian Anushka Tendolkar and Chinese Momo Chen, are displayed both above and below water.
The gallery also enables users (although not in China, where cryptocurrencies are illegal) to buy OpenSea-backed NFTs from partner TRLab that are designed by some of the exhibited artists. NFT buyers will also receive a one-year Vogue Club or Vogue Business subscription.
Initiated by Vogue China in a bid to house and build on the avatar it created, named Infni+ (pronounced Infinity and designed by Chinese digital artist Cattin Tsai on US creation platform Unreal Engine), the project is now global.
For more recent metaverse experimentation, Stylus members can see Metaverse-Based Marketing in Halloween 2022: Best Brand Strategies.
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