How Luxury Brands are expanding their Community through Web 3.0
Will Web 3.0. revolutionize luxury fashion? Exploring the intersection of virtual fashion, NFTs, and gaming in the digital era.
The luxury fashion industry is constantly seeking new ways to innovate and connect with consumers, and virtual fashion is one of the latest trends. From non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to gaming platforms and augmented reality, luxury brands are using Web 3.0. technologies to engage with younger audiences who are spending more and more time in digital environments.
One of the most popular technologies in this space is non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are unique crypto assets that can be bought, sold, and exchanged in virtual environments. NFTs can be considered collectables in the context of digital fashion, and their value can increase significantly due to their uniqueness. In 2021, several luxury brands launched NFTs for in-game assets, such as Louis Vuitton’s implementation of NFT art in a video game that players could collect.
Gaming platforms offer luxury brands the opportunity to engage with a younger audience and interact with people who may not visit physical stores. With more than three billion players worldwide, gaming has become an attractive target for fashion brands looking to reach a younger audience. Brands are collaborating with gaming platforms to design digital fashion products, such as Balenciaga’s partnership with Fortnite to offer virtual clothes, or “skins”, for player avatars. This collaboration was advertised through both traditional channels and Metaverse channels.
Additionally, the Gucci Garden within the Roblox gaming metaverse has attracted millions of visitors who are interested in crafting and presenting a virtual persona through virtual products and experiences.
https://www.gucci.com/fr/fr/st/stories/article/gucci-gaming-roblox
Luxury brands are taking advantage of this trend by using technologies like artificial intelligence and augmented reality to create more personalized and interactive experiences for their customers.
In addition to gaming, social media and other digital environments offer consumers the chance to express themselves and create a unique identity within these spaces. One way that luxury brands are using these technologies to reach a wider audience is through the use of social media and video-sharing platforms like Snapchat and TikTok. These platforms are particularly popular with Gen Z consumers, who are accustomed to communication in the form of videos rather than still images. Luxury brands are creating content specifically for these platforms to connect with this younger audience.
Another technology that is being used in the virtual fashion space is 360-degree view technology, which allows consumers to get a full view of a product from every angle. The online luxury fashion marketplace Farfetch launched its “Store of the Future” which includes, among other innovations, a holographic display to present products to shoppers.
By using these technologies, luxury brands can create more immersive and interactive shopping experiences for their customers, even if they are not physically present in a store.
Overall, the use of Web 3.0. technologies is allowing luxury brands to connect with a wider audience and create more personalized and interactive experiences for their customers. As the trend of virtual fashion continues to grow, it will be interesting to see how luxury brands use technology to stay at the forefront of innovation and engage with their communities.
Is social media relevant for Luxury brand strategy? Do you think that this is an area that luxury should embrace or not? Let me know in the comments.
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminating the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.
