Metaverse == New heaven for fashion influencers. Exploring the tip of the iceberg!
We all know Metaverse is that big buzzword everyone is trying to demystify nowadays. But I am tired of explaining people what is a metaverse and started to just jump into this mystical universe of bits and pixels because one way or the other, this is going to touch all of our lives in the years to come.
Just like 14 years ago, pundits were busy explaining the world what world wide web is, many are trying to explain (Confuse) the common consumers what the metaverse is while these pundits themselves understand what it is. I have decided to break away and just apply my knowledge to figure out how this innovation of man-machine interface is going to be used to solve real life problems.
So before we get into how Metaverse is going to be the holy grail of marketing, let us see how the world is going to change in terms of content consumption.
Gen Z will spend 13 hours consuming media per day in 2023
- Two-thirds (67.7%) of the media the Zs consume is through online channels and platforms.
- Since 2018, 16–24s globally have consumed less media in total than 25–34s.
- The volume of offline media consumed by 16–24s has remained steady over the last decade.
Woke media of USA has already started to dial the death clocks on television industry and started to shift their content on OTTs & YouTube.
Check out this discussion between the two of the biggest and boldest Youtube celebrities talking about YT and American consumers’ consumption patterns.
Indian internet is even crazier. We do not only consume in masses, we consume in varied languages. There is no centralisation possible in this part of the globe. We will need media channels which are as varied and personalised as our ethnic diversity.
This is where the decentralisation of blockchain tech promises big returns. But I digress. This is topic of another article which I will write in upcoming weeks.
Today let us focus on influencers and metaverses.
As you all know, metaverses are still a WIP technology, but many brands are realizing the early metaverse constructs and acquiring their real estates (presence) in these verses.
Forever 21 created a virtual store on Roblox which is a great gateway into the world of virtual real estate. If you do no know what Roblox is please check out this article below.
How did they do it:
The Forever 21 Shop City is sort of a real-life market that is planned around a virtual Forever 21 Store. The game is targeted at fashion enthusiasts, bloggers, and influencers who can create, own, and manage their own Forever 21 shops. There are two collection types meant for winter and summer styles available. Players can run their shops with real-world business-like functionalities such as inventory stocking, hiring employees, decorating their shops, addressing customers, and competing with other Forever 21 shops to become the ‘top shop’ in the metaverse. The players can also shop from the Forever 21 Store, style their avatar, and gain same Forever 21 accessories IRL.
Forever 21 was sharply focused on their target audience– teenagers and early 20’s youngsters. Thus, their promotion strategy included various collaborations with digital influencers. Initially promotions were launch to give away the brand gears from the virtual space and in real life. However, it was for a short time-frame campaign.
Reach results:
As per some reports, Forever 21 Shop City metaverse has had 49.4 million daily active users after a month of its launch. The Roblox game page of Forever 21 Shop City tells a different story though. It shows the game has 0 active players as of today. There were 255.4k+ visits till date in total ever since the game launched on December 14, 2021.
Conversions:
The brand claims certain products became too popular in the game such as digital black beanies with the word “Forever” were a massive hit on the virtual world platform. It sold about 2,000 units a day at 50 cents each, and is on track to sell 1.5 million units by the end of this year. The cost to create them however, was less than $500 total.
Nike also forayed into the world of Roblox metaverse recently making a star success for its debut.
Nikeland world is an outdoor sports theme amusement park planned with a metaverse experience. It is divided into multiple playing fields, a lobby area, and a showroom area. There are various track and field sports such as Soccer, Basketball, wall climbing, the floor is lava, and many others. Playing fields have stadium-like experience sounds and are stocked with minigames. There are various challenges for players to earn rewards. Using the reward points, players can buy Nike shoes, clothes, accessories, and merchandise for their avatar from the showroom.
Nike planned a mix of online and offline promotions for its metaverse. It created Snapchat lens to give glimpses of Nikeland experience at one of its New York retail stores. The visitors were asked to use the Snapchat lens filter on their phones to play games, catch Easter eggs, and create avatars in the Nikeland. Visitors loved the augmented reality version of this amusement park planned on a sports theme by Nike. Apart from announcements through a press release on launch for media coverage, heavy promotions were put out on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube through videos. Nike has a dedicated site NIKELAND on Roblox on its official website to inform visitors about the latest developments, updates, safety measures, and parental guidelines.
Reach results:
Nikeland has 21+ million visits. They have 2577 members on discord, the Facebook page has 8367 likes and the official Nike page on YouTube has received around 4 million views.
Engagement:
117k+ players have favourited it on the Roblox site. It has distributed rewards to more than 9 million players.
Conversion:
Nike aced the NFT market with $180 million revenues from NFT sales. The brand’s NFT primary sales were totalled $93.1 million, the secondary market transactions were $67.54k with volumes of $1.3 billion, and royalties were amounting to $92.25million.
When we talk about Metaverse, how can I ignore Fortnite?
Fortnite has carved its name into the best brand collab platform of all time with its legendary collaborations till date.
Fortnite is practically a metaverse without a blockchain layer on it. The day TimSweeney decides, it is time to put a blockchain on Vbucks, the whole world will realise what they were looking at.
Balenciaga entered the gaming world with the Unreal Engine’s game Afterworld: the age of tomorrow. However, its collaboration with Fortnite has been more admired for the popularity and reach of the latter. With the growing developments in the activities, storyline, and characters; Fortnite is slowly converting into a metaverse. In this article, we will focus on the Fortnite x Balenciaga metaverse collaboration.
Epic games sent popular YouTubers and live streamers game skins to try before the release on the platform. These influencers made videos and hosted game challenges on their channels. Collectively, the influencers were able to get around 3.8 million views on their videos.
In the game, players can buy visit the virtual Balenciaga store in the Fortnite creator hub, a part of the Fortnite world where players can build their own games. The game has three bundles of Balenciaga. Players can choose skins from Balenciaga Knights and Balenciaga Unleashed. There is a third category that lists Balenciaga accessories and gears. These can be bought at 5000 V-bucks (Fortnite in-game currency). The brand does not aim to just offer a collectible through this initiative but also experience in the metaverse. For example, its Speed 3.0 sneaker turns into a pickaxe, and the Hourglass bag is a glider that players can ride into battle. However, I felt the brand did a little too much with putting itself out on the items.
Customers who purchase a Balenciaga outfit/accessory from the real stores can unlock the same piece from Fortnite too. Quite notably, the clothing is much more expensive in real stores than in digital, for example, the hoodies cost around $750 in real stores. For me, the collaboration seemed like a good tactic for brand awareness but not if Balenciaga is aiming for achieving sales.
Reach results:
The concept is impressive and unique. After the brand created a series of virtual looks for Fortnite, Balenciaga search volumes increased by 49%. Also, the news and YouTube channel received an overwhelming viewership of more than 600k views and a positive response with exclusive features and magazine covers.
While the elderly folk in the world ask why would I even sign up to create a virtual avatar, kids are roaming in the halls of bits & pixels to shop for the latest fashion wear.
So stay tuned for some originals getting dropped on the internet.
