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The beauty brand Essence by Cosnova – a German company with 800 people employed worldwide that sells its brands, Essence and Catrice in over 80 countries in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Asia, Oceania and Africa – enters the world of gaming with Color dare by Essence, its first online game launched on the Roblox platform. The initiative is part of the wider Pride campaign with the long-term intention of educating people on important social issues in its usual playful way.
Developed in collaboration with the digital agency Dept the game focuses on gender identity and inclusivity and reflects the brand’s mission “make beauty fun”. Together with the game’s main character, Lash Princess, as the brand’s best-selling mascara, players create a colorful and unique world with custom avatars menaced by a gray storm that represents all that is bad in the world.
The Lash Princess amusingly offers her support and explains the aim of the game: «Let’s make the world colorful and peaceful again». The aim is to use digital gaming for a positive impact in the real world as well: essence is planning numerous charitable activities around the game to provide support where it is needed. Together with the LGBTQIA+ agency “Mixx”, two charities will be chosen that will make a difference to the community. The charity mechanism of the game consists in defeating everything gray in the essence world within a pre-established time, over four community days. If players achieve this together, they win a donation to selected charities.
«After this start, we are planning further activations on Roblox. Essence sees many opportunities in this area to draw attention to other social issues and to educate and raise awareness among players» explains Thorsten Mühl, chief digital marketing & experience office at Cosnova.