Reprinted from: WWD International Fashion News
Original title: Frontier of Science and Technology | Small games are becoming another traffic password for the fashion industry to impress Generation Z
Games may have become an effective entrance for fashion brands to reach young consumers, and there may be a bigger “hidden situation” behind it.
Last summer, to commemorate the 200th birthday of its founder, Louis Vuitton, LV specially created a mobile game called “LOUIS THE GAME”. Players have made the same voice on social platforms: will you send bags if you play well?
This summer, Hermès launched a mini-game called “Jumping Bag” on the social media platform Instagram. After entering the game page, users can choose one of the four handbags of Birkin, Kelly, Constance and Victoria as their character, and then go through the obstacle-jumping level. Bags become game characters.
After all, is the brand itself impressing consumers through the game output culture? Or attract and acquire incremental markets with the ultimate experience? In any case, whether it is LV or Hermes, after launching the game in the summer of the past two years, they have been focused on another keyword: the metaverse.
In the “LOUIS THE GAME” mobile game, Louis Vuitton first came into contact with NFTs. Players who collect 200 candles can randomly get NFT gold postcards designed and made by American graphic designer and digital artist Mike Winkelmann. According to industry statistics, the value of NFT digital artwork in the “LOUIS THE GAME” game can reach up to 20 million US dollars.
In the same period when the “Jumping Bag” game was launched, Hermes filed an application for cryptocurrency, NFT and Metaverse-related trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Merchandise, digital collectibles, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs, but also virtual commodity exchanges, virtual clothing, footwear, fashion shows, and more.
It is undeniable that the game itself is an important window for brand promotion culture, and it has become another important entrance for fashion brands to enter the metaverse after NFT.
In fact, the “Jumping Bag” is not the first time Hermès has launched an online game, nor is it the only case of a luxury brand building a video game this summer.
During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger in 2022, in order to cooperate with the Spring Festival red envelope cover marketing, Hermes launched a music-themed game on the official WeChat applet. After the player hits the note within the specified time and completes the performance of the entire song, he can receive a practical red envelope cover in the Spring Festival scene.
After launching the NFT hidden game “LOUIS THE GAME” last summer, LV launched “200 Mania: Louis Board Game Club”, “Super Natural: courir pour l’avenir” and “L’Art des vitrines” in one go this summer. “Three mini mobile games. The former is a board game that uses LV’s classic old monogram pattern for decoration, while the latter two are relatively popular level-breaking games.
Games, especially simple and easy-to-play mobile games, with rich themes and varied scenes, are a good choice for fashion brands to fully embed their brand culture. Therefore, besides Hermès and LV, there are not a few fashion brands, especially luxury brands, that are active in video game marketing. For example, the “Roman Adventures” launched by FENDI before is a fusion of brand history, Roman culture and Chinese spokespersons; Balenciaga, through the video game “Afterlife: Tomorrowland”, allows players to play in five game themed scenes. See the newly released Fall 2021 collections in… and the likes of Givenchy and Gucci launching different interactive “metaverse space experience games” on Roblox.
Different from the past, when Hermès launched the “Jumping Bag”, the industry regarded it as “a sign that a luxury brand with a history of nearly 185 years is closer to the Metaverse”. Some people even predicted: “Hermes will release a virtual platinum bag in the metaverse just around the corner.”
What is the inevitable connection between games and the metaverse? Judging from the existing cases, there are at least three levels of convergence.
The first is that the two provide sufficient space for brand cultural output, and the second is the immersive interactive experience that the two exhibit. At least at the current stage, the metaverse games that most people understand are simulation games using AR/VR technology. Just like the movie “Ready Player One” expressed, real-time interaction is an important part of it. Moreover, similar to the “dark horse” Roblox in the metaverse game, which brings together a number of fashion consumer brands such as Givenchy, Gucci, Nike, and Vans, this integrated community game that integrates various types of games is extending the experience through interactive technology to Real-time offline and online integration in various real-life scenarios.
Furthermore, regardless of the game or the metaverse, they all point to the same group at the marketing level: Gen-Z, the group of young people who write their love on their faces, the main consumer force standing in the center of the stage. They are Internet natives who are willing to try and accept new things. They are a crucial core group in the incremental market that brands urgently need to open.
In addition to the existing phenomenon in the market, once consumers buy virtual goods of luxury brands in the metaverse scenario, it becomes a trend and is implemented on a large scale, what will happen to the fashion industry? It is predictable that, on the one hand, fashion will return to its essence – driving consumer behavior through cultural resonance, not necessarily a materialized product. On the other hand, the consumption of this fashion culture will also bring about industrial reshuffle to a certain extent. The advantage is to optimize unnecessary production and manufacturing in the fashion industry chain in the real world, thereby reducing the consumption of resources and the The harm of the environment, the disadvantage is that it will inevitably bring pain to the industry in a certain period of time.