Beauty brands are finding their footing as the Internet becomes more immersive.
“Think ‘Ready Player One,’” she continued, referring to the sci-fi film set in 2045, where a virtual-reality simulation is used to escape the real world. “In the metaverse, your avatar is a reflection of your personality. You can be anything [there]. Therefore, we will have a new definition of what beauty is.”Fashion has already galloped faster than beauty into the metaverse, with a plethora of NFTs, digital garments for avatars and runway displays.
Right now, the metaverse is “still a nascent area for beauty,” according to London-based foresight analyst Abi Buller at The Future Laboratory — but going forward, the opportunity is massive.In beauty, companies are looking to NFTs to connect the digital and physical worlds, as well as inspire loyalty. NFTs, non-fungible tokens, allow people to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items. They’re often used as a loyalty play because they provide digital scarcity.
Winners announced by Clinique global ambassadors Emilia Clarke and Melissa Barrera were given an edition of the NFT artwork, called MetaOptimist. The digital assets symbolize the brand’s marquee products, Moisture Surge 100H and Almost Lipstick Black Honey , and the company’s own identity and heritage. No value was assigned to the NFTs.
Although the project was U.S.-focused, Clinique received entries from around the globe, and saw a 60 percent rise in search traffic as well as a 20 percent increase in social engagement. Participants were almost evenly split between loyal and new consumers. “It is a tower of learning,” said Alexis Schrimpf, vice president of design, global skin and personal care at P&G. With the Kew Gardens experience. “We’re taking a very complicated science-based activity system and gamifying it for her. So she can learn about ingredients, how they’re authenticated and verified, and what’s the process that our partners go through,” Schrimpf said.
Nars Cosmetics, too, has plans to launch “a visually sophisticated and highly engaging gamified experience on the world’s leading metaverse platform in Q2,” teased Dina Fierro, vice president, global digital strategy and social engagement at the brand. Yeomans believes the metaverse is a place to listen and see how people perceive a brand. “You can learn so much from the audience,” said Yeomans. “You just have to make it as fun as possible.”
Wootton noted that organically in the immersive, 3D space, people are creating beauty trends. “They’re coming up with different colors and different palettes,” she said, adding co-creation with brands will be seen a lot more moving forward. Other options include creating a branded world — a persistent experience — where co-creation and real-time feedback are possible.
Collaborating directly with the community is important, too. “They are really the experts in this space,” said Wootton. This year, instead of earmarking test budgets for metaverse-related projects, companies are expected to use on-plan spending, she said.Naver Z, a Naver subsidiary that runs the 3D-avatar app Zepeto, has teamed with Christian Louboutin, Dior, Gucci, Adidas and Nike.
Two months ago, Zepeto opened up and started letting people submit their designs into the marketplace, so they can monetize their creativity and fandom. “That would not be limited to the fashion designers,” said Lee. “We’re opening our platform to anybody who can animate, build experiences virtually.”Virtual and metaverse-based retail experiences are expected to give brands further opportunity to build customer loyalty.
Obsess’ 3D virtual stores are being conceived for better immersion, inspiration and discovery, Singh said. For Obsess-created boutiques there’s no need to download an app or wear a virtual reality headset. With a click of a link it can be opened on a phone. An easy-to-use “shop with friends” functionality via video chat was added in the latest iteration. “It’s new, but we saw really good results from the people using this feature,” said Singh. “There’s much higher engagement and add-to-bag conversion rate, as well, if you’re shopping with your friends versus shopping by yourself.”
BrandLab360 has also just entered the beauty category with a 3D store. The creator of virtual reality solutions, v-commerce and metaverse experiences, has launched Maison Too Faced. It’s a retail platform where consumers can connect, shop and play online with thousands of others at once.BrandLab360, which was cofounded by Jennifer Drury and Dan O’Connell, is best known for its virtual fashion showrooms using CGI and 3D rendering streamed from virtual machines.
“You can imagine somebody shopping at a beauty merchant, like EM Cosmetics, and getting back an NFT in addition to the physical product,” said Adelman.As the industry settles into the metaverse, beauty companies will need to balance return on investment with creativity. So far, however, there’s no one way for them to gauge their ROI.
Six hundred thousand Nars virtual goods, including makeup looks and branded digital apparel, were sold through both the brand’s National Orgasm Day NFT release and the Zepeto tie-in. Beauty being a tactile industry, full of products people want physically to touch and smell, makes the metaverse tricky, especially for products invisible to the eye, such as fragrance, skin care and hair care.
“The aesthetic of the metaverse generally has continued to be influenced by gaming, and I wonder if that needs to evolve, as well, into at least a wider breadth of options and creative genres that span a little bit more of the grownup or maybe reference different aesthetics,” said Greene.
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