L’Oréal is the first haircare brand to take a deep dive into the metaverse, but what results will it yield?
Key Insights:
- L'Oréal Professionnel becomes the first haircare brand to explore the metaverse
- Beauty brands are increasingly exploring the potential of virtual reality companies
- L'Oréal plans to combine its exploration of virtual reality with real-life brand experiences in 2023
L'Oréal Professionnel is tightening its grip on the metaverse with the help of Wunderman Thompson with its latest virtual drop titled “Gravitas.”
Last November, the French personal care company became the first haircare brand to explore the metaverse. Launching five hairstyles for avatars on Ready Player Me led to positive results. Select hairstyles ranked in the top five most downloaded looks on the platform.
Beauty brands are increasingly carving out a space for themselves with virtual reality companies, with results proving that virtual beauty is just as interesting for certain target groups as the real-life thing.
Building on its recent work with Ready Player Me, L'Oréal Professionnel’s “Gravitas” launch is taking its second metaverse experience one step further.
In collaboration with 3D artist Evan Rochette and French hair artist Charlie Le Mindu, L'Oréal has released five virtual hairstyles that push the boundaries of creativity across multiple metaverse marketplaces. Besides Ready Player One, the hairstyles will be available for avatar purchase on Robox and Zepeto.
This predicts an enormous reach for the “Gravitas” campaign, projected at 234 million people and over 40 million games.
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“As the brand leader, we are in a unique position to elevate the professional industry, CGI artists and consumers to bring more value and augmented experiences,” stated L'Oréal Professionnel’s Global General Manager Anne Machet.
As one of its 2023 goals, L'Oréal plans to bring its metaverse investment and real-life business together. The brand’s global competition “Style and Colour Trophy” will see those included exploring the theme of metamorphosis and inviting hairstylists to design hair for the metaverse.
A new category of the "Style and Colour Trophy" will focus exclusively on CGI artists for creating larger-than-life hairstyles for the metaverse.
“In our daily lives, we all aim to express our individuality through appearance and style, and this will be no different in the virtual and gaming worlds where a generation of people are spending more and more of their time,” said Justin Peyton, Global Head of Emerging Channels at Wunderman Thompson.
