This post was spurred by a Business of Fashion post on LinkedIn. You can read the original post here.

With experimental marketing budgets to throw around, leading luxury brands have been early movers in the Web3, Metaverse, and NFTs space. The same aspirational nature that yields high rev diversification efforts lends itself well to metaverse activations - where allure and IRL inaccessibility make the opportunity to immerse yourself in the brand even more enticing. These brands are not only demonstrating a keen eye for innovative technology, they're also generating real revenue (read: millions) from their metaverse explorations.

People often ask...

“Why are brands so interested in this space, particularly around gaming?”

Answer: Gaming is already a $300B sector today, and the metaverse has the potential to be $5T by 2030 (according to McKinsey). Numbers speak for themselves.

“What does it even mean for a brand to experiment in this space?!”

Answer: Take a look through this browsing list to explore some of the engagements from luxury brands!

Louis Vuitton

Louis The Game pulled in over 2M downloads in the first 6 months after their launch last Summer. Going way past high fashion, the addicting adventure takes players through six imaginary worlds based on brand history where they collect embedded limited edition NFTs - translating to real world value, perks, and raffles.

More importantly, LVMH (parent brand of Louis) has partnered with Prada Group and Cartier to form Aura Blockchain Consortium. Less flashy than fun consumer-focused activations, but integral from an infrastructure perspective - This is an innovative approach to competitors coming together to solve authenticity, sourcing, and sustainability limitations. The focus on collaboration and decentralization over competitive advantage is high yield for consumer trust, transparency, and utility.

Chanel

Le Bal de Paris was a virtual experience of music and dance, putting general members of the public alongside professional performers all dressed in custom, virtual Chanel outfits. Each participant chose their Chanel, with impeccable detail in the movement & feel of the fabrics.

Gucci

After testing Gucci wearables and skins in Roblox, Gucci paired the very real “Gucci Garden” physically located in Florence with an immersive, 2 week Roblox “Gucci Garden” experience accessible for anyone anywhere. In the metaverse experience, your neutral mannequin explores a variety of rooms and spaces paying homage to high profile Gucci collections from the past and collecting wearables along the way (with some of these wearables reselling for over $4k). They’ve since doubled down with Gucci Town, stocked full with Gucci laced adventures and competitions, for longer term engagement.

Dior

In 2021, Dior collaborated with Ready Player Me (well known, interoperable avatar platform) to launch their Miss Dior interactive branded experience with custom Dior avatars based on real life selfies and fantastical, historical Dior inspired spaces. Earlier this year, they also worked with Zepeto to launch a digital makeup collection and hosted their Autumn menswear collection fashion show in the virtual Meta ZiWU skyscraper – the first metaverse runway show in China.

Guerlain

Guerlain has taken a more philanthropic, mission-driven approach with original digital works auctioned as NFTs and now the REAVERSE centering on 1,828 cryptobee NFTs linked to the parcels in the Millière Valley nature preserve, with all proceeds for both endeavors going to the rewilding efforts led by the Millière Valley Project.

While not the metaverse or gaming industry, both Tiffany & Prada have made some movements in the web3 ecosystem - focused more so on NFTs.

Tiffany & Co

Along with a few notable NFT purchases, Tiffany put out an April Fool’s joke around launching “Tiffcoin” their own cryptocurrency - although they did actually release IRL 18k gold coins available for 24 hours as part of the hoax. Having been acquired by LVMH in 2020 and with a new CEO hailing from LV, perhaps we’ll see more innovative web3 alignment in their future. Particularly, with Crypto Punk fan Alexandre Arnault as EVP of Product, as he’s even recently turned his Crypto Punk into a rose gold Tiffany pendant.

Prada

Aside from their numerous joint efforts with Adidas, Prada has launched their own line of NFTs with Cassius Hirst, centered around a time capsule narrative and moving towards the concept of “twinning” by pairing real life and digital goods. Floor price (i.e. the lowest possible purchase price) on the collection is 1.9ETH.

Important to note, Prada is also a leading partner in the Aura Blockchain Consortium mentioned above - leading the way in luxury web3 foundational efforts.

Brands like Balenciaga, Burberry, and Dolce & Gabbana have really leaned into web3, but they were not listed in the original post.

Balenciaga

After releasing their Fall 2021 collection via an experiential video game & collaborating with Fortnite on a hugely successful collection of paired digital wearables and physical items, Balenciaga has gone full steam ahead and even launched a Metaverse Business Unit. Eagerly awaiting continued output from them!

Burberry

Through collaboration with Mythical Games, Burberry launched a joint NFT and accessories collection where players can buy and trade NFT toys. For context, the Burberry NFTs sold out in fewer than 30 seconds, so it’s no surprise that they’re coming out with a second, more robust open-world. This is a natural progression for the brand that has leveraged AR for experimental in-store experiences.

Dolce & Gabbana

DG partnered with UNXD (luxury NFT marketplace and Conde Nast affiliate) for their Glass Box NFT Collection, and they’ve continued to deliver value back to holders - including their integration with Chainlink VRF which provided collectors with exclusive digital items and experiences in Decentraland. On the gaming-centric front, DG has partnered with SKNUPS to create branded skins for high profile games and limited edition digital collectibles.