04.26.23
Haircare and hair styling brand L’Oréal Professionnel has launched five virtual hairstyles that can be accessed across three major metaverse platforms: Roblox, Ready Player Me and Zepeto.
The new virtual hairstyles, launched as a part of the Gravitas campaign, “offer more opportunities for metaverse gamers to fully express themselves,” explains L’Oréal. Each of the new virtual hairstyles are shaped in a manner that seem to defy the laws of physics—hence the name.
The Gravitas campaign was developed in partnership with Wunderman Thompson, a New York-based global marketing communication agency.
In eight of the filings, L’Oréal staked claim to “providing a metaverse for people to browse, accumulate, buy, sell and trade virtual cosmetics.”
In October 2022, Paris Hilton hosted a metaverse Halloween party in Roblox sponsored by Urban Decay. This marked the first Roblox activation sponsored by a L’Oréal Group-owned brand, and reflected beauty and fashion brands’ growing investment in Roblox as a part of their metaverse marketing strategies.
More recently, L’Oréal’s corporate venture capital fund BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development) made a minority investment in U.S.-based startup, Digital Village, a metaverse-as-a-service platform and NFT marketplace for brands, creators and communities.
“We are very excited to drop these cutting-edge hairstyles as this is another milestone in our journey to crack the new codes of hair beauty and provide limitless forms of virtual self-expression,” Anne Machet, international general manager at L’Oréal Professionnel, stated.
According to LOréal, the launch of Gravitas across Ready Player Me, Roblox and Zepeto will make the five new virtual hairstyles accessible to around 234 million players and across more than 40 million virtual games.
The new virtual hairstyles, launched as a part of the Gravitas campaign, “offer more opportunities for metaverse gamers to fully express themselves,” explains L’Oréal. Each of the new virtual hairstyles are shaped in a manner that seem to defy the laws of physics—hence the name.
The Gravitas campaign was developed in partnership with Wunderman Thompson, a New York-based global marketing communication agency.
L’Oréal’s History with the Metaverse
This is not L’Oréal’s first foray into the metaverse. The global beauty company filed a number of virtual trademarks in 2022, including rights to “non-downloadable virtual perfumery,” along with “hair care preparations and cosmetic body care preparations in a virtual environment including a metaverse.”In eight of the filings, L’Oréal staked claim to “providing a metaverse for people to browse, accumulate, buy, sell and trade virtual cosmetics.”
In October 2022, Paris Hilton hosted a metaverse Halloween party in Roblox sponsored by Urban Decay. This marked the first Roblox activation sponsored by a L’Oréal Group-owned brand, and reflected beauty and fashion brands’ growing investment in Roblox as a part of their metaverse marketing strategies.
More recently, L’Oréal’s corporate venture capital fund BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development) made a minority investment in U.S.-based startup, Digital Village, a metaverse-as-a-service platform and NFT marketplace for brands, creators and communities.
Expanding Across Multiple Marketplaces Simultaneously
The Gravitas launch makes L’Oréal the first beauty brand to launch virtual products across multiple virtual marketplaces at the same time.“We are very excited to drop these cutting-edge hairstyles as this is another milestone in our journey to crack the new codes of hair beauty and provide limitless forms of virtual self-expression,” Anne Machet, international general manager at L’Oréal Professionnel, stated.
According to LOréal, the launch of Gravitas across Ready Player Me, Roblox and Zepeto will make the five new virtual hairstyles accessible to around 234 million players and across more than 40 million virtual games.
