Puromarketing Luxury brands are launched into the conquest of Fortnite: Marketing, Fashion and Electronic Sports

En la última nota de prensa de Balenciaga sobre una campaña publicitaria parecen acumularse todas las palabras clave de moda de los últimos meses. Se habla del metaverso, de Fortnite... y todo para vender ropa de lujo. La cuestión es que Balenciaga está muy lejos de ser la única marca del universo de la moda y el lujo que acumula palabras clave y que usa como palanca estos elementos de moda.

Balenciaga is starring now a collaboration with Fortnite, created by the Publicis Luxe agency.As he explains from the agency, they have created a "new complete metavers" in which you can experience "fashion experience" from the digital world.

What all this means is that Fortnite players will be able to buy directly in the game inspired by the Balenciaga collection and use them to dress their characters.The store opened the public (virtual) on September 20.

The example of Balenciaga is the most recent, but not far from the only one in which luxury products and fashion brands cross the border of eSports.Luxury brands were for a long time to try the new.In fact, you just have to think about electronic commerce to understand it.For a long time, these companies resisted entering the ecommerce and did not sell online, because they believed that it was going to damage their brand.

Now, however, they have become the great advance of how to use everything digital to position themselves in the market.

Balenciaga is not the first

The most pioneer brands, as was the case with Nike, were already selling virtual products in Fortnite in 2019. The pioneers of the luxury brands quickly followed their steps.Louis Vuitton was one of the first companies to position himself with actions in Fortnite and also did so in 2019, opening the sale of virtual goods in League of Legends.

In addition, it became a sponsor of an electronic sports event and was also linked to the real world.In fact, she ended up creating a fashion-of which can be bought in the physical-inspired world by the game.

The crisis generated by the Coronavirus and the effects of the pandemic only accelerated the pull of eSports in general and Fortnite in particular.In the spring of 2020, when many countries were in confinements and the crisis of the Coronavirus at their peak, the large luxury brands threw themselves into the conquest of the virtual.

They had a few months to prepare for the presentation of the new collection and the virtual shows were a potential solution.This involved not only doing streaming events, but also actions in environments such as Fortnite, as The Guardian then revealed.

Since then, he has not stopped.Gucci or Christian Louboutin have also launched virtual products in recent times and used eSports as a lever to reach their potential consumers.By using, Gucci has used even Pokémon Go as a way to connect with its consumers.

What makes it interesting

Why is this so profitable?In the first place, we must keep in mind that luxury brands need to reach consumers and that younger consumers are increasingly in these environments and less and less in those in which brands were traditionally.

Secondly, and as they explain in Refinery 29, fashion and electronic sports environments themselves have enough common links.In the games, the challenge is to create a universe, in creating your character.Fashion also goes from that.