Metaverse mane makeover: L’Oréal shows the future of fashion

L’Oréal is continuing to ramp up its metaverse efforts with its subsidiary L’Oréal Professionnel launching five new virtual hairstyles on Roblox, Ready Player Me and Zepeto.

The virtual glam is a part of the Gravitas campaign, developed in partnership with Wunderman Thompson. The intention here was not to duplicate realistic looks, rather push the creative boundaries with a gravity-defying mane makeover—hence the name. According to L’Oréal, “it offers more opportunities for metaverse gamers to fully express themselves.”

With a multi-platform launch, the projected reach is set at 234 million, over 40 million games will be targeted and the company is going a step further to gauge offline attention as well. To drive real-world interest in the campaign and see if the concept resonates with consumers, Loreal is also tying up with renowned CGI artist Evan Rochette and French hair artist, Charlie Le Mindu.

 

Leveraging the metaverse

L’Oréal has been testing the immersive metaverse waters with a number of virtual trademarks since 2022, including rights to “non-downloadable virtual perfumery,” also “hair care preparations and cosmetic body care preparations in a virtual environment” with both Professionnel as well as its makeup arm Maybelline.

In November, they released the first iteration of the Gravitas collection with ten gaming-inspired hair and makeup looks to cross-game avatar platform, Ready Player Me. The beauty giant is the first hairstylist brand to launch direct-to-avatar products across multiple online marketplaces.

Gaming-inspired hair and makeup looks launched on Ready Player Me in November 2022

Anne Machet, international general manager for L’Oréal Professionnel, says: “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. 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.

Justin Peyton, global head of emerging channels at Wunderman Thompson, comments: “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.”

CREDITS

Global head of emerging channels: Justin Peyton
Managing director: Virgile Brodziak
Project manager: Yann Clément