The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Author

By Webb Wright, NY Reporter

January 4, 2023 | 3 min read

The retail brand launches its new virtual experience amid a growing wave of interest in virtual fashion.

H&M has just become the latest fashion retailer to launch a branded campaign inside Roblox.

The campaign, called ’Loooptopia’ (no, that’s not a typo) and created in partnership with digital gaming production studio Dubit, has been designed as an experience in which players can experiment with virtual fashion while simultaneously learning about circularity. Circularity is defined as recycling clothes and thereby cutting back on the considerable waste for which much of the modern, mainstream fashion industry has become notorious.

While moving their avatars through what H&M describes in a press release as “visually stunning alternate worlds,” visitors to Loooptopia will be able to collect virtual fashion and accessory items through a number of games, live events and “styling sessions”; those items can then be used to create virtual outfits, or traded or recycled for points.

H&M has launched its new campaign with an eye toward the rapidly growing popularity and profitability of virtual fashion, particularly among young people. Nearly three in four Gen Zers said that they will “spend money on digital clothing and accessories,” according to a 2022 Metaverse Fashion Trends report published by Roblox and Parsons School of Design in November. Roblox and Parsons also announced a new course in digital fashion that will be available in the spring of this year.

“People who shop and wear H&M garments and accessories are increasingly spending time in virtual spaces and digital worlds,” said Linda Li, head of customer activation and marketing at H&M Americas, in a statement. “The H&M Loooptopia Experience on Roblox is now allowing us to explore new ways to engage with our current and new customers in the places they love to be, both online and offline. In the coming years, H&M will continue to explore this fast-growing expanse of virtual and augmented realities.”

Roblox, an online game that (according to its website) boasted a little under 59 million daily active users (DAUs) as of September 30, has become a magnet for retail brands looking to engage with a younger audience. PacSun and Hot Topic, to name two examples, launched activations on the platform last year.

For more on the latest happening in tech, sign up for The Drum’s Inside the Metaverse weekly newsletter here.

Brand Purpose Gen Z Brand Strategy

More from Brand Purpose

View all