Introduced as part of the Gravitas campaign, the new virtual hairstyles “offer more opportunities for Metaverse players to fully express themselves,” explains L’Oréal. Each of the new virtual hairstyles is shaped in a way that seems to defy the laws of physics – hence the name.
The Gravitas campaign was developed in collaboration with Wunderman Thompson, a New York-based global marketing communications agency.
L’Oréal’s story with the Metaverse
This isn’t L’Oréal’s first foray into the Metaverse. The global beauty company has filed a number of virtual trademarks in 2022, including rights to “non-downloadable virtual perfumery” and “hair care preparations and cosmetic body care preparations in a virtual environment including a metaverse”.
In eight of the submissions, L’Oréal claimed to “provide a metaverse where people can browse, collect, buy, sell, and trade virtual cosmetics.”
October 2022, Paris Hilton threw a Metaverse Halloween Party in Roblox sponsored by Urban Decay. This was the first Roblox activation sponsored by a brand in the L’Oréal group and reflected the growing investment in Roblox by beauty and fashion brands as part of their Metaverse marketing strategies.
More recently, L’Oréal’s corporate venture capital fund BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development) has taken a minority stake in the US startup Digital Villagea Metaverse-as-a-Service platform and NFT marketplace for brands, developers and communities.
Simultaneous expansion in multiple marketplaces
With the launch of Gravitas, L’Oréal becomes the first beauty brand to launch virtual products across multiple virtual marketplaces simultaneously.
“We are extremely excited to launch these cutting-edge hairstyles as this is another milestone in our journey to break the new codes of hair beauty and enable limitless forms of virtual self-expression,” Anne Machet, International General Manager at L ‘Oréal Professionnel, explained.
According to LOréal, the launch of Gravitas on Ready Player Me, Roblox and Zepeto will bring the five new virtual hairstyles to around 234 million players and in more than 40 million virtual games.
More about the metaverse
learn more about what the metaverse is and why beauty companies are investing in it.