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This month: Web3 hits New York Fashion Week, a metaverse bodega with NFTs and more.
Samsung teamed with NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” for a gamified experience on the ever-popular Fortnite platform. Themed around the show’s home at 30 Rockefeller Center, the world is dubbed “Tonight at the Rock—Powered by Samsung” and contains a host of activities, including Giant Pong, taxi races and an escape room.
The experience is Samsung’s latest trip into the metaverse, following previous efforts with NFTs and decentralized platform Decentraland. As for NBCUniversal, the effort reflects the media company’s bet on gaming as a destination to reach young consumers. Earlier this year, it struck a partnership with video game ad tech startup Anzu to connect brands with ad inventory across a variety of games.
“We’re bringing an entirely new, interactive gaming experience to fans in the metaverse, and at the same time providing a great platform to showcase Samsung in a new creative way,” said Sari Feinberg, NBCUniversal’s senior VP of marketing, creative partnerships, advertising and partnerships, about the Fortnite experience.
Puma launched an online destination for its metaverse efforts while promoting its show at New York Fashion Week (NYFW). The “metaverse website” is called Black Station and opens with three “portals” for consumers to access. Two portals unveil new sneaker models tied to Puma’s recent Nitropass NFT drop, which are redeemable by owners for a physical version of the shoe and a customized experience.
When users step back into Black Station’s digital lobby, they can access a third portal, which will bring them into a digital adaption of Puma’s NYFW metaverse show, called “Futrograde,” which will offer guests an adaptation of the real-world “Futrograde” event, as well as opportunities to interact with the collection’s pieces.
Black Station will continue to offer new digital experiences as Puma activates the metaverse in the future.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba rolled out new virtual tools for shoppers to use in its luxury shopping destination Tmall Luxury Pavillion. A “Meta Pass” will allow holders priority purchase of products and admission to brands’ offline activities, as well as confer “digital warrants” that can be exchanged for real, limited-edition items, per Alizila, a newshub owned by Alibaba. While these warrants will live on a blockchain, it is unclear whether they are NFTs, or which blockchain they are housed in.
Tmall will also feature an AR fashion show in partnership with Vogue China and various artists. Mascots will walk down virtual runways and pose for selfies with consumers. The event is independent from New York Fashion Week.
The new tools are reportedly Alibaba’s latest steps toward building out its own metaverse. Previously, more than 20 brands launched digital art collectibles on Tmall. The experience as a whole will probably end up being a proprietary metaverse, given control is centralized in Alibaba’s hands.
To promote its Elements product, Snapple opened its first bodega, and it exists in Decentraland. Visitors to the Blockchain Bodega will be able to discover “real facts”—an allusion to the tidbits printed on the underside of Snapple caps—as well as various undisclosed treasures. The effort is a nod to the brand’s roots as a popular beverage found on the shelves of New York bodegas.
Different from most branded metaverse activations, the bodega features NFTs, which align with the vision that the metaverse is supposed to offer better opportunities for users to own their assets. The NFTs are wearables—Elements air cape, fire hair and rain boots—that users can sport on their avatars.
ChainGuardians’ runway show from Nolcha
Another metaverse activation at NYFW was Nolcha Show’s two-day event on the 69th floor of 3 World Trade Center. Nolcha, a company that specializes in producing fashion events and a14-year NYFW veteran, included in its show an NFT gallery, several Web3 panels and runways featuring Web3 and non-Web3 brands. Panels included “The emergence of AR in fashion,” “Luxury in the metaverse” and “The fashion metaverse economy.”
One of the Web3 brands that made an appearance, ChainGuardians, showcased a “phygital” collection (“physical” plus “digital”) that can be worn in the real world and on virtual avatars. Another company, OhZone, exhibited its patented technology that automates turning physical articles into NFT wearables.
In this article:
Asa Hiken is a technology reporter covering digital marketing, social media platforms and innovation. A graduate of Northwestern University, he joined Ad Age after writing for Marketing Dive, where he focused on the alcohol space and digital privacy.
