One of the most storied names in prestige beauty has set its sights on the metaverse. Estée Lauder is launching its first NFT as the only beauty brand partner of Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week. The brand will be awarding up to 10,000 of this complementarity at the fashion show, which runs from Thursday to March 28 and is inspired by its hero product, Advanced Night Repair.
According to a statement from the brand, users will be able to walk inside Advanced Night Repair’s brown apothecary bottle to obtain the wearable NFT, which provides users’ avatars a “glowing, radiant look.” Alex Box, a virtual creator, designed the NFTs, which are available for free.
The company joins a growing list of beauty brands that are taking advantage of the new market. Clinique revealed its first NFTs last year, and P&G Beauty launched BeautySphere, a virtual world designed to educate consumers about the company’s sustainability efforts, earlier this year.
However, Lauder’s aim is to attract future customers who are already spending time in virtual realities, rather than to entice existing customers into the metaverse. “We’re looking for interesting events where we can engage and reach this new consumer,” said Jon Roman, Estée Lauder’s senior vice president of global consumer marketing and internet. “I don’t think we want to just make something and then promote it or bring people to the metaverse on our own.”
Although the Advanced Night Repair NFTs are intended to increase brand awareness, the brand’s overall purpose is to bridge the gap between virtual and physical realities. “Linking [the metaverse] to the physical world and physical products makes sense.” That would be the ultimate goal, according to Roman. “However, it isn’t a straightforward procedure. We understand that it’s all about generating excitement, demand, and brand loyalty in the metaverse before identifying new customers.”
But it’s up to you to figure out what that might look like. “A lot of it will be determined by how the metaverse grows,” Roman explained. “At the end of the day, we believe it will be a mixed-reality universe.”
