NFTs in luxury Fashion is to this industry what creativity is to a designer. One way or another, one will need the other. As in recent times, NFTs are spreading in several industries and fashion is not spared. This industry has also made great efforts to innovate and stay in the digital age. But in luxury Fashion, being innovative is not enough. The point is that the customers are expecting more from their luxury brands than just being tech-attractive. The true appeal of a luxury fashion brand lies in the premium products and especially experiences. The real issue is therefore not to propose NFTs, but experiences around NFTs.
NFTs in luxury Fashion- Which utility?
NFTs being a new form of digital assets that offer ownership rights to the assets represented, are mostly a tool. They are used for authentication, verification and financing in the fashion industry. It is a technology ensuring that each item is unique and provides a record of its provenance. Luxury brands, in order to activate their customers engagement and loyalty, as well as reinforce their brand image, must rely on specific activation levers, which the NFT will simply strengthen.
5 levers of brand activation with NFTs in luxury Fashion
In a world where everything goes digital, it is essential for a brand experience to appear interactive. Virtual environments and NFTs have become a key challenge for brands to attract their customers. NFTs can be used to unlock a multitude of users experiences as long as as long as they are in line with the brand image and aspirations. These are five levers of brand activation with NFTs in luxury Fashion:
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Exclusiveness x Premium
The balance of scarcity, quality and exclusivity are some of the reasons why NFTs are so dear to the luxury market. By creating a digital asset that will never be replicated, a user’s need to own unique digital goods is almost pushed to the limit. This one by possessing a digital asset acquires an item of value and prestige. They are enabling consumers to access a wide range of products and services that were previously exclusive to their physical form. The result is an elevated experience, where the luxury brand can be promoted through the NFT-only items its fans crave. A good example is the famous French luxury fashion brand Hermès. It introduced as NFT an animated video of a fetus growing in a Hermès Birkin bag. Betting on scarcity and Exclusiveness and auctioned on the Basic.Space platform, this only-virtual Birkin was sold at $23,500 to a buyer called Aki Hayashi.
Dolce & Gabbana brand has as well introduced an outstanding NFT brand activation through the Exclusiveness and premium aspects. The Collezione Genesi was about 9 NFTs up for sale on the UNXD platform. Those buyers received with their NFT, the physical items of their unique digital asset and a privileged and exclusive access to Dolce & Gabbana brand events. The brand has won for this collection the sum of 5.65 million dollars, not to mention that those NFTs were at the highest quality and reinforced the users’ feeling of belonging to the brand.
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Gamification x Storytelling as brand activation with NFTs in luxury Fashion
According to Zipline, 83% people from across all ages engaging in the metaverse did it for a gaming purpose. It means that people like to get entertain before buying articles. So using and activation lever around a gaming experience will be wise for a luxury brand, as well as exploring some NFT earning mechanisms. However the more the brand puts its storytelling ahead, the better it is. The luxury brand Louis Vuitton for instance has merged storytelling and gamification for a user experience at the core of its identity.
It launched the app game NFT base called Louis The Game. The game was in tribute to the 200 years of the brand founder and tells the story of the latter. It was about collecting candles on spaces marked with the brand aesthetics, allowing the player to embody its mascot, Vivienne. Each candle collected hid a postcard concealing small sections of the founder’s history, from his first collaborations to his various fashion shows. This game gathering 30 NFT collectibles intended to leave a legacy, in order to reach a target unaware of the brand history. Since Louis Vuitton’s core audience is old, the challenge of this NFT game was to attract a younger audience, newbie of the brand history and customs.
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Closeness x community
A new approach to luxury Fashion that breaks down barriers and builds community is NFTs. It is a radical tool for transforming cultural credibility. As a brand must expose more people to its products and services, it also has to build a community. Along with virtual stores, users receive some additional benefits like interacting with designers or artists. The NFT can be a bridge connecting the new luxury consumer with the brand, story, and experience. Virtual branded spaces as well as NFTs in luxury Fashion will allow fans to be part of the story, by giving them access to exclusive offers and events, which further inspires loyalty and engagement.
The NFT as a virtual asset will bring interactions between members of the built communities, as they will exchange with each other about new releases, and interacting at once with the luxury Fashion brand. This creates a path where art meets fashion through blockchain technology and NFTs. Taking a revolutionary step forward in the luxury industry, NFTs bring closer a brand to its users as NFTs are a symbol of exclusive status, scarce goods, and unique perks and value.
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Co-creation x rewards
As more and more people get involved in NFTs, it’s important to keep them engaged and active by delivering experiences that reward holders of the brand collectibles beyond simply selling them on marketplaces. Audience is no longer passive. Users aim at participating in building the future. The use of NFTs within the fashion industry is becoming more critical and offers advantages such as co-creation, rewards, and a direct connection between producer and consumers. An NFT cannot replace the physical garment, but it can certainly improve brand loyalty, provided that users feel they are participating in the brand’s image in ways other than simply buying items.
The virtual designs for example, of luxury brands can have direct relation with the real life pieces. If they can be worn by avatars, users could like to make themselves what they will wear as an avatar or in real life. After all, the Metaverse is an extension of physical life. Those NFTs can be worn by anyone or they can be manufactured as a piece of self-expression with uniqueness, co-designed by the brand and the user. It puts creators, in other words users, in a new kind of control and ownership over their creations. It is then the perfect way to leverage the metaverse to launch, promote and scale brand designs with NFTs while giving the opportunity to reward users in a creative and sleek way.
Nike in fact for the launch of Nike Air Jordans merged a purchasing and gaming experience within the metaverse game Fortnite. The challenge was focused on winning minigames in Fortnite to be able to customize the sneakers purchased in the game. Nike built this experience on playing/creating experience in the metaverse. And anyone could buy those pairs of sneakers because they cost less than$20. However, just the most skillful player could customize their acquisitions to their liking.
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Transparency as a catalyser regarding NFTs in luxury Fashion
The way luxury gets into the hands of a consumer has changed over the years. Many consumers want to know more about what they buy, not just from a brand but also from an investment perspective. If the good bought was a counterfeit, it becomes tough to resell it. NFTs have become a solution about counterfeit matters in the luxury Fashion industry. The popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has grown exponentially, especially in the luxury industry. The most important aspect for NFTs, being a secured asset, is transparency. Transparency reveals the proof of authenticity and ownership.
Luxury brands have a lot to gain from the creation of NFTs. For a start, it will allow luxury Fashion brands to offer their goods and services with certifications that will not be counterfeited. Then, it will ease the communication between brands and their customers. The blockchain technology is increasingly used by luxury brands and high-end products manufacturers to make their products more valuable at the time of sale. The more transparent and secure the process is, the better for all parties involved.
The AURA platform launched by the LVMH group for instance has greatly contributed to thwarting counterfeiting. This blockchain provides for each product purchased, a traceability certificate in the form of NFT. This certificate provides the buyer with a plethora of information about the newly acquired property: from the origin, the extraction of the raw materials to the manufacturing, to the transport and logistics connections. In the same vein as LVMH, Arianee made up for authenticity issues that apply to their luxury brands with high-end solutions. It helps brands offering products with transparency and security to their customers through blockchain-enabled digital property certification.
Taking a brand itself example, Jacob & Co is known to be one of the first to get into NFTs. Its Non-Fungible Token was named “NFT SF24 Tourbillon” and created in collaboration with the NFT platform ArtGrails. The buyer received the casing of his physical watch a hard drive containing the NFT as the digital certificate of ownership.
Across NFTs in luxury Fashion industry, consumers will experience more freedom to engage in this new digital dimension and to express themselves via their garments choices. Luxury brands will benefit the most from this increase in fashion influence in the metaverse. They can create a new customer base and engage with their current and especially future core consumer in a different way.
The real-world is progressing to the metaverse. Given this fact, the potential of NFTs to capture fashion consumers is huge. For a luxury brand that wants to activate its customer base around NFTs, it must turn to the right service platforms. METAV.RS presents itself as the hub for brands towards metaverse user experiences and NFTs.
To learn more about NFTs in Fashion, download our white paper ENTERING IN THE WEB 3.0 – A GUIDE FOR LUXURY FASHION IN THE METAVERSE
