The number of people actively using the metaverse in 2022 was 1.7 billion, a significant jump from 2021's 81 million. NYX Professional Makeup took note of this increase, offering a range of metaverse-based events and activities to its consumers across the year. For Pride, the brand threw a celebration dubbed "The Valley of the Belonging," which included over 8,000 diverse NFTs to help consumers feel seen in the metaverse, regardless of their gender, race, or sexual orientation. In a breakthrough for beauty, it then launched the industry's first DAO, GORJS, a "community-led artist collective to define the future of beauty and makeup in the metaverse." Shortly after, the concept then took to physical events, when the brand hosted avatar creation booths at TwitchCon to break down gender barriers across cosmetics and gaming. To set the foundations for 2023, NYX Professional Makeup unveiled House of NYX Professional Makeup, leaving its digital footprint on the gaming platform Roblox.
House of NYX Professional Makeup is a collaboration between the cosmetics company and iHeartMedia, which often hosts virtual concerts on Roblox. The partnership was formed to allow NYX Professional Makeup to continue connecting with the gaming community and virtually reveal its 2023 spring product drop, offering limited-edition makeup looks for avatars.
"Every year at NYX Professional Makeup, we release our Spring Collection by surprising our community with an immersive, social, and interactive experience. As one of the leading and fastest growing cosmetics brands, we partnered with iHeart, the top entertainment and leading audio brand, to drop our Spring Collection as they drop the latest in today's music. We are excited to immerse Roblox users into the world of entertainment, artistry, digital cosmetics, and self-expression," says Vivianna Blanch, Head of US Marketing at NYX Professional Makeup.
The virtual apartment featured a transparent dance floor, outlined with pink fluorescent lighting that glowed as avatars enjoyed a peacock character's DJ set. Portraits of NYX Professional Makeup campaigns adorned the house's hot-pink walls with inclusive and encouraging messages such as "for all skin tones and types" written on them. SKUs from the spring 2023 collection, including Vivid Matte Liquid Liners, Bare With Me Blur Skin Tint Foundation, and The Brow Glue, were all displayed along the edges of the dance floor.
Continuing the color theme, NYX Professional Makeup rolled out the Pink Carpet, which was used to introduce iHeartLand's selected nonplayable characters representing emerging artists from its upcoming Artist Chat Series. Roblox gamers were able to take selfies with the featured artists as well as chat live with them on the carpet.
Roblox was selected to help NYX Professional Makeup reach its younger target audience of Gen Z. The choice was a smart one, as the metaverse's rapidly growing audience comprises 60% Gen Z users. The generation is also the most prominent playing on Roblox, with 67% of users under the age of 16. "At NYX Professional Makeup, we are always looking to meet consumers where they are both in the metaverse and the real world, especially our Gen Z community. With iHeartLand on Roblox, we are able to further delve into the entertainment space and engage the growing community at play in an organic, authentic way," Blanch tells BeautyMatter.
Like recent metaverse activations such as L'Oréal and Garnier's Ready Player Me collaboration, House of NYX Professional Makeup was created to encourage consumers to express themselves however they desire online. This message has been championed through several of the brand’s other dives into the metaverse in which they have previously teamed up with People of Crypto Lab (POC) to offer a range of avatars that inclusively allow consumers to be whomever they wanted to be across Web3 platforms.
"NYX Professional Makeup continues to be a digitally native beauty brand that defines the future of beauty at the intersection of entertainment and makeup artistry with immersive, community-focused metaverse activations leading the charge. Through thoughtful partnerships, we can meet our community where they are by providing Web3 activations that reach a diverse audience," Blanch concludes.
House of NYX Professional Makeup will continue to be a part of Roblox into early 2023, with partnering artists offering chats with fans in both the online and physical world.
