L’Oréal Professionnel Pioneers the Metaverse with a Drop of Hair Looks on Ready Player Me, Zepeto and Roblox

L’Oréal Professionnel has partnered with Wunderman Thompson to become the first hairstylist brand to launch direct-to-avatar products across multiple online marketplaces.

The future of consumerism lies in virtual products and, as digital ownership rises and the potential of the metaverse as a place of mass audiences becomes clear, brands are beginning to realise the opportunity for brand expression within the new digital space.

In November 2022, L’Oréal Professionnel became the first hair brand to enter the metaverse with five hair looks available on Ready Player Me. In collaboration with a CGI artist, Evan Rochette, the brand created diverse virtual hair looks for cross-gaming avatars. Thanks to the success of this first launch, with hairstyles ranked in the top 5 of the most downloaded looks on the platform, the second launch will go one step further, making them the first brand to launch virtual products across multiple virtual marketplaces at the same time.

Today L’Oréal Professionnel, in partnership with creative agency Wunderman Thompson, expands the limits of creativity with their latest drop, ‘Gravitas’ - five larger-than-life hair looks that offer more opportunities for metaverse gamers to fully express themselves. Once again the brand will partner with 3D artist Evan Rochette and will also join forces with renowned French hair artist, Charlie Le Mindu, to drive real-world interest in the campaign.

In addition to Ready Player Me, the world-leader in avatars for multi-app use where the first launch of hair looks took place, Gravitas will be available on Robox as well as Zepeto, giving the campaign a projected reach of 234m and over 40m games combined.

Anne Machet, international general manager for L’Oréal  Professionnel, says: “We are very excited to drop these cutting edge hairstyles as this is another milestone in our journey to crack the new codes of hair beauty and provide limitless forms of virtual self-expression. As the brand leader, we are in a unique position to elevate the professional industry, CGI artists and consumers to bring more value and augmented experiences.

Justin Peyton, global head of emerging channels at Wunderman Thompson, comments: “In our daily lives, we all aim to express our individuality through appearance and style, and this will be no different in the virtual and gaming worlds where a generation of people are spending more and more of their time. It’s a privilege to work with pioneers like L’Oreal Professionnel and to help them define beauty and style through hair, making self-expression across worlds accessible, and gravity defying.”

Beyond this launch, L’Oréal Professionnel will continue to drop new hair looks across the year to push the creative and technological boundaries that the metaverse has to offer.

To bring the virtual and real-worlds closer together, meta-hair and real-life hair will join forces in L’Oréal Professionnel’s global competition, the Style and Colour trophy. This iconic contest will run with the theme ‘Meta-morphosis’ in 2023, calling for transformation and self-expression while inviting hairstylists to design meta-hair looks for the first time.

A brand-new category exclusively for CGI artists will also be unveiled to showcase the possibilities for hair creativity inspired by the metaverse, with the winners of each category receiving the grand prize of €10,000.