Are you in Luxury? Better said: are you willing to understand the evolution of extreme value-creation business models? Then, pay attention to Mr Bernat Arnault’s messages. Beyond his talks, his actions and deliveries. He is the CEO of LVMH, the 75 luxury brands conglomerate (Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior Couture, Fendi, Loewe, Bulgari or TAG Heuer among others). And he knows the game. In January 2022, he stated: “with the metaverse, we have to be wary of bubbles”. Few people might interpret: “LVMH is not interested in the metaverse”. To take some perspective:
October 2019, Louis Vuitton partnered with Riot Games to dress League of Legends´ avatars. The “skins” for the game characters were accessible by making the first spend of $10. Furthermore, the luxury house designed the trophy case for the e-sport tournament, held in Paris.
Louis Vuitton entering Gaming (kind of proto-metaverse), partnering with a champion of this industry – partner before mastering.
August 2021. Louis Vuitton is celebrating its founder’s 200th birthday. The bicentennial festivities include the launch of “Louis: The Game”. The addictive e-game features the house mascot, Vivienne, who embarks on a quest that is embedded with 30 NFTs, designed by digital artist Beeple (yes: he is the one that sold one NFT for $69.3 million in an online auction by Christie’s, in 2021). Vivieene travels across virtual locations inspired by iconic real-life cities like London and Paris.
Louis Vuitton going further into e-Gaming, on its own, and integrating NFTs.
3️⃣ May 2022. LV announced that “Louis: The Game” is expanding: the latest version features new locations and celebrity NFTs. The game reaches two million total downloads.
Louis Vuitton breaking records on this meta world journey.
Is LVMH selling low-end wearables? NO (Mr Arnault, early 2022: “At this stage, we are very much in the real world, selling real products. We are not interested in selling virtual sneakers for 10 euros”). Are they exploring the opportunities that the digital space is offering to the luxury brands? Definitely, YES. And much more to come (blurring barriers among the whole customer journey). I advance that LMVH´s NFTs linked with real items and wearables for avatars are about to come: just waiting for the right time (& tech) to happen.
Other luxury groups are doing their own journey. Kering group, for instance, is being more aggressive in exploring. They have a full team dedicated to Web3 at the corporate level, as well as separate teams at Gucci and BALENCIAGA. The company has just announced that a few Gucci physical stores are starting to accept cryptocurrencies.
Different strategies & speeds. But all they are moving. This revolution is coming to change a few of the ways we frame today’s luxury.