Last Friday (August 2) saw Coach launch its first gaming efforts as part of the Find Your Courage campaign. The crossover sees Coach products appear in two Roblox titles – Fashion Klossette and Fashion Famous Two – as well as gaming/social media platform Zepeto. We were lucky enough to attend the launch event at Coach’s flagship store in New York, and talk to SVP of Global Visual Experience Gio Zaccariello and VP of Marketing Kimberly Wallengren about the collaboration and bringing fashion to Roblox.
Twinfinite: Why did you choose Roblox and Zepeto for the collaboration over any other platforms?
Kimberly Wallengren: We were very excited to explore this world, and the first step that we quickly knew that we needed to take was to find partners who could help us navigate it. We started working with Geek, and they provided us with a ton of incredible data. We were able to look through that data and really pair up our values and where we wanted to go with this with the platform values. That was basically the way that we decided, and we landed on Zepeto and Roblox, because we were looking for places where A lots of Gen Z were naturally, and then B) platforms where self-expression was at the core of the heart of what the experiences are.
Twinfinite: So you mentioned Gen Z. What makes Gen Z different than other generations and what unique opportunities does that present to you guys?
Wallengren: So we love Gen Z. We do a lot of research at Coach and at Tapestry and learn a lot of insights. We do a lot of home visits, we talk to consumers all the time. And what we’ve learned from them is that they are really on this journey, this journey to self-express, this journey to build their confidence, their journey to find their many selves, their multiple selves. That’s very exciting for a fashion company because we’re able to facilitate that journey with different products and different experiences and different moments that we can have with them to really help them enhance their journeys and have fun.
Gio Zaccariello: Yeah, they also use social media and mobile regularly. And I think gaming is such a great thing. Zepeto is mobile-first, but we also know that Gen Z spends a lot of time on those platforms and games. So I think having that time spent with Coach is pretty cool for us.
Twinfinite: Fashion brands getting involved in gaming is nothing new. Why did you choose now?
Zaccariello: So, I think the main reason is the design fidelity of the Find Your Courage campaign. I think when Kimberly and I saw the initial moods, it felt like the right time because even the campaign itself really bridges digital and physical with Imma and our cast of characters, so it felt like the perfect timing for that.
I also feel like now we have so much more data about the consumer, where they are versus in the past. We were on this journey of defining who the consumer is, so that’s why I think those are the reasons why we kind of chose now.
Twinfinite: So when it comes to the collaborations, are you thinking more about using gaming to raise brand awareness or is success in gaming its own goal?
Wallengren: We’re looking at a few things right now. One is we’re looking to learn more. One is we’re looking to say is this a space for us and does it enhance their experiences? Do consumers have a positive reaction to Coach being here?
So I think Gio was saying, are consumers spending more time with us in these games? I think that’s another way that we’re looking at it and also like net sentiment. So is it a positive experience? Is it a negative experience, or a neutral experience? These are all the things that we’re kind of looking at.
I think that being able to scale that, whether it’s scale that within gaming or take learnings from that and bring it into another space, we’ll figure that out down the road. Right now it’s really learning about those consumers who are in Zepeto and Roblox, like when we bring our brand to them, like, what can we learn from that that we can either facilitate within those two platforms further or take that somewhere else and grow in a different way?
Twinfinite: So you mentioned that you want to learn from consumers. Do you think that there’s a possibility the games can help influence the designs that you guys will bring out later on?
Wallengren: Yeah, I mean, we’re always listening to our customers and our consumers. I think that one of the things that I’m interested in learning is as they leverage our products, are they tending more towards ready-to-wear, are they tending more towards bags, accessories? Where are they actually engaging with us? That can be very telling for what we would bring to them moving forward.
For example, if it’s all about sunglasses, let’s say, or if it’s all about the tabby bag, then we can actually learn a little bit more, and you never know where that can take you. At the moment, we don’t have any plans to take the virtual product to bring it into the physical world yet, because revenue is not our KPI (Key Performance Indicator) at the moment. It really is just about being in this space, increasing engagement, and learning more.
Zaccariello: I think it’s also about understanding, how do they self-express? This is such a big focus for Coach. This is really one of the first times they were bringing this to life in a space like that, so far it’s been all about campaigns. So we may learn, how do they do that? Do they make one avatar, or do they create multiple avatars? We don’t know any of that yet, so I think we’re also learning about the self-expression journey that they fit on, and do they share or do they keep it private? You know, like we don’t know how this is going to do on social either. So, for me, that’s a different nuance of like, what are we gonna learn?
Twimifinite: What do you think about Coach as a brand makes it so well suited for Roblox and Zepeto?
Zaccariello: I think it’s this idea of merging fashion and technology. If you think about it, we started as a handbag company, then we started to introduce ready-to-wear and runway. And I think this feels like kind of like an evolution, where fashion is meeting technology and technology is meeting fashion. And I think that’s why, even if I think about the Fashion Famous Two, we are really melding the technology expertise and our fashion expertise together into building that experience. I’m actually excited that we are partnering together on this big launch together. It’s really leaning on what we know because we’re a fashion house, merging our heritage and craft and history with technology, and that’s why we lean into the developers to kind of help us bring that to life. So I think it’s that blend of fashion and technology.
Twinfinite: Why did you choose to highlight certain items, like the tabby bag, over others?
Wallengren: The simple answer to that is that Gen Z is telling us that the tabby bag is their iconic bag at the moment. So it was very easy. It’s so cute and it was very easy. If our consumer is telling us that it’s the iconic it bag, we’re gonna like lean into that. So that was how we came up with that.
Twinfinite: Are you satisfied with what you’ve seen so far about how the games have translated your unique brand into gaming?
Zaccariello: I would say so, and that’s why I’m excited to see what the customer is gonna react to. There are a lot of nuances like the subway, for example, or the video booth through the avatar creation, which are an add-on to the Find Your Courage campaign. So it’s all connected for the consumer. So when they see it, they kind of see the similarities, and I think that’s the fun piece about the collaboration.
Twinfinite: Have you both had a chance to play the game? Which ones were your favorite?
Wallengren: Oh, that’s so hard to say. I don’t know if I want to say, but I really enjoyed Fashion Klosette. I think that for me it was just a fun experience. I think the fidelity of it is beautiful. I think they’re all great, So it’s really hard to pinpoint one, but I have a feeling that my eight-year-old daughter will love that one the most.
Zaccariello: You know, I like all three for different reasons. I think there is something about the avatar creation and the multiple selves that you can create, whether it’s through clothing, handbags, makeup, body shape, color, wigs, wings, which again, you can’t do in the real world. We know that Gen Z sometimes wants to dream and that some things are not possible in the real world. So I think that brings me to different places to dream a little, but I think all of them have something quite interesting that we have not seen before.
Twinfinite: You’ve got three worlds in three games. Are you going to be expanding the other worlds in the campaign into their own experiences as well?
Wallengren: I think at the moment right now we’re seeing this as the grand finale for this particular campaign. But the learnings that we’re gonna take from this will allow us to scale potentially into future games.
Twinfinite: So do you see this as a blueprint for how other brands can break into gaming going forward?
Wallengren: I think that this is the right blueprint for us at the moment. I think that we’ve done a little bit with kind of our own virtual games. We’re really looking at marketing technology and all of that and from a gaming perspective, I think this feels right for Coach at the moment and it’s working well for us. I think that we’ve done a lot of work also in the physical spaces. And I think we’ve got that down really well, even from a global perspective. So now it’s a matter of this is the right time, right place, right moment for us to be doing this.
Zaccariello: I think because it’s also so much focus about self-expression. There’s such a core value for us, it’s so Coach specific. I feel again, it’s more of a blueprint for us mainly because of that and because it kind of brings our DNA to life.
Twinfinite: How do you maintain Coach’s brand identity on a platform with so many options for self-expression and customization?
Zaccariello: When you play the game, there’s a lot of codes in games that kind of bring the coach to life. So number one Tabby, I’m sure you’ve seen in Fashion Klossette an oversized white bag. We also have the balloon. We also have Rexy, there is C logo across the experience, the subway has become part of our DNA if you think about some of the experiences that we’ve done. So there are a lot of codes, some of them much more visible than others. A lot of them are because you want them to explore. Even if you think about the wings, there are C’s everywhere, that kind of circle. And you’ll notice that once you play the game, but it’s very much of a branded experience.
Want to learn more about the crossover? Check out what we found out when we attended the launch event.
Published: Aug 5, 2024 07:00 pm