Coty links up with Spatial to create metaverse “campus” for employees

26 Apr 2023 --- Coty has entered into a partnership with tech innovator Spatial to create an internal metaverse for its 11,000 global employees. The dynamic and evolving metaverse does not only present an attractive consumer engagement opportunity, but it is now increasingly being leveraged to improve internal processes for beauty companies.

Built with 3D technology, the virtual campus is being designed to upskill Coty’s global workforce and help sustain future innovation for Coty’s broad portfolio of brands.

“Coty is committed to being a leader in the digital space and continues to push the boundaries of innovation,” says Jean-Denis Mariani, chief digital officer at Coty.

“With Coty Campus, we are proud to leverage Spatial’s Web3 and gaming technology on a groundbreaking scale to create new immersive experiences that will provide the most interactive solutions for collaboration and co-creation. Coty is thrilled to be the first beauty company to embark on this kind of project.”

Multifunctional metaverse
Using desktop and mobile technology from top 3D social platform Spatial, the Coty Campus integrates tools like text and vocal chat discussions, screen-and-file sharing and customizable avatars.

Using desktop and mobile technology from top 3D social platform Spatial, the Coty Campus integrates tools like text and vocal chat discussions, screen-and-file sharing and customizable avatars.The Coty Campus will gamify collaboration and engagement for global employees through a phygital reward system, based on item collection, location exploration and quest fulfillment.

“Partnering with Coty to create and launch Coty Campus is a significant industry milestone, reinforcing Spatial’s commitment to developing accessible virtual experiences that foster engaging and meaningful connections across web, mobile and VR,” says Gianna Valintina, spatial global director at Partnerships.

“Together, we take pride in pushing the boundaries of technology and crafting new models for scalable gamified experiences for Coty’s 11,000 global associates.”

The Coty Campus will launch this fall. This innovation is a key development in Coty’s digitalization strategy and follows a wider push from the company to upskill its associates.

Commercializing virtual spaces
On the consumer-facing front, metaverse platforms are attracting interest among beauty brands seeking unique and multifaceted approaches to connect with their audiences. Last week, Nyx Professional Makeup launched the Dream Vortex non-fungible token (NFT) collection. It is the first artist collection for GORJS – the “worlds first decentralized autonomous organization.”

Nyx Professional recruited Team Alpha, a carefully selected roster of nine artists based on their talents, exceptional expertise and global impact on the 3D avatar community to create 4,150 NFTs for Dream Vortex.

In other recent highlights, Clinique revealed its new digital online retail concept, The Clinique Lab, where consumers can discover, interact, play, learn and shop. Meanwhile, cosmetics brands Laura Mercier and Orveon partnered with experiential e-commerce platform Obsess to create a virtual store called “The World of Laura Mercier,” which displays three interactive Parisian-styled virtual rooms enabling an HD, 3D and 360-degree experience.

Among upcoming events, Metaverse Beauty Week is set to debut on June 12 to 16 and will be unveiled as a gamified approach to traditional beauty activation elements like sampling and gifting.

Estée Lauder became the exclusive beauty brand participating in Decentraland Metaverse Fashion Week, which was marketed as the first-ever large-scale virtual fashion week in an on-chain metaverse (Image credit: Estée Lauder).Hosted by B-Corp creative agency Cult, the five-day festival will bring together various beauty brands at in-person events and virtual activations across the Roblox, Decentraland and Spatial platforms.

While information surrounding the event is limited, the virtual initiative will host contests offering both physical and digital prizes. Metaverse Beauty Week will also issue wearable NFTs for in-game avatars, which include hair and beauty features as well as emotes.

Minting skin care NFTs
Last month, Estée Lauder became the exclusive beauty brand participating in Decentraland Metaverse Fashion Week, which was marketed as the first-ever large-scale virtual fashion week in an on-chain metaverse.

To create a virtual beauty experience, Estée Lauder partnered with Alex Box, a prominent female artist in the metaverse space, to create an original NFT wearable inspired by the brand’s serum, Advanced Night Repair.

“The metaverse opens up new possibilities to experience the narrative of beauty,” remarks Alex Box.

Users were able to step inside the iconic Advanced Night Repair “Little Brown Bottle” to unlock a digital badge or Proof of Attendance Protocol (POAP) and claim one NFT wearable that gives their avatars a glowing, radiant aura inspired by Advanced Night Repair.

In the last week of March, a limited quantity of 10,000 of the complimentary Advanced Night Repair NFT wearables could be claimed by attendees of Metaverse Fashion Week. Users only required a MetaMask or other crypto wallet that accepts Ethereum and Ethereum tokens (ERC20 Tokens).

New modes of sampling and skin diagnosis
Mixed reality, including augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), is allowing beauty brands to provide a differentiated customer experience – particularly in trying on cosmetics and conducting skin analysis virtually.

Capgemini Research finds there is high customer interest in immersive technologies and organizations are able to benefit from these in their internal operations as well.A latest Capgemini Research Institute report, “Total immersion: How immersive experiences and the metaverse benefit customer experience and operations”, recently examined the potential and impact of these technologies.

Surveying 8,000 consumers and 1,000 organizations across various sectors and geographies, the institute found that there is high customer interest in immersive technologies and organizations are able to benefit from these in their internal operations as well.

L’Oréal – which previously explored the metaverse’s applications in services like skin diagnosis and teleconsultation – joined a host of other large scale cosmetics players including MAC Cosmetics and Chanel in rolling out technologies that allow users to try on their lipstick or eyeshadow virtually.

MAC Cosmetics, in particular, uses AR to enable the consumer to select cosmetics based on their skin tone, then to try out products virtually, getting a comprehensive understanding of the product in relation to their own preferences. 

Last September, personalized brand experience designer Revieve released a complete metaverse playbook for beauty brands to take full advantage of virtual spaces, outlining the future of the metaverse and giving advice on how personal care companies might better navigate it.

PersonalCareInsights recently caught up with Sampo Parkkinen, CEO of Revieve, in an exclusive video interview about how the Finland-headquartered tech company is operating as a launchpad for advanced relationship commerce, piloting digital tools for the ease of navigating an increasingly dynamic virtual world.

By Benjamin Ferrer