UK’s First Steps in Virtual Brand Models

April, 4th 2022

The fashion industry is stepping into the world of metaverse in various forms. From creating brand goods to introducing brand characters on the metaverse platforms for people to follow and create communities, brands are appealing to the trend savvy fashion consumers while they dip their toes into the metaverse trend.

UK fashion brand Pretty Little Things, popular amongst millennials and gen zs, introduced their new virtual model on social media as a marketing campaign for brand followers. As a brand built on social media, Pretty Little Things mainly targets females in the 16~35 age range and the brand is optimist of interacting with their consumer via Virtual Girl.

Pretty Little Things is encouraging consumer participation from the very initial stages of creating the character. Through the process of listening to the needs of consumers, the brand provided the potential names for the model Princess, Bella and Kiarah, and allowed consumers to cast their votes for the name their choice. In a sense, the process of voting is creating an opportunity for people to experience the process of becoming an avatar themselves.

This virtual model can be utilized not only the beauty category but also in fashion and another industry on the metaverse platform. Creative director Toni Hayden says “We try to be as consumer-friendly and realistic as possible. We create the avatar’s lifestyle based on our consumer’s likes and dislikes so that she is the ultimate representation of the brand” . Hayden also elaborated on future plans. “ We plan to develop her own unique lifestyle and with the process consumers will grow to know more about her and her lifestyle. Our brand plans to step into the metaverse world with this new avatar.”

These efforts that target the digitally native consumers, living in and outside the borders of reality and digitalization, are ultimately tools to increase brand loyalty. While many consumers marvel at these positive changes, there are also concerns that the place for humans are decreasing as well as ways to reduce model costs for brands.

Nevertheless, the current trend of metaverse is too big to be ignored or stopped. The current model is at the initial stages of and with time and advancement, avatars or virtual models will become the SNS influencers of today, with the power to influence so many.  The question of success lies in whether or not one can make all that the virtual and real world has to offer, more appealing to human users.