61 Direct to avatar

Direct-to-avatar

From B2B and DTC to DTA—the latest business model sees brands releasing digital products direct to screens.

In addition to business-to-business (B2B) and direct-to-consumer (DTC) models, various fashion brands introduced direct-to-avatar (DTA) shopping in 2021. In December 2021, Nike acquired virtual sneaker marketplace RTFKT. Three months earlier, Balenciaga released a collection of in-game clothing in Fortnite. In the summer, Ralph Lauren launched a 50-piece digital wardrobe, available to buy in social networking app Zepeto, and American Eagle debuted its DTA apparel for Bitmojis. Gucci and The North Face started the year with a collaboration on avatarwear for Pokémon Go. And digital fashion house The Fabricant has partnered with brands such as Adidas, Puma and Tommy Hilfiger to virtualize their clothes.

Luxury auto brands are also driving the trend. Maserati, Aston Martin and Tesla launched virtual models of their cars in Tencent’s Game for Peace—the Chinese mobile version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds—between 2020 and 2021. And Rolls-Royce unveiled its first virtual vehicle in 2020 for Tencent’s QQ Speed mobile game.

Why it’s interesting The future of consumerism lies in virtual products, Kerry Murphy, founder and CEO of The Fabricant, predicts. “People are going to start seeing value in digital items,” he tells Wunderman Thompson Intelligence, “and realize that they’d rather interact with a digital item, or have an infinite wardrobe of digital fashion items but a very limited wardrobe of physical items.”