RALPH LAUREN X FORTNITE

’22.6% OF USERS WILLING TO BUY COLLABORATIVE VIRTUAL PRODUCTS E.G. SKINS’

Another type of collaboration which luxury brands are taking part in is the collaboration with a game, usually involving the creation of a digital clothing collection to be worn by ingame avatars. Games are a successful way for luxury brands to reach new audiences, ‘video games are played by 3bn people globally, generating revenues of $200bn in 2022’ (Stuart 2023). Users are willing to spend money on brand collaboration items within a game, with ’22.6% of users willing to buy collaborative virtual products e.g. skins’ (Statista 2021), highlighted in figure 46.

Fortnite was ‘ranked number 1 of the top played games in 2022’ (Matus 2022) so has an extremely wide audience which makes it the perfect game for brands to collaborate with. Within the game players can purchase outfits, brands can create a collection of outfits with their branding that will be available to players on the game. Multiple brands have collaborated with Fortnite to create their own collections, these include Balenciaga and Moncler.

Ralph Lauren is a brand who created a successful collaboration with Fortnite in 2022, promotional image shown in figure 47. ‘The brand teamed with Fortnite, the online gaming platform, on both a digital apparel and accessories collection and a physical apparel capsule’ (Palmieri 2022), ‘the digital collection includes two outfits and in-game cosmetics that will be available for purchase in the Fortnite Item Shop’ (Palmieri 2022) and the physical collection will include ‘polo shirts, caps, hoodies, shirts, tees and more’ (Furness 2022). The physical collection will be available to buy ‘on the company’s website, apps, in select Ralph Lauren retail stores and specialty retailers including Bodega, Citadium, Highsnobiety, BSTN, LVL Gaming hub, Beams and CMG Central World’ (Palmieri 2022).

Asis with the case with luxury collaborations, one of the main goals is to widen the brand’s audience, in this case ‘the partnership with Fortnite is intended to further the brand’s reach with younger consumers’ (Palmieri 2022). David Lauren, chief branding and innovation officer at Ralph Lauren, said Fortnite was chosen because ‘this game has become sort of a cultural touchstone for the next generation, and if you want to talk to this generation, you’ve got to go where they are. But at the end of the day, it’s just about doing something that’s fun’ (Palmieri 2022). The collaboration is part of the brand’s move into emerging markets such as the metaverse and gaming which are essential for brands to grow in the future. Ralph Lauren took the collaboration seriously in order to reach the new market in a genuine way, it embraced Fortnite completely and redesigned the classic Ralph Lauren pony logo to include Fortnite’s signature llama, figure 44 compares the classic logo to the new Fortnite one. David said ‘the brand’s llama logo is so popular and well known among its fans that Ralph Lauren felt it was another “code” that would connect with these young customers’ (Palmieri 2022), this logo was incorporated into some of the collaboration’s merchandise, as shown in figure 45

Through this collaboration ‘Ralph Lauren became the first luxury brand to cohost a global player tournament in Fortnite. Called “The Polo Stadium Cup,” participants had the opportunity to earn in-game rewards including first access to the Ralph Lauren outfits and accessories’ (Palmieri 2022). This was another way that the collaboration was promoted in a genuine way for players of the game as it actually incorporates playing the game rather than just buying the merchandise. As the fashion and game collaboration market grows more brands will follow Ralph Lauren’s lead in creating whole collections and experiences with a game.