Avatars! Avatars! Avatars! 👟🥽👖
Part One is all about What We Know in our two-part trend report.
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* We break down the new market indicators & behavioral consumer trends we're tracking, then figure out the unlock to growth & revenue.
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ICYMI in the last 10 weeks we covered:
Since Facebook went Meta... Six other OGs made metaverse moves!
VCs coming in Hot, spending big on AR & VR startups! Into the Metaverse we Go!
OpenSea hits $25 Billion in GMV! Now Coinbase wants in on NFTs too!
When OG Consumer Brands start playing the NFT game too!
When Music Crashes the Metaverse Party!
It's 100% Crazy! But Virtual Real Estate is Here. To the Tune of $30 TRILLION!
Everyone's gunning for OpenSea, the $13.3B NFT Marketplace gorilla in the room!
Social Casino SMS Text Gaming is FIRE!
THIS WEEK’S DOPE NEW STARTUP IDEA COVERS:
* Avatars + NFTs + Web3 🔥
WHAT WE KNOW:
* The Market Indicators & Behavioral Consumer Trends we've identified.
>> [ avatars can be identical to our human selves?! ]
Why Virtual Avatars Are Poised To Be The New Trendsetters
- thanks frances!
Thanks to the rapid development of digital wearables and the expansion of downloadable fashion assets for virtual avatars on games like Animal Crossing and Fortnite, avatars can be identical to our human selves, whether in a video game, like Sims, or in metaverse platforms, like Decentraland and Second Life.
According to a recent study, titled “The Screenwear Paper,” by Virtue — the in-house insights agency at Vice Media Group — super-personalized avatars will become commonplace in everyone’s lives over the next three years. This will create a demand for digital fashion, a phenomenon that is already manifesting: According to the study, 95% of those surveyed say they are interested in buying digital fashion; of those surveyed, 82% revealed that they had already bought some type of digital fashion.
In turn, brands like Gucci and Balenciaga have jumped on the opportunity to establish their presence in the digital world, by releasing digital wearables — clothes you can wear online — non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — garments owned in online spaces that can be sold and traded — and skins — a graphic download that changes the appearance of a virtual character.
>> [ Adidas Originals creates avatars based on Ozworld sneakers! ]
Adidas to create metaverse avatars for fans inspired by new shoe collection
- thanks asa!
Adidas Originals is launching a platform to create metaverse avatars for fans based on their personalities and preferences for the brand's latest Ozworld shoe. Ozworld is a collection of chunky sneakers originally launched in the 1990s.
The avatars are meant to be interoperable—or freely traversable—along with the user's owned assets across 1,500 different games and apps supported by Ready Player Me, a platform that creates avatars.
Similar to how people interact with social media platforms via user profiles, they interact with the metaverse via avatars, which are digital versions of themselves.
>> [ DNABlock snags $7 million to help creators mint NFTs of avatars! ]
DNABlock Raises $7 Million To Help Web3 Creators Mint NFT Avatars
- thanks christian!
Los Angeles-based DNABlock, which helps Web3 creators mint non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of avatars, has raised $7 million in what the startup calls a second seed round.
DNABlock plans to use the capital to further develop and scale its flagship Replikant software tool, which lets creators make video game-quality 3D avatars and animated content without needing experience in coding or animation.
The firm says its Replikant technology is interoperable—meaning that an avatar’s code can jump from one Replikant-powered world to another.
>> [ Metaverse Fashion Week features 50+ luxury brands! ]
Inside the first-ever Metaverse Fashion Week
- thanks anu!
Virtual gaming world Decentraland sought to bring brands into a new era of fashion by hosting the Metaverse Fashion Week between March 24 - 27. Runway shows, pop-up shops, exclusive NFT drops and afterparties opened their doors for anyone to attend fashion events from the comfort of home.
The Metaverse Fashion Week featured more than 50 luxury brands selling both digital and physical items via NFTs.
Since 2020, “creators have been pushing both the technical and stylistic limits of Decentraland wearables, and have created a booming economy with over $1 million in sales of avatar wearables last year,” said Decentraland Foundation creative director Sam Hamilton in a statement.
>> [ Genies just hit a $100+ million valuation! ]
Billionaires Jim Breyer and Thomas Tull Lead $15 Million Bet That Genies’ Avatars Will Be Next Big Thing In Social
- thanks biz!
Genies’ intersection between social, entertainment and pop culture caught the eyes of billionaires Thomas Tull (net worth: $1.2 billion) and Jim Breyer (net worth $3 billion), who both invested in Genies’ new $15 million funding round. The new funding brings Genies’ total funding to $40 million and a valuation north of $100 million, Nigam said. Tull’s investment group, started by the Legendary Entertainment founder, is the largest investor shareholder in Genies.
Genies is taking a three-pronged approach to the business: building an app for consumers, working with brands on advertising through its talent agency and then building a software kit to let other app makers integrate Genies.
Within its consumer app, brands are paying Genies to give people the option to wear Gucci hats or New Balance sneakers with the hopes of converting Genies' young audience into fans. It's also built a digital talent agency that can reach celebrities who can promote brands from Disney to Bird using their digital avatars. Then there's bigger plans to build out Genies' software developer kit so other businesses can use Genies avatars within their app, like if a weather app wanted a person's Genie to appear with an umbrella if the forecast calls for rain.
THE DOPE IDEA & THE BRAND EXECUTION:
* Taking the idea and amplifying that into tactical action.
See you next week for Part Two in our report.
We’ll discuss on how to position ourselves as a new player in the Avatars + NFTs + Web3 🔥 space — and get into the development of the Brand IP, securing a legit Domain Name, then making it Internet LIVE.