How to "create a dream" for consumers in the Chinese market is becoming the biggest challenge facing luxury brands.
According to fashion business news, although Shanghai, the "heart" of Chinese luxury goods, has not recovered, the luxury brand Dior has recently used cutting-edge metaverse technology to launch a new metaverse space under Meta Media Hypermedia Holdings. Baidu Xiyang Meta Ziwu Yuan Cosmos House released the world's first metaverse exhibition "On the Road". The Dior Chinese team attended the unveiling ceremony of the exhibition with a virtual image, which attracted great attention from the industry.
The exhibition is based on the spiritual core of Dior menswear autumn 2022 collection, recreating the scene of Dior menswear autumn 2022 collection fashion launch in the cloud. "On the Road" is what Kim Jones, the creative director of Dior men's clothing, tries to explore and describe. Today's young people have nothing to do with nationality, identity and culture, the challenge to the existing system and the indomitable attitude of advancing forward.
In order to better convey the content of Dior's exhibition, NOWNESS, a creative life short film platform under Meta Media, specially invited director Bo Hanxiong to create a micro-movie in the name of "On the Road", which echoes each other with his unique aesthetic perspective. The creative concept of Dior and Kim Jones. Bo Hanxiong was shortlisted for the 67th San Sebastian International Film Festival with his work "Drifting", and is the filmmaker who won the 2nd China Talent Project Award.
According to the data, "On the Road" is the second novel of Jack Kerouac, an American writer who celebrates his 100th birthday this year. It is regarded as a landmark work in the new era of literary creation. It was published in 1957 and is the founder of Dior. The year Christian Dior died.
Dior believes that Jack Kerouac's epoch-making significance in literature is like Christian Dior's innovation in the fashion industry. The birth of the novel "On the Road" is similar to that of Christian Dior's first show in 1947, which redefines the new style of fashion in the fashion industry. The wonderful thing is that the collision of two symbols of great cross-epoch significance in the metaverse can create an unprecedented interactive experience for today's young generation, witness the unfettered fashion posture and the creativity towards the future.
In the eyes of industry insiders, as the first luxury brand to embrace digitalization and understand the Chinese market best, Dior's exhibition also has cross-generational significance in the luxury industry. The digital ecology of the Chinese market is leading the world, which makes this land constantly emerging with new technologies and possibilities every day.
When more and more luxury brands are trying to have a dialogue with culture through art exhibitions in the Chinese market after the epidemic, Dior, one of the veterans of this competition, resolutely put the exhibition in the Metaverse Zhiwu with a keen sense of smell. Once again become a pathfinder in the luxury industry.
| Breaking the "stepping stone" of reality
Some analysts pointed out that the smooth holding of Dior's "On the Road" exhibition is in sharp contrast to the stagnation of luxury brands in the Chinese market. Affected by the repeated domestic epidemic, the activities of many luxury brands have been forced to postpone or cancel, and Shanghai Fashion Week cannot be held as scheduled.
However, "crisis is opportunity", which is especially obvious under the magnifying glass of the epidemic. Dior, who has always had the courage to do what other brands can't or dare not do, knows this.
"On the Road" is not only the first exhibition held by a luxury brand in Metaverse, but also the first luxury brand event and exhibition undertaken by Metaverse Chiya.
The confidence that supports Dior in moving the exhibition to the Metaverse comes from the solid content and cultural core of the Metaverse Zhiwu, as well as the leading capabilities of Baidu Brain in intelligent vision, intelligent speech, natural semantic understanding, knowledge graph and other fields, and the powerful calculation of Baidu Intelligent Cloud. force.
Visitors do not need to move or go out. Using smart devices such as mobile phones or computers, they can register their personal IDs on the official website or app of Baidu Xiyong and set up their avatars, and then enter the Cosmos House to watch the exhibition according to the map navigation.
In fact, the Metaverse House itself is a groundbreaking "architecture" that is not tied down. As the first place in Greece that integrates technology, art, fashion and humanistic spirit, the Cosmos House was built by Ma Yansong, a famous Chinese architect and founder of MAD Architects. Ma Yansong's design concept for his first Metaverse work is "organic growth", which symbolizes the courage of the younger generation to move forward and enter a new generation.
In Ma Yansong's Metaverse House, there is no core tube, floor, building structure or any physical space in the traditional sense, and there is no concept of façade and gravity constraints. The space will keep changing with time and content, extremely Futuristic.
Ma Yansong hopes that people can completely forget the limitations of the real world due to construction, and give new attributes to "architecture", so as to make the Metaverse Zhiwu an organism closely connected with human senses, behaviors, emotions and spirits. Each audience imagines together, which coincides with the grand vision of "infinite growth and representing the future" in the metaverse world that Baidu Xiyang and Zhiwu expect.
In addition to the Dior exhibition, the Metaverse Zhiwu also launched the "Post-Chinese Futurism" metaverse theme exhibition of the young poet Xu Jinjin. Six artists, Feng Junyuan, Geng Dayou, Han Duyi, Kindness, Wu Ziyang and Xiang Huidi Participated in the realization of the digital art group exhibition "Artificial Native", as well as the animation work "Blue Tiger" specially created by artist Wu Jian'an and "Endogenous Landscape" by Chen Yujun.
Obviously, Metaverse Zhiwu has undoubtedly opened a new window to the predicament that luxury brands are currently encountering offline in China, just like a timely rain.
| Why Metaverse Chiya
Although the metaverse has not yet had a precise definition, in the public understanding, the metaverse is a new digital world that everyone can participate in. In the future, everyone's life, entertainment, social interaction, and work will be completed in the metaverse. The ultimate fusion of the digital world and the physical world is the metaverse.
Since Facebook's parent company changed its name to Metaverse at the end of last year, overnight, major Internet giants from Microsoft to Apple to Tencent have begun to focus on this abstract "world", which will be regarded as a "world" in 2021. For the first year of the Metaverse.
According to Google search data, the word "Metaverse" in English in the Metaverse has ushered in a small peak since March last year. At the same time, NFT trading platforms and game companies Roblox, Decentraland, etc., as the carriers of the metaverse, are gradually being valued by luxury fashion brands and appear in the vision of the fashion industry.
People are curious as to why Dior chose the Metaverse House among more international metaverse carriers such as Decentraland and Roblox.
If Dior is a pioneer in the luxury goods industry, Meta Media, which is behind the Metaverse Zhiwu, is a leader in the media industry. Meta Media Holdings, formerly known as "Modern Communication Group", was founded in 1993. It is the first private media company in mainland China to land in the capital market and is regarded as a model of China's fashion media national brand.
As a medium for transmitting information between fashion brands and consumers for a long time, the group owns "Weekend Pictorial", "InStyle Youjia Pictorial", "Bloomberg Businessweek" (Chinese and traditional Chinese versions), "Life", "Ideat Ideal", "Art News", "Art World LEAP", "Numéro Metropolis", "Life Home", "LOHAS Healthy Fashion", "Outside the Numbers" and many other fields involving fashion, lifestyle, business and art publications and digital media platforms.
In 2010, when smartphones were just beginning to become popular, "Weekly Pictorial" took the lead in landing on the Apple App Store, and "iWeekly Weekly Pictorial" became the first Chinese media APP. "Business Weekly/Chinese Edition" has also launched a paid APP that integrates print, data and video. Up to now, it has more than 11 million downloads by users.
In 2015, Meta Media was at the forefront of the industry again. When the traditional fashion media such as Condé Nast, the parent company of "Vogue", were still struggling with digital transformation, they reorganized the business strategy department into three departments: print media, art media and digital media. , and opened a department called "Client Creative Department" in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou to better provide customers with a full range of creative services.
In 2019, the group opened a new creative space brand "ZiWU" in Shanghai, officially upgrading the print media to a three-dimensional dimension. By curating content in this space, the reorganization and integration of the value chain can be transformed into a platform. , to realize "space is media, behavior is content", which is similar to the metaverse's fusion of the real world and the virtual world, and it naturally becomes the physical projection of the group's metaverse.
After the meta-universe concept broke out in October last year, Meta Media Hypermedia Holdings quickly built two meta-universe "ZiWU" in Shanghai and Beijing. META Eye glasses provide viewers with a cross-disciplinary visual experience.
However, the hardware conditions are only the beginning. If the metaverse is to be truly integrated into people's daily life, the core internal driving force is always content. The profound connotation carried by the Metaverse Zhiwu is the key to the cooperation between Baidu Ventures and Meta Media Hypermedia Holdings and attracting Dior to hold an exhibition in the Metaverse Zhiwu.
Fashion has become a "catalyst" for people to move towards the Metaverse
In just a few months, people have gradually realized that the virtual world of the metaverse may be the next paradigm shift of the Internet, and on the road to the ultimate ideal state, business brands need to break the inherent thinking, driven by curiosity. Continuous testing and innovation.
At any point in a user’s journey through the metaverse, experiences are yet to be created, and these experiences are likely to be more impactful than previous physical experiences.
Decentraland's inaugural Metaverse Fashion Week, held from March 24 to 27, attracted more than 60 luxury fashion brands including Elie Saab, Guo Pei, Etro, Tommy Hilfiger and Cavalli, showing over 500 looks in the Metaverse, becoming the One of the most talked about fashion events in recent times.
Different from traditional fashion weeks, this event is open to everyone. Through virtual avatars, audiences can enjoy fashion shows and star performances without leaving home. They can also use the platform's decentralized cryptocurrency to purchase fashion brands through digital wallets. clothing.
According to the latest Accenture research data, which surveyed 11,000 consumers in 16 countries around the world, more than half of surveyed consumers (51%) expressed interest in planning to buy virtual fashion, and more than one-third (39%) of consumers have purchased virtual clothing or accessories for themselves or their avatars in the past year.
The CFDA officially announced the first metaverse education project launched in cooperation with The Sandbox and Polygon Studios at the beginning of this year, aiming to develop the creative community in the digital age and focus on the mission of educating future users.
The program promises professional development and educational resources to help those interested in fashion gain industry insight and access business opportunities. At the same time, CFDA hopes to use this project to bridge the generation gap between fashion and cryptocurrency in the next wave of business, introduce a larger fashion consumer group through the Metaverse, and expand the community at the same time.
According to the incomplete statistics of Fashion Business Express, since October last year, brands including Nike, H&M, Prada, Gucci, Moncler and Ralph Lauren have successively entered the Yuan Dynasty by creating virtual worlds, launching virtual series, and holding virtual fashion shows. universe.
It is not difficult to find that, under the guidance of the series of activities and initiatives of luxury fashion brands, the mode of stimulating purchasing behavior through social experience is making the commercial application of the Metaverse continue to heat up, and consumption proves that there is demand, and demand means that there is demand. market.
Morgan Stanley pointed out in the latest report that consumer demand for fashion and luxury brand virtual goods will further increase from the current low level, and virtual goods will bring additional revenue of 50 billion US dollars to the luxury fashion industry in 2030. Morgan Stanley also said that NFTs and social games are expected to expand the potential market for luxury goods groups by more than 10% within eight years, and drive the industry's EBIT growth by around 25%.
Ark Investment Group also predicts that from 2021 to 2025, the size of the global metaverse market will double to $390 billion, or about 2.4 trillion yuan. PricewaterhouseCoopers believes that by 2030, the global metaverse market will reach 1.5 trillion US dollars, or about 9.5 trillion yuan.
In order to better promote the organic integration of technological innovation, digital assets, public art, fashion and humanistic spirit in the metaverse world, Meta Media Holdings will next aim to "build an ideal city of Yuanbang" and cooperate with BV Baidu Wind. Invested and jointly established Yuanbang Technology Co., Ltd.
Meta Media's hypermedia labs, meta media lab and meta eye, will carry out research and development on the existing basis to produce media application products such as AR and VR glasses and Metaverse Zhiwu. A reality-enhanced scene experience base to replicate a wider range of innovative business models.
In the future, it is obviously not just the fashion week that will transfer to the metaverse, but the digital migration of the entire industry. Meta Media, which has long placed itself in the role of a bridge, will become an important mover of the fashion metaverse.