Olaplex joins Decentraland with virtual influencer Kai

After launching its virtual influencer, Kai, in May, Olaplex is bringing the character to the metaverse through Decentraland. 
Originally unveiled in AI video format on the brand’s social channels, Kai now has a Decentraland avatar as part of Olaplex’s new metaverse-centered campaign. On Thursday, the brand launched a contest for users to design a new NFT hairpiece for Kai to wear in the virtual world, with a grand prize of $2,500 for both the winner and a charity of their choice. Olaplex is the latest in a range of beauty brands launching Decentraland campaigns.
“We chose Decentraland as our metaverse partner because they aligned with our core Olaplex values. It’s an open-source platform, fully distributed, easily accessible, built on Web 3.0 blockchain technology and focused on energy efficiency at scale,” said Olaplex CMO Charlotte Watson. 
Known for its virtual land “real estate” for sale, the Decentraland virtual world remains niche with an estimated 300,000 monthly active users. Gamer reviews of the platform have compared it to that of popular virtual world games such as Fortnite, Roblox and Second Life, saying its performance and image quality are relatively lower than these larger game brands. Roblox, another platform with an open-source format, has also been attracting beauty brands and hosting their campaigns.
JuE Wong, CEO of Olaplex, said, “Our launch into the metaverse is to represent, connect and expand our community in places where consumers are already engaged. We believe everyone deserves to have stronger, healthier hair.”

Full story here