Pacsun is diving even deeper into the metaverse this holiday season.
The youth retailer has just released its holiday campaign called “PacVerse” which includes a video called “Welcome to the PacVerse” featuring a real-life cast entering a metaverse created by Pacsun with environments that include an ice-covered land and a futuristic airport terminal.
The new campaign is the latest initiative in Pacaun’s strong push into the metaverse, which included selling its first NFT–a GIF of its wave logo–in December 2021 for the equivalent of $776 and adding many more non-fungible tokens in the months that followed.
Pacsun president Brie Olson told Rivet in April after several of its new NFTS remained unsold, “Brands have two options when it comes to entering the metaverse and NFT space—to wait and see or lead the way. Both have risks. Pacsun has decided to lead, as we are committed to Pacsun’s cultural DNA centered around innovation and creativity, which in our opinion, mitigates the risk of testing and exploring unproven concepts.”
Three months later, she added that pairing virtual and physical items is something Pacsun’s customers are “really excited about.”
The company has made a concentrated effort to push the merger of physical and virtual identities via AR, VR, 3D and metaverse explorations across multiple platforms and IRL of late. It has also entered the gaming sphere successfully within Pacworld on Roblox and “Pacsun the Game,” both of which launched this year.
The new campaign comes to life across all Pacsun’s digital and social channels, with exclusive content rolling out throughout the season on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and YouTube, as well as across the company’s more than 300 brick-and-mortar locations. Pacsun also plans to create and sell more NFTs that will be associated with the promotion.
Four real-life brand ambassadors are featured in Pacverse: TikTok stars Brooke Monk and Mathieu Simoneau along with dancer Brynn Rumfallo and stunt performer Hero DW. It also stars the virtual influencer Miquela, who began to work with the brand for its Fall 2022 denim campaign.
“PacVerse serves as a full funnel medium across our virtual and physical worlds that helps to enhance brand value and consumer experience. Our audience is the first generation to blend their digital and physical identities as a natural part of their lives, and the PacVerse theme is a celebration of their self-expression, reflecting those identities and the unique sense of shared community they find in both,” said Olson upon the launch last week. “Virtual brand worlds are an important part of the future, and part of what is so exciting about these immersive virtual concepts is that the discovery for our consumer is both fluid and the creativity has no boundaries.”
With PacVerse customers will also be able to dress their avatars in new clothing from the Pacsun Holiday Gift Shop, with merchandise based off the actual physical collection. Virtual styling guides and try-on opportunities by DressX are part of PacVerse, too.
Other initiatives will include IRL store events and a screening of the video on a Los Angeles rooftop in front of a live audience.