Balenciaga was born as a luxury fashion house in 1919 and founder Spanish designer, Cristóbal Balenciaga, was known as “the master” of haute couture. The brand has changed with the times, meeting the needs of the young generation with sweatshirts, hoodies, t-shirts and back to school gear, runners, shoes and accessories.
Now Publicis Luxe has taken Balenciaga into Fortnite, where the brand has created its own digital fashion world featuring the autumn-winter 2021-2 collection. The brand’s popular Speed sneaker has become a pickaxe and its star model is Doggo, one of the most popular characters in Fortnite. Doggo now wears Balenciaga in the game and stars in three-dimensional video billboards around the world wearing a Balenciaga x Fortnite hoodie and jeans. Three other popular Fortnite characters have also received Balenciaga makeovers. Banshee wears a tiger-striped bodysuit; Ramirez, a sequined top and tattered jeans; Knight, Balenciaga’s armour boots with a hoodie and shorts. Each outfit has transformational properties during the game. Banshee’s suit lights up red and Ramirez’s sequins glitter from silver to gold. Meanwhile, Fortnite players can become fashion icons and share their looks with the world too. Many items will be available to purchase directly in the video game. Afterworld, the video game that presents the Balenciaga collection, was made using Fortnite owner, Epic Games’s Unreal Engine.
Publicis Luxe also created a DOOH campaign with Content Factory by Prodigious and Studio AC3 to promote the launch of the Balenciaga shop in Fortnite. A 3D XXL animation is displayed on giant billboards in London, New York, Tokyo and Seoul. The billboards will also be integrated into the Fortnite game itself for the first time ever.
Credits:
Agency: Publicis Luxe
Project Lead, Managing Partner Publicis Luxe: Matthieu Daversin
Head of Innovation AdTech Publicis Media: Guillaume Chevallier
Head of Content Publicis Media: Caroline Letailleur
Production: Content Factory by Prodigious
Head of Experiential: Antoine Clergeot
