Genies, the avatar app billing itself as the facilitators of ‘the world’s first digital human race’, is earning significant marketing spend from companies such as Gucci, Bird, and New Balance. Brands are seeking novel ways to engage with the Gen Z audience, and Genies offers a unique digital touchpoint. The avatar platform, co-founded by Evan Rosenbaum and CEO Akash Nigam, allows users to build digital representations of themselves. Thanks to the Gucci partnership, users can outfit their digital selves in a whole closet-full of Gucci fashions and show them off to their friends using the thousands of animations the app offers. The app is integrated with social networks and messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.
Genies Avatars
With the majority of Genies users being between the ages of 18–25, Gucci’s partnership with the digital avatar company is an element of their outreach to the Gen Z audience that designer brands often struggle to appeal to. The branded ‘wheels’ of clothing options showcase Gucci’s products while inserting the brand into the conversations of younger demographics.
Fashion and luxury brands are striving to evolve with the pace of developing technology. Companies like Gucci find value in connecting with the elements of self-expression avatars offer to the younger generations. By building a long-term relationship with these consumers, they will be far easier to convert into online customers when their spending power reaches the necessary level. Gucci is not alone in taking bold steps into new forms of digital marketing and brand relationship building. Burberry is also investing, not in online sales boosting gambits, but in a broad strokes embracing of the digital space. Other fashion houses are proving sluggish to adapt their creative visions to incorporate a digital dimension. However, they all recognize that compared to previous generations, millennials and Gen Z do not establish significant categorizations between digital and non-digital touchpoints for the brands with which they interact. They are the likeliest to expect seamless integration between a brand’s offline and online messaging. Genies has raised the profile of multiple brands on social media platform
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