Adaptability will be critical to winning the hearts of Gen Z. It is the most influential generation for luxury brands right now, and every brand that under indexes with them is putting itself in a vulnerable position. 

"By 2030, Gen Z will be the largest customer group in luxury, and they expect brands to offer different, more customer-centric experiences". 'Jing Daily'

The fashion and leather goods industry is embracing digital wearables, and brands like Louis Vuitton have pivoted into categories like loudspeakers, thanks to the power of their brand. 

Its $4,000 horizon light-up speaker takes portable audio to price points that incumbents like Bang & Olufsen, Bowers & Wilkens, or Naim never dared to go. 

But they do it in a disruptive way by focusing on fashion.  

If you are wondering why most luxury brands are engaging with the virtual world, it’s partly because there is some business to be made. But it's mostly because they are about storytelling and stories will be told very differently in the future.

Today's digitally savvy consumer spends a lot of time playing video games and shopping?

Brands and marketers are finally starting to realise the power of in-game advertising. 

"As the gaming community has expanded in size, so too has the potential for brands to reach gamers directly via their entertainment medium of choice. In accordance with this influx of brand interest, in-game advertising companies have proliferated. Today’s in-game ad firms are building fungible, programmatic in-game ads and immersive experiences that sometimes improve players’ in-game experiences"

Balenciaga delivers skins and hoodies for Fortnite fans while Gucci offers limited edition accessories on Roblox. 

We’re about to enter a new phase of the internet, according to many tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley who are busy building it.

Today’s internet experience is somewhat decentralized, but a lot of our virtual experiences are funnelled through just a few institutions, like Google and Facebook.

This new internet — dubbed Web 3.0 or Web3 — is still being created so it’s hard to say exactly what it will look like or what it will do for us - even with or without 'Zucks' 'Meta'.

Going into 2022, stakeholders in the in-game advertising industry are looking to raise awareness about the reach and effectiveness of their services and help non-endemic brands ingrain themselves further into the gaming space.  

The growth of in-game advertising has led to an influx of interest from non-endemic brands that kept a wide berth from the space in the past. 

That’s the shift that happened in the brands’ minds over the past couple of years: thinking of gaming not just as a creative outlet, but as a channel where you have 2 billion people playing every day. 

If you’re 18 to 34, it’s like 20 to 25 percent of your time online. So that’s a big blind spot for brands to not target them. It’s more about the audience behind it and how they behave — you know, 2 billion players is 2 billion potential consumers.

So, just like many retailers all those years ago thought eCommerce was a fad followed by a similar mindset about how to utilise social media let's hope they're not thinking that gaming is just for the 'Sonic the Hedgehog' cohort.