The world of fashion communicates in a very specific way. Celebrity-laden fashion shows. Huge paid media campaigns. Luxurious PR events. But younger audiences are less and less interested in simply watching, and instead look to brands that bring them experiences worth talking about. So instead of sticking to their tried-and-true methods, Gucci thought outside the box and tried something new. After all, following conventions isn’t the Gucci way.

Gucci’s gaming strategy is a completely new approach to marketing for fashion. Leaning into the huge popularity of mobile gaming, and the behavioural science of gaming mechanics to draw in a younger audience in a totally new way.

For two years, Gucci has been building a unique suite of branded games. Each celebrates its own universe, with bespoke gameplay, graphics, and mechanics. And every game invites people to play either on their own or with friends.

Popularity skyrocketed, and the global community of “Gucci Gamers” is constantly wondering what the Brand will do next. It had to up its game, after encompassing all games under the Gucci Arcade project, we created the ultimate Gucci Arcade cabinet – a 1990s-inspired cabinet that features all of the games created to date. In true Gucci fashion, every inch of hardware and every line of code was built from scratch.

To connect with the new generation high on fashion and video games, the Brand decided to implement a structured gaming strategy. A totally new way of doing marketing and communication for Gucci. The goal was to increase engagement and generate interest around the brand itself, not just the new products. In order to target this younger and savvier demographic, we used social media to integrate Gucci channels and cultures, including those whose preferred platform is WeChat. And thanks to a timely redesign, the all the web-based games were then integrated into the Gucci app, making them an important, and highly visible part of the Gucci world. Not to mention increasing the time users spend on the app.

Each game is bespoke. With its own implementation, timeline and placement characteristics. Therefore, a generalization of all games would be misleading. However, each game is web-based, accessible both via desktop and via mobile, and takes advantage of the very latest web technologies, including framer motion, react, three.js, webgl and more. Each game also has a custom musical score, created by dedicated sound designers. Generally, a timeframe of 3-4months is needed for the development and launch of a branded game, while the manufacturing of the Gucci Arcade Cabinet took almost 6 months. Over the last two years, we’ve created 15 bespoke games for Gucci, each of which was promoted on a global scale, with a cumulative effect that has created a worldwide audience of avid “Gucci Gamers”.

As the main objectives are brand awareness, engagement and notoriety, the KPIs reflect the PR achievements obtained throughout the years, which include international media coverage about the gaming strategy and the Gucci Arcade project. Forbes, Highsnobiety, Hyperbeast, Vogue Business, Wired, and L’Officiel are only a few of the interested media outlets who spoke about the case.

Overall, the game sessions spread across the +20 games are more than 4 million (and growing), while the average session duration is 2 minutes per game. The reach is global, but the main players are USA, China, Japan, UK, and Italy and France within the EMEA region.

Not only, consumer awareness towards the Brand’s gaming strategy was consolidated with the opening of a dedicated server on Discord where users can exchange tips and tricks also about each game, encouraging each other to try the latest ones.