Paris Hilton took a deep dive into the metaverse with her Slivingland experience on Roblox, and her 11:11 Media company has released the results of brand interactions.
Roblox’s platform of user-generated content reaches more than 216 million monthly active users and it represents an evolution of social media for Hilton, as Roblox games are a way to engage young people who aren’t easy to reach with brand advertising.
Slivingland represented 11:11’s first metaverse-native intellectual property; Roblox was the first place Paris Hilton’s new lifestyle brand, Sliving, appeared.
As of February 2024, it’s had over 3.4 million visitors, more than Paris World, which is nearly two years older. A TikTok by Paris promoting Slivingland was viewed over eight million times. The results were the equivalent of $60 million in ad spending, the report found. Slivingland drew an average of 11 minutes per daily active user in January 2024.
“To some, it’s the metaverse. To brand marketers, it’s a communication vertical that provides a style of engagement which is more immersive than any other channel currently in their toolkit,” the company said in its case study by GEEIQ shared with GamesBeat. “And there’s no sign of this slowing. Roblox is the undisputed leader in this space. It captured Gen Z’s attention for more minutes per day than TikTok did in 2023.”
For brand marketers who want the secret to unlocking engagement and loyalty on this platform, Paris Hilton’s Slivingland has some answers. 11:11 Media has positioned Hilton as the “queen of the metaverse.” She’s a TV star, philanthropist, pop culture icon, advocate, DJ, artist, author, entrepreneur, mother, investor and business mogul. And, for some, a sex icon too.
But Hilton is also a futurist. An undercover nerd. A secret gamer. Since 2021, Paris Hilton has launched two Roblox worlds, introduced new brands to the platform, and shaped the future of immersive marketing campaigns with pioneering partners. Previously, Paris Hilton embraced platforms like Twitter as early as 2009, before many brands.
Paris Hilton’s journey on Roblox
Of course, there were a lot of folks on Roblox before Hilton showed up. But there is something to her notion, “I set trends, I don’t follow them.” She created Paris World a few years ago where people could hang out together as avatars and listen to DJs.
The Roblox experience gave players the opportunity to win Paris-themed digital wearables, accessorize and dress their pets, customize avatars, take selfies, and walk Paris’ Catwalk. Paris World pioneered collaborations with Levi’s and Urban Decay, the latter being L’Oréal Group’s first metaverse and gaming
activation. The success of L’Oréal Group’s activation spurred numerous activations on Roblox across its portfolio of Personal Care & Cosmetic brands.
Levi’s Neon Carnival got more than 360,000 visitors in Paris World in 2021 — a time when there were just 16 highly recognizable celebrities on Roblox. In August 2023, Hilton launched her Slivingland as the next phase in Hilton’s Roblox strategy. The experience was richer, more expansive, and offered more fertile ground for brand collaboration. It became an evergreen hub for Paris fans across music, entertainment, fashion, pets and more.
From an outsider’s view, it’s not clear how big a success it was. Matt Edelman, president of of Super League, said the challenge for such activations is getting Roblox players to come back every day.
Still, Paris Hilton was able to use her connection with Hilton Hotels to build a loyalty campaign around the virtual world. The campaign kicked off in January, following another partnership with iHeartland. In the iHeartland partnership, fans could collect a free avatar wearable, but first players had to visit iHeartland,
complete a Paris-themed quest, and listen to clips of of her iHeart podcast, “The History of the World’s Greatest Nightclubs” inside the Podcast Lounge in Slivingland.
So far, more than 400 brands have done activations on Roblox, up from 28 in 2021, according to GEEIQ. Beauty and fashion brands were the first movers on Roblox, and now the brands on the platform come from luxury, toys, celebrity, skincare, cars, movies, entertainment, travel, retail, makeup, apparel, sports, music, food and drink and hotels.
GEEIQ said the next to show up should include banks, insurers, financial institutions, tax, auto, airlines, software, payments, pets, education, tourism, energy, utilities, healthcare and wellness.
An increasingly popular way for brands to dip their toe into Roblox is through integrations. An “integration” means a brand takes over an existing Roblox experience for a time-limited
campaign — kind of like a pop-up for a film promotion.
According to GEEIQ’s calculations, brand integrations in Roblox increased 110% YoY in 2023.
Currently, they’re growing at a faster rate than standalone brand owned experiences, like
Slivingland, Walmart Discovered, or H&M’s Loooptopia.
The sneaker brand Vans chose to create Vans World in Q3 2021 to build an experience it could brand and own end-to-end, treating it as an evergreen game it continually refreshed with new updates and challenges. Levi’s, on the other hand, chose to integrate into Paris World in Q2 2022, in order to
maximize and amplify its sponsorship of the real life Coachella Neon Carnival.
Integrations lower the barrier to entry for brands entering Roblox for the first time. It offers low-risk, and
often high-impact play. If you don’t have a Roblox strategy soon, your competitor will, GEEIQ said.
Virtual self-expression
Slivingland is designed as an evergreen entertainment hub for Paris fans around the world. Fashion is a central feature of the experience. Avatar customization and self-expression is key to Roblox’s brand success and it’s important to Paris’ community too.
As the Queen of Y2K, Paris has released a number of coveted digital wearables on Roblox, some branded
with her own IP, some Y2K themed, and others in collaboration with brand partners like iHeartRadio and
Hilton Honors. Some Roblox UGC items, which are often obtained upon completing challenges or quests, are very limited in quantity and can be sold on the secondary market by players, sometimes for a profit.
“Slivingland is about uniting my global fanbase in a realm of fashion, fun and friendship,” Hilton said.
In the activation, the first 50,000 users to complete the process were able to return to Slivingland to automatically claim their free UGC item. More than 56,200 claims happened during the campaign window. More than 88,900 scavenger hunts were completed in the Hilton Hotel experience.
“The consumer demand across physical and digital is clear, and brands are smart to tap into it on Roblox where over 70 million people connect and communicate daily, nearly half of them Gen Z,” said Stephanie Latham, vice president of global partnerships at Roblox, in a statement. “Utilizing [Paris Hilton’s Roblox universe] as part of Hilton’s loyalty program is paving the way for other brands to experiment with enhancing consumer engagement and brand loyalty via innovative immersive experiences and communities.”
Today, Roblox reigns as the dominant virtual world and social gaming platform for brands to activate on, the report said. As brands become more mature in this new communication vertical, the creative boundaries continue to be redrawn.
With no signs of decline, brands are continuing to double down on this opportunity. Like any communication vertical, understanding the platforms you’re entering is paramount to meeting objectives, the report said. It’s very evident that the most successful brand experiences are those that take a data-led approach.
This is no different to the most successful social media or television strategies. Today, as the attention
economy transitions towards immersive communication, spaces like Roblox are leading the charge, GEEIQ said.
Author: Dean Takahashi
Source: Venturebeat
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
