Episode 194 / Gary Plunkett / PixelPool / Chief Commercial Officer - Dtail
How Gaming Technology Is Multiplying Marketing Opportunities for Fashion
In the fashion world, brands are increasingly able to access a wider target audience and present new types of products thanks to gaming technology. This is Gary Plunkett’s Shiny New Object, as it opens up gamers to brands they would not otherwise come in contact with, and creates parallel universes that are both commercial opportunities for traditional fashion companies.
As the Chief Commercial Officer for Dtail by PixelPool, Gary is deeply involved with the growing links between fashion and gaming. The Dtail platform allows brands to create virtual 3D spaces that are twins of physical locations, where consumers can access fashion goods differently and where teams can collaborate and experiment with their products from wherever they find themselves. This is why he sees a lot of potential in gaming technology for fashion.
Gaming is opening up the market for traditional fashion
Whether someone first comes in contact with a fashion brand in a game environment, or they are a real-life fan and want to use virtual goods to enhance their avatar in the Metaverse, there are so many opportunities arising for traditional fashion brands. Gamers don’t need to be familiar with the brand in the traditional sense to consumer it in the game environment. Conversely, someone who becomes brand aware in a game, enjoys the products and wants to experience them in the physical world, can become a new consumer in both environments.
Fashion brands are already taking part in the virtual world
The number of collaborations and crossovers between traditional fashion houses like Gucci and Balenciaga and gaming environments is growing. This shows just how much opportunity there is in this space. From a commercial perspective, the market for these brands is effectively doubling, while also making their products more accessible and scalable. For example, a gamer may only purchase a high-end fashion brand’s “skin” for $9.99 to begin with, as opposed to a $700 bag in the real world.
However, they could develop an affinity for the brand that leads them to later on buy the real-world bag. At the same time, when tens of thousands of gamers buy the skin, the brand is making a lot more money for its bottom line through this new avenue.
New ways of experiencing products
Thanks to platforms like Dtail, where the people behind the brands can collaborate in a virtual environment ad experiment with their products before selling them (in either environment), fashion is entering a new way of creating and developing products. On the one hand, teams can collaborate in a virtual 3D space in completely new ways. On the other hand, virtual stores can be accessed by anyone around the world, allowing more consumers to get to know brands they would not be able to physically visit, and extending these brands’ reach.
Hear more about how Dtail and the virtual world are changing the face of fashion, as well as Gary’s top marketing tips, on the latest podcast episode.
Transcript
The following gives you a good idea of what was said, but it’s not 100% accurate.
Tom Ollerton 0:03
Hello, and welcome to the shiny new object podcast. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of automated creative. And this is a weekly podcast about the future of the marketing and advertising industry. Every week I have the pleasure and the privilege of interviewing someone who is influential, important, interesting, all those things. And I am on a call with Gary Plunkett, who is Chief Commercial Officer - Dtail by PixelPool. Gary, for anyone who doesn't know who you are and what you do, could you give us a bit of an overview?
Gary Plunkett 0:36
Sure. Hey, Tom, thanks for having me. I really appreciate being here. In terms of the long to the short of my career, basically, I have over 20 years experience in fashion from traditional fashion. I started my career in a department store called the Bonton, which is actually no longer functioning. From there, I worked for Tommy Hilfiger for a little over 10 years, and then transitioned to working for a denim brand called G star in Europe. And then from there basically decided I wanted to step away from fashion actually, and I started my own company and started two companies, actually one of them a consultancy company, and another one was just kind of a passion project having to do with vinyl. And then I took anything other than fashion related jobs for the consultancy company that I created and then basically, while doing that, I was searching for something more future thinking and came upon a role with PixelPool that was launching a new digital platform to service the fashion industry actually, but kind of bringing the fashion industry into into digital technology and into 3d. And for me that sounds perfect, I got to leverage my over 20 years experience in traditional fashion, while also forcing me to learn something new in terms of digital and, and kind of something more future forward thinking. So that's basically how I ended up where I am today.
Tom Ollerton 2:14
So we'll get to PixelPool in a bit, but just getting to know you a bit first. So in terms of your career, how do you want that to be remembered?
Gary Plunkett 2:28
I want my career to be remembered based on the people I helped along the way. Actually, I think I benefited a lot from a number of amazing women executives in my career, who saw something in me and gave me a chance and challenged me and recognized that I needed to be given new challenges along the way to keep me interested. And I think I've tried to pass that forward in looking for young talent and believing in them and pouring into them and helping them along the way. And I think I think thus far my track record has shown as much. If I look back at the number of people reporting to me over the years, they've moved on quite nicely in their career. And we still touch base every now and again and kind of joke about how green they were when I first hired them. So from so from that perspective, that's how I'd like my career to be remembered, not just by the accomplishments that I've done from a from a business perspective, but also the people that I also was able to help progress help progress their career as well.
Tom Ollerton 3:44
Yeah, I'm a big believer in that. I think it'd be really sad to be at the end of your career and just think about different decks you've made and stuff.
Gary Plunkett 3:51
Yeah.
Tom Ollerton 3:52
And in KPIs you'd be, I really hope I look back on my career and think what wonderful people I got to work with, that would be great. So really nice to hear that. So going on to marketing, what is your top marketing tip? What is your silver bullet bit of advice that you find yourself sharing most often?
Unknown Speaker 4:12
Yeah, that's... that one. That's a tough one. Because it's, for me, at least for me, it's a bit tough because there's two parts to it. For me, it's about trying different things, to validate a marketing position, and then embracing the pivot, which is very much kind of a lean startup methodology way of kind of looking at marketing. But I think that's important, I think. The old school way of just kind of sticking to your guns and putting this thing out there and not learning from it in terms of how the market is responding to it, but also how your company feels about it or not, I think it's good to gather information from what you're putting out there. And once you've got gathered enough and kind of establish kind of what the way forward is, then it's just then you push forward. And then it's repetition, right it say, say it again, and then say it again after that. But the key point is, is trying different things and learning to pivot from that, to come to a final marketing goal. If that makes sense.
Tom Ollerton 5:21
It does. So, we're gonna come on now to your shiny new object, which is gaming technology. So I think I know what the marketing application of this is, something I think I've been thinking about. And I would really like to hear why gaming tech is your marketing, shiny new object and why that represents the future for you.
Gary Plunkett 5:46
It is interesting enough, because gaming now has like, are establishing a foundation in fashion. There's, there's tons of gamers in the world right now. And what's happening is many, many fashion brands are starting to take part in that in creating these virtual worlds, including not just fashion, but also even artists, you know, Travis Scott did a whole concert in a game basically, where, you know, millions of people came and attended that and watched it from a gaming console essentially. And what's happening now is more and more fashion brands are starting to put their products within games, whether it is characters being able to buy skins, if you will, which are just kind of outfits and their branded products, whether it be Burberry, Gucci, or Balenciaga, or these type of companies more and more than we're doing that as a means of, of building brand awareness. You know, if you have a character in the game that's called, you know, Gucci boy, and in real life, you're not wearing Gucci, it seems kind of a disconnect. Um, so it's, it creates a scenario where you potentially also want to live your persona outside of the game. But also, if you've never heard of this brand, and you like the skin that you bought, you know, next time you walk past the store of that brand, you may be more interested and go into it as well. So, so anyway, long story short, is gaming is becoming more and more important in the fashion industry, not only from a marketing and brand awareness perspective, but also because more and more fashion brands are delving further and further into 3d, designing in 3d and creating, you know, full collections in 3d without a single sample being produced. And then using that to sell to the market. And as a result, gaming comes into play there, because you could do way more with 3d garments in the gaming and a game setting. And then you can just, you know, a 2d, or even on a grid view, in a traditional kind of E commerce way of selling, you can put 3d items there as well. But in the gaming environment, that product can actually do something, it can dance, it can run, it could it could have a fashion show, it just becomes way more interactive and way more interesting.
Tom Ollerton 8:24
So it's so exciting to hear you say this because I grew up in the 90s. Really, and the idea that gaming would have anything to do with fashion seems so wild, but the case you make is brilliant. But what I'm trying to work out and I would love to know if you have any date on this is what is the crossover in terms of a consumer, right, so you've you know, the, the outdated stereotype of a gamer is a spotty 15 year old kid. And the outdated luxury consumer or fashion consumer is someone probably 10 years older than that with some expendable income. So what is the overlap? Now, someone said to me recently that there's so many gamers you can't really talk about gamers anymore. It's about like saying people who watch movies or watch Netflix or something. So what is the overlap? It's a Yeah, sure on fortnight you could buy Balenciaga gear you get the white, like hoodie for $10 or $500 in the store or something around that I was interested in but like who is that crossover? Who are these people playing fortnight that have got $700 to spend on a white hoodie?
Gary Plunkett 9:30
Well, that's a very very good question because it's um it's they don't necessarily have that money to spend on that hoodie but they can spend the $9.99 for the skins to have it in their gaming scenario. So it creates to two avenues actually. So there are people who are gaming that that do have that money. But because more and more people are investing time and energy into their gaming persona. You know that that $9.99 skin that they bought, you know, imagine 10,000 people buying that same thing to wear when they're playing that particular game, with their own friends or so on so forth. So as a multiplier, the brands tend to end up you know, make can make good money just dressing your video game avatar or a video game character. So there's a commercial model for that. And then in addition to that, you know, if they are able, over time because they're making more money, or they asked Mom and Dad for whatever, maybe it's not the hoodie that's being bought, but maybe it's maybe it's a keychain, maybe it's something smaller that's a bit more accessible, versus the 700 Euro hoodie, it's something else that's easier to, to have and be able to wear in the physical world versus the video world.
Tom Ollerton 11:11
I'm really interested to know how the media works the other way, right? So for example, someone who's playing fortnight, who isn't interested in fashion at all for argument's sake. So consequently, he doesn't like go on any fashion websites or watch any runway stuff or read any print magazines, or has any one who hangs out who rarely wears that stuff. Like where are they getting this exposure that someone something like Balenciaga is even cool in the first place? Or even desirable or even luxury? Like I, I have no interest in fashion, Gary, and you can tell by looking at me, basically. And so like, someone might say, oh, such and such is that, I have no expert, no exposure, that person. So if that person showed up in a game, and I do game, and not a great deal, but casual mobile stuff. If that person showed up, I'd be like, Oh, I never heard of you. So how does it work the other way around? If you in order to create desire for the virtual goods, there needs to be a media that isn't the game itself, presumably? Or am I reading that wrong?
Gary Plunkett 12:13
Yes, and no, I mean, I think if you think of a gaming, and I'm not a big gamer, if I'm honest, so it's part of the fascination for me right now is delving more and more into that world. The part of it is, is this so in any gaming situation, you have multi multi players coming to an environment and interacting in some way, shape, or form. And, and you don't have to be aware that you know what Balenciaga is, whatever it is, it could just be this character is wearing a cool outfit, or you think it's a cool outfit. And the fact that you have the options to change your outfit could be interesting to you. And this outfit by Balenciaga may be the one that you gravitate towards. So from that perspective, you know, without even knowing anything about the brand, you could just say, I want this and that still rings up as a purchase, right for that for that brand at the end of the day, because you've just just bought that skin. And then I mean, a different thing happens psychologically, right? Whether it is you you you suddenly start realizing that all the skins made by this brand or you know speaks to you, then then you kind of gained something that way and then from a physical perspective in the outside world, and maybe maybe you google and find out well, what is this and then you learn something or you know, that's interesting to you or not. But within the gaming world, what's interesting is that it can take you out of the gaming world so that in the physical world, you're interested in that brand, but you could also stay just within the gaming world and just bounce around from brand to brand without necessarily knowing more about that brand's heritage other than the fact that you like how they design a particular skin. Just like in the physical world, you like how they design their hoodies, or their shoes over this or that brand, it becomes a preference based on what you like, and that will change you know, we I think more and more players may bounce around from different brands offering without necessarily knowing everything about that brand in terms of its heritage and what makes it who it is.
Tom Ollerton 14:28
So I'm assuming that PixelPool have an answer for all this. And I would love to know more about what the product is, how it works and how Dtail specifically is addressing this fascinating opportunity. Yeah, you guys are clearly invested in it.
Gary Plunkett 14:43
Sure I mean, well right now. Excuse the slang but like everybody and their mother is basically designing in 3d now like a number of different brands from the beginning stages to some of them are way more advanced. And what's happening is they're you know, have more and more designs. In 3d, and the question is, well, what do I do with this. And what we offer is we basically built a platform called Dtail that's built on on the Unreal gaming engine, where we basically created a virtual world in which you can create virtual twins of physical spaces. So whether it be a store or showroom, or a house or your office, even Tom, where we can create a virtual twin of that, where all the items in it, whether it be you know, a table, or a chair or fixture can be moved around as just like a video game, picking something up from one place and placing it someplace else to basically create a space that is could be used for selling. So you could use it to present to a buyer to then sell product on those particular fixtures. So your 3d garments can then be incorporated into the space by yourself, you can place it however you want it to be placed. And then you can sell that to, you know, to a buyer, or you could use it with more and more people now working from home, you can basically use that as a means for everyone to kind of log into that space together. And whilst someone takes control of the of the controls and moving through the space, putting products here, there, whatever, you as a team can determine kind of how your collection comes together by looking at it in totality and how that could land on a selling floor, for example. So that's one way, kind of the starting place. But for us our vision is to think way out of the box outside the box, I mean, the whole nature of gaming is that you're able to create these, you know, unrealistic worlds that you can interact with, with characters, and so on and so forth. So our position is, you know, why, why can't you do that in fashion? Why can't you display or sell your products in some fantastical world, whether it be in space or in the clouds or under the earth or within a mountain or whatever it is? Why does it have to be this four-wall space with a floor and and traditional mixtures? Why not reimagine how you present yourself to the overall market and how your product function is displayed. To create a just much more dynamic and interesting experience from a selling as well as marketing or merchandising perspective.
Tom Ollerton 17:34
So can you give us a case study who's doing this well?
Gary Plunkett 17:38
Who's doing it well? I'm sitting here debating now if I can mention brands that we're working with. I think there's a number of brands that are at a high level in terms of where they are with their 3d maturity. I think top of mine, I'd say h&m and Nike are two of the brands that are really doing very interesting things and how they're evolving 3d. I cannot get into details there in terms of exactly what they're doing. But in terms of how the market's evolving, and who really has an idea of thinking ahead, and how they can capitalize upon that, I'd say that those two brands are doing some really interesting things, and really pushing the envelope in terms of what they're able to bring to the market from a 3d perspective, but also in general, from a digital perspective. Very impressive.
Tom Ollerton 18:33
So what are we going to see in the next 12 months from this space? What firsts are going to come out?
Gary Plunkett 18:42
Um, what firsts... I gotta say, Well, I mean, I think for right now, obviously, what's all the buzz is the whole thing about the metaverse and so on, so forth. So I think gaming technology will help to make that a reality in a much more interesting and dynamic way, where you can just like now you have multiplayer games that you can go in and kind of be functioning in a space together and you see that other character moving around, you know, in one corner versus the next. The Metaverse is gonna, you know, have similar type of realities all coming about and gaming can technology can help with that, where you are able to interact in this space with multiple players and multiple people going through a similar experience, which I think is interesting to me. And I always kind of lay it parallel with kind of how social media allow you to kind of experience somebody else's world because they you know, they took a picture of their food or they took a picture of themselves on holiday in this amazing place that you never thought of before. With a gaming technology, you will now be able to kind of enter that space virtually Which is interesting. This guy becomes limited in terms of what you're able to then experience and allow your friends, family or strangers to also experience based on what you can create and think up and execute using gaming technology as well as other 3d and digital technologies.
Tom Ollerton 20:22
Unfortunately, we are at the end of an episode, and we could have done this for a few hours, I think, unfortunately. But you did a really beautiful job of presenting a very exciting future and the role that you guys play in that. So if someone wants to get in touch with you, how would you like them to do it?
Gary Plunkett 20:42
You can reach out to me on LinkedIn, you could reference shiny new object podcast that you heard me do a talk and we'd love to speak more about it. I'm always open to engage and just and also share my whatever I've learned from from this space with whoever is interested. I think that's the easiest way to reach out to me.
Tom Ollerton 21:06
Fantastic. Well, Gary, thanks so much for your time.
Gary Plunkett 21:09
Thank you appreciate the time, and thanks for having me.
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