Beingone of the highest selling video gamesaround the world, Nintendo’sAnimal Crossing: New Horizonshas been leveraged upon by many consumer brands to build awareness and customer engagement for their products. Now, fast fashion retail brand H&M has partnered up with popularGame of Thronesactress Maisie Williams to bring to light their sustainability campaign through the use of a customizedAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsisland.
Nintendo’s life-sim title is no stranger to creating collaborations with retail companies. Just recently, the title collaborated withBuild-A-Bear to bring both Isabelle and Tom Nookinto the arms of avid fans and collectors. Also, more adult players were given the chance to wear products inspired by their favoriteAnimal Crossing villagersin the sold-out ColourPop Cosmetics make-up collection. With how popularAnimal Crossing: New Horizonscontinues to be, it seems there will be no lack in new partnerships with brands across the globe.
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Announced very recently, H&M has brought in actress Maisie Williams as a Global Sustainability Ambassador for their campaign of using only recycled or sustainably sourced materials by the year 2030. The first online activity with Williams involved her exploring H&M’s Looop Island onAnimal Crossing: New Horizons. The island is themed after sustainability, and features the brand’s recently launched clothing recycling machine, the Looop machine. Players who were able to jump into Looop Island were encouraged to talk about sustainability, leave notes on the island’s notice board, and even recycle their game outfits using the Looop machine.
Known for her role as Arya Stark in thepopular HBO medieval fantasy seriesGame of Thrones, the actress has also been given a digital twin called Avatar Maisie. A launch film has been prepared by 3D animators from Goodbye Kansas Studio, and the avatar is set to appear throughout the year to engage the brand’s customers for the cause. Though there has been no confirmation on where the digital twin will first pop up, it is likely that fans of the actress will spot Avatar Maisie through H&M’s social channels.
With the pandemic putting a pause on retail therapy, and even closing down physical shops, creating digital spaces and online activities seemed to have helped a lot ofretail brands survive the loss of in-store foot traffic. Being incredibly flexible and customizable, fans will likely agree thatAnimal Crossing: New Horizonshas become a really entertaining platform for many brands to connect with their audience once more.
