Halloween season. It’s the time of year filled with bats, black cats, pumpkins, and brands diving into the world of Roblox. Last Halloween, Chipotle opened its first virtual restaurant in the game as part of its annual Boorito promotion. Now, pop culture retailer Hot Topic has announced its getting into the game (literally) for this Halloween season. Hot Topic has announced it is launching virtual versions of its Halloween Forever Collection, with innovative, exclusive avatar offerings and virtual extensions of real-life pieces from the collection.
The collection includes ten exclusive Halloween-themed Hot Topic designs now available in the Roblox Avatar Marketplace. Additionally, fans can visit three pop-up shops located across popular experiences like The Floor is Lava!, Speed Run 4, and Catalog Outfit Creator!, which have collectively attracted over 2.9 billion total visits to date. The capsule features digital items synonymous with the Hot Topic brand, including cosplay hats, die-cut sunglasses, figural mini-backpacks, and more. Users can buy avatar items directly from these unique virtual shopping destinations, which showcase the campaign, including images that feature Cobra Kai star Mary Mouser sporting the exclusive black and orange sweater and a unique interactive mannequin.
In a unique extension of this initiative, the innovative retailer partnered with several high-profile Roblox designers, including @Junozy, @StrapCode, @MatthewDelRey, and @0929lego, to bring these existing IRL Halloween designs to life digitally for avid Roblox fans all over the world. These items are all new and have been created specifically for Roblox. In addition, the black and orange sweater and beanie with the 90s throwback Hot Topic logo will be available for purchase in the physical world, in-store and online.
Since its launch on 10/3, the campaign has seen remarkable engagement, with the clothing campaign reaching more than 1M players. The Hot Topic Pop-up Shop has reached more than 900k players, with content engagement totaling more than 1.2 years of playtime.
To guide the retailer into this brave new world and help to execute the next phase of their strategic offerings, Hot Topic tapped Super League Gaming, a global leader in metaverse gaming and experiences, to bring these irresistible looks to life.
“We’re very excited to launch our Roblox integration,” said Andrea Lewis, Vice President of Marketing for Hot Topic. “This partnership will allow Hot Topic to create an experience that exemplifies our brand in the metaverse. Dropping this Halloween merch in the Roblox avatar shop while simultaneously offering physical replications of key items online and in Hot Topic stores is a dream scenario to satisfy Hot Topic fandom both in the Roblox ecosystem and IRL.”
“It was important to choose the right time to launch Hot Topic on Roblox, and Halloween is so important to our customer, we felt like this was a perfect fit,” added Ed LaBay, Senior Vice President of Merchandise and Marketing for Hot Topic. “Giving our existing customers and Roblox fans a chance to express themselves in core Hot Topic Halloween fashion is a great first step for us in the virtual world.”
