Roblox

Ralph Lauren launched their new fashion line in Roblox this week with digital only fashion items. As part of their virtual world ‘Winter Escape’. 

Universes like Roblox are attractive to companies because they introduce younger users to their brands and give them a chance to see their marketing vision before graduating to real-world products. And traffic has been booming: VF Corp.’s Vans World in Roblox has had more than 50 million visits since its April launch. Nikeland, which Nike Inc. announced last month, has had more than 6 million visits. Fortune.

Financial analysts are all over this space and estimate it could reach $56b by 2030. If this is a big business in 9 years, it makes sense to start now. 

• Ralph Lauren is debuting its first digital fashion line in Roblox.
• Ad industry growing at a record pace. New estimates suggest the advertising industry grew faster this year compared to any point in recent history.
• Manny Pacquiao launches an esports brand in partnership with Veloce.
• How Sanctuary is partnering with brands as Get Z, millennials seek out astrology content.
• The Big Issue taps into purpose budgets with branded content arm.
• Vox Media brings its podcast to Salesforce+.
• Why it should no longer take 13 pieces of content to convert a buyer.
• Industry Dive’s path to $100m in revenue.
• First look inside the New York Times audio app.
• Webflow launches Webflow TV.

Deals/M&A

• Twitter acquires Quill, a would-be Slack rival.
• Adobe buys social media marketing startup ContentCal.
• oOh!Media offloads Junkee Media to RACAT group.
• Criteo nears $380m acquisition of IPONWEB.

Campaign of the Week

• Ralph Lauren on Roblox presents the ultimate holiday adventure.

• “This is a better business. It’s great you’re targeting millennial fashion consumers, but I’m in the electric utilities space and that matters to everyone. The industries we write about touch every person. I leaned into the boring part because I know it’s important. You call it boring, I call it profitable.” –Sean Griffey, Co-founder Industry Dive.

Datapoints of note

• Ad industry expected to hit $1 trillion by 2025.

That’s it for this week.