cosnova

Make beauty fun with a colorful Roblox Experience for Gen Z and Alpha

The international beauty brand essence was founded in 2001 by cosnova, one of Germany’s largest cosmetics companies. Ever since, the company has demonstrated innovation and a deep commitment to engaging young, digital-savvy consumers.

With the support of the game developers at global digital agency DEPT®, essence has blurred the boundaries between beauty, play, and self-expression by developing the adventurous Roblox Experience “essence FUN PARK.”

Reaching Gen Z and Alpha

Trends constantly evolve in the cosmetics industry, and the dynamic preferences of tech-savvy Gen Z and Alpha consumers are driving a state of upheaval. For essence, this made the challenge clear: How can the brand authentically connect with its young target group?

Given the ever-changing beauty industry, essence set the long-term goal of gaining relevance with Gen Z and Alpha. But to achieve this, it wouldn’t be enough for the audience to love the products—the brand must also share and exemplify the values of this target group.

So essence set a goal of not just selling products, but becoming a catalyst for positive change both virtually and in the real world—while also adhering to the brand mission to ”make beauty fun.”

Finding a solution to “make beauty fun”

In response to these challenges and goals, essence looked for an innovative solution and called in the expertise of the team at DEPT®. After the kick-off workshop and an intensive ideation phase, the idea of developing a Roblox experience was born. We laid the the foundation for the “essence FUN PARK”: an imaginative, immersive, and colorful world on Roblox.

Our intention was to address the brand’s young target audience exactly where they spend a large part of their time: on gaming platforms. But why Roblox?

The platform’s user statistics speak for themselves:

With 214 million monthly and an incredible 70.2 million daily active users, Roblox is currently one of the most important gaming platforms for Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
53% of users are over 13 years old and the fastest growing demographic segment is between 17 and 25 years old.
The gender distribution on Roblox is almost balanced with 51% male and 44% female users, the remaining 5% are unknown.

“We believe that our target group will continue to develop on this platform, which is why we decided on it. And with DEPT® as a strong partner, we are confident that we will continue to grow beyond the boundaries of the beauty industry.”

– Thorsten Mühl, Chief Digital Marketing & Experience Officer, cosnova

Creating the Roblox game

At the heart of the “essence FUN PARK,” players can expect a world full of joy and harmony, a safe space that stands out from the hectic and aggressive nature of typical game worlds. Players start their journey of discovery from the floating, castle-like essence space. Various islands such as Pink Beach, Turtle Island, Gray City, and the new underwater world “Ocean Detox” await them.

The products and core values of the essence brand strongly influence all locations and their designs. Colorful and diverse, without microplastic particles, and completely vegan, the “essence FUN PARK” reflects the brand’s commitment to sustainability and beauty.

We also created an environment in which the use of real currency (Robux) is unnecessary. By collecting “essence coins,” players can purchase everything they need, such as paint tools or stylish avatar items from the “Chic Chamber.”

The experience is characterized by popular game mechanics, environmentally conscious mini-games, and exciting quests. Instead of the usual competitive dynamics, we rely exclusively on cooperative game mechanics. With friendly house painting tools instead of aggressive shooter elements and cute “Pick up & Delivery” and “Plant & Grow” quests, the game offers entertaining tasks for younger kids and teens. And if you just want to hang out with friends, you can use chill zones with a ferris wheel, tree house, or sun loungers.

A fresh perspective

essence x DEPT® is a story of innovation, courage, trust, and teamwork. The company was looking for fresh ideas around the connection to Gen Z and Gen Alpha and found its partner in the DEPT® Web3 team.

The first result of this new connection is the joint initial development of the Roblox game “essence FUN PARK.” At the same time, DEPT® was commissioned to support cosnova’s website team in strategy and UX conception.