Jo Malone London has made its gaming debut, bringing the Estée Lauder-owned fragrance house into Fortnite to promote its new Sea Salt & Bergamot Cologne, according to Marketing Dive. The limited-time experience — the brand's first activation inside a video game — runs through August 24.
Rather than build a standalone branded island, the brand embedded its activation inside Minigame Box PvP, an established Fortnite island made by the creators Birdo and Dagwummy using Unreal Editor for Fortnite. The map has drawn 3.6 million favorites and 7.6 billion minutes of play, giving the fragrance house a ready-made audience, and players reach the experience through island code 8532-9413-6963. Inside, the world takes inspiration from the British coast, translating the spirit of the Sea Salt & Bergamot scent into a digital setting. Chartis, a user-generated games and media company, partnered on development.
The in-game world anchors a wider campaign that includes partnerships with gaming creators, livestreams, and a social content series running across Instagram, TikTok and Fortnite. The activation is aimed at reaching younger players the brand cannot easily find through traditional social channels, and it follows a broader wave of beauty and luxury marketers experimenting inside Fortnite and Roblox.
The push comes amid momentum for Estée Lauder's fragrance business, which posted 10% sales growth in the quarter ended March 31, outpacing the company's overall 5% increase in net sales.
Founded in London in 1994 by its namesake perfumer and acquired by Estée Lauder in 1999, Jo Malone London built its reputation on understated bottles and layered colognes sold largely through boutiques and department stores — making a creator-built PvP map an unusually youthful venue for the brand, and a measure of how far beauty marketing has moved into gaming.