Lessons from fashion to mobile game UA go beyond aesthetics. Fashion has long mastered audience engagement, trend-driven marketing, and brand storytelling. All of which offer valuable insights for mobile game marketers. The worlds of fashion and mobile gaming may seem like separate universes, but they are not that far apart in reality. BELLEMINT by Muus Collective stands at an intersection of IRL fashion experiences and interactive virtual ones. But what can mobile marketers learn from fashion? How to reach the gamers who don’t identify as gamers? How do brand partnerships elevate game launches? And where is this trend heading in the next five years?
To learn from the best, we spoke with Amanda Lulewicz, the VP of Growth at Muus Collective, to explore the key lessons she has gained from the fashion industry and translated to the launch of BELLEMINT. Her unique approach to user acquisition, and the challenges of integrating IRL brands into mobile games is remarkable. She dives into best practices for launching and promoting new games in 2025 and uncovers insights from past learnings that have helped her and the team in bridging mobile gaming into the real world.
Since BELLEMINT bridges gaming and fashion, what lessons have you used from the fashion industry and applied to mobile marketing?
“What I love about fashion is the emotion it can inspire – both within the wearer and the observer. Your mood can change based on the day, and you use fashion to express yourself and showcase how you want to show up in the world that day. With marketing, similar to self-expression, you want to think about how you express your brand, how you show up in the world, and what emotions you’re trying to evoke in your target customer. That can be humor, FOMO, excitement, fear, or any number of emotions, but you should always start with how you want the customer to feel.
Fashion brands have always been great at having a key message and brand story, and that’s something I’ve always taken into my approach to marketing. Many mobile games are more focused on performance than brand, but for me, it’s always been important to have a clear identity and leverage that to bring players in in different ways – whether that’s in your UA creative, community efforts, partnerships, etc. The performance needs to support that you’re on the right path with how you’re presenting your brand, but I don’t believe in sacrificing long-term brand equity for a short-term performance bump.”
If you had to distill your UA philosophy into one key principle, what would it be?
“Don’t be afraid to go outside the traditional playbook and try something different. Use expert advice as a starting point, not the gospel.”
Where do you see the intersection of mobile gaming and fashion heading in the next five years?
“We’re starting to continue to see the fashion industry recognize that their core customers are spending countless captivated hours per week playing games and that games are a huge opportunity to grab their attention and drive brand discovery. We’ve already seen this with Gucci in Roblox and Balenciaga in Fortnite, but we’ll continue to see more where fashion is core to the experience, like what we are doing with REVOLVE in BELLEMINT. People are coming to BELLEMINT to engage with fashion specifically, which is a signal of higher purchase intent, meaning experiences like these will be increasingly more valuable to brands.”
What are the challenges of integrating real-world brands into a mobile game?
“It comes down to relationships, and by that I mean both the relationship with the brands and with your customers.
You have to have a deep understanding of what your customers/players are interested in and what their motivations are, so that you are choosing the right brands to put in front of them. Our Stylists (what we call our players) love a mix of real world and fantasy, so we have a lot of both every day and occasion items available to style with and shop on REVOLVE, and we are also working with some innovative up-and-coming brands like Bent Kahina, who has a futuristic vibe that plays to the fantasy element, yet still has the elevated, high-fashion feel that we know is important to our Stylists.
On the brand side, you have to establish strong relationships on a foundation of trust. Gaming is a new space for brands, so handing over their designs to be digitally rendered can be nerve wracking. You need to build the confidence that you will handle their designs with precision and care, and present their brand in a way that aligns with their vision.”
What are your best practices for launching and promoting new games in 2025?
- Test everything – you never know what might work/not work.
- Lean into your partners – ask questions, get support and always be open to new ideas.
- Get inspiration outside of gaming – think about where your target audience is and what else they are engaging in, then look at those brands/platforms to understand how they are connecting with the same people you want to connect with.
What are key learnings from launching a game with brand partnerships that bridge the game into the real world?
“Prioritize customer value – think about what’s going to be most valuable for the customer first and foremost. We never wanted our game to feel like an ad for REVOLVE. Our goal was to create a fashion playground that allows for self-expression and organic discovery of the items you can fall in love with and want to bring into your real life. Plus, we offer many perks along the way when you do decide to shop (discounts, extra loyalty points, etc.). By priortizing driving value for and engaging our Stylists, we are able to drive better and long-term value for REVOLVE.
Get input from the partner and understand their customer wants and needs. We worked very closely with REVOLVE from the very beginning to design and iterate on the experience. We did focus groups and playtest sessions with their customers that gave us invaluable insight into how we could design something that would be engaging for their customers who might not traditionally play mobile games.
Get creative! For Muus in particular, we are not necessarily targeting a traditional “gamer” audience, so it pushed us to think outside of the box for how to reach those who don’t think of themselves as gamers or don’t traditionally play mobile games. It was a lot of fun working with REVOLVE to explore how we can appeal to their customers, and how we are integrating with REVOLVE Festival (which is a music festival they throw in Palm Desert the same weekend as the first weekend of Coachella) is getting to the core of what we want the game to be about – translating digital inspiration into memorable real world moments.”
Lessons from fashion to mobile game UA
There’s a lot mobile marketers can learn from the fashion industry. From brand storytelling to audience engagement, fashion has long excelled at creating strong emotional connections, a strategy that is proving to be just as powerful in mobile game UA .
BELLEMINT’s approach highlights the importance of integrating real-world brands in ways that feel organic and valuable to players, rather than forced advertisements. By prioritizing customer experience, building trust with brand partners, and thinking beyond traditional UA playbooks, BELLEMINT has built a unique space where gaming and fashion seamlessly intersect.
Amanda’s lessons from fashion to mobile game UA highlight understanding player motivations, experimenting with new marketing approaches, and embracing creative partnerships is key to success. The future of mobile gaming isn’t just about entertainment. It’s about immersive, lifestyle-driven experiences that engage players in new ways.
Want to explore a creative-level attribution approach to UA? Let’s talk!
