Gen Alpha is getting zits, so acne brands are meeting them at a popular hangout 

Gen Alpha, the youngest generation of active consumers in the market, are teetering on the onset of teen angst. For many of them, an unavoidable trigger of it will be those pesky hormonal-triggered breakouts.

It’s a moment for the skincare industry to once again swoop in and offer tweens and teens a smorgasbord of problem-skin creams, gels, patches and facemasks treatments. That part hasn’t changed for generations of consumers. What’s evolved are the strategies brands are using today to reach the youngest of them.

Previous generations of teens, for instance, would see ads for acne brands in glossy magazines, newspaper inserts, on TV during Nickelodeon commercial breaks and on the radio.  None of this will effectively work with Gen Alpha, a fully digitally native cohort. They live and breathe the internet, gaming and social media. 

So in March, Switzerland-based Galderma, maker of skincare brand Cetaphil and Differin (a popular over-the-counter acne treatment sold in Walmart, Target, Ulta and on Amazon), for the first time took its acne brand to one of Gen Alpha’s most popular hangouts—the gaming platform Roblox.

Roblox has about 98 million active daily users, with 80% of them below the age of 25. On average, users spent a total of 21.7 billion hours on the platform just in its first quarter this year, up 30% from a year ago.

“The when, the where and the why of [our] effort is very rooted in data,” says Tara Loftis, global president of dermatological skincare at Galderma. “Acne impacts 85% of people between the ages of 12 and 24. Where are tweens and younger GenZers spending most of their time? The answer is gaming.” Loftis and her team partnered with marketing agency Dentsu and “dreamed up what it would look like for Differin to integrate directly into Roblox.”

A novel approach for skincare

Walmart, Fenty Beauty, Crocs, H&M, PacSun, Nike and e.l.f. Beauty are among dozens of major brands that have created their presence in the Roblox metaverse. However, Differin’s entry, according to industry experts, makes it one of the first brands in the acne-care category to now be on Roblox.

It is a novel approach by skincare brands trying to connect with young consumers, says Larissa Jensen, senior vice president and global beauty industry advisor at market research firm Circana.

“Cosmetics brands, such as e.l.f, have been turning to Roblox to reach a very specific younger demographic. That isn’t new. But, for skincare [brands], it’s a little bit more challenging to integrate skincare into a gaming platform,” Jensen says. “With makeup, you can engage with the brand through gameplay where you put makeup on your avatar. It’s harder to interact in the metaverse with skincare. If Galderma has success with this strategy, you can bet that other brands will be paying attention.”

The Roblox activation for Differin involves three mini games (for players ages 13 and up) as part of the brand’s “Level Up Lobby.” 

In one game called “Foam Blaster,” the challenge is to use a blaster to clean hovering faces with Differin’s 10% benzoyl peroxide maximum strength foaming cleanser. Players in “Power Patch Splat” launch Differin power patches at the right moment to splat pimples.

In “Zit Zapper,” the objective is to zap zits as they appear on hovering faces with Differin’s 10% Benzoyl Peroxide spot treatment.

The goal with these roblox games, said Loftis, is to create brand awareness and educate “Gen Zalpa” (Gen Alpha and younger GenZers) about skincare through gamifying acne care and integrating Differin into that experience.

Although players can’t buy Differin products on Roblox, they are able to upload their receipt for any Differin purchase to unlock virtual rewards in the games.

“What we didn’t want to do was to have this look like ad necessarily, in the traditional sense,” says Loftis. “Two reasons for that. We are not able to target anyone under the age of 13, or to target people specifically that have acne. But what we can do is make that assumption about where 80% of acne sufferers are. They are Gen Zalpa and they’re on Roblox.

Chasing the Roblox “Gold Rush”

Clay Colarusso, head of TeenVoice, a teen market research and insights company, is very familiar with the “Gold Rush” of brands to the Roblox metaverse as they strive to capture the attention of the youngest shoppers and influence their future spending habits.

Marketers trying to unlock the tween and teen markets and the billions of household dollars that they’re either influencing their parents to spend, or the dollars they’re spending directly, has been happening for decades, says Colarusso.

“I’m a child of the 80s and I distinctly remember the toy and breakfast cereal commercials that would play one after another as I watched Saturday morning cartoons,” says Colarusso. “Kids back then would go to mom and dad and ask them to put the toy on the birthday wishlist.”

The difference today, he says, is that the path to purchase is much shorter through digital marketing than it was with traditional media in the 80s.

“If I’m on Roblox and I have an opportunity to buy, and maybe even have my parent’s credit card already preloaded in there, I can purchase immediately. Or, I can influence my parents to buy it for me,” Colarusso says. “It’s a marketer’s dream. But where it gets tricky is on the data side.”

Brands have to be careful when they target young consumers. The Federal Trade Commission, through its Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), prohibits companies, websites and online services from collecting personal information of children under 13 without parental approval.

“The concern is really less about brands marketing to this demographic, with certain obvious exceptions, and more about data collection and privacy concerns especially when dealing with consumers under 13,” Colarusso says. “This is why folks get really nervous when they think about marketing or how to market to kids, and rightfully so. They need to behave in a judicious and prudent way.”

Roblox says on its website that the platform is “compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) and other international regulatory standards.” For people 13 and older who are eligible to see ads, Roblox said ads “must be clearly and prominently disclosed using simple and understandable language.”

“Hate to be sold to”

According to Galderma, in less than 30 days after the Differin Roblox games launched, the Differin “Level Up Lobby” campaign (which ends on May 31) has attracted more than three million visits with more than 365,000 mini games and nearly 12,000 hours of brand engagement on the gaming platform.

“We know that Gen Zalpha hates being sold to. These are games. If they struggle with acne, we hope to educate them about skincare through gaming that resonates,” says Loftis. “If not, it’s still a fun game.”

So far, she says a fairly high number of people playing the games are “playing them completely.”

“We went big on our gaming, which means we basically moved away 100% from traditional advertising for Differin,” Loftis says. “Gen Zalpha isn’t going to buy an acne patch because they see an ad. They’re going to buy it because they see a really compelling before and after result that their favorite gamer or TikToker talks about.”