Marsh
Mallow, we put a few branded avatar items on the Marketplace and basically nobody finds them. Is there anything we can actually do about discovery, short of buying ads?
Mallow
There is, and the timing is good. Roblox runs a recurring "Call for Content" — a curation program where their team spotlights avatar items around a theme. On June 5, 2026, a Roblox staffer opened the Summer edition. You nominate your items, and from now through early August their curators feature selected picks in seasonal sorts on the Marketplace. It's free, earned visibility — the opposite of buying ads.
Marsh
What can I actually submit?
Mallow
Five, really: avatars, items, emotes, makeup, and bodies. You submit through a form where you describe the item and note which events or holidays it would suit. So it's low effort on your side — you're nominating things you've already made (or are about to make), not building something new for the submission.
Marsh
And what are the curators actually looking for?
Mallow
Seasonal and holiday themes. They named six for this round: The Great Outdoors, Sand and Surf, Prismatic, Fireworks and festivals, Summer Sweets, and Back to School. The move is to look at your catalog — or your summer drop — and ask which items genuinely fit one of those. A beachwear accessory fits "Sand and Surf"; a sparkler emote fits "Fireworks and festivals." Match the item to the theme honestly; don't force it.
Marsh
If we get picked, what does "featured" actually mean?
Mallow
Your item appears in curated sorts on the Marketplace — the themed rows players browse. That's a genuine discovery surface, and it's a placement you'd otherwise have no way to buy directly. Eligibility is broad: Roblox says any avatar creator who meets the Community Standards and Marketplace Policies is eligible to be featured. No special partner status required.
Marsh
Honestly — is this worth a brand's time versus just running paid placements?
Mallow
It complements paid, it doesn't replace it. Think of it as earned seasonal visibility at near-zero cost. The only real work is making genuinely on-theme items and submitting them on time. For a brand that already has an avatar-item presence, skipping a free curation slot during the biggest browsing season of the summer is leaving reach on the table. Submit the items that fit; don't manufacture junk just to qualify.
Marsh
You mentioned eligibility requires meeting Marketplace Policies. Is there a policy I should know about right now?
Mallow
Good catch — and yes, there's a second Marketplace story unfolding this month: the Marketplace Policy for Heads. If your brand sells, or plans to sell, custom avatar heads, there's a hard deadline attached to it. If you only sell accessories, clothing, or emotes, it doesn't bind you — but it's worth understanding, because it signals where avatar tech is going.
Marsh
We don't really make heads. But walk me through it — what does the policy require?
Mallow
Heads have to support facial expressions. Concretely, a compliant head needs a caged model so accessories layer correctly, defined eye and mouth regions that respond to blink and mouth-open/close animations, and a minimum of 17 FACS controls — Facial Action Coding System controls — enough to express joy and sadness. Importantly, it does not have to look like a realistic human face; a stylized head qualifies as long as it has the rig underneath.
Marsh
And the deadline you mentioned?
Mallow
Two dates, most recently pushed back on June 1 (after earlier extensions) to give creators more time. September 1, 2026: non-compliant heads are taken offsale — you can no longer sell them. October 27, 2026: heads that were never updated are removed from users' inventories. So if heads are part of your plan, compliance by September 1 is the line that matters for selling.
Marsh
Rigging a 3D head with 17 of these FACS controls sounds like real production work. That's a lot to ask before September.
Mallow
It would be — except Roblox is building tooling for exactly this. A 2D-to-3D head conversion tool already shipped in May, and on top of that Roblox says it's working on automatically generating 3D versions of your existing heads, which you can then accept or refine, aiming to have these available for your review by mid-July. So the smart sequence for a brand with heads is: don't hand-rig everything now, lean on the conversion tool and wait for the mid-July automatic generation, refine the output, and be compliant well before the September 1 offsale.
Marsh
So the two things connect — the free feature, and the policy.
Mallow
They do. The Call for Content is the opportunity: get your seasonal items in front of players for free this summer. The heads policy is the hygiene: make sure nothing in your Marketplace lineup is about to go offsale or vanish from inventories. Both live in the same place — your Marketplace presence — so handle them in the same review.
Marsh
…Executive summary?
Mallow
(1) Roblox opened the Summer Call for Content on June 5; nominate avatars, items, emotes, and makeup via the form to be featured in seasonal curated sorts through early August — free visibility. (2) Target the six themes: The Great Outdoors, Sand and Surf, Prismatic, Fireworks and festivals, Summer Sweets, Back to School. (3) Separately, non-compliant heads go offsale September 1 and leave inventories October 27; compliant heads need a caged model, eye/mouth regions, and 17+ FACS controls. (4) Automatic 3D head generation is aimed for review by mid-July — wait for it if you sell heads, then comply before September 1.
Marsh
So this week: submit our summer items to a free feature, and put 'check if we sell any heads' on the to-do list with a September 1 flag. Both doable.
