Metaverse Marketing: The Next Big Thing in Marketing Frontier

Metaverse landscape has been making headlines for months now. Greater than a fad, metaverse has been a 3D virtual universe herald shift from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0, influencing our way of life. But what is the meaning of metaverse? Think of Fortnight, a virtual reality game where different avatars compete, fight and attend events within a particular metaverse. Here, each person playing in real life has their avatar and plays in the game with their own, personalized digital representation.

Although metaverse advertising is still in its infancy, it will continue to shape the future of business and marketing.

Marketing in Metaverse

Today marketers need to keep up to speed with the latest technological developments. As an owner, stakeholder, or marketer, you need to understand that metaverse is not “just another trend.” It is here to stay and is making its way to be the next big thing.

Metaverse Marketing is transforming customer behavior. Partly because of the coronavirus pandemic, more people shop, work, play and learn online. The metaverse promises a “phygital” solution. It seeks to blur the line between physical and virtual reality and change how we experience the world.

As marketers flock to the metaverse, brands view this as an occasion to reach new audiences, improve consumer confidence, and explore potential revenue streams.

Roblox, for one, has 200 million active users, who spent $319 million on in-game currency in just the second quarter of 2020. Remarkably, 67% of online gaming platforms’ demographic fall below 16. With skyrocketing engagement, metaverse platforms are shaping 21st-century consumer behavior.

Vans released a virtual skatepark in Roblox, where players could try new tricks and earn points to redeem in the virtual store to custom make their metaverse avatar. The Vans executive team says the online metaverse is the best place to build brand awareness among the core demographic of 13 to 35 years olds. The online park is experiencing a whooping spike of 48 million visitors to date.

Gucci also got in the game. The luxury brand released Gucci Virtual 25 that you can wear in augmented reality (AR) or with platforms like Roblox and VRChat.

Here Are Some Unique Metaverse Examples That You Should Know About

• After integrating metaverse to some fashion brands, dimension studio made $6.5 million in revenues. Here, when you create a metaverse set-up allowing a user to enter a platform, get scanned by 106 cameras, and enter the virtual worlds to test our garments and other items.

• The renowned open-world sandbox game Grand Theft Auto V released clothing similar to the outfits of Hong Kong protestors. This paved the way for many artists who have been repurposing metaverse trends for political expressions.

• In December 2021, Nike acquired RTFKT, a non-fungible token studio that creates digital collectibles ( like digital sneakers) to combine culture and gaming. Earlier, RTFKT collaborated with teenage artist FEWOCiOUS to sell real sneakers paired with virtual ones, selling 600 pairs and NFTs in six minutes and netting over $3.1 million. Nike has recently filed seven new trademark applications that indicate its intent to produce and sell Nike-branded virtual shoes, clothes and accessories for use in metaverse environments.

• Coca-Cola collaborated with Tafi to create virtual wearables for Coca-Cola’s first-ever non-fungible token (NFT) collectible in the metaverse to celebrate international friendship day. Later, the beverage company auctioned an NFT loot box on OpenSea, that contained digital apparel to be worn in the metaverse world of Decentraland.

This friendship box is a reimagined version of Coca-Cola’s highly collectible vending machine, futuristic Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket Wearable, a sound Visualizer to seize the experience of sharing a Coca-Cola and a Friendship day card inspired by Coca-Cola’s trading cards from the 1940s.

How Can You Do Marketing in a Metaverse?

Metaverse is always operative, exists in real-time, players have separate actions, and is a complete and effective universe containing user-generated content. The earlier you recognize the potential of the metaverse virtual world, the greater return you’re most likely to earn.

Parallel Metaverse Within Real-Life Marketing

Create marketing experiences that connect real-world experiences to what your brand does in real life. For example, 92% of people value customization in creating their virtual avatars on self-expression.

In June 2021, Stella Artois collaborated with Zed Run to create a Tamagotchi-like experience working with the Kentucky Derby. Here, Zed Run created an online platform where you can trade, compete and even breed the non-fungible token (NFT) horses as a natural entry point.

Immersive Experience is Key

You can offer digital advertising in the metaverse. For example, Bidstack, a video game ad tech company, transformed from real-world outdoor advertising to running ads on virtual billboards. In addition, many companies identify branded installations and events that users can interact with instead of running ads simply.

Metaverse marketplace is immersive; therefore, it’s best to take advantage of this by offering the same immersive experience with your ads and marketing initiatives. Additionally, brands are re-discovering new revenue streams through various metaverse businesses, from the Lil Nas X concert in Roblox to the Gucci Garden experience visits.

Availability of Collectibles

People like collecting things, and the metaverse is yet another space to showcase their interests. When you offer assets or limited edition collectibles, you’re giving users a customized experience over the interface.

Gucci Garden on Roblox offers The Collector’s Room. It allows people to collect limited Gucci items in the metaverse. From their initial sales of the items, Gucci collected 286,000,000 Roblox from the metaverse studio.

Engage with Existing Communities

Generally, people are opposed to advertising. Today, understanding the platform considering the new format into account, metaverse marketing strategy has become requisite. For example, when O2 threw a concert on Fortnite, they partnered with creators who were already experts on the Fortnite platform.

In other words, think of virtual metaverse as influencer campaigns; user-generated content is important, so community members become integral parts of the execution of your campaigns.

Experimenting Continuously

While guiding principles help you with your strategies and tactics marketers can make, the metaverse remains a generally good platform offering plenty of room for experimentation.

While best practices in the virtual world metaverse have yet to be properly established, paradigms have yet to be fully comprehensively created, giving marketers plenty of room to try to be unique and experimental in their approaches.

What Are Some Major Challenges in The Metaverse?

While metaverse projects an exciting future for brands, there are challenges to overcome along the way. For one, while metaverse is gaining momentum among different brands, technological requirements are becoming an issue. If you are planning to explore the eccentric world of the metaverse, here are some of the pitfalls that you should keep in mind:

User Privacy

While privacy is supposed to be better, information privacy is a primary concern in the metaverse, with companies collecting user data within the platform’s framework, interactions, and wearables projects concerns.

Meta has already created plans to use targeted advertising within the metaverse, raising more concerns over the loss of privacy and the spread of misinformation.

Technological Addiction

Becoming addicted to technology is yet another concern if past statistics are anything to go by. With social media addiction, internet addiction, and video game addiction becoming prevalent among GenZ users, the metaverse is also predicted to produce physical and mental disorders from the prolonged use of technology.

Fragmentation in the society

Integration of metaverse marketing has also amplified the dispersion in society through media split-up and expansion of echo chambers. Moreover, metaverse has also given rise to users’ individual beliefs and distorted perceptions through highly biased content that keeps them engaged and captivated.

Future of Metaverse Marketing

Today, we witness different non-gaming metaverses starting to appear now more than ever. Virtual conventions are now taking place in the metaverse. Users can go to a bunch of booths when you makeshift online.

Imagine car shows taking place in the metaverse! How surreal would it be when you put on some virtual reality glasses and “sit” in a car to experience and see it from the inside out? However, since metaverse marketing and advertising are so new, the prices are still low to run a campaign, making it even better to invest in the metaverse.

If you know your brand has an open mind and know the target audience spends time on a metaverse, it’s time to give it a go. But, of course, the metaverse is different altogether; regular ads won’t work. Here, you’ll need to think creatively and user engagement as your KPI.

Now What?

The customer of tomorrow is already in the virtual realm. Today, brands from different industries are developing metaverse framework strategies to allow early experimentation with the best user experience cost-effectively.

Enhance your touchpoints and understand how immersive technologies can enhance and build towards future interfaces, including wearables. Then, as you create the best ways to engage with the metaverse- whether it’s building an in-house metaverse team- remember to think big.