The Metaverse is ushering in a new world where people can play and discover digital marketing. Here are the implications of Metaverse marketing for your brand.
Many individuals believe that the latest internet paradigm change is already well underway: the Metaverse, they claim, is only around the corner. Or rather, it’s already here.
Did you know the Metaverse is predicted to reach a total market size of $800 billion by 2024? For something so new, and so fresh, that’s mind-boggling.
The thing is because it’s so new, it can be intimidating to get into. You’ve seen the big names getting in on the action and it looks incredible, but how do you compete?
If you’re ready to get into the world of Metaverse marketing but don’t know where to start? This article is for you.
What Is Metaverse Marketing?
The Metaverse is both thrilling and promising because nothing is completely set in stone. The Metaverse has the potential to be an enormous opportunity for marketers, but only if they prioritize consumers and their experiences above all else.
Having a role in how the Metaverse looks (and how customers and brands interact with it) is the new battleground for major internet companies like Facebook, Adobe, and Apple. While there are many unanswered concerns about what the Metaverse will become, it is a location where brands can begin acting and interacting with customers with this eventual future in mind.
How the Metaverse Works
The basic concept of the Metaverse is straightforward and ultimately easy to understand. Simply put, the Metaverse refers to an internet-based digital experience that fills each of these four categories. It must be:
Persistent
Immersive
Three dimensional
Fully virtual
We can use the Metaverse to work, play, connect with those around us, or even buy and consume goods and media. To make things even more interesting, the things we pay for can exist solely in the virtual world.
It’s also a misconception to believe that the Metaverse is a single, connected and interoperable reality because it isn’t. Each entity, whether it’s coming from a group or company, has its own membership, access, and monetization rights. Each will also have its own creative formats, with commercial and technological significations differing widely across each platform.
Ultimately, the term “Metaverse” talks about a series of connecting but separate worlds and experiences. It’s also the recognition that we are fast approaching a more immersive digital landscape than ever before. This has massive implications for the commercial world.
How Businesses and Brands Are Using the Metaverse
This virtual environment is already being shaped by a few big corporations, with entertainment and gaming giants leading the charge. Major console and PC games, like Fortnite and Roblox, have normalized the idea of playing and socializing with other players in virtual environments.
Speaking of Roblox, they allow users to create and play in immersive environments they have developed and monetized themselves. Another great example is Decentraland, which is a 3D virtual environment that is completely user-owned.
It allows users to build and develop their own worlds and ranges from theme parks to galleries. Users even have the option to charge visitors to visit their “resorts.” This is predominantly powered by blockchain technology and supported by companies like MetaVRse and Unity, which are developing servers and engines to make Augmented and Virtual reality faster and more seamless.
Metaverse Brands: The Benefits of Virtual Marketing
So we can see the implications in gaming, entertainment, and even corporate environments, with Microsoft as the prime example of this. For those organizations still on the fence, it’s critical that each brand researches and finds its niche in this new world.
When they do this, they can balance the risk-reward equation. In order to achieve this, it’s necessary to understand what’s feasible, but there are plenty of real-world examples of what is possible and what’s not. To be honest, the limitations of possibility are subject to imagination and budget.
These are just a handful of the potential benefits your brand could engage with:
Branded experiences
Virtual goods
Immersive sponsorships
Virtual showrooms and dressing rooms
NFT exchange for physical goods
Prototyping and simulation
At the end of the day, it’s up to you and your brand to decide what’s going to work best for you. We’ll touch on how to take full advantage of that in a moment. For now, let’s have a quick look at some of the downsides, or risks, of Metaverse marketing.
The Potential Risks
The Metaverse is still in its early stages, and there are some lessons for marketers to learn. For starters, companies must embrace their own digital transformations. Much of the current work entails updating asset libraries. Where existing assets may be 2D, people are realizing they need to be 3D, especially for forward-facing brands.
For many firms, NFTs are proving to be a good place to experiment with Metaverse features. NFTs are becoming better understood and thus a wonderful bridge between more traditional consumers and technologically informed buyers.
Determining return on investment is another challenge. It can be expensive and time-consuming to build entire universes. Marketers are finding it challenging to track return on ad spend, which is significantly easier on other platforms. And some companies are wary because of this, as the Metaverse doesn’t always allow for easy monitoring.
But the early days of social media were not without their own flaws. We can never expect something to be perfect right off the get-go. And, there is some credence to being the first to revolutionize a space.
Using Metaverse Marketing to Its Full Extent
The digital landscape demands intellectual curiosity, so brands should always have an experiment, adapt, and learn mindset. The Metaverse could signal the new era of digital human evolution, changing the way we communicate, connect, and transact online. So, staying on the sidelines for too long is unlikely.
Find Your Audience
Consider how long each person in your target demographic spends in the Metaverse on average and adjust your own marketing speed accordingly. Companies catering to a younger demographic, for example, are unlikely to have the luxury of sitting out the Metaverse for long.
Who is your audience, and what are they currently doing online? Think about your current and future customers, and consider their involvement with the Metaverse. This will shape your move into the space, as well as how quickly it happens.
What Are They Up To?
When we say “they,” we mean the competition. Keeping an eye on current or upcoming trends has always been important in marketing, but doubly so in the Metaverse. Within your own company, find time to hold conversations about what your peers are up to in the Metaverse.
Communication is vital. So much of this wide new sector can be intimidating, especially with seemingly incomprehensible concepts like NFTs. Can you find a champion for these issues who can present relatable, concrete examples to each meeting?
Find Applications, Create Marketing Content
Examine whether the Metaverse provides the opportunity for your brand to not only try new things but also to achieve long-term goals, sustainability potentially being one of them. What can you try out in the Metaverse to see if you can find a more sustainable way to serve your customers?
Plan Your Grand Entrance
Ask your team for a game plan, because you’ll need one. How is your brand going to enter the Metaverse for the first time? Plenty of designers and agencies are eagerly observing the behavior of mass media and upcoming trends, so it’s a great time to inquire about what they’re seeing throughout their client portfolio.
What testing can you put in place to help you get your brand comfortable in the Metaverse? With the changeability of the field, it’s important to make your big entrance a real bang.
Hold Steady and Keep Balanced
If you’re already in it, be aware that all new areas include risk and reward; moderate your expectations accordingly, recognizing that it may be very unpredictable and lacking in norms. Thankfully, we’ve seen some of that already, as well as the adaptability and resilience shown by the pandemic.
With any innovation, there will come failed attempts and floundering experiments. It’s okay to fail, so long as we always aim to fail forward. Why did something not work? How can we make it better?
Working With an Expert in the Field
Anyone in brand marketing or leadership roles should thinking about how they can flex their creative and storytelling muscles. The creative palette is expanding, and now is the time to get in on the action.
We know Metaverse marketing is scary. It’s big, sure, but scary big. We also know just how important it is to get started on the right foot. The prepared foot. That’s why working with someone who knows what they’re doing (and who knows what on earth is going on out there) is so important.
Get in touch today and let’s discuss your brand’s digital marketing strategy. Remember, strategy is an informed opinion about how to win. And we want you to win.
Brandhouse is a creative brand marketing agency specializing in brand strategy, brand identity, and brand marketing. We position ourselves as the chief brand marketing officers for service-based start-ups who are passionate about innovation and building memorable mission-driven brands. Our services are designed with founders and start-ups in mind. On-demand holistic brand marketing services that can support brand building at various stages of growth – brand awareness, brand consideration, and brand preference.
