The next big thing: How can brands use Metaverse Marketing
Written by Lulu Lo
Brands are jumping on the Metaverse bandwagon. Read on to learn about the features of Metaverse marketing, how it could benefit brands, examples, and tips before creating a Metaverse campaign.
The next big thing: How can brands use Metaverse Marketing
Metaverse is a new virtual reality world combining AR, VR, and gamified experience, but it’s also more than that. It’s the reality that exists beyond the real world, and there are many ways your brand can get the most out of it. As more and more brands enter the Metaverse, it’s time for marketers to catch up.
To navigate this brave new world, you need to understand what Metaverse and Web3.0 marketing are and how to use them to benefit your business. Don’t know how to utilize Metaverse marketing in your brand? Let’s get into it.
What is the Metaverse?
The metaverse concept originated in novelist Neal Stephenson’s 1992 book Snow Crash as an anarchic online world where people could interact with one another.
Today’s version of the metaverse allows people to explore and interact with each other in a virtual space using avatars. It’s an always-on, digital environment for people to shop, socialize, play, attend events and interact with people from around the globe, a world where everything is connected.
Features of Metaverse #1: Immersive Experience
Metaverse is built on the Unreal Engine, allowing metaverse service providers to create an extensive and immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experience, pulling users into the 3D world.
Features of Metaverse #2: Avatar Creation & Social Interaction
Avatars can be customized to reflect the users, who can interact with other people’s avatars. Users can attend events, travel around the Metaverse, and even go on dates.
Features of Metaverse #3: Futuristic & Gamified Experience
Metaverse delivers real gamification with immersion, emotion, aspiration, and socialization, allowing users to come together to have fun and make them feel connected while creating their own experiences.
Features of Metaverse #4: Customizable Space
Users can customize their environments with objects like furniture, plants, and decorations. Whether it’s a business, school, or home. They can invite friends to visit these spaces and even hold events.
Features of Metaverse #5: Decentralization
Decentralization is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. The idea of it is to move power away from centralized organizations, and distribute it among a network of participants.
The benefit of a decentralized metaverse is that the user will be in charge of it, the creator can own their product of work, and ensure their creativity is being protected. Users have their own virtual experiences and assets with economic value, and they can trade them without a centralized authority.
How can Metaverse Marketing benefit your brand?
The rise of Metaverse, NFT, and VR technology has given brands new opportunities to create immersive experiences that engage customers in exciting new ways.
#1 New & Creative Way to connect with younger generations
As Metaverse continues to grow in popularity, it enables companies to target the young age group and drive brand loyalty among them. Vans, a skate shoe company, says Metaverse is the best place to build brand awareness among its core demographic of 13- to 35-year-olds. 48 million people have visited Vans’s online park so far. By creating more immersive experiences, companies can make the most of Metaverse to target Millennials and Generation X audiences.
#2 Enhance Brand Awareness and Brand Image
The Metaverse trend is still new in the market. Brands that use Metaverse technologies are seen as innovative and forward-thinking, which helps to refresh their brand image.
#3 Interactive Experience
The Internet is mostly used for passive viewing—photos, videos, and endless scrolling when Metaverse allows for exploration, encouraging self-discovery by creating an interactive experience. This changes how people will use the Internet in the future.
How can companies market in the Metaverse effectively?
By creating engaging and interactive experiences with an NFT marketing strategy, companies can effectively market in the Metaverse. For example, you can let customers build their own products with your brand and mint as NFTs, or gamify with branded NFT collectibles. Furthermore, an NFT can also be a ticket to a private community and join hidden events.
Example #1: Australian Open
In Jan 2022, Australian Open officially jumps into the Metaverse by launching a virtual event on the crypto and NFT-enabled universes, Decentraland. It has become one of the first major sporting events entering virtual space. Except for real-time interaction with other fans and live match data, holders of its non-fungible tokens (NFTs), AO Art Ball, will be air-dropped with exclusive attire. By turning the IP into digital memorabilia, AO successfully ties it back to an experience, connecting with customers emotionally and enhancing customer experience.
Example #2: Metaverse Fashion Week
The first-ever Metaverse Fashion Week was held in March 2022, featuring luxury brands, household names, and digital-native designers, such as Etro, Dundas, and Dolce & Gabbana. Not only does it convert 2D product images into 3D experiences, but Metaverse Fashion Week also offers an immersive shopping experience where buying virtual clothing in Decentraland makes a physical twin of it appear in your real wardrobe.
Example #3: Samsung Treasure Hunt
Samsung launched the “Galaxy S22 Treasure Hunt” Campaign to promote the new products. The campaign included a treasure hunt and user-generated content event in the metaverse, which helped Samsung engage young people in exploring customized experiences. Users could decorate their own virtual space with Samsung products, empowering them with customized experiences.
Is your brand ready for Metaverse marketing?
The Metaverse is not like other platforms; it’s a place where users can become part of the brand story. Before you get started, there are things that needed attention:
A good story
Metaverse Marketing is essentially storytelling with a purpose. The idea is to create an experience for customers beyond just selling; it also involves making users feel like they’re part of something special.
Besides creating content, it also creates a compelling narrative that connects with customers on an emotional level, driving hype and helping your metaverse stand. It will be hard to engage your audiences if you don’t have a good story to support your metaverse marketing.
Resources and expertise
Be prepared to change as quickly as the technology around you. It’s not just that technology evolves quickly but also trends. Brands will need to work with metaverse service providers, digital marketing agencies, and NFT, Metaverse marketing & production agencies, to master Web3 marketing and create virtual environments for wider customer engagement.
NFT, Metaverse Marketing & Production Agency in Hong Kong
Marketers who use the new metaverses in the future will be able to reach out and engage younger customers in ground-breaking ways with revenue opportunities.
However, developing Metaverse or NFT marketing strategies can be challenging without full-stack technologies. Backed by AI, green blockchain, and digital marketing technologies, the Hong Kong agency New Digital Noise is a one-stop Metaverse, NFT marketing service provider to help you design, mint, launch, and promote Metaverse and NFT projects. We have your back from integrated Web3 marketing and branding strategies, NFT design, and Metaverse immersive experience, to Web3 community building! Contact us now if you’d like to learn more!
Q&A
What role do VR and AR play in the metaverse?
Virtual reality offers an immersive experience for anyone who can put on a headset. It enables anyone to see and work in a digital world. With full VR headsets, users can dive into a 360-degree virtual world, where people can move around easily. On the other hand, augmented reality reflects the digital world in the real world. AR-connected glasses could help develop new 3D virtual environments, while VR could drive better engagement in metaverse participants.
What companies are leading the way in the metaverse?
Aside from the top names in tech, such as Microsoft, Sony, and Meta, Nvidia, Niantic, Apple, and Decentraland have also invested in developing the metaverse.
For example, Nvidia has created Omniverse for creators in 3D modeling, simulation, and design. Decentraland is one of the open advocates of the metaverse, and it recently recorded sales of virtual real estate worth more than $2 million. The company behind Pokemon Go has also dived into building the metaverse; it has raised an investment of $300 million for this purpose.
