Marketing in the Metaverse: A Holy Grail for Businesses

You may need to forget about the internet as we know it, the next iteration of it is coming. The Metaverse. 

Unless you have spent the past few weeks in a “wake me when it’s over” mode, you probably have heard enough about the metaverse. But if you haven’t, well, you are about to.

I am not sure what will be left about meaningful human interaction if a substantial part of our day-to-day life will be conducted virtually. That will depend on whether virtual reality is better than reality. 

But since we now care about nothing else other than profit-making, the metaverse has mouth-watering promises to businesses. 

From improved customer experience to selling virtual products, and from virtual concerts to branded shops within games, the metaverse is everything businesses have ever dreamed of.

But what is the Metaverse?

On his keynote at Facebook Connect, Mack Zuckerberg said it is a bit hard to understand the metaverse since it is not here yet. But he excitedly went on to describe what we will be able to do once it arrives. He said, “you’re gonna be able to do almost anything you can imagine—get together with friends and family, work, learn, play, shop, create—as well as entirely new categories that don’t really fit how we think about computers or phones today.” 

That was a good preamble by Mr. Zuckerberg but still, what is the Metaverse?

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Culture Group describe the metaverse as “shared virtual worlds that seamlessly blend applied game mechanics, massive interactive live events (MILE), blockchain-enabled digital goods, and virtual commerce”. Get their white paper here for further reading.

The Metaverse is a  shared social space with avatars to represent users. It is the next-generation version of the internet that relies heavily on virtual reality technology.

Let me put it more clearly. On the internet, as we currently know it, your identity is represented by a user name or a thumbnail image when you interact with websites or social media channels. In the Metaverse, your identity will be represented by an avatar that can move and perform a whole lot of activities as Zuckerberg said above. 

What will make it look like you are beyond the known universe is that you will be able to see, touch, or feel things in the metaverse through the eyes of your avatar using Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality glass. 

See what they are doing at Meta’s Reality Labs on a video below.

How Big is the Metaverse?

The fact that Facebook had to rename itself after the metaverse just tells us how big the opportunities are for businesses in this new future of the internet. Facebook (now Meta) has invested $10 billion to become a metaverse company. And since Facebook, (sorry, Meta) is involved, we somehow know how the Metaverse playbook will be. It will be built on our attention.

Other companies that have dipped their toes into the metaverse include Gucci, Hyundai, and  Warner Bros who have already built their own virtual worlds; Coca-Cola and Crockpot are selling NFTs, Nike and HBO are going all-in into AR and VR experiences.

Marketing in the Metaverse

The immediate beneficiary in the metaverse is the eCommerce industry. Just as the pandemic boosted the e-commerce business to epic scales, the industry is about to see another boost in the metaverse. With improved customer experience, marketing and salespeople are expected to see high conversion rates.

The metaverse will likely solve some of e-commerce’s pain in the butt challenges such as cart abandonment, low customer loyalty, and minuscule conversion rate. Customers will not just browse and read product descriptions on a 2D screen, they will have the effect of entering a 3D store and trying all of the options. Through virtual stores and exhibitions, customers will see, touch, and feel the product. And that will do magic at scaling sales.

The music industry is another area to benefit from the metaverse. Virtual concerts may be the future of the industry. In 2020, Travis Scott’s Fortnite concert received over 12 million attendees. The younger generation is more interested in attending virtual concerts than physical ones and this is the pushing factor for music to enter the metaverse.

Brands will also make a lot of money selling virtual products to avatars. Since avatars are the virtual embodiment of our physical selves, they will need clothes to wear, accessories, and other kinds of possession we have in the physical world. This is a huge opportunity for brands. In fact, inside a gaming platform Roblox, Gucci has already sold a digital-only bag for a price even higher than the bag’s value in the real world.

Moreover, the metaverse will prove handy in research and development. Brands will be able to test market adoption by releasing products virtually before even beginning production of the actual physical products.

Furthermore, the presence of 3D characters will enhance the personal touch of a salesperson because of direct engagement with the customer. I think it is fair to say the metaverse will merge traditional and digital marketing.

Conclusion

The metaverse doesn’t really exist—at least not yet. It has just received a bit of too much hype lately following Facebook’s rebranding. What we currently have is the metaverse at its infancy. But it has mouth-watering opportunities for businesses that every brand wants a bite before the market gets too clouded and harder to grow.