Metaverse and Marketing: A match made in heaven?

It’s a brave new world out there. Advancements in science and technology have pushed both consumers and companies to adopt new practices to not just access products but to view them too.

Since Mark Zuckerberg in 2021 declared that Metaverse is not just limited to Meta but it will create a new chapter for internet all over the world. The announcement itself brought along a host of other companies across industries to view Metaverse as an opportunity to put their brands out there for farther reach and recognition.

But let’s first understand, what exactly is metaverse?

Venture capitalist Matthew Ball opinionated that the metaverse often includes virtual or augmented reality-based immersive environments. People can communicate with one another across different platforms in the 3D, immersive metaverse.

The general characteristics of metaverse is that it relies on user generated content, it makes use of human interface technologies that make it fully functional which can further lend support to cryptocurrencies, NFT’s etc.

When we look at marketing’s evolution from 1.0 to 4.0, we can see trend of marketing becoming more immersive, customer experience oriented and technology ready. This makes marketers already in a position to look towards opportunities and use of metaverse to stand out from the crowd. Many companies have already jumped on the wagon to use metaverse for their marketing plans. Big giants like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta have initiated their interest in not just creating metaverse but to also facilitate unique, community and social experiences across industries to give customer a comprehensive experience.

Now there are various strategies a marketer can use in metaverse to be more visible as a brand. Those are as follows:

• Creating gaming metaverse

• Curating brand avatar experiences to enhance customer awareness and engagement

• Using virtual influencers by creating digital avatars

• Organising live events in the metaverse

• NFT’s creation

The metaverse is already being used by major corporations like Wendy’s for marketing purposes. In the video game Fortnite’s metaverse, Wendy’s mission is to destroy every burger freezer, suggesting that the food they are serving is still fresh.

Warner Bros. Pictures held a Roblox party in 2021 to advertise the summer movie “In the Heights.” The block party introduced the Roblox metaverse to the famed Washington Heights neighbourhood from the movie through its music, dance, and Latin American culture.

The video game Louis: The Game, created by Louis Vuitton to commemorate the founder’s 200th birthday, follows Vivienne, a character generated by the brand monogram, as she travels through the virtual world and stops at exciting spots all over the world in pursuit of collectible NFT candles.

With all good things talked about the metaverse, few issues emerge as the new technology seeps in our lives. The first issue that surrounds metaverse is privacy and security concerns as many users have already expressed the concerns on their data ,purchase behaviour etc being shared b y the companies. The other issue relates with not enough people owning AR/VR headsets to experience metaverse. The marketers have to be aware of the thought that not many users will be on metaverse in the first place limiting companies’ reach.

As metaverse is still a growing concept, there are still issues like, user content taking over company’ content, credibility and payment issues, companies have a lot to figure on how to use metaverse efficiently to have a good ROI to continue using it as a means of promotion

GNIOT Institute of Management Studies
PGDM institutes in Greater Noida
Website: www.gims.net.in
Email: admission@gims.net.in
Toll Free No.: 18002746969