The Future of Digital Marketing in the Metaverse in 2022

Although not entirely new, the Metaverse came to the attention of most marketing departments around the world after Facebook changed its name to Meta in October 2021.

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted at the time, the decision was intended to connect people more closely on the social network, as it had in its early days, hoping that Facebook—or "Meta"—could be seen over time as a company part of the metaverse.

But what is the metaverse? It's the first question we must ask ourselves to understand how it could affect our digital marketing strategies.

The metaverse and digital marketing

In simple terms, the metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds that people can connect to through Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) devices.

As a digital channel, the metaverse is relatively new to marketing. Yet, recent campaigns have seen major brands, such as Gucci, take an interest in the immersive marketing capabilities this technology can offer, through a collaboration with Roblox that resulted in the Gucci Garden where the brand's virtual clothing was displayed, tested, and sold for avatars. At the same time, we find other international brands that have not only been around for a long time but have also maintained an almost exclusive dedication to this area since their inception, such as Minecraft, Pokemon, and Fortnite—the latter of which has also consolidated highly successful collaborations with franchises like Marvel.

Beyond the cases of major brands, the metaverse is an important trend for digital marketing in 2022 that companies and businesses cannot ignore from now on.

As has been pointed out by eMarketer, it is expected that by 2023 there will be more than 65 million people using VR and more than 110 million using AR, projecting a significant potential growth.

Key points of the Metaverse for marketers

The Metaverse contains a number of unique and innovative features that can be interesting and beneficial to marketers:

• The Metaverse is always active and doesn't pause or shut down when users leave. It's still there.
• It exists and operates in real time, making it easy for marketers to reach their target audiences using B2B software.
• Users have the independence to perform several activities at the same time.
• The Metaverse is fully functional, allowing users to buy, sell, create, invest, learn, and own items within and from the same platform.
• It contains a wide range of different platforms that can work together or independently, bringing brand articles or messages from one video game or digital environment to another.
• It allows you to create, upload, and/or share user-generated content so other users can view and interact with it. It's similar to user-generated content in social media marketing, which has proven to be a great way to increase brand awareness in the digital realm.

Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing in the Metaverse

As many have said, the social networks of the future will be more like platforms like Fortnite or Roblox.

Allowing users to create 3D VR or AR avatars that they can use to navigate websites and make purchases and sales, the possibilities for marketers are endless throughout the entire customer journey.

Today, only approximately 31% of web content can be classified as interactive, with traditional elements such as videos, images, and text being part of the “static web.”

By enabling the Metaverse to create and share interactive graphics that respond to user actions, stimulating exploration and discovery, brands could leverage these capabilities to their advantage by enabling users to learn more about their products and services through gamification and advanced immersion experiences.

By reflecting real-world situations or activities they carry out in the real world—or beyond—brands can experience the catalysis of greater long-term connections with their customers.

Challenges and the future of digital marketing in the metaverse

It is true that, outside of the reach of large corporations, many small and medium-sized businesses are already investing in the Metaverse today.

This trend, while remaining cautious about underlying challenges such as technological and access barriers, data security and privacy, and the protection of brands' intellectual property, continues to uncover and explore its immense opportunities for innovative business and professional strategies.

Ultimately, the broader Metaverse, as well as other highly anticipated metaverses like Facebook's Metaverse (Meta), will test the idea of providing fully functional environments where users can learn, build, explore, share, and shop with even greater freedom than in real life. This could place brands that successfully create new virtual realities available to their target audiences in a promising new era of digital marketing that will set them apart from their competitors.