A new advertising canvas:

The metaverse gives marketers a new canvas for storytelling and product promotion. Brands can create immersive experiences in three-dimensional digital environments, allowing users to interact with their products in ways never before imagined. From personalised avatars to the ability to virtually try before you buy, the metaverse opens the door to more immersive and compelling advertising. In addition, augmented reality and virtual reality can be combined with the metaverse to deliver even more immersive and realistic experiences.

Enriched brand experiences:

The metaverse offers the opportunity to create highly immersive and memorable brand experiences. Brands can organise virtual events, such as concerts, art exhibitions or fashion shows, that transcend physical barriers and reach global audiences. These experiences not only generate greater brand recognition, but also foster a deeper emotional connection with consumers. Users can explore themed virtual environments created by brands, participate in interactive activities and share their experiences on social media, amplifying brand reach and encouraging community engagement.

Communities and collaboration:

The metaverse encourages the creation of online communities, where users can connect with like-minded people and share common interests. Brands can leverage these communities to build stronger relationships with their target audience. By actively participating in the metaverse, companies can collaborate with users to design new products, improve the customer experience and gain valuable insights into market preferences and needs. Community participation in product co-creation can generate a sense of ownership and brand loyalty, as well as drive innovation and differentiation in the marketplace.

Native advertising and sponsorship:

In the metaverse, advertising can be integrated more organically and non-intrusively into the digital environment. Brands can sponsor virtual spaces, events or activities, providing added value to users while subtly promoting their products. This form of native advertising is perceived as more acceptable by users, as it does not interrupt the experience, but rather enriches it. For example, a clothing brand could sponsor a virtual dressing room where users can try on different garments and receive personalised recommendations. Native advertising in the metaverse is based on creating relevant and valuable experiences for users, thus generating a more genuine and lasting connection with the brand.

Ethical challenges and considerations:

While the metaverse offers exciting opportunities for digital advertising and marketing, it also poses challenges and ethical considerations. It is essential to strike a balance between the promotion of products and services and the privacy and security of users. Brands must be transparent about data collection and ensure that users have control over their personal information. In addition, inclusion and diversity should be taken into account in the design and implementation of experiences in the metaverse to avoid exclusion or discrimination. Brands should strive to create an inclusive, accessible and safe metaverse where all users feel welcome and represented.

The metaverse is changing the way brands interact with their audience and how consumers experience the digital world. Digital advertising and marketing is transforming as companies explore the possibilities offered by this new virtual territory. From creating immersive and memorable experiences to collaborating with users and native advertising, the metaverse presents a vast array of opportunities for brands willing to embrace this new digital dimension. However, it is critical to address ethical challenges and ensure user privacy and security. With an ethical and user-centric approach, the metaverse can become a powerful driver of innovation and growth in the field of digital advertising and marketing.

La entrada Las Implicaciones del Metaverso en la Publicidad y el Marketing Digital: Explorando Nuevas Fronteras se publicó primero en Vandelay.

Thus, the importance that this group has come to have on the internet, with influence and development in areas such as e-sports, the move to the metaverse and gamification, is immeasurable in the global development of the internet.

And it is under this environment that Discord was created in 2015 as a platform designed to allow the creation of private servers, with text rooms, audio channels and customisable role systems as a product adapted to the uses and needs of the community. gamer.

What advantages can Discord give you in interacting with your audience?

In Discord, each member of the groups is part of a large community within which many different characteristics are shared.

The rooms can be maintained in different presentation modes, customisable, as well as having moderators and chatbots with configurable features; such as those for recording content on specific channels and/or adopting animated character personalities, or for that matter, branded voices.

So, with features like these, it was only a matter of time before Discord, as a catalyst for loyal and engaged communities, served greater purposes such as marketing plans and campaigns for major brands.

Here are two success stories, plus some lessons learned about integrating Discord into the advertising strategies of large companies.

Samsung and its vision of the metaverse

During the event NFT.NYC which took place in New York City last month, Samsung unveiled that it has been expanding the ways and channels through which it interacts with Web3 fans, its own metaverse, by moving into creating digital experiences and virtual wearable devices as branded NFTs.

It so happens that, according to DigidayJust 12 hours after the debut of the company's server, it reached more than 100,000 new members.

And having pointed out Michelle Crossan-Matos, vice president and director of marketing and communications at Samsung Electronics Americathat the brand would be advertising the platform ".as a conversation in Times Square and a billboard“.

In other words, the server is basically following the same principia of Discord by being made up of two separate rooms targeted at key audiences: gamers and Web3 fans interested in NFT or metaverse-related topics.

Thus, Samsung's platform implements the methodology of creating a space where audiences can interact, converse and discuss with each other.

However, it remains to be seen whether, as with DIscord, Samsung will in any way maintain an active and engaged interaction with its community on this server.

Gucci, the experimental vault

Gucci, for its part, set up its own Discord server as part of an NFT strategy.

Not too long ago, the luxury brand shared an invitation to its Discord server through its feed on Twitter.

Being an exclusive brand, following the intention to develop an "exclusive experience" for its community: The brand offered the first 20,000 new members special roles as well as the ability to access NFT-focused channels.

In two days, the channel would have gained more than 28,000 members. Because of this success story, Gucci's parent company Kering went so far as to create a specialised position to dedicate a professional to manage its Discord server to maintain the brand's presence.

How to use Discord in your marketing strategy to build a strong community?

Of course, with news and events about NFTs and the metaverse happening everywhere, filling the internet, it is logical that platforms based on these new dynamic communities would become popular. However, it must be understood that platforms such as Discord could not and should not seek to become the new TikTok.

Discord is a channel to talk about "on a one-to-one basis"You can also engage with your community, receiving instant feedback and having a two-way conversation with interested users.

Leaving your brand from being - at least for a moment - the most prominent thing on the stage; through these channels, the most important thing will always be the relationship you build with your audience. Included here is the objective of making users really feel that they are an integral part of what you are creating; and not just an audience waiting to receive the content or product created for their liking.

In this way, Discord is presented as an essential tool for brands that want to go a step further in communicating with their customers and followers.

La entrada Discord y marcas: Una unión ideal para crear audiencias se publicó primero en Vandelay.

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed out at the time, this decision was aimed at connecting people on the social network more, like its beginnings, in the hope that Facebook - or "Meta" - could be seen over time as a company that is part of the metaverse.

But what is the metaverse? This is the first question we should 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. And yet recent campaigns have seen major brands, such as Gucci, take an interest in the immersive marketing capabilities that this technology can offer, through a collaboration with Roblox that resulted in the product the Gucci Garden where the brand's virtual clothes for avatars were shown, tested and sold. At the same time, there are other international brands that have not only been around for a long time, but have been almost exclusively dedicated to this area since their origins, such as Minecraft, Pokemon or Fortnite - the latter, which has also consolidated highly successful collaborations with franchises such as Marvel.

Beyond the big brand cases, the metaverse is an important trend for digital marketing in 2022 that cannot be ignored by companies and businesses going forward.

As noted by eMarketerBy 2023, it is expected that there will be more than 65 million people using VR and more than 110 million using AR, projecting a significant growth in power.

Key points of the Metaverse for marketers

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

• The Metaverse is always active and does not pause or shut down when users leave it. It is still there.
• It exists and operates in real time, making it easy for marketers to reach their target audience using B2B software.
• Users have the independence to carry out several activities at the same time.
• The Metaverse is fully functional, meaning that it allows 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 branded items or messages from one video game or digital environment to another.
• It allows user-generated content to be created, uploaded and/or shared, so that other users can view and interact with it. In a similar way to user-generated content in social media marketing, which has been shown to be a great way to increase brand recognition in the digital realm.

Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing in the Metaverse

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

Allowing users to create 3D VR or AR avatars with which they can navigate websites and make purchases and sales, the possibilities for marketers across the entire customer journey are limitless.

Today, approximately only 3% of the content on the web can currently be classified as interactive, with traditional elements such as videos, images and text being part of the "static web".

As the Metaverse facilitates the creation and sharing of interactive graphics that respond to user actions, stimulating exploration and discovery, brands could use these functionalities to their advantage by enabling users to learn more about their products and services through gamification and advanced immersive experiences.

Brands, by reflecting real-world situations or activities in the real world - or beyond - will be able to experience the catalysing of greater long-term connections with their customers.

Challenges and the future of Digital Marketing in the Metaverse

It is real that, outside the ranks of large corporations, many small and medium-sized enterprises are already investing in the Metaverse today.

Such a trend, while remaining cautious about latent challenges to it such as technological and access barriers, data security and privacy, and the protection of brands' intellectual property; but still discovering and experiencing its immense opportunities for innovative business and professional strategies.

Ultimately, the general Metaverse as well as other highly anticipated metaverses such as Facebook's Metaverse (Meta), will prove the idea of providing fully functional environments in which users will learn, build, explore, share and make purchases with even greater freedom than in real life. This could place brands that succeed in creating new virtual realities available to their target audience in a promising new era of digital marketing that will make them stand out from their competitors.

La entrada El futuro del Marketing Digital en el Metaverso en 2022 se publicó primero en Vandelay.