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 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.
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