Metaverse is an exciting new space with endless potential for businesses. To succeed in this new realm of reality, brands would need to evolve and experiment with their marketing tactics continuously.
Metaverse is the hottest topic in the tech town today, especially after Facebook rebranded itself to Meta. The concept of Metaverse is selling like a hot cake, and everybody wants to have a piece of it!
With the rapid growth in technology, we are witnessing innovations that were once known to only exist in Sci-Fi books and movies. Today, the digital and physical space gap is getting smaller, and we are jumping into an immersive virtual environment. And that is what Metaverse is basically about!
Metaverse offers a “real-life-like” virtual universe to users to explore, meet other people, and even build and buy things. The application of Metaverse is somewhat present in games and online platforms like Fortnite and Roblox.
With the rise of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), the efforts to bring Metaverse into existence have increased tenfold. Tech giants like Facebook (now, Meta) have already announced that helping “bring Metaverse to life” is their newest objective.
Such hype and enthusiasm have made brands even more eager to jump into the Metaverse bandwagon and try their hands at it. Today, businesses of all sizes are trying to fit in and establish their place in this new universe and promote themselves to their users.
Want to learn more about this fascinating and complex topic of Metaverse? If yes, this article is for you! Today, we will talk about what exactly Metaverse is and how brands can use it to enhance their promotion strategy.
So, let’s get the ball rolling!
What Exactly Is Metaverse?
In the simplest sense, the Metaverse is like a 3D virtual space where you can exist just like you do in this actual world. You can live there through your digital avatar and enjoy all the real-life-like experiences. You can meet other people, own a house, purchase different things, play games, and even raise a pet. Yes, you read it right! All of this and more would be possible in the exciting realm of Metaverse.
Metaverse is a space where digital and physical reality will intersect. This new space will have its economy, currency, and environment. It will have no end and will continue to expand as new users enter it. In short, it is a whole new world where we all can live and experience things through VR and AR devices.
And since real people will exist here, brands will have to follow suit. After all, marketers have to be where their audience is, right?
Most marketers have already started their experimentation with Metaverse with a primary goal to add value to their experience instead of being invasive. Let’s take a deeper look into how brands can promote themselves through Metaverse and connect with their audience in this new realm!
NFTs Are Helping Brands To Enhance Their Marketing Efforts in the Metaverse
Currently, NFTs are being used to buy and share in-game items like game-based weapons, costumes, avatars, etc. And since NFTs are based on blockchain technology, they can be easily used across all Metaverse platforms built on the blockchain. NFTs are so powerful that they can pave the way for a whole new economy in the digital universe where people can own and trade equity just like they do in the real world.
Businesses can create their own NFTs with unique functionality and provide a great experience to their users while also promoting their offerings in the Metaverse. An excellent real-life example of this is the marketing strategy adopted by the famous beer brand Stella Artois. The company had a history of sponsoring horse races, and this time they decided to take these races to the Metaverse.
To make it happen, Stella Artois partnered with Zed Run, a platform powered by blockchain technology that allows users to buy, sell, and breed NFT horses and enter them into digital races.
As a part of their campaign, Stella Artois teamed up with Zed Run to sponsor a Metaverse-based horse race. It created a unique NFT horse breed that came with branded digital skin. Users were allowed to own these horses, and The company also made a 3D race track to enjoy a real-life-like horse racing experience.
Promotion Through Digital Branded Collectibles and Limited-Edition Items
People can buy and own branded collectibles and assets in the Metaverse. So businesses have an exceptional opportunity to offer digital collectibles and branded merchandise to their customers.
For example, as people live in the Metaverse through digital avatars, brands can offer digital clothing and other fashion merchandise. This will allow businesses to advertise their products while providing customers with unique accessories to express themselves in the Metaverse.
Roblox, a super-popular digital platform, enables millions of users to regularly engage in Metaverse-like experiences like throwing virtual birthday parties, concerts, and other such events.
The platform allows and even advises its advertising partners to provide branded collectibles and virtual fashion items on its marketplace. This allows marketers to promote their products, test new designs, and even launch an entire Metaverse-specific product range for their customers.
Live Virtual Stores and Showrooms
Another excellent way for brands to promote their products in the Metaverse is through immersive virtual stores, showrooms, and exhibitions. These showrooms and stores enable customers to take virtual tours of any place and interact with any object by sitting in their living room.
Businesses can leverage this concept of live virtual stores to promote and showcase their products in 3D form to the customers. These products can range from clothes to jewellery to cars- you name it!
In this way, brands can increase their reach to a global audience, and customers can get a look and feel of products from all around the world by simply tuning in to the Metaverse. So, it’s a win-win for everyone involved. Nike has already launched its virtual store for selling its Air Max 720.
Immersive Virtual Events
Thanks to the internet, users are subjected to many branded advertisements at every place and at all times. This has created a feeling of ad fatigue in them. Today, people generally don’t like to engage with ads if there is nothing new and interesting for them to see.
Simple advertisements won’t cut it into the Metaverse. Instead, brands will have to take a new approach to provide value to their audience while simultaneously advertising themselves. That’s where virtual events enter into the picture!
Since the onset of the pandemic, more and more people have become familiar with virtual events. They have embraced these types of events with open arms. But most of these events are still limited to online meetups on Zoom or Skype.
Brands can leverage this as an opportunity to redefine virtual events. They can hold immersive virtual concerts and programs in the Metaverse where they can market themselves and provide their audience with a whole new experience.
Fortnite, a player-vs-player game already did something similar. It collaborated with the footwear brand Nike and rapper Travis Scott to promote Nike’s new Jordan sneakers.
For this campaign, Fortnite hosted a Metaverse-based virtual concert which was attended by over 10 million Fortnite players. Travis Scott’s giant avatar wore Nike Air Jordan sneakers for the concert, thereby promoting and generating awareness for the company’s newly launched sneakers.
The raging success of this virtual concert was proof that Metaverse-specific virtual events are going to be the super-hit new way for brands to advertise themselves in this new virtual sphere.
Building Digital Communities!
The Metaverse is going to be filled with people from different regions, cultures, and communities. And so, brands cannot just simply pop-up out of nowhere and start promoting to anyone and everyone. They need to understand the people and their interests- just like they do in this real world.
In order to reach their target audience, businesses would have to prioritize building a community first. When you already have a group of people who are interested in what you do and offer, it becomes easier to advertise to them.
For example, when Nike wanted to promote its newest sneaker range, it collaborated with Fortnite to host a virtual concert. Fortnite already had a large community of players who were interested and eager to learn what Fortnite is doing. This was what made the campaign such a raging success!
Therefore, if brands want to make an actual impact in the Metaverse, it’s important for them to build digital communities. These communities will enable them to connect and engage with people and foster brand loyalty.
The Bottom Line
The dawn of the Metaverse is upon us! And so, the sooner brands start building a Metaverse-specific promotion strategy, the better it would be for them. While this shift to Metaverse won’t happen overnight, we have already witnessed the changes.
Metaverse is an exciting new space with endless potential for businesses. To succeed in this new realm of reality, brands would need to evolve and experiment with their marketing tactics continuously. Brands that will dare to innovate, experiment, adapt, and act will be the ones to lead the game!
