The metaverse, according to many, is a new paradigm shift for the internet, and it is already here. Simply put, the Metaverse is any digital experience on the internet that is continuous, immersive, three-dimensional (3D), and simulated in the sense that it does not occur in the physical world.
Experiences in the metaverse provide us with the option to play, work, interact, and purchase. For brands imagining how to operate in this new field or even recognising where to begin can be intimidating. The metaverse is primarily a shift in viewpoint from a cognitive and behavioural perspective. The advantage resides in enhancing the digital experiences with virtual features such as navigation, graphics, spatial sound, and touch simulations.
The metaverse has been identified by Gartner as one of the five most important emerging technologies and trends for 2022. Statista predicts that by 2030, the global metaverse market will be worth $678.8 billion, up significantly from its projected value of $47.48 billion in 2022.
In addition, Global spending on virtual reality and augmented reality, the foundation technologies of the metaverse, is predicted to increase from $12 billion in 2020 to $72.8 billion in 2024. As a result, brands are already considering how to position themselves as key players in the metaverse.
Many businesses wonder what the metaverse is and if they should participate in it. What's exciting and inspiring about the metaverse is that nothing about it is predetermined. Platforms like Roblox enable users to play in virtual worlds they have created.
Read more: Most Effective Metaverse Marketing Trends You Need To Know
Decentraland is a user-owned 3D virtual world where players can develop virtual structures ranging from amusement parks to galleries. The Metaverse represents a potentially significant opportunity for marketers, but only if brands prioritise people and their experiences above all else.
Brands can shape the Metaverse to their advantage
Metaverse's immersive environment represents more than just a business opportunity for consumer-focused brands. There are numerous business applications, ranging from teaching future surgeons to demonstrating products to retail staff. Each brand must find its niche and balance the risk-reward equation.
Customers are becoming accustomed to the reality of buying and socialising virtually, not just through social media but also through the use of virtual worlds, AR filters, video games, immersive experiences, and real-time content. Combined with the reality that the human attention span is 8 seconds, brands have to rethink how they connect with their customers and sell their products
Most brands will have to forgo their traditional marketing strategies and practices to succeed effectively in the metaverse. Consumers in the metaverse will want immersive experiences, and brand partnerships will need to do more than just sponsoring. Brands will need to have a significant real-time live presence to offer the customer something of value in an honest, non-invasive way.
8 instances of brands using Metaverse Marketing
The Metaverse marketing will play an essential role in effective brand campaigns. With the creation of an immersive ecosystem, businesses will have new opportunities to increase brand recognition and engage with their (future) customers by providing a one-of-a-kind experience.
These companies demonstrate how Metaverse marketing can be fun and engaging.
1. Gucci Garden
Gucci held a metaverse experience of Gucci Garden on Roblox in May 2021 to mark its 100th anniversary. It was a two-week art exhibition to increase brand recognition among Gucci's young clients. Like its real-life counterpart, the Gucci Garden in Roblox featured a variety of themed rooms that paid homage to the brand's campaigns.
The temporary experience was created to garner attention in a limited time and build on Gucci's 2020 launch of virtual merchandise on Roblox. The Garden featured a store where guests could buy unique, limited-edition avatar products inspired by the exhibits on display in Florence and iconic pieces from Gucci's classical collections.
The goods were sold using a revenue share approach to ensure that both the platform and the brand gained value sale of the digital clothes.
Here's how the experience looked for the visitors:
2. Nikeland
Nikeland is a custom Roblox experience that has been meticulously created to convey Nike's vision and brand values. The virtual world's goal is to transform sports into people's lifestyles. It accomplishes this by offering visitors to experience
Nike's vision of a dynamic and connected world through parks, obstacle courses, tracks, and courts. Nike's real-life headquarters inspired buildings and grounds within NIKELAND, and sophisticated arenas allowed visitors to put their skills to the test by participating in numerous mini-games.
Nike seized the opportunity to promote its products through interactive experiences. For example, visitors can play football in the official Roblox colorway of the Mercurial football shoes, or they can dress up in classics like the Air Force Force 1 and Nike Blazer and new releases like the Air Force 1 Fontanka and the Air Max 2021.
While Nike is a well-known brand, it undoubtedly leads the charge by acquiring virtual design studio RTFTK, seeking copyrights for virtual items and building virtual locations to sell those goods. After extending its brand from the actual world to the virtual world of Roblox in November, Nike just announced that it is now extending the virtual Nikeland experience to its Fifth Avenue store in New York City.
3. Coca Cola - Tafi
Coca partnered with Tafi, a leading designer of characters and digital wearables, in July 2021 to launch digital wearable NFTs for the brand. Coca-Cola held an auction for a loot box of NFTs dubbed The Friendship Box developed by Tafi to celebrate International Friendship Day.
The set includes digital wearables that can be worn in Decentraland, as well as a futuristic Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket Wearable in the brand's iconic metallic red and brown, a digital interpretation of the brand's friendship-focused trading cards from the 1940s and The Sound Visualizer, which engages users with familiar sounds like a bottle cap being popped and the fizz of a freshly-poured Coke over ice.
The NFT box was auctioned on OpenSea and was sold for 217 ETH.
Coca-Cola has a long and rich history of the building and selling physical collectibles in the physical world, making it one of the most collectible brands of all time. Coca-Cola and Tafi generated a strong feeling of community among the crypto community with this launch and attracting new, young viewers to its social media platforms.
4. Samsung launched the Metaverse store in Decentraland
Samsung recently collaborated with Decentraland to open a digital counterpart of its flagship 837 physical stores. It was one of the most extensive branding campaigns in Decentraland history. The metaverse experience was divided into three sections: the Connectivity Theater, which showcased stories from Samsung's stage at CES 2022.
The Sustainability Forest included a journey through millions of trees to celebrate the brand's sustainability practices and the Customisation Stage for visitors.
In terms of crypto and blockchain, Samsung has a competitive edge when compared to its competitors; its flagship Galaxy smartphones have included a blockchain wallet since 2019, adding support for crypto hardware wallets last year, and just this week, Samsung took the stage at CES to reveal that its 2022 line of smart TVs would involve support for NFTs.
The metaverse platform provides an innovative and exciting approach for Samsung to express its brand messages, particularly those centred on connectivity, customisation, and sustainability. Samsung intends to provide the Samsung 837X experience to more individuals in more metaverses throughout the year, each with a unique experience.
5. Breathcalypse by Listerine
Listerine launched Breathcalypse, a metaverse game in which players design their own avatars, live in a community, and interact with one another. After waking up, the players realize they have bad breath, which is represented by green smoke coming out of their mouths.
The stress levels of players who are constantly exposed to people with bad breath will rise, causing headaches, blurred vision, and ultimately, the end of the world. Players can avoid having bad breath if they have and use Listerine, which can be found in pharmacies and vending machines as well as other places in the game.
Listerine also hosted an in-game comedy show with Fábio Porcha, a popular Brazilian actor and comedian. The comedy show could only be seen on the day of its premiere (October 25th) by all of the players who were present in the city on that day. The audience members who avoided bad breath that day got to enjoy Fábio Porcha's stand-up show. The skits were created to spread important regional brand and category messages to Listerine's target audience.
6. Gucci launches a fashion store
Gucci, the luxury fashion brand, has opened a new fashion store called Gucci Vault in the Sandbox metaverse. Users can buy eight-voxel digital collectibles such as clothing, caps, rollerblades, and even cars. The Gucci Vault is free to enter and requires no NFT or ticket.
Gucci believes that the ultimate purpose of this virtual experience is to use the metaverse's game mechanics to educate people about the web3 and about the company's heritage. The user's journey begins in the "Garden of Curiosities," continues through a grand entrance hall, and then continues through a series of rooms, each of which tells different parts of the brand's history.
For example, in Gucci's Vault Room of Rhyme, guests can solve a puzzle or bring back to life an old Gucci bag.
Also, players who are part of the Gucci Vault community and have bought Gucci Vault NFT collections (like Super Gucci and Gucci Grails) will get a Gucci Vault Aura collectible that their avatars can wear in The Sandbox.
The metaverse project will let users experience the Vault's experimental essence in full 360 degrees through a play-to-know storyline, and they'll be able to participate in competitive activities like motorcycle racing for a chance to win the metaverse's native reward token, SAND.
7. Lime Glam by Zara
Zara, in collaboration with Zepeto, a South Korean metaverse with around 300 million users, launched a range of virtual makeup and clothing products as part of its Lime Glam campaign. Users could not only accessorize their Zepeto characters with the limited-edition collection's virtual clothing and cosmetics, but also wear them in real life, as Zara also launched physical pieces.
The digital Lime Glam capsule in Zepeto includes digital walls, a floor, and a photo booth for a more integrated virtual experience.
The new collection includes wearable garments and accessories that can be worn virtually in Zepeto Metaverse and in real life. Zara allows customers who purchase physical garments to access the digital version.
Zara's official website has a dedicated section with a list of avatars wearing the entire Lime Glam collection to inspire those who wish to purchase any of such items.
8. Tim Hortons
The Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons made its first foray into the Roblox metaverse with the release of a special-edition Roblox game for National Coffee Day, coinciding with the start of sales of Tims Run Club gear.
In this one-of-a-kind obstacle course, you'll travel through a fantastical land where mountains of Tim Hortons' signature coffee and doughnuts tower over you. The objective of Tims Speed Run is to complete the course as quickly as possible while carrying a tray of Tims, leaping across spinning donuts and bagels, avoiding Timbits rocks, and collecting golden coffee beans for bonus points.
For Brands, the moment has come to take action
The metaverse will fundamentally alter how users interact with brands. Because of its nature, the virtual world will allow for more significant interaction with brands as long as the experiences are authentic, creative, and engaging. When it comes to the virtual environment, brands should constantly be testing and learning.
The metaverse has the potential to be the next iteration of how humans utilise the internet to connect, communicate, and trade – staying on the sidelines for too long is not an option for brands.
Read more: 5 Best Metaverse Platforms For Brand Marketing
Those in brand marketing or management positions should consider releasing their creativity and storytelling skills. Suppose the creative palette grows in the metaverse. In that case, we should be delighted to develop experiences at any step in the customer journey, from acquisition through engagement, transaction, and customer service, that has the potential to be both stunning and stickier than before.
And, someday, we'll probably want to easily transition from actual to virtual worlds that will be the next frontier.
We are here to help you.
The metaverse offers numerous marketing and advertising opportunities. While the metaverse is still in its early stages and is being improved to provide a fully augmented and virtual reality experience, the web3 community has become more open to tinkering on various projects that brands can effectively leverage for a successful metaverse marketing campaign.
Things move quickly in the metaverse, and you'll need to get started right away if you want to keep up with your customers and competitors. If you're interested in learning more about how to incorporate metaverse experiences with your brand, please fill out the form on this page or email us at info@growthchain.io.
Editors' note: This post was originally published on Februrary 12, 2022 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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