Written by Lilly Steel, Managing Director
Have you been inundated with news recently about something called the Metaverse? Do you wonder what it is and whether it can be used for marketing?
You’re not alone. Search popularity for “metaverse” skyrocketed by over 1300% in October 2021 and the field has received a steady stream of excitement since then. Many business owners consider this an upcoming revolution in marketing and customer interaction.
If, like us, you’ve wondered whether the hype is justified – and if there is real marketing potential in the virtual world – then we’re here to break through the noise and make this exciting scene a little clearer.
We wrote this article for business owners like you who are curious about the Metaverse. You’ll learn why Facebook started the “Metaverse”, what it means for your marketing team, and how you can prepare for the virtual world.
What is the Metaverse?
In simple terms, the metaverse is a collection of virtual worlds and experiences versed in technology. Most of this technology right now involves “virtual reality” headsets, which offer fully immersive experiences in digitally-rendered environments. Facebook, who coined the name Metaverse, wants to create digital spaces for working, playing and interacting with people and technology in creative ways.
VR isn’t something new – headsets have been dominating international markets for years – but the integration of immersive experiences into everyday work and play is bold and unprecedented. What can you do in a virtual world? The possibilities are simply endless.
Tech-savvy users of VR have enjoyed virtual talk rooms, immersive video games, creative applications and more for years already. Take Tilt Brush as an example. Tilt Brush is a VR application for the popular Oculus Quest headset. It allows artists to paint and design around a 360 degree canvas, and even export their creations into digital formats. So you can see how VR is already improving the lives of some creatives.
Essentially the idea is for digital content, experiences and worlds to seamlessly integrate with real life. Imagine being able to demonstrate your product and its functions in a high definition 3D world, to any potential customer around the world, with virtually no overhead cost. Incredible.
The potential of virtual and augmented reality is huge – but don’t just take our word for it. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the global market size of the Metaverse is expected to hit $800 billion by 2024. Last year, over nine million VR headsets were shipped to consumers around the world, a 97% increase on figures from the year before. Statista believes that’ll surpass 14 million this year.
So clearly there’s massive growth in this sector. Immersive digital experiences are quickly becoming a mainstream phenomenon!
Will the Metaverse change how we interact with each other?
With virtual worlds, you can literally change the properties of the environment you’re interacting with digitally. This offers huge opportunities for creative exploration and communication. It’s most likely that as this technology becomes mainstream, we’ll see it being used to communicate faster and more effectively with other people – across global distances.
Excitingly, brands and organisations will be able to run VR conferences, speak to their customers in the virtual world, and augment their real life marketing with immersive digital outreach.
Consumers may use this technology to test products in a virtual world before deciding to buy them in real life. By customising themselves and their possessions in the digital realm, customers will be more strongly compelled to spend in a wide ecosystem of products.
What Meta means for the future of marketing
Imagine being able to interact with customers or clients in a virtual world without having to physically meet them in person. What if you could demonstrate your product in spectacular detail without your customers ever having to leave their homes?
Most digital marketing in 2022 is done through channels like 2D video, text and images. Sure, social media, paid ads, blogging and email sequences can help you convert leads into sales. But there will always be an invisible wall between you and your customers. The Metaverse will break down these walls to marketing.
Immersive experiences will make it vastly easier for your customers to understand your product, associate with your brand, and make informed buying decisions – and feel good after them!
As immersive technology advances, we’ll see new payment methods becoming mainstream.
For example, consumers could use a range of crypto currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether to quickly and safely make purchases in the virtual world. New payment gateways will be exciting for those unfortunate brands that have had their PayPal/Stripe/Square accounts banned unfairly.
With more diversification in digital experiences, products and payment methods, the Metaverse will nurture a virtual economy.
Brands who publish super creative digital content for the virtual world will experience huge increases in reach and conversions. Imagine you’re a SaaS company and you want to demonstrate how your software works in a fully immersive environment. In the Metaverse you can demonstrate your features in beautiful clarity and depth, hooking customers immediately.
Normally physical experiences like these are prohibitively expensive and require your customers to travel to visit a store. Once the Metaverse becomes mainstream, this will no longer be the case.
A great example of this is the women’s fashion brand Pretty Little Thing, who recently started investing in virtual models for displaying their clothing items. This revolutionary technology has allowed their customers to shop clothes in an extremely compelling environment. The upside for Pretty Little Thing is that they don’t spend a penny on models or photo shoots, but increase sales through the wow factor.
There’s plenty of opportunity in the virtual world for client/customer acquisition costs to plummet drastically. Getting new sales and positive feedback will be easier than ever before.
How should brands prepare for the virtual world?
There’s a lot of hype around the Metaverse.
If you’re sceptical about this new digital realm and are concerned it’s just a news buzz that will die eventually, you’re not the only one. But technology has been shaping the way we market to customers for decades.
Fifteen years ago it would have been insane to suggest you could pay in stores with your mobile phone. But now you can with Apple Pay. No one thought you’d be able to make purchases by voice and receive your order the same day. Now you can with Amazon Alexa.
To a certain extent, the Metaverse is a buzzword for technology that has been “up and coming” for several years already – and will take more years to become fully adopted. It’s good to be excited about the marketing possibilities here (some brands are already seeing huge success in the Metaverse!) but for most businesses, traditional marketing methods will be far more effective.
At least for the time being, sticking to tried-and-true tactics is safe and productive. But a change in thinking about the Metaverse could benefit your brand. The technology may be novel right now but as time passes opportunities will grow, and more brands will invest their marketing budget in the Metaverse. If an opportunity emerges that has proven potential for reaching your customers, it’s worth being early to the game.
So, what do we make of all of this?
The current digital landscape is rapidly changing, and it can feel overwhelming trying to keep up. With some marketers telling you to get in on the latest fad and others convincing you to play it safe, marketing online is daunting. By committing most of your marketing budget to strategies that work, and spending the rest experimenting with new methods, you can explore potential avenues without risking your business.
It’s good to be open minded about the Metaverse and surrounding technologies. But playing it safe, testing before investing, and making informed decisions about new strategies is the most effective way to dip your toes into this new field.
If, like many small businesses, you struggle with marketing or you’re new to it entirely, picking the right strategies to grow your brand organically is tricky. Maybe all the news about Metaverse marketing has got you thinking about improving your own marketing, but you’re overwhelmed by options. LS Media and Marketing can help you build a plan that’s authentic, effective and brings in sales consistently. Get in touch with our team of consultants to discuss the perfect strategy for your organisation today.
