The term "Metaverse" has become widely used over the past few years. The number of "Metaverse" searches on the Internet have risen by 7,200% in 2021. Additionally, private capital is advancing quickly. According to statistics, firms involved in the metaverse raised upwards of US$10B in 2021, more than twice the amount raised compared to the year before.
The Metaverse is a collection of platform-based ecosystems that are connected to a digital 3D virtual world, where developers create immersive experiences. Internet users may engage in a variety of activities with one another, even when they are not in the same physical location.
According to the survey, the main reasons to join The Metaverse are work possibilities (52%), art and live entertainment (48%), investments (44%), as well as education (40%), socialising (32%), and gaming (29%).
The Metaverse lives in real-time; it does not pause, whether you're actively participating in it or not, unlike playing a video game. The Metaverse ecosystem is the Internet's next phase where you are the content.
Innovation makes the digital world a perfect moment to participate in creating new business initiatives and advances in marketing in the "parallel" universe.
Focusing on marketing, the Metaverse provides the chance to interact with customers in completely new ways while also advancing internal capabilities and brand creativity.
In conformity with worldwide companies that have invested in the Metaverse as of March 2022, it is proved that the Metaverse is the new future for business with a wide range of opportunities (44%); a new way of doing business (17%) and interacting (15%); escaping the real world (11%) with a new distraction (7%).
The essential components of marketing in the Metaverse resemble creating engaging and realistic brand experience in real world in certain respects.
How these components are used in the Metaverse, however, might vary greatly. Consumer interaction in the Metaverse requires its own formula for success, much like methods for generating value online and integrating marketing strategies for the future. Access to market in the metaverse requires certain steps to be successful. These include:
- Establish a new business in the Metaverse with clear goals. While sales of virtual items are still far lower than those of real goods, the working industry should focus on raising brand awareness as opposed to merely driving sales.
- Create experiences that target audiences will find appealing. Customers typically associate companies with innovation in the Metaverse; therefore, there is a high standard for providing unique experiences. To support the Metaverse, businesses must find the perfect ratio of native advertising, immersive experiences (such as games, virtual shops, and events), and real-world activations.
- Test out different business models. Best practices have not yet been defined suitably, and this allows marketers lots of opportunities to experiment and attempt to be different in their tactics.
- Build new Metaverse capabilities by creating, utilising, and collaborating. Brands should evaluate the talents they will require and determine which ones they already have and which ones they need to learn. Additionally, brands ought to try to collaborate with, investigate upcoming technology in depth, and gain new knowledge from others.
Many businesses are now making investments in the Metaverse. They are placing bets on it for both business and professional reasons, in addition to entertainment.
For instance, the Gucci Garden experience on Roblox (an online gaming platform), presents The Collector’s Room. This feature allows people to collect limited Gucci items in the Metaverse. From their initial sales, Gucci collected 286 million Robux (the online currency used on Roblox) from the game, and as of May 22, 2021, this collection was purchased 55,472 times.
The Metaverse market is expected to grow from US$478.7B in 2020 to almost US$800B in 2024. Now, is the perfect time for the marketing industry to embrace a test-and-learn mentality, to be open to the Metaverse experimentation, to learn from failure swiftly, and to capitalise on success by interacting with customers in unusual ways, with creativity and innovation taking centre stage.