Following Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement of his company’s new name, it’s no wonder that Facebook Inc. is now called Meta, as the Metaverse is an emerging concept that has been talked about constantly in recent months. But what exactly does this word refer to and why does it represent a great opportunity for brands and advertising?

Imad Sarrouf, Head of Publishers at DMS ( Member of the Choueiri Group)

According to the futurist Cathy Hackl, “The term is not going to be defined by a single person or company, it will be dictated by many of these and still it will continue to evolve.” This definition, contrasted with the work that Matthew Ball (investor and managing partner of VC firm EpyllionCo) is currently doing to evangelize and even help many adventurers invest around him, points out that at this moment it is composed of a series of platforms, hardware and even payment methods that they are projecting that the Metaverse is the evolution of the mobile internet.

So Mark Zuckerberg said that this environment “will be a corporeal internet, where instead of viewing content, you will live within it.” Still, next, we will provide what Metaverse exactly is.

What is The Metaverse?

The Metaverse is the 3D successor of the internet, which will allow us to move and explore real and fantastic environments on a scale of 1: 1.

It is important to think of the Metaverse as a completely new space where new rules apply and many already established must be broken. Branding and advertising in the Metaverse bring unique opportunities and challenges.

The Metaverse can instantly take you to virtual representations of real world locations, including those that are inaccessible to the majority of the world’s population due to geographic or financial barriers.

There are virtualization products that already exist, for example, you can attend a concert in Fortnite or watch an entire NBA season from a virtual stadium. But these experiences are disconnected from each other, while a key feature of the Metaverse will be interoperability between them.

If we accept the premise that the Metaverse is fundamentally the internet just transformed and “alive” within a persistent digital environment, then we could think of it as a combination of experiences and places that allow people to build, buy, sell, perform, collaborate. and play together in real time. Each of these spaces offers endless opportunities for brands to build a presence in this new space.

What Characterizes a Metaverse?

  • Persistent. The temporary disconnection with the metaverse does not stop its existence. Life goes on, either with real or virtual activity and presence.
  • Unlimited. There is no cap on the number of users, experiences, or worlds.
  • Social. They will be the extension of our social and professional life. An evolution of social networks.
  • Reagent. The environment and people react to people’s interactions in real time.
  • Decentralized. The property is distributed. Blockchain technology will be the lifeblood that sustains the metaverse.
  • Interoperable. There are no exclusive links to platforms and devices. Experiences, identities, and economics are interoperable between metaverse.
  • Creativity. People and AI will be active creators of metaverse. They will shape it, so they will not be passive environments per se.
  • Amplification. They will amplify our daily activities and interactions. They will be an extension of them. Seoul, for example, already has the entire city captured in the metaverse.

Some Tech-Tonic Trends

  • Continuous Personalization: Through immersive content and embedded experiences, the Metaverse provides meaningful opportunities for brands to personalize to the tastes and needs of their audiences, regardless of the niche.
  • Emergence of new identities: In the Metaverse, the creation of avatars offers people an even greater and more accessible opportunity to take on new roles or characters. Therefore, brands have the opportunity to leverage their product or avatar to fulfill this desire to personalize appearances.
  • Rich data opportunities: Just as it is important in digital channels to create data collection strategies with data privacy in mind, the Metaverse will challenge brands to adopt new skills focused on obtaining user data and employing it. to improve your experience.

  • Advertising within The Metaverse

  • The BNN digital agency referred to how the pandemic has been a trigger in the metaverse development and immersive environments that unite physical and virtual reality. In a context in which more than 70% of the American population is connected to some metaverse platform, this is emerging as an environment for advertising.

    Along these lines, there are already virtual event platforms based on avatars such as Teooh, which allows you to celebrate from work meetings to business meetings, lunches or birthday parties. The untapped opportunity is that of an automated ad network that allows brands to have ads within the metaverse, using billboards, 3D posters, interactions with avatars, etc.

    There the possibilities multiply, and advertisers understand that they must focus on these emerging and hybrid spaces that move giant audiences and are the expression of a new cultural-virtual way of being. And economically speaking, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology will be the current way of acquiring 100% digital goods in these virtual worlds.

    A metaverse currency and economy are being created, expanding the possibilities exponentially. As www was in its beginnings, the creation of this space will represent new opportunities, new products, new services, new businesses and even new jobs; in the same way, it will bring errors, which when polishing will improve the experience for any visitor to this new virtual reality.

    It will definitely impact life, from communication, games, shopping, learning and work. “We are experiencing an authentic awakening of virtual life in the form of immersive reality that opens the doors to a world full of new possibilities. Today through our home screens and very soon with the virtual reality helmet that in a few years will be super-thin lenses that will offer a layer of virtuality to our real world”, they said from the digital agency.

    The Metaverse Demystified 

    When investing in immersive experiences or planning their presence in the Metaverse, brands must take into account a deepening digital divide: not everyone in the global community will have access to these technologies and the connectivity necessary to participate in these experiences. At the same time, in many developed countries there is a large population of the unbanked and therefore cannot depend on digital payments.

    Success and responsibility in the virtualized age will require the brand to carefully consider the roles they play in society.

    The Metaverse will not only be built by brands, but it will also thrive on the creativity of the user, and brands are in an optimal position to support artists, creators and communities in the joint construction of this space.

    Final Words

    The era of virtual goods, such as NFTs, is here. If you thought that your brand could not be present in this virtual reality world, you are wrong. A survey by Wunderman Thompson has shown that people would be willing to pay $76,000 for a digital home, $9,000 for an original work of art, or more than $3,000 for a digital handbag.

    The metaverse brings with it business opportunities and ways in which brands can engage with their audience. Due to the advancement of technology, it is necessary to constantly adapt the strategy to the behavior of the users.

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