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What kind of digital brand marketing revolution will meta-universe bring?

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When traditional brands started building meta-universe teams, the goal was to get ahead of the game in the Web 3.0 era.

How Is Metaverse Revolutionizing digital Branding?

Author: MS Researcher, Metaverse Space

During Facebook's recent second-quarter earnings call, co-founder and CEO Zuckerberg laid out his grand vision for transforming the social media company into a "meta-universe," a transformation he called "one of the most exciting projects we'll ever work on in our lifetimes."

The transformation of the way consumers interact with brands

As the experience economy enters a new stage of development, the way consumers and brands interact is also changing. Brands are no longer all the products and services of a brand, but gradually expand to the sum of each customer's touch points and interactions.

This two-way, interactive and dynamic relationship between commercial brands and consumers requires consistency between the digital and physical worlds. This forces brands to integrate their product-related experiences into an ecosystem that is implemented through the meta-universe.

Metaverse: a platform for mixing physical and digital experiences

The meta-universe is a virtual space that combines reality and virtual reality and is becoming a highly influential platform for social interaction, cultural attributes and economic exchange. Some predict it as the future of immersive digital experiences. Will play a key role in shaping its own ecosystem and ensuring synchronicity across channels, and as a platform for hybrid physical and digital experiences.

For brands, shifts in consumer behavior and increasing interest in the metasomes are creating opportunities for companies to market into virtual worlds.

Digital brand marketing background

Generation Z and the new social space

Young people are the main audience of the new online space. The behavior of gen Z's young players shows that game environments are first and foremost social Spaces, that they are not channels to operate virtually, but rather cultural touchpoints for young people to meet, compete, collaborate and create. This deep connection and similarity between online and offline experiences creates a huge opportunity for brands.

The time people spend in games becomes a new way of socializing, complementing conversations and behaviors in real life. The Internet and gaming are as embedded in Gen Z's lives as television is in Gen X's and baby boomers'. The difference is that games and the broader meta-universe are much more participatory, active rather than passive. As a result, the role of game developers is rapidly changing to build the most distinctive and engaging virtual Spaces to reap the rewards and create a sense of belonging for users.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the virtualization of the world

The amount of time people spend in virtual Spaces has gradually erased the boundaries between "real" and "virtual" life. During the pandemic, quarantine policies forced people to interact in virtual environments via video calls, and a number of virtual games, such as Animal Sentry and Fortnite, became important forms of entertainment and social interaction.

Virtual gaming and social networking are becoming an important part of people's lives, a trend that itself has been accelerated by the pandemic, creating an opportunity for brands outside of gaming to join in and become part of the meta-universe.

At the same time, it opens the door for fashion and furniture brands to get involved. Ikea Taiwan, for example, has taken advantage of the in-game craze for virtual furniture by recreating an in-game catalog that links ikea themed islands in-game to its own platform and store. KFC in the Philippines has gone a step further, offering real-world rewards to users who visit its official islands and discover the Colonel.

Development of virtual reality technology

The scale of the games market in 2021 has accelerated the trend of commercial brands entering the metasverse. The number of mobile gamers in the UK alone increased by 50% in 2020, with 8.6 million new players. The widespread availability of technology means that AR games on mobile have a real opportunity to create their own social meta-universe, which gives brands an opportunity to enter the meta-universe.

A glimpse into the marketing form of the meta-universe

Fortnite is one of the most popular video games in the world, successful not only because it attracts a huge number of players (it now has more than 350 million registered users), but also because the platform has been able to transcend its role as a competitive shooter and provide a social space for users to hang out with friends.

Fortnite isn't the first game to feature a meta-universe. Second Life is an online game released in 2003 that allows users to spend their second Life in a virtual world. More recently, games like Minecraft, Roblox and VRChat have become popular Spaces for virtual social interaction.

While the existing game platforms are not fully interconnected, they can be viewed as partial, mini-universes. Existing forms of marketing within game platforms provide imaginative space for brands to market and promote within the meta-universe.

Marketing with in-game products

These game products may be virtual recreations of real-world items (such as the monster energy tank in the action game Death Strand) or branded items that promote real-world products (such as the John Wick character model released during Fortnite to promote the movie of the same name).

Many games already make money by selling in-game products and character skins, and selling these items is often considered a desirable business model, meaning that users actively want them (for example, users can pay for John Wick skins in Fortnite).

In sports games, users want to feel as real as possible, so there is a market for virtual sneakers or jerseys. When a new product is released in the real world, users can immediately get the virtual Air Jordan released in the game. Similarly, a large number of brands can enter the game scene and become an important part of the game.

Virtual representation of the real world

Take Bidstack, a video game advertising technology company. Bidstack started out working with real-world outdoor ads, but they've moved that technology to the virtual world. In a virtual world, Bidstack can place ads on virtual billboards and sponsorships at virtual stadiums.

As the metasverse is fleshed out, there will be more virtual Spaces. Fortnite, for example, recently announced that it would be showing Christopher Nolan movies in the game this summer. If the format catches on, maybe in the near future trailers and ads will run just like they do in the real world before movies are shown in virtual cinemas.

Use experience, event and event marketing

Marvel's fortnite tie-in last year provides a good example. In the crossover, Sanos, a character from Marvel's Avengers films, was designed as a character in Fortnite. Sanos is integrated into a specially designed game mode and is given a unique set of abilities in the game.

This type of advertising doesn't actually take place in the real world at all, but instead runs in-game in the form of full-screen videos or display ads, similar to ads in mobile games today, often offering in-game rewards for the user's attention.

The advantage of these types of ads is that they will more easily fit into most brands' media plans, using creative formats and metrics that brands are familiar with.

Examples of existing business applications

Brand marketing in the meta-universe expands the space for the development of commercial brands. For brands, they can move out of the real world and into the virtual world, where brands will have a new economy, currency, consumer environment and user behavior.

At present, many brands have begun to try to carry out brand marketing in the meta-universe, and seize the marketing opportunities in the meta-universe has become the consensus of major brands. Brands like Nike, Disney, Snap, and Facebook are creating virtual communities, providing virtual content, building assets, and providing users with fashion and art experiences.

Facebook sees great potential in digital goods, such as digital clothing for people's avatars. Brands such as Gucci, Netfpx and SK-II are also looking for ways to embed their brands organically in virtual worlds.

Japanese high-end skincare brand SK-II has teamed up with advertising agency Huge to create its own virtual SK-II city, which transports users to visit and play on Tokyo's virtual streets.

In June 2021, Netfpx launched a gamified version of the iconic Stranger Things Starcourt Shopping Mall on the meta-universe platform Roblox.

Many other brands, particularly in the luxury sector, are also trying to leverage existing virtual platforms to create empowering experiences for users in order to build immersive brand experiences. Louis vuitton has released a series featuring exclusive capsule of the universe with the hero alliance, including the hero league champion, her special skin gucci also at this year's joint Roblox launched two-week virtual gucci garden, in Florence, Italy immersive multimedia experience as the prototype, virtual packages at the same time in the game launched a limited edition, At $4,115, it surpasses the retail value of the physical item, which is $3,400. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. created a virtual block party on Roblox to celebrate the movie remake of Manuel Miranda's new musical In the Heights.

The advantages of meta-cosmic marketing

Higher integration

In the meta-universe, brands are more likely to be tied to specific themes or genres than in traditional video games, allowing for less restriction and broader product integration. In the real world, for example, it's easy to juxtapose Air Jordans with a basketball game, but harder to do with a brand like Burger King. But in the open world metasomes, both are fairly easy to integrate.

The metasomes can transcend the limits of the physical world, so it is possible for different brands to collide and cooperate in the metasomes, and some application scenarios that cannot be realized in the real world can be realized more easily in digital form in the metasomes.

Higher brand freedom

In the metasverse, brands can not only determine their own aesthetic orientation and custom build, but also collect data to measure engagement and promote refinement of the overall experience.

Imagine a virtual world where brands are free to offer tailor-made experiences, entertainment, inspiration and buying opportunities, regardless of physical conditions and other external factors. In this virtual space, users can exchange products, experience the extraordinary virtual environment, and get personalized consumer interaction. In addition, brands are able to seamlessly update content, respond to changing trends and customer needs in real time, and effortlessly keep up with cultural speed while maximizing brand creativity.

More flexible forms of marketing

"Gaming as an ecosystem is every marketer's dream," said Natalia Vasileva, vp of in-game advertising platform Anzu. Any testing that is not possible in other channels can be tested in the game. Every marketer can find opportunities for brand engagement in the gaming world. From billboards to videos to interactive ads, brands can communicate with their players in many ways.

Closer relationship between brand and consumer

In the virtual world where trust, money and identity are embedded in the environment, the relationship between brands and consumers not only revolves around products, but also gradually takes on the characteristics of partnership due to the interaction between advertising and avatars, which are directly connected through decentralized commercial activities.

This shift in consumer relationships has also created new revenue streams for brands. Luxury brands, for example, now sell almost half of their revenues from digital goods. More and more users want to be able to have a Gucci skin to adorn their avatars in the metaverse for exactly the same reason they have a Gucci handbag in the real world. As the metasverse grows, the line between the real and virtual worlds will blur further.

What brands need to pay attention to in virtual marketing

Align with real-world business strengths

Lindsay McInerney, global head of technology and innovation at Zed Run, a horse racing project in virtual worlds, says brands should use virtual Spaces carefully and focus on the things they are best known for and good at in the real world, as well as the things they already have successful practice and experience in the real world.

"If you're not an art dealer in real life, why are you selling art in the digital world?" Although virtual reality provides more opportunities and possibilities for brands, brands should also consider the business consistency between the virtual world and the real world, and maintain and give play to the advantages accumulated in the real world.

Respect virtual Communities

Many virtual communities, such as Decentraland, are user-owned and have a very open community atmosphere. When entering the virtual community, the brand must not do anything that goes against the community atmosphere and makes the community residents feel uneasy.

Respecting the culture and atmosphere of a virtual community is a must for any brand that wants to work with it. In the meta-universe, individual users are often more powerful than in the real world. Brands should not only make a package deal with the big boss of space and venue, but also pay attention to the interaction with individual users and respond to users' comments in a timely manner.

Be open to trial and error

Everything about virtual transactions is new and untested, so brands are bound to get lost in their initial attempts, with no road map to follow. For all brands, branding in the meta-universe is "crossing the river by feeling for the stones". Therefore, brands should strengthen cooperation and avoid some obvious mistakes.

Just as many in the early 2000s thought they would never need social media, now brands will need to start building meta-cosmic teams to help them get ahead of the game in the Web 3.0 era.