What opportunities does the Metaverse offer for brands? From awareness to the search for value
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 8:34 am
With just a few months to go until the end of 2022, if we had to choose one of the most repeated words during the year, it would be “Metaverse”. It happens, as with any new development, that everything revolves around this new “trend” and that as a brand, we think that many have already taken the lead and that we are late. That is when the dreaded FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) appears , or in other words: the fear of being left out or missing out on something.
The metaverse: is it for all brands? Why should ours be there? Does it offer opportunities or is it just a passing fad?
As a brand, we must understand that what interests us is to be where our customers are, offering them what they need and in the way they expect . Therefore, entering engineer phone number list these worlds makes sense if we are able to improve the experience we currently offer them and if we are not yet ready, we should concentrate on working on it.
There is a palpable reality: perhaps today our clients are not there, but the younger generations have been born into these worlds. They live in these realities in a natural way: they consume content, interact, buy, etc. In fact, it is conceivable that in the future, the product that we sell physically today could be cannibalized by the one we will sell in the metaverse.
It may seem like an exaggeration, but let’s put ourselves in the mind of a “Z”; the youngest generation we have today. They carefully consider where they invest every euro they earn. Let’s imagine that they have to buy clothes and let’s reason like them: “why spend 100 euros on a sweatshirt in the real world that only 200 people will see, while in a metaverse my avatar can be seen by 10,000 humans and for less money”. Thinking like them makes us get closer to them, understand them and finally connect.
Some of these new challenges brought about by the arrival of the Metaverse (or metaverses) were addressed within the framework of the MetaExperience congress, organized by the Association for the Development of Customer Experience (DEC), of which we are partners.
MetaExperience 2022, event organized by DEC
Image from MetaExperience 2022, an event organized by DEC
The event sought to highlight the opportunities offered by the Metaverse, virtual and augmented reality, and Artificial Intelligence, in the Customer and Employee Experience . Different experts shared their vision and experience with their brands.
We, who are part of the restless generation , of those who like to explore, test and connect brands with people , listen attentively and outline the main keys that have been addressed, as well as our reflections.
What is the Metaverse and how can we define it?
Let's start at the beginning and before talking about new experiences, extended realities, monetization models, audiences, etc., let's put a face to the Metaverse and define it correctly.
The Metaverse is a network of immersive experiences that meet certain requirements and are often linked to the physical world. As Oscar Peña, CIO at Wunderman Thompson , stated in his talk: “These worlds are often designed to be highly social and require users to have virtual identities, often through avatars or specific attributes.”
These worlds can also provide (and do provide) a sense of ownership over virtual items (such as land, products, services, art, etc.) as they also have their own virtual economy (cryptocurrencies, proprietary tokens, fiat currency, etc.).
Matthew Ball , author of the book “The Metaverse” , defines it as “a massive, interoperable network of 3D virtual worlds rendered in real time, which can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an unlimited number of users, with a sense of individual presence and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, law…”
Despite its young age, as we can see, the Metaverse has multiple definitions (some more complex than others). In short, it is the convergence of two worlds (real and virtual), where layers of information overlap . This gives rise to new environments in which we can create content, which will allow us, for example, to connect with new audiences, create new economic flows...
We must start from the basis that we currently define it this way, but that it is a changing reality, that it is evolving and therefore its definition will also evolve.
Extended Realities
It is impossible to understand the Metaverse without knowing what “Extended Reality” is : it is a new and constantly evolving concept that is attributed to technologies that create digitally generated environments and objects.
It is used as an umbrella term that encompasses virtual, augmented and mixed reality (the ones we are most familiar with), complementing the ability to add information virtually with the control and knowledge of a real environment.
David Hurtado, Innovation Lead at Microsoft Iberia , spoke about them during his talk “The immersive experience of today and tomorrow”.
How important is the metaverse for brands?
On one side, we have the physical world. On the other, we have the digital world and in between both worlds, we have Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality, which connect both worlds.
So far, each of these realities has its own device to make it effective. For example, augmented reality requires tablets or smartphones to be able to see it in action. VR or virtual reality requires glasses such as Oculus to be able to enter it.
The metaverse: is it for all brands? Why should ours be there? Does it offer opportunities or is it just a passing fad?
As a brand, we must understand that what interests us is to be where our customers are, offering them what they need and in the way they expect . Therefore, entering engineer phone number list these worlds makes sense if we are able to improve the experience we currently offer them and if we are not yet ready, we should concentrate on working on it.
There is a palpable reality: perhaps today our clients are not there, but the younger generations have been born into these worlds. They live in these realities in a natural way: they consume content, interact, buy, etc. In fact, it is conceivable that in the future, the product that we sell physically today could be cannibalized by the one we will sell in the metaverse.
It may seem like an exaggeration, but let’s put ourselves in the mind of a “Z”; the youngest generation we have today. They carefully consider where they invest every euro they earn. Let’s imagine that they have to buy clothes and let’s reason like them: “why spend 100 euros on a sweatshirt in the real world that only 200 people will see, while in a metaverse my avatar can be seen by 10,000 humans and for less money”. Thinking like them makes us get closer to them, understand them and finally connect.
Some of these new challenges brought about by the arrival of the Metaverse (or metaverses) were addressed within the framework of the MetaExperience congress, organized by the Association for the Development of Customer Experience (DEC), of which we are partners.
MetaExperience 2022, event organized by DEC
Image from MetaExperience 2022, an event organized by DEC
The event sought to highlight the opportunities offered by the Metaverse, virtual and augmented reality, and Artificial Intelligence, in the Customer and Employee Experience . Different experts shared their vision and experience with their brands.
We, who are part of the restless generation , of those who like to explore, test and connect brands with people , listen attentively and outline the main keys that have been addressed, as well as our reflections.
What is the Metaverse and how can we define it?
Let's start at the beginning and before talking about new experiences, extended realities, monetization models, audiences, etc., let's put a face to the Metaverse and define it correctly.
The Metaverse is a network of immersive experiences that meet certain requirements and are often linked to the physical world. As Oscar Peña, CIO at Wunderman Thompson , stated in his talk: “These worlds are often designed to be highly social and require users to have virtual identities, often through avatars or specific attributes.”
These worlds can also provide (and do provide) a sense of ownership over virtual items (such as land, products, services, art, etc.) as they also have their own virtual economy (cryptocurrencies, proprietary tokens, fiat currency, etc.).
Matthew Ball , author of the book “The Metaverse” , defines it as “a massive, interoperable network of 3D virtual worlds rendered in real time, which can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an unlimited number of users, with a sense of individual presence and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, law…”
Despite its young age, as we can see, the Metaverse has multiple definitions (some more complex than others). In short, it is the convergence of two worlds (real and virtual), where layers of information overlap . This gives rise to new environments in which we can create content, which will allow us, for example, to connect with new audiences, create new economic flows...
We must start from the basis that we currently define it this way, but that it is a changing reality, that it is evolving and therefore its definition will also evolve.
Extended Realities
It is impossible to understand the Metaverse without knowing what “Extended Reality” is : it is a new and constantly evolving concept that is attributed to technologies that create digitally generated environments and objects.
It is used as an umbrella term that encompasses virtual, augmented and mixed reality (the ones we are most familiar with), complementing the ability to add information virtually with the control and knowledge of a real environment.
David Hurtado, Innovation Lead at Microsoft Iberia , spoke about them during his talk “The immersive experience of today and tomorrow”.
How important is the metaverse for brands?
On one side, we have the physical world. On the other, we have the digital world and in between both worlds, we have Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality, which connect both worlds.
So far, each of these realities has its own device to make it effective. For example, augmented reality requires tablets or smartphones to be able to see it in action. VR or virtual reality requires glasses such as Oculus to be able to enter it.