The Metaverse in a nutshell
Mark Zuckerberg describes the Metaverse as an ‘embodied internet’, so instead of looking at a screen, we’re going to be immersed within the experiences. ‘Everything we do online today; connecting socially, entertainment, games, work, is going to be more natural and vivid.’
And it’s not just going to change the way we socialise and experience work meetings; but how we advertise, too.
Immersive advertising
Advertising on social media has become increasingly challenging for brands in terms of privacy and data with changes in GDPR regulations, banishment of third-party cookies, and the iOS 14 update. And it’s all had an impact on consumers’ willingness to share their personal data, forcing brands to approach personalisation more carefully.
The Metaverse will be transforming how we approach personal data by providing an opportunity for consumers to personalise their virtual worlds to their exact tastes, and Meta will track every piece of it – from the clothes they dress their avatars in, to the piece of art hanging up in their virtual homes.
The result? A fully personalised and immersive advertising experience.
But it’s not just advertising; our whole approach to brand storytelling could be completely transformed – through personalised content, brand-consumer relationships could become more intertwined; potentially closing the gap between brand awareness and purchase behaviour with instant access to buy products and services.
And that brings us on to NFTs, because with a virtual world comes a virtual economy.
NFTs in the Metaverse
The Metaverse will use non-fungible tokens (NFTs for short), which are part of a cryptocurrency blockchain and will allow us to buy and sell products. For brands, this opens a whole virtual world of opportunities where real products such as art and clothing, can also exist digitally. Affordable fashion brand, BooHooMAN.com has already started the bidding for their NFT exclusive collection with one-off designs for consumers to own and wear in the Metaverse.
The big question
Is the world ready for the Metaverse?
Any Black Mirror episode would tell us no, but that’s not stopping Meta.
And with some brands already preparing, it begs the question - when should the rest of us?