Metaverse Marketing: 4 Transformations Brands Need to Face!

Since the beginning of this year, the "metaverse" has never appeared in the public eye with such a high frequency. In addition to the technical conception and implementation, what follows is the " metaverse marketing " of major brands...

Recently, JD.com launched the NFT trading platform "Lingxi", and also launched the JOY&DOGA series of digital collections as the first collections on the platform. Ten thousand digital collections were quickly sold out;

Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) announced that it will officially launch the first virtual music carnival in China, TMELAND; Baidu released the metaverse product "Xiran" on December 27;

When OPPO released its first foldable phone, Find N, it also released a limited edition of 100 digital collections of the model word "Metaverse Adventure" and invited the virtual idol A Xi to be the digital recommendation officer.

During the Double 11 event, Tmall Luxury joined hands with six luxury brands, including Burberry, Longines, Emporio Armani, Coach, Balmain, and La Perla, to create the first luxury "digital collection" art gallery;

In October, Oreo also created NFT digital cookies that “never expire” in China; McDonald’s China released its first NFT work “Big Mac Rubik’s Cube”…

On the one hand, we see more and more brands gradually entering the Metaverse, and some relatively independent gameplay has emerged, such as virtual spokespersons, NFT products, social interactive games and virtual performances; and more and more users are becoming more and more active in participating in the Metaverse. On the other hand, at present, the domestic "metaverse marketing" is still in the stage of "much ado about nothing". More and more brands are entering the market, but many marketing methods are still not systematic. Brands have not made long-term investments and are still in the stage of creating momentum. Users also lack sustained attention.

The Metaverse is decentralized and is conceived as a new marketing ecosystem. This poses a dilemma for many brands, which need to work harder and more proactively than in the digital marketing era to create their own virtual future.

So, how will brands enter the Metaverse? How do marketers plan to leverage and shape brands in a virtual environment? In a virtual world that is always online, constantly evolving, and dominated by user-generated content, how should brands behave and communicate? Based on reference materials, Shiyouqu believes that brands have to face the following four "transformations".

01. From telling stories to creating stories

In the past, brand marketing mostly involved telling stories with the brand as an outlet to guide consumers to identify with or empathize with the brand. However, Metaverse marketing will be largely creator-driven and offer a wide variety of content and experiences.

Take Roblox, the world’s largest multiplayer online creation game platform, as an example. Roblox is the first gaming UGC platform positioned as "tools + community", providing creators with technical tools to freely produce content and players with a platform for gaming and social activities. As of Q3 21, it has attracted 47.3 million DAU.

Roblox users use their unique virtual images to interact realistically with friends in UGC digital scenes, and also digitize offline social activities such as fishing, racing, shopping at Gucci, watching videos, and exploring. The more developers create games and gameplay content, the longer players are immersed in the game, and the more new users are attracted through social networks. As the player base expands, due to the incentive + feedback economic system of UGC, more players will become developers, forming a positive flywheel effect.

In Metaverse marketing, users are both developers and players. In order to break the boundary between the two and form a positive flywheel effect, brands need to re-examine their positioning, from storytellers to co-creators of stories, so that the brand story can continue to develop. For example, brands purchase land and build communities in some virtual communities, but the stories in the communities are generated by the interactions between players.

02. From live events to virtual performances

Lindsey McInerney, global head of technology and innovation at Anheuser-Busch InBev, once said, “The future of sports, media and entertainment is virtual. Almost 2.5 billion people are already participating in the virtual economy. This is the direction in which the world is evolving. There is no doubt that, just like in the real world, brands need to find a foothold in the virtual parallel world.”

Brand owners have always reached consumers through sponsoring live performances. Sports brands expand their brand influence by sponsoring sports events, beer and soft drink companies buy out the right to provide beverages at events through sponsorship, and banks and credit card companies use ticket pre-sales rights to promote themselves...

The emergence of the Metaverse has provided many brands with more new opportunities for event sponsorship. NFTs are changing the way brands and IP owners interact with consumers. These tokens provide a direct relationship between brands, IP owners and consumers, and can serve as a "passport/pass" to already acquired real or digital rights. For example, the owner of a brand-exclusive NFT can participate in the next virtual new product launch event through identity verification.

For example, BTS integrated augmented reality technology into a hybrid live and virtual concert, broadcasting it to 1 million paying subscribers at the same time, generating $43 million in revenue. AR technology integrated into the live broadcast synchronizes the colors of the real light sticks that fans can wave safely while sitting at home with the music in the live broadcast.

The sponsoring brands of this virtual performance can provide access to the BTS concert held in the Metaverse to all consumers around the world through their own product packaging. Consumers can also unlock other benefits in this virtual concert based on the brand NTF assets they own.

03. From models/spokespersons to virtual idols/digital people

There is no doubt that virtual idols are further enriching brand marketing methods. When it comes to virtual image endorsements, its advantages are obvious. First, it is more cost-effective as brands do not have to pay high salaries; second, they do not have to bear the risk of public opinion for spokespersons. At the same time, the brand has complete control over the image setting, words and deeds of the virtual spokesperson, and can enrich the character's personality through different communication content to match it with the brand. Finally, once the virtual spokesperson is appointed, he will serve as the brand’s unique, long-term and stable image representative and can grow with the brand.

But for brands, "cultivating" a virtual idol is not easy, as it relies on continuous cultural output and consistent personality. The foreign virtual idol Lil Miquela is very outstanding on social networking sites. She shares her outfits, food, and social interactions with a variety of expressions and movements, just like a young person.

These creative contents are adjusted according to the preferences of the audience, which is conducive to extending the image to different fields and scenarios. We must know that facing the homogenization phenomenon in the market, virtual idols will eventually face aesthetic fatigue if they rely solely on appearance.

Overall, the virtual idol industry is optimistic in the long run, but it is also a red ocean with very fierce competition. Brands leveraging virtual idols are essentially following hot topics. How to properly integrate more advanced technologies into marketing actions and convert traffic is the key to continued freshness.

04. From consumer-oriented to digital double-oriented

Sharing virtual scenes with other users in the same world and having a real sense of presence in the virtual world, this virtual + real sociality is a key element of the metaverse.

Take Zepeto, which started out as a virtual image APP, as an example. Zepeto was born in 2018. It is a virtual image APP launched by Naver, a leading Internet company in South Korea. Users can create a virtual image according to their personal preferences and purchase virtual clothing to dress up. After completing the DIY of the virtual image, users can choose the background and pose to "take a photo". The "group photo" and sharing functions provided by Zepeto enable it to spread quickly in the social circle of acquaintances.

Starting from version 2.6 in 2019, Zepeto added the "Theme Park" function to broaden the social scenes of strangers. Since then, the "Theme Park" map has been continuously expanded to form today's "World" column. In order to promote content production, Zepeto launched Zepeto Studio in 2020 to encourage users to create virtual products and maps. The expansion of social scenarios has enabled Zepeto to evolve into a virtual business world, with the global user base exceeding 200 million.

The huge number of young users and strong sense of fashion make Zepeto a new frontier for brand marketing. Fashion has always been an important element of Zepeto since its first version, and the app has therefore attracted a large number of young female users. According to the latest data disclosed by Naver Z, 70% of all users are women between the ages of 13 and 24. Because its user portraits highly overlap with the target customer groups of many fashion brands, Zepeto has attracted more than 60 well-known brands and IPs, becoming a new front for brand marketing and IP promotion.

A very important change in metaverse marketing is that brands are no longer simply facing real consumers, but consumers and their digital substitutes, who have the attributes of social people and also have virtual interaction needs.

"While the Metaverse manifests itself as a series of real-time and ultimately interconnected online experiences, it is actually enabled and qualified by some transformative trends that have long been known to cutting-edge brands and marketers, including shared social spaces, digital payments, and gamification. However, the future of the Metaverse will present an absolute evolution that is very unfamiliar to most consumer brands, the most notable of which are blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, digital goods, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and personal digital avatars (Avartars). " ("THE METAVERSE IS THE MEDIUM") Of course, at present, Metaverse marketing still has a long way to go.

Author: Interesting

Source: SocialTouch Research Institute (ID: SocialTouch2020)