Metaverse, the next marketing trend!

Yesterday we talked about Facebook changing its name to Meta

Is to prepare for entering the metaverse field

It is understood

Since Zuckerberg announced the company's name change

A-share metaverse sector surges

It can be seen that the development of the metaverse is highly optimistic

Speaking of the Metaverse

The term originated from the science fiction novel Snow Crash.

The novel depicts a huge virtual reality world

Nowadays, with the development of technologies such as AR and 5G

The Metaverse is no longer just a theory

It is a carrier that integrates the virtual world and the real world.

Contains opportunities for application change in social, content and other scenarios

It can be said to be the next outlet for Internet companies

at the same time

It also provides a new direction for the advertising creative industry

after all……

Brands have new ways to show their creativity

Party B can also rely on new concepts to fool customers (not)

01 Many brands follow the trend of Metaverse

Products are an effective tool for brands to gain a foothold in the metaverse.

Take Facebook, for example, which recently teamed up with Ray-Ban to launch its first smart glasses, “Ray-Ban Stories”;

Xiaomi and China Mobile followed closely and released enhanced display glasses products;

Adobe is committed to updating its 3D design products, trying to take the lead and become a design tool platform for the "metaverse";

Ray-Ban Stories

Xiaomi Smart Glasses Explorer Edition

In addition, Apple CEO Cook has repeatedly expressed that Apple will increase its investment in the AR field...

In addition to the technology industry, brands from other industries have also joined the Metaverse camp and started to lay out the Metaverse map:

Last December, luxury brand Balenciaga released new products through a video game. From the protagonist’s first-person perspective, the clothes and models became virtual entities in the game.

Balenciaga game screen

Sports brand Nike has currently submitted 7 logo trademark applications and stated that the trademark is used to download virtual items. At the same time, the official website has also opened a position for "virtual item designer";

Nike's virtual products launched in games

(@鞋贩子, I didn’t expect Nike to start selling fake shoes)

Suddenly, this "metaverse" trend has spread to various industries.

02 Communication Marketing under the Metaverse Concept

Of course, the popularity of the Metaverse has also spawned some new marketing methods.

"Virtual image" is one of them.

On October 31, the virtual character Liu Yexi released her first video on Douyin. Positioning herself as "a virtual beauty expert who can catch monsters," she attracted more than 2 million fans in just three days.

On October 2, Hunan Satellite TV released information about intern host Xiao Yang:

As the first digital host officially announced by Hunan Satellite TV, Xiao Yang devoted herself to publicity work on her first day at work and actively represented her hometown:

On September 8, Alibaba officially announced its first digital employee, AYAYI:

Today, AYAYI has participated in various marketing activities of brands in different capacities, such as event platforms, joint cooperation, theme exhibitions...

Seeing this, some people will definitely say that these hyper-realistic digital people are just robots, but you may not expect that the influence of these "robots" is far greater than we think:

Lil Miquela, from the United States

Successfully debuted on Instagram in 2016

Now has millions of fans

Imma, from Japan (pink hair)

Frequently appears in advertisements for fashion brands

Take photos and interact with models and celebrities

Friends who are familiar with it may have discovered

Imma also starred in SK-II's commercial last year:

On paper, these virtual images are not much different from real people, but their appearance has enriched the connotation of virtual idols. Compared with the previous virtual images that specifically sing and dance, these digital people have different personalities. Each person also has different interests, social circles and "work content", which can effectively connect the metaverse of the real world and the virtual world.

At the same time, the birth of virtual idols has also spawned various forms of virtual digital people such as virtual anchors and virtual models, adding a more real "soul" to the virtual characters in the metaverse.

Looking at the brand circle, in fact, many brands have keenly observed the marketing trend of virtual images and tried to break the dimension wall through virtual images:

Watsons' first virtual spokesperson "Qu Chenxi", Tmall's first virtual spokesperson "Qian Miao" based on Qianxi, and the first brand virtual image "Hua Xizi" launched by the domestic brand Hua Xizi...

A thought: Can brands save the budget for hiring spokespersons in the future?

03 Some thoughts on the Metaverse craze

1. In the virtual world, if brands want to connect with consumers in a more realistic way, it is far from enough to just create a virtual image. For brands, the biggest difficulty lies in how to build a sense of story, make the image of virtual characters three-dimensional, and even establish a completely new background and story in the virtual world, which also places higher demands on the brand's shaping capabilities.

2. Nowadays, many fashion and beauty brands have launched online try-on experiences, virtual makeup and other services. From the consumer's perspective, this new way of interaction allows people to have an offline experience without leaving home, but at the same time, it also requires that the online experience service and the offline experience service are highly similar, otherwise it will be difficult for consumers to continue to maintain their enthusiasm for experience in the virtual world.

3. Under the concept of the metaverse, compared with graphic and text content carriers, immersive and engaging video formats will become more popular. First, the scene presentation of videos is richer and can connect with the public's emotions in a more realistic way; second, with the advancement of technology, more interactive video content can further improve marketing efficiency and may bring about a new change in brand marketing models in the future.

Author: Marketing Case Studies

Source: Marketing Case Studies