4 Challenges of Metaverse Marketing for Brands

The Metaverse has remained popular since its launch. Both brand owners and ordinary consumers have different imaginations and expectations for the future virtual world. The current metaverse is a pioneering concept that points to an endless future, but as a purely technological concept it has actually existed for decades.

Will the Metaverse become mainstream in the future? Does the development trajectory of the Internet apply to the Metaverse? How can brand owners seize opportunities and make precise plans in the future virtual world? What potential risks need to be avoided in advance? Assess this global craze calmly and objectively, be enthusiastic but rational, and move forward with optimism but caution.

Key points

1. The era foundation of pioneering concepts, known elements become the mainstream of the future

2. Network vs. Metaverse: Open development guided by vision

3. Five elements: the underlying structure of the future of the Metaverse

4. Five opportunities for brand owners to start their journey into the virtual world

5. Four challenges: moving forward cautiously amid bright prospects

Although the Metaverse is still in its early stages of development, it is still prime time for brands to explore its future direction. How can brands become a part of the Metaverse and its future development? New technologies, behaviors, and innovative methods are constantly emerging. For their future development, we can draw lessons from their history and current performance to more objectively analyze the possible development curve.

The Metaverse may provide brands with innovative and diverse ways to further connect and interact with users; it may also teach us new ways to enhance product experience and explore a new channel for media upgrades; perhaps other new areas - but it is always worth joining in.

1. The Contemporary Basis of the Avant-garde Concept

Known elements will become the mainstream in the future

Many people have tried to explain what the metaverse is and what is its appeal. How should brands engage with the Metaverse?

In short, the metaverse is not a new concept, but it innovatively combines current and future trends and behaviors to form a trend that conforms to the development of the times. Therefore, although the Metaverse has not yet been fully formed, brand owners can evaluate it from a strategic level and make plans based on their actual situation.

It can be said that it was Facebook that pushed the Metaverse into the spotlight of the world.

From many perspectives, many elements of the metaverse already exist. What we are discussing now is the integration and fusion of all these elements. Judging from the current situation, the metaverse is also becoming mainstream.

To understand where the Metaverse is headed in the future, we first need to study its historical origins, while also observing successful precedents in digital evolution.

2. Network vs. Metaverse

Open development led by vision

One way to understand the Metaverse is to look at how the concept of the web was used in the late 1990s as a vision of a possible future. At that time, while people embraced the Internet with optimism, there were also many mocking voices. But at that time, when people discussed the Internet, they focused more on the functional level.

As the Internet continues to evolve, the concept of cyberspace is also moving forward. What we are using now is developed on the basis of the cyberspace back then, but it is also very different from the original concept of cyberspace.

The same is true for the future development of the Metaverse. It describes a vision for changes in our current digital life. This vision may be realized or fail. The Metaverse may not remain popular in the future and may even disappear.

The best preparation we can do is to remain enthusiastic and open-minded, but also fully aware of the current realities and maintain due caution.

Three, five elements

The underlying structure of the future of the Metaverse

The realization of the Metaverse vision requires a variety of common factors, including but not limited to the following:

Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality: The way we experience the Metaverse may benefit from rapid technological changes in screens and digital experiences. For example, we can have a complete experience of the Metaverse in virtual reality.

Virtual environments or worlds: The metaverse can be a mirror image of reality, an extension of it, or a complete fantasy. But in fact, what people experience in the metaverse is a shared space, and the objects that can interact also have common characteristics.

Virtual identity: Virtual identity is closely linked to real identity and is also an important tool for self-expression. In the metaverse, everyone has their own personality, character, property, and fashion.

These elements make the users behind them more concrete and allow them to interact and communicate with others on an ongoing basis (it would be difficult to build long-term relationships if everyone remained anonymous and their identity information changed frequently). The ability to change metaverse identities is also seen as an extension of self-expression.

Virtual Events and Experiences: The Metaverse could be an ongoing group leisure and entertainment experience, often through community-organized events such as concerts, performances, weddings, or regular conferences.

Tokens, infrastructure, and virtual economies: Some forms of ownership and transactions in the metaverse can be centrally controlled (like the economic forms in Fortnite and V-Bucks), or they can be new forms of management, ownership, and economies created by decentralized finance, blockchain, or web3.

Not only does this allow brands to get involved, but it also allows creators to earn more from their own IP and work. One of the major changes we are still looking forward to is the convergence and interoperability of these trends.

Four. Five major opportunities

How Brand Owners Start Their Journey into the Virtual World

Many brands have already begun to enter the Metaverse. Luxury brand Gucci has created a brand world in Roblox, Marc Jacobs has created Animal Crossing fashion items, John Lewis has launched virtual parallel competitions and games on Fortnite, Netflix, Disney and Marvel have all launched new brand shows and shifted their brand marketing to the Metaverse.

The Metaverse has provided various opportunities for brands to test the waters:

1. Create a brand world or space in the Metaverse

2. Create branded products or launch various shows in the Metaverse

3. Partner with experienced companies to create immersive marketing campaigns or experiences

4. Connect geographically dispersed but culturally similar organizations

5. Find paid partners to promote your brand in popular spaces.

If your goal is just to test the waters, you can collaborate with existing spaces and gradually explore a metaverse development path that’s suitable for your brand.

If your goal is to reach users and bring about a clear impact, then you need to carefully research your audience, accurately target them, and understand the methods and channels through which future users will learn about your brand.

Brand owners need to carefully and rationally evaluate their current unique assets and brand goals before deciding whether they need to deploy the Metaverse. For those brands that already match the key elements of the Metaverse - for example, the brand itself belongs to the fashion, experience or IP category, then it is relatively convenient to layout the Metaverse, and products and marketing are also easier to extend.

Currently, the absolute mainstream of the Metaverse is still games, and games can be used to effectively reach users of gaming and e-sports. The metaverse is a vast space, but it is not a universal space.

Similarly, the emerging web3 is making great efforts in this field and looking for every opportunity for development.

Five, four questions

Moving forward cautiously with bright expectations

First, users are not waiting for brands to enter the Metaverse, and even if brands do enter, users are likely to ignore them.

Secondly, the actual layout of the Metaverse is quite different from other marketing methods. At the same time, there is a lack of major platforms or ready-made users to make Metaverse marketing become mainstream or common practice.

In addition, a rash entry into the Metaverse may not necessarily cause substantial damage to the brand, but it may waste budget and energy.

If brand owners insist on taking the marketing path of metaverse experience, they must first ensure that they have a relatively good foundation with the cooperative community, then set aside a budget to promote brand activities, and then use PR or partners to direct users to the brand's metaverse space. At the same time, in this process, they must also objectively view and strictly promote brand goals.

Takeaways

①The Metaverse is not a completely new concept, nor has it been fully realized – brand owners need to fully understand this and make Metaverse layouts objectively and rationally.

②The metaverse describes a broad vision rather than a specific thing - a persistent virtual space with user identities and experiences.

③The Metaverse has gradually upgraded and iterated to become part of a wider gaming experience and community - the key question is whether the Metaverse can become mainstream in the future.

④There are some key questions surrounding the ownership, control and creation of the Metaverse - Facebook/Meta co-coined the term, but in fact it is a jointly defined concept and space.

⑤The future of the metaverse is constantly changing, and observing its final direction is full of surprises and fun.

There are still many important questions about the Metaverse. For example, the issue of builders and ownership, who determines how the metaverse operates? How to evaluate and measure marketing effectiveness? How do people enter the metaverse? How can the Metaverse be seamlessly integrated into consumers’ lives?

These questions may take years to answer and resolve. During this time, clarity may emerge about the nature and meaning of the Metaverse, or these questions may become less important over time. But understanding and participating in the Metaverse is itself a very exciting and unforgettable experience.

Regardless, I look forward to seeing you in the Metaverse, whether it’s this one or the next.