How to master Metaverse Marketing? 4 key points!

The hottest concept in the past year is undoubtedly the metaverse. Qichacha data shows that as of the end of 2021, 1,692 companies in my country have applied for 11,400 Metaverse trademarks.

While people still have doubts and debates about the concept of the metaverse, its implementation scenarios, and its development path, brand marketers who are always at the forefront have already used the metaverse concept itself or related technologies to conduct numerous marketing attempts and innovations. Smart brands hope to occupy a favorable position before the Metaverse is truly implemented on a large scale so that they can seize more business opportunities in the future.

Although the long-term value of Metaverse marketing remains unclear, in 2021 some leading brands have used Metaverse technology and concepts to successfully reach and influence a wide range of users, and have accumulated certain success cases.

By studying recent successful cases, we found that compared with current mainstream marketing strategies, metaverse marketing has four main characteristics: story creation, digital virtual human endorsement, digital avatars, and blockchain-based digital rights.

At this stage, regardless of whether brands believe in the concept of the metaverse, they should have some understanding of the characteristics and actions of metaverse marketing. I believe that they can find ideas and innovations that are worthy of reference.

1. Create a story

Most of the current mainstream brand marketing revolves around storytelling around the brand’s core values, thereby guiding consumers to have more recognition or empathy. However, many successful Metaverse marketing cases involve users acting as creators, driving the overall story development, and providing rich and detailed content and experiences.

Case 1: Roblox, the world's largest multiplayer online game creation platform, is also the first game UGC platform positioned as "tools + community", providing creators with technical tools for free content production and players with a platform for gaming and social activities.

As of Q3 2021, the platform has attracted 47.3 million DAUs. Roblox users use their unique virtual images to interact realistically with friends in UGC digital scenes, digitizing 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.

Case 2: There is a metaverse project under construction overseas called STARLINK, which is inspired by Musk's space program. It fictionalizes a future space station located in a quadrant of the Milky Way, allowing players to enter and become galactic explorers. Within the framework of the overall storyline, players can create their own living space and their own stories, and ultimately create a sub-universe.

In Metaverse Marketing, users are both content creators 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.

2. Digital Virtual Spokesperson

The advantages of digital virtual spokespersons are obvious - low cost (high celebrity endorsement fees), low risk (collapse of spokesperson's personality), high controllability (the image, words and deeds of the virtual spokesperson are controllable), and long-term nature (virtual spokespersons and brands can cooperate stably and long-term).

But for brands, creating virtual idols is not easy. At present, the virtual human industry is one of the most mature commercial applications in the metaverse, capable of bringing rich content and immersive experience. Guosheng Securities divides virtual humans into four categories. There are relatively small differences in production technology, but they have completely different development paths in application.

1. Service-oriented virtual human (PGC+ functional type)

This type of virtual person can provide users with anthropomorphic services, such as Xinhua News Agency virtual reporters, CCTV virtual sign language teachers, etc. It can be foreseen that in the future, brand customer service and private domain traffic operations will also introduce more virtual service personnel.

The picture comes from the Internet

2. Virtual idols (PGC+IP value)

This type of virtual image is displayed through technological means. It has its own personality and can broadcast live, endorse products, hold concerts, etc. Compared with celebrities or anchors, virtual idols do not need to be paid, are less likely to fail, and can be tailored according to brand strategy.

For example, Nayuki’s Tea officially announced the virtual character NAYUKI as its brand ambassador on its sixth anniversary. According to the official introduction, NAYUKI is a cosmic symbiote that will travel between virtual space and real life.

The picture comes from the Internet

3. Digital Avatar (UGC+ Functional)

This type of technology has evolved from the game's "face-pinching" feature and can bring a high degree of immersion to users, such as the face-pinching characters in Cyberpunk. In the future, it can be applied to the beauty, footwear and apparel industries. After users create their personal images, they can try on makeup or clothes online to reduce the uncertainty of consumer decisions.

4. Creation carrier (UGC+IP value)

This type is mainly created and operated by individual enthusiasts and communities, such as the virtual singer Luo Tianyi, the virtual beauty blogger Liu Yexi, etc., which can become a bridge for interaction between brands and users to promote products or co-create. However, there is uncertainty in the image and expression of this type of virtual person, making them unsuitable as brand spokespersons.

These virtual spokespersons and related creative content are adjusted according to the audience's preferences, which is conducive to extending applications and scenarios in different fields. However, the homogenization phenomenon of virtual spokespersons is also quite serious. If virtual idols rely solely on appearance, they will eventually face aesthetic fatigue.

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.

3. Towards digital doubles

A very important transformation in metaverse marketing is that brands have to face not only real consumers, but also digital substitutes of consumers - those who have the attributes of social people and the need for virtual interaction. 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 as a virtual image APP, as an example. Zepeto was born in 2018 and 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 photos. The photo-taking and sharing functions provided by Zepeto enable it to spread quickly in the social circle of acquaintances.

The picture comes from the Internet

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, 70% of all users are women between the ages of 13 and 24. Since its user profile highly overlaps 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.

4. Digital rights based on blockchain

The full name of NFT is Non-Fungible Token, which means non-fungible token. Experts say that technically, NFT is a digital certificate of a contract based on blockchain technology, which has the characteristics of verifiability, uniqueness, indivisibility and traceability, and can be used to mark the ownership of specific assets.
The Metaverse provides NFT with more diverse application scenarios. For brands, the following application directions can be considered:

• Provide users with personalized gifts, vouchers, etc.
• Pre-launch promotion for events and product launches with early access tokens
• Use digital goods as a supplement to physical products, open up new sources of income, etc.
• Launch digital new products in advance for market testing to guide actual production and sales

On International Friendship Day in July 2021, Coca-Cola launched four multi-sensory NFT digital collectibles, including the Friendship Box (imagining the old Coca-Cola refrigerator as a dynamic loot box), the Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket (paying tribute to Coca-Cola's nostalgic delivery uniforms), the Sound Visualizer (visualizing the audio when enjoying Coca-Cola), and the Friendship Card (inspired by Coca-Cola trading cards from 1948-1990s).

The picture comes from the Internet

V. Conclusion

Many people are skeptical about the metaverse. For example, Musk said that "putting a display device on the nose" will not allow people to enter the virtual world naturally and comfortably. At present, there is no clear conclusion on whether the metaverse can be realized and how to realize it. However, companies that do not want to miss the opportunity will not focus on the "metaverse" at the moment, but on "marketing", that is, how to use these emerging concepts and interactive methods to enhance the stickiness between the public and brands and play a role in icing on the cake.

If brands want to truly seize the opportunities of the Metaverse, they need to carefully study the core characteristics of Metaverse marketing, combine them with their own brand positioning and target population characteristics, and develop long-term promotion strategies.

Author: Sensors Research Institute

Source: Sensors Research Institute