The Metaverse, Business, & Advertising
“Well gall dang, another darn tootin’ platform from the future I gotta learn to advertise on.”
I think we can all connect with the difficulty of keeping up with new & current platforms our brand needs to have a presence on. It can certainly be daunting…and that’s one heck of an understatement. Before you go down the dark hole of various google searches, witch hunts, and uninformed hearsay, let’s acknowledge that the Metaverse is a broad term that doesn’t necessarily mean any one thing - and that’s okay. It’s meant to be ambiguous, and by being so, it serves its marketing purpose and leads us to where we are right now: talking about it at this very moment.
You run your business and have enough to worry about as it is.
For that reason, we’ll give you the full explanation of the Metaverse, how it may affect your business marketing, and whether or not it really is the future of the tech space.
This week’s Sip & Strategy is about the Metaverse. Put on some racing gloves, buckle into your DeLorean, and welcome to the Metaverse, Business, and Advertising episode.
What is the Metaverse?
Such a good question. It’s so good, in fact, that it doesn’t deserve just one answer. According to Pew Research, the Metaverse is defined in three different ways:
An embodied virtual-reality experience
A Web3 framework for economic interoperability
A creative platform for experiences (e.g., Roblox). Some current versions may be a hybrid of these.
This list may sound familiar or look like several combinations of “techy” words that should never be in the same sentence, but to summarize in short, the Metaverse is a place to connect with other people and content in a digital environment that will be far more immersive than any of its predecessors. What will that look like exactly? In the end, it’s up to all of us to define what we want this exciting new platform could look, sound, and even taste like (more on that later).
Check out this video from Guardian News to help paint the picture for you:
Some Meta Here, a Little Verse There
Imagine, if you will, going to a concert that you’ve been looking forward to for months. That beautiful calendar reminder goes off, alerting you that the day has arrived. Minutes before leaving the house, however, you see the dreaded image of a call from your best friend. They’re sick… and now you’re going solo. The concert starts, the lights dim, and a few lasers alight your surroundings. No, this isn’t the light the show put together by a few roadies and an apprentice electrician - this is a hologram illumination encompassing your best friend. From their knees to their hands, head to their feet, they are really at the concert with you, in the flesh. Well, sorta.
This is the power of the Metaverse. You can stay at home and connect with the world in a totally new way. Whether that’s playing a game with your friends, witnessing whatever they call flash mobs in 10 years, or having a digital cup of tea with some distant family members, there’s a universe waiting for us to explore. And explore we shall.
The idea of the Metaverse is to establish a separate online reality to do a variety of things: Allow you to connect with your friends across the globe in a new creative way, transact purchases using an entirely digital-only currency, or even interact with your local businesses without ever stepping foot in a brick and mortar store. This leads us to our next topic…
Marketing and Advertising in the Metaverse
With more and more digital options becoming available for businesses to market themselves, it can become a daunting task to sort out how and where to do so. The Metaverse will be no exception. The Metaverse will expand on current concepts we have now, like various forms of delivery and the purchase of online assets. Maybe you want to offer merchandising like a t-shirt avatar as a value add for your customers; or maybe you’re looking to give out a coupon good for a discounted meal from your restaurant if the viewer checks out your metaverse digital store. The options are endless.
The future is wild and the possibilities for your small business marketing are without bounds. As always, you can stick to traditional methods like radio advertising and social media content, but good on you for keeping an ear out with all the new & fresh mediums to play in.
And remember, Iliad Media Group is always here for you with all your marketing tips.