The Metaverse and Marketing: What to Expect

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My name is Devin Littlefield and today is actually a solo cast. So my typical co-host, Hans Rehmer, is currently out of office traveling for, of course, this holiday season. So that said, you just get to listen to me here for a few minutes. And I wanted to talk about something that's really been hot on the newsfeed recently, and that is metaverse. I'm not going to take the time to explain what it is, how it works, etc., etc. If you, if you want to know more about that, just Google it. You're going to find something on YouTube or some really good explainer articles. But specifically, I want to talk to marketers today, and, and for those of you that are tuning in, about how the metaverse may actually play a pivotal role in the future of our full-channel marketing or our multichannel marketing, right? I think there's a lot of potential that the metaverse brings. And now, unfortunately, because it's under such a broad definition, it's a little bit hard to determine what a clear path to success would look like with the metaverse. But if you bear with me for a minute, uh, I'll just share a few of the thoughts that I've been having as I've been, you know, continuing to learn more and research about the metaverse, and then offer up my suggestions. So One of the first things that I think is noticeable as part of this whole metaverse conversation is around the idea of identity inside of the metaverse. And I think what's particularly interesting about that is this notion that people will be able to have their own personal avatar. They represent themselves in such a way that may be different even from the real world. And I think this is what's particularly interesting about this is the evolution of online personalities. We've seen this, of course, with Instagram. I think it's the most synonymous, right, where people are portraying a lifestyle differently on Instagram than perhaps what they're actually living in the real world. And I think that the metaverse will continue to exacerbate that. I think what we are going to see is that people will create these avatars, these personalities in this metaverse world that's different from possibly how they're even being portrayed inside in, in the real world. So as marketers, I think one of the key advantages that we'll be able to have is interesting data as it relates to how they may compare real world to metaverse world. And that offers up, I think, a lot of, a lot more data points and a lot more insights in terms of activities interests, things that we may not be able to currently see under this, this Web 2.0 model, right? Where as marketers we look at, you know, what were the URLs that they were visiting, what are the location tracking, right, mobile device IDs. We can see people moving about in the real world, but I think in this metaverse world it's going to open up whole new possibilities because it's going to be interest-based. People are not going to go online, uh, in this metaverse, in this, in this theoretical metaverse, to be able to present their avatar and then just spend most of their day looking at business-related content. That's probably not what they're going to be interested in. So I think we're going to see a lot more personalization around content and particularly how we can then collect data on people, right, and what their interests are and then be able to market to them sufficiently. And I think that's both an inclusionary statement and exclusionary in that it's going to be helpful on both sides of the coin for targeting purposes, for advertising or new content or email blasts, whatever it is, as well as exclusionary, right? Being able to more quickly remove people so we're not wasting time, resources, ad dollars on those folks. So that's one of the things that I think will be most interesting coming out of this metaverse. Kind of movement that we're in. The second thing that I want to just point out is that there's been a real, a real big push from companies trying to learn more about the metaverse, jump into it, right? Everybody's trying to become a thought leader in it because it's so new, it's fresh. And what's particularly fascinating about this is that companies are jumping into it faster than I think I've ever seen before. If you recall back in the early days of some of the social media platforms, It took some companies years and they had to be dragged in by tooth and nail before they all decided and realized that being on social media platforms was invaluable for their business. Right. And I think, I think the businesses have learned enough and know that you can't get caught behind a trend now. Right. Or you can't, you can't be left behind. There's a lot of benefit to being a leader inside of this space. And so I think companies are jumping into it faster than we've ever seen before. And certainly, I mean, even Mark Advantage, we're getting on this bandwagon talking about it right now. But I think there's a lot more that we all need to learn and understand as marketers. And so I guess my second point is take some time trying to learn about it. If you can, go get some virtual reality, get a virtual reality headset from Oculus, of course. Try and actually go into Horizon, like start actually playing around with these tools because of course we're never going to be able to understand it until we experience it ourselves, right? So that's the second point. And I think the third and final point here is that particularly one of the best opportunities that I can foresee coming out of this outside of data and outside of just the pure understanding of what the actual metaverse is, is around experiences. And I think, you know, for particularly event agencies, this is going to be a huge opportunity. Because now we're opening up this door to literally a new world of being able to offer unique experiences that are done digitally. So there's gonna be assumably less costs than trying to create this big in-person event. And especially with COVID still, you know, kind of impacting our world on a daily basis, we need to be as marketers thinking about how we can craft specific experience, like still bring specific experiences to people and do so in a way that doesn't compromise safety. So I think that is going to be a huge push for folks as we're thinking about what, what are those types of experiences that we could create? How can we stand to benefit, bring people in and still act as good marketers, right? Be able to offer, offer great content, be able to collect data on people, what, like, whatever your goals are for your marketing— sell more products, sell more services— we need to be able to think about that. And experiences inside of the metaverse are going to be one of the many ways that we could do that. So I think the final thing that I'll just add to is this applies for both B2C and for B2B. I think if you're If you're a B2B marketer and you're looking on the outside and you're saying, I'm a SaaS provider, uh, or I'm a SaaS, uh, company, I'm never going to be able to use the metaverse, this isn't relevant for me, skip out. I would encourage you not to have that type of mentality, and here's why. I think there's going to be a lot of doors opening up inside of this metaverse and a lot of new ways to market to people that we've never been able to actually experience before in the current advertising, SEO digital Web 2.0 world. I think the horizons are fairly broad and open right now, and I think there's a lot of opportunity to leverage this new technology that's underlying this whole metaverse, right? The Web 3.0, blockchain, NFTs, whatever catchphrase you want to use. I think there's a lot of great opportunities, and this is a great time to be investing some resources, investing time, exploring more about this because there are, there are going to be greener pastures up there that are waiting for folks. So that's my encouragement for anybody, whether you are B2C or B2B, do take time, be mindful, explore, and keep your eyes peeled because I think there will be, there will be some great opportunities for us marketers in the metaverse. So that's it, that's all I wanted to share. I hope you all have a great week And I'll look forward to catching up with you soon. Cheers.

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