Facebook is going to be focused on building a metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg described the metaverse as being an even more immersive version of the internet “we think the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet instead of looking in a screen you’re going to be in the internet”.
Now the one key factor that Mark Zuckerberg did stress a whole lot of through the entire announcement was the fact that some of the technologies are required for this vision of a more immersive experience still are being built or will need to be built in the future so the metaverse isn’t something that you and I can experience right now today. However, we are using components of these technologies in various applications whether that be a gaming concert experiences or even in cryptocurrencies additionally and probably the biggest thing that people are missing throughout this entire announcement is the fact that meta or the company formerly known as Facebook.
What is Metaverse Actually?
In simple words the metaverse is a combination of virtual reality and augmented reality. The user will wear a virtual reality headset and enter a game-like world and choose an avatar for himself or herself this world inside the VR headset will be created by millions of creators which will resemble the real world and maybe even better, you can do whatever you want to do and even more similar to real world
Mark Zuckerberg himself told us that the metaverse will not be created by one company it will be built by creators and developers making new experiences and digital items that are interoperable and unlock a massively larger creative economy than the one constrained by today’s platforms and their policies facebook’s decision to change their parent company name to meta and also make this big global announcement about how they’re prioritizing building the metaverse is nothing more than an attempt to be the first to market in a space that they know is going to be extremely profitable.
Let’s talk about the Horizon a social media platform that is being built by meta so that people can virtually interact in the metaverse, it includes horizon home, horizon world and horizon marketplace. it’s no surprise that meta has actually done a lot of research and development in the virtual reality space.
How People Approach Metaverse?
In fact, people actually started investing in metaverse in the form of buying virtual digital arts based on NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), virtual land buildings and much more.
Gaming community probably is the closest one that has entered the so called metaverse. There are plenty of games where gamers create virtual avatars of themselves which interact with each other within the game or online worlds, they do this in real time and speak to each other within the game via their headsets and even chat. However, metaverse is different and much more powerful than a virtual reality game
For example, A plot of land in virtual world sandbox was sold for $4.3 million dollars and bought by Republic Realm a metaverse real estate firm [Source: Protocol].
Advertising Through Metaverse
You might be wondering why and how will brands and businesses advertise in metaverse, well brands and advertisers will advertise in metaverse for the same reason they do it in the real world which is to get attention, create brand awareness and evoke emotions in people to buy their products or services.
Earlier brands advertise wherever people are used to be in large crowd and in some common places before television became a common household item. Outdoor advertising was a big industry many companies used to advertise on buildings, large walls, stadiums and wherever people used to spend their precious time. Reading the newspaper companies started to advertise on newspapers then people started to listen to the radio and television, we started advertising on radios and televisions.
Some companies took a step ahead and started advertising in malls elevators and even cars and buses, next was social media when people started spending time online and then most of the advertising budgets started going there. Companies started to spend their advertising budgets on social media and with the progress of social media platforms people started following influencers and influencer marketing began to occupy the whole social media platform.
According to experts people will spend more time on metaverse in the future at least one hour a day by the year 2026 [Source: venturebeat].
Generic Advertising in metaverse
Inside the metaverse whenever you see an ad on a billboard, building walls across the road or you are looking at an ad on magazine they all digital ads.
Let us consider there are three people walking on a road where there is a billboard which shows personalised ads to those people and the ads that are displayed to those people are based on their interest and internet browsing activity. Each person will see different type of ad at the same time on the billboard.
Customisability of advertisements is one of the biggest things that companies can utilise in the metaverse. Each and every ad can be customised for every person present inside there
For example, a real estate broker advertising on a billboard and if someone clicks on that ad then they will be actually visiting the property and experiencing all the elements in 3d as if they were walking within the property.
How brands and companies approach the metaverse?
The brands and companies see the metaverse as a great marketing and advertising platform which will yield more profit to them.
Ecommerce websites:
The ecommerce websites such as Amazon and Flipkart Could show personalised advertisement of their products to the customers based on their internet activity and that ad can be displayed on the billboards, malls and on digital screens virtually within the metaverse. There are more chances that the people inside metaverse could purchase the products virtually
Coca Cola Company:
In July 2021, Coca Cola company launched their NFT which fetches more than $575,000 in an online auction on OpenSea platform [Source: Coca-ColaCompany]. Senior director of Coca Cola Global Strategy noted that moving into NFT and metaverse positioned to provide customers with the same iconic and optimistic experiences they’re used to in real life in the digital world.” [Source: thedigitalspeaker].
Nike:
Nike has just bought a virtual company in order to make their sneakers and NFTS for the metaverse. [Source: Theverge]
The company has started their way of advertising through the metaverse. The company could actually place their NFTs and virtual sneakers in the virtual mall inside metaverse and give their customers the opportunity to experience them in 3d and if they like the products they would even buy them on the metaverse.
Disney:
Disney has made a patent for 3d version of one of its theme parks for the metaverse. People can virtually experience it and Disney could also advertise their upcoming movie trailers on the theatres and on digital screens inside the metaverse world and they may even integrate their streaming services such as Disney+ Hotstar through metaverse and gain huge profits.
Does advertising in metaverse requires user information?
Yes, in order to advertise a piece of content by the brands inside the metaverse it requires a large amount of user information such as what type of product people search for, what type of video content they like to watch, which places they visit, their interests based on their internet activity, what food they order and much more. These informations are used by brands and companies to show personalised ads to targeted people and also potentially help them to understand their customer’s needs accurately.
Final Verdict
The metaverse is still in developmental stage but many brands and companies have already started to work on those technologies to provide a seamless and true to life advertising experience to their customers. The metaverse has immense amount of potential to increase the brands growth and profitability in a positive way
Content source: Metaverse Marketing
