The most popular metaverses today, such as Fortnite and Roblox, allow brands to market their products in ways that would be impossible in the real world.
For example, the skating company Vans established a virtual skatepark in Roblox that allows gamers to earn points that can be redeemed for avatar customization at a virtual store. As of 2021, this park had seen upwards of 48 million visitors.
Gucci, meanwhile, launched a Gucci Garden on the same platform, a virtual extension of the real-world experience they had previously constructed in Florence, Italy. They also unveiled the Gucci Virtual 25, an exclusive pair of digital sneakers designed by Alessandro Michele, which can be worn in linked apps like Roblox and VRChat.
These are just two instances of how a metaverse platform might enable marketers to be more creative and engage with a larger audience than they could if they were only constrained to the actual world.
Because metaverse marketing and promotion are still so young, the costs of running a campaign are still quite low. This makes it a valuable alternative for brands looking for a new approach to reach millennial and Gen Z audiences. When you bring an experience online, the size of an audience might grow enormously. There are over 3.4 billion gamers online now, with 27% of them being between the ages of 21 and 30. Furthermore, as NFTs become more popular, demand for digital collectibles (such as the Gucci Virtual 25) is expected to rise.
Another advantage of the metaverse is that it is not constrained by physics when it comes to Digital marketing strategies. Gucci's virtual garden, for example, offers numerous virtual themed rooms that pay homage to Gucci's historical campaigns, similar to the real-life garden, but unlike the rooms in Florence, these rooms are open to the sky and surrounded by trees.
Influencer Marketing - Brands are predicted to spend up to $15 million per year on influencer marketing by 2022, with some of that money going to virtual influencers.
There are just 150 virtual influencers as of today, but that number is expected to rise. Daisy, a virtual influencer created by the online luxury discount site Yoox, was featured in multi-brand campaigns in 2018 and wore Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger clothing. Similarly, Puma launched Maya, a virtual influencer, for its Southeast Asian ads.
Younger consumers prefer Digital Channel for brand research - While social media challenges (such as the 2014 ASL Ice Bucket Challenge) continue to garner attention, their significance has waned in the age of TikTok trends. Smaller, more intimate platforms like Roblox, Reddit forums, and Discord have a greater chance of influencing today's kids.
These platforms were dubbed "digital campfires" by Harvard Business Review in early 2020, and they could very well represent the future of marketing for modern customers. Younger viewers are moving away from larger, more established social networks like Instagram and Facebook and toward services that offer more privacy and less judgmental environments.
