Marketing In The MetaVerse: A Secret Trillion-Dollar Industry
Over the last centuries, humanity has gone through several revolutions unlike anything previously seen before.
In under 260 years, we went from being an agricultural-centered civilization to being able to watch streamers dance on Twitch, and that’s kind of awesome, right?
Today, the human race is on the break of another revolution that will completely restructure how we work as a society.
The “Metaverse” is here to stay. This futuristic idea of alternate digital reality will look to change how you interact online as a whole. In it, you will be able to perform mundane actions like doing your groceries, socializing with others, and even going to work!
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An Opportunity For Experimentation And Innovation
Big corporations are already investing heavily in Metaverse. Most notably, the multi-billion dollar company “Facebook” is so keen on investing in a Metaverse that the corporation went through a complete rebranding to a new name, “Meta.”
However, Meta is far from the only tech-giant investing in the Metaverse. Two of its biggest competitors, Microsoft and Google are also looking to capitalize on the immeasurable possibilities that digital virtual reality can offer.
The Metaverse offers a unique possibility for marketing investments. The virtual reality program will connect users worldwide, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, making it a de facto virtual reality to host several advertisements.
This means that the possibilities for marketing on the Metaverse will be nearly endless.
For that reason, Marketing is one of the most promising fields that will be affected by the popularization of the Metaverse. Such changes present enormous opportunities for companies presenting in Metaverse’s marketing opportunities.
Combine these subversive simulations with AI and you’ve got a surefire recipe to seriously reshape the way we look at digital marketing.
VR & AR Industry Numbers
The key concept surrounding the Metaverse relies heavily on virtual reality goggles. These devices became known around the mid-2010s when a device named Oculus Rift came out.
Marketed as a gaming device, the Oculus Rift became relatively popular in the gaming industry due to the innovations it brought to virtual reality gaming.
However, at the time, VR goggles didn’t break the market. While they were well-designed and innovative, VR goggles like the Oculus Rift were seen as “janky,” and the few games that were portable to VR were not the best.
Despite that, Silicon Valley quickly realized that VR & AR goggles could serve a lot more functions other than having Pewdiepie playing horror games in them.
On March 24, Oculus, the company responsible for creating the Oculus Rift was purchased by Facebook for $2 billion.
Since then, nearly every big player in the tech industry has been working on developing its virtual reality device. As of today, there are over 230 companies investing in VR-related products.
Companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sony, and Samsung compete to bring the best possible VR experience.
Looking at the data, it’s easy to understand why companies are battling it out in a technological race for the best Virtual Reality platforms.
VR devices are more popular than ever. During the lockdown, many people took on gaming to occupy their minds in the middle of the pandemic.
To put it into perspective, the Virtual Reality market size was expected to reach $3.89 billion by 2020. Today, the market has grown at such a rate that Statista affirms that by 2024, the VR market size will be nearly four times as big, with the expectation of reaching a market size of $12.19 Billion.
"Global market size for AR and VR reached USD 30.7 billion during 2021. Also, the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) market has the potential to grow by USD 162.71 billion during 2021-2025 (Statista, 2021)."
This increase in interest can also be seen in the gaming industry. Overall more and more video game studios are looking to port their games to VR. Massive AAA releases like Skyrim and Resident Evil 7 have already transitioned into offering their fans a “VR experience” of the game.
I don’t know about you, but the idea of slapping up Skyrim VR and going to hunt some dragons around the Whiterun perimeter sounds dope.
In 2016, the market size for virtual reality gaming was only $1.62 billion. Only three years later, the market size had already increased over seven times.
According to Grand View Research, the expectations are that by 2027, the market size for virtual reality gaming will be around $92.31 billion.
Understanding the Metaverse
Although labeled as the next big thing in tech, many people still wonder, “What is the Metaverse?”.
“Metaverse” is a term derived from Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel “Snow Crash,” published in 1992. The term in the story was used to describe a computer program that simulated a real-world version.
Much like the novel, the Metaverse is the idea of a creation of a “digital world” that interconnects with our real world. The Metaverse will function as an alternate reality of sorts, where users get to interact socially with one another.
The goal is to create a digital world so rich and detailed that people will be able to perform things like going shopping, visiting a museum, or even going to work!
Have you ever seen the movies Vanilla Sky or The Matrix trilogy?
The idea behind it is roughly the same, although we can’t guarantee that you will be fighting several “Mr. Smith” robots to save the human race, at least not for now, Neo.
Gathering New Data Points
Tech companies' collection of our data has created one of the biggest debates in modern history.
Governments worldwide are debating whether corporations like Google and Facebook should be allowed to have that much influence over society.
The main goal for data collection is so Big Tech can better define a public audience to distribute more impactful advertisements.
The thing is, to do that, companies such as Google collect every single thing that you have shared online.
Google knows what you like and what you dislike. It knows your political preferences, it knows when you leave the house, and it even knows where exactly you have gone.
Now you might be worried, thinking: “Does Google also collect my adult-related search history?”
Yes. They do. And you should be worried. That stuff is weird.
One of the most notable examples of how Personal Data usage can influence our lives is the 2016 Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Cambridge Analytica Ltd. (C.A.) was a British political consulting firm.
The firm was accused of using more than 10 million Facebook users' personal data to map out users' political preferences.
Doing so allowed the company to manipulate political narratives to influence political elections all around the globe.
The company has utilized such methods in countries like Australia, India, Kenya, México, the UK, and most notably, the United States 2016 elections.
On that note, the United States House of Representatives committee has recently passed a bill to create the country’s first privacy law to limit the personal information collected online.
With the implementation of the Metaverse, companies are bound to also revolutionize how data is collected.
The shift that is happening with the difference between Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 is already making waves in terms of how data is collected, but the Metaverse brings it to a completely different level.
Users will likely spend a lot of time interacting with the platform. This will inevitably lead to more possibilities for Tech companies to gather more user personal data.
Data Analysis experts believe that the technology in virtual reality goggles will be able to analyze and track visual patterns and pupil reactions to gather information about a user.
With such technology, developers will be able to know when you look at something interesting, when you dislike the looks of something, or even when you find someone attractive.
Every move and facial expression made will become more data collected. Experts believe that tech companies will be able to one day determine things like your blood pressure levels and even if you have a medical condition such as scoliosis and arthritis, among others.
How Do You Market In The Metaverse?
When all is said and done, the Metaverse will be a massive opportunity for marketers to display their advertisements in a world that is always online.
Just follow this thought train with me to consider how effective Metaverse advertisement can be.
Let’s say you own a shoe store. To improve your sales, you’d like to create an ad on a specific skateboard sneaker that is growing in popularity among male teens 12 to 24 years old.
Nowadays, you would run an ad on Instagram targeting that specific audience from your area, which is an effective marketing strategy.
Now, imagine if you could show ads in real-time that appear in your target audience's daily life.
Imagine that annoying teenager seeing your ad as he goes out with his friends, plays video games, or attends Skateboarding events. That would be phenomenal, wouldn’t it?
To make things better, he would be able to purchase your product without ever leaving the Metaverse.
How about also selling a custom NFT of that same sneaker model for your target audience’s Metaverse avatar? All of that can be possible in the Digital world!
Metaverse Marketing Examples
Companies are already investing heavily in “Meta marketing” for their brands. Coffeehouse giant Starbucks recently announced that they would develop a “new, global digital community.”
Meanwhile, Spotify has already debuted its first Metaverse implementation. Spotify Island is a platform on the Roblox Metaverse where users can “create and play games and share experiences with friends.”
The multi-billion dollar footwear and apparel corporation Nike is also one of the giants investing in Metaverse marketing by advertising their NFT collections in new innovative Metaverse marketing platforms.
The Future Of Metaverse Marketing
Metaverse will drastically change the world of marketing for good. Virtual Reality will change how developers think of architectures of social media interactions to even Search Engine Optimization tactics.
If you have any professional interest in marketing and are not already researching the endless possibilities of Metaverse marketing, you might as well have one foot out the door because your competitors are surely investing their time into learning more about it.
Conclusion
Without any question, web3 and the Metaverse are the next big thing. Marketers worldwide are looking to expand their brands to accommodate the needs that users will have in a wholly digital environment.
Brenton Way is on the cutting edge of developments in the Metaverse space. Interested in how you can start dominating the Metaverse with your company? Contact us for a free consultation.
Brenton Way
Content Team