More 2 Marketing

Susan
More to marketing. Welcome to More to Marketing podcast on marketing, product and everything in between. I’m your host, Susan, and today we’re gonna be talking about marketing in the metaverse and some key things that everyone should really get to know about. Now to get excited for the future. So firstly, I am absolutely enthralled about what’s happening with Metaverse. I’m finding it a really interesting topic to be able to explore into, and also what the future it means for marketing. Products as well and everything between. But today we’re just gonna focus on marketing. Now the first question is always, what is the Metaverse? How is it different to the web? Either 1-2 or three, whichever one that you’re aware of. Now the web is simply 2D area that you can touch that you can go to get information from connect with people. But think of it as 2D where computers connect to other computers, but it really is more about information sharing. Whereas the metaverse, think of it as 3D, where you can actually go into an immersive environment and feel more connected. Now the miniverse is being tagged as the future of being able to have a real virtual reality. Think of the show Ready player one if you haven’t already seen that movie, definitely go check. Out. It’s where lots of people live behind their augmented reality pieces. So either your your goggles and then you’re also your gloves and your body suits and things like that, and you actually are part of the game and you’re all chasing each other around. And some people are even on treadmills and things like that to simulate their movement. Within that virtual world. But when we think Metaverse, it’s going to be more literally what we’re doing today in everyday life, but in digital. So it means that you can sit on your couch and use your avatar and walk around shopping centres or be in meetings or be working whatever it might be. And do that. In a virtual landscape, so it seems on steroids.
Now the interesting thing about Metaverse is there’s a whole pile of opportunities. As you can imagine, for marketing. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. Now metaverse some elements of it already exist, particularly if you think about the gaming environments like Minecraft, World of Warcraft, all of those ones are already using elements of that immersive reality. We are part of it. Roblock is one of the other ones. Sorry if I pronounced it wrong. Is another one of those virtual reality games where the players actually interact and go to events. And things are also something to actually be purchased as we.
I suppose the key characteristics of Metaverse is it’s user generated content, fully functional and also self contained. You’ve got the virtual and also the individual identities and agencies, all agencies. Use of human interface technologies, and that’s where you’re really getting immersed. It’s an open and shared. World that is also decentralised. And it’s fully functioning economy. So you can actually use things like cryptocurrencies, NFT’s, all those kind of blockchain built technologies to make the purchases of items. And this is where marketing is gonna be involving, because naturally, if people are purchasing, there’s marketing. We know that from the ancient podcast I did a while ago. And there’s four key the four key fours are still relevant, and that’s your price, product promotion and place. So the place is now going. To be new. But the rest are all still relevant. Now when we talk about the evolution of the web, so you had web one. That was really where the goal of marketing was just to have a website. It was where you went and got your contact info. Think of the Yellow Pages as your web one. Web Two started connecting people. And getting some search history happening as well to make the user experience more personalised so that there’s. A little bit of. Predicting and algorithms and things like that from your big places like your Googles and your Bing. But then now I’ve got Web 3 coming, which is gonna be that more immersive experience. But. It’s not metaverse. It’s been estimated at the moment about 400 million unique and active users access and Metaverse platform monthly. Now this means. That is a huge amount of people out there already interested. However, a lot of them are Gen Z and millennials. Because of those gaming platforms. So thinking in Minecraft, your Fortnite, etcetera. So you got to think about if you’re going to get into Metaverse, when does it make sense against when you’re doing traditional marketing and all of it comes down to what the brand is and also the different touch points you want to go through with those customers or potential customers. Now you need to create your own representation within that world. And it’s not just videos, ads, words and images. You can do more. You can be unique. You can actually have an immersive experience. I love the examples of where people are actually using their avatar, trying on clothes to see if it will it’s the right fit for you because your avatar is being made correctly. I think that’s magical use that also helps as well for marketing. Now people can use the metaverse at home to view all these different products in 3D and in true scale in their home. So another great example of marketing and product working together is IKEA. So IKEA’s place. Is a place where you can view furniture inside A room. You actually can go in there and see sizes how it will fit against other products, what works best. But again it’s a home. Environment that is virtual. Really, when it comes to the metaverse, there’s a whole pile of things you can do. So don’t think boundaries. One of some someone I know is actually willing to build something where you can actually walk through your house that you’re about to build, which would be amazing if. That comes to life. The metaverse is new, though, so it’s one of those things we have to be careful about. When you do walk in, because there are you, you want to stand out for the right things so you do have a lot of the traditional advertising opportunities. Within metaverse. So. Think about your ad placements, billboards, all those kind of things will still exist, and there are ways that you can. Test how it will work. Another one that does it quite a lot is they actually as part of the music, they’ll then have little bits of ads here and there that will appear. Other companies are using them in adverse to actually do really clever things with products. So you’ve got the likes of Mike and Gucci who are actually releasing exclusive. Digital pairs of sneakers that you can only get. So Nike did has been doing this for a while now, and they’ve actually collabed and actually purchased a company to do on their behalf. And then you’ve got Gucci virtual 25 and that was back in March 2021. So times are flying and this has been out for a while. For Gucci itself, they’ve actually gone and done a next level and they have decided to do the Gucci Garden in Roblox. Roadblocks, and that that is where you can actually have the virtual experience of simulation within the Gucci garden archetypes in Florence. Italy. And you can walk around. You can meet other players as they cook and purchase pieces there too, while you’re mingling and talking with like minded. So this is a fantastic use of not only virtual place, but creating something that anyone who’s access to this type of technology can get to. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think anyone can just jump on a plane and five seconds and. Just go to Florence. Where here you can and you can also engage with one of your favourite brands. There’s a lot of ways that this technology is also being used. For the markers behind the scenes so you can do things like 3D holographics meetings, you can go explore manufacturing plants and meet the people there as well. Those type of immersive experiences are fantastic. It may cost a bit to serve the technology, but once it’s rolled out, that means you can go visit there. Often without having to jump on planes. One immersive entertainment example is. Ohh one of many I should say. You’ve got Fortnite. Fortnite does a whole pile of different ones where they have their block parties where they have all different people come where you can do scavenger hunts, dancing, interactive games. You’ve got tokens that come in there too. This is also done at Metas Horizon Worlds. They actually do a lot of things with performers, comedians, sports events, unique film experiences. A couple of the big ones that they’ve done there, they’ve been bringing audiences in with John Legend and also notorious BIG. One of the things that did come out of COVID was the entertainment industry went down. So what were the entertainment industry gonna do about that? They started doing. Virtual events, and that’s continued and that’s where these trends have started to come in where you have thousands and thousands of people willing to attend. So again, the metaverse. Imagine actually having VR on. And feeling like you’re part of the crowd bumping into each other, jostling and calling out, and the artist can see you at the same time. They see your avatar. They’re doing and saying whatever it is that you’re trying to get their attention for. There are some key tips though. When you do think about marketing in the Metaverse, and again, it comes down to your your 4P’s. But knowing that Metaverse is still quite predominantly in the. Young Faye. So it is early adopters at the moment. It is those younger audience too because of the type of product that’s out there for. Them to use but. The metaverse is always evolving, and there’s a whole part of things you should be experimenting on there anyway, and test and learn. There’s lots of businesses that do this. But some of the things to think about is when you’re putting together your marketing plan and your product plans, what makes sense to put in there that you might want to touch into this new? Ohh, I call it ecosystem. It’s a new way of selling a new way of getting an audience as well. And there would be things like what? What does my audience love doing? Do they love collecting things? And if they do? Maybe as part of your marketing strategy, you can have they can get collectibles or badges or some. Kind. Of digital stamp that they can put against their name, similar to the stars on eBay or the blue tick of Twitter, something that really stands out. It could be something that’s even tradeable. You could do something tradable as well there so that people. Maybe think some of them are more scarce than others, but there might be a value attached to it and. That way, blockchain might come in. Also, really consider about how you’re going to engage with your existing community. Are they there? Do they want to have messages pushed them? Probably not. They probably want it more natural and organic, like it hopefully has. Been. And then how can they be part of creating their own user content there? So the video is a text, the images your audio. How can you make that naturally occur in this new metaverse? Advertising itself, like, as I mentioned, there’ll be placements that you can put outside in the virtual buildings or sponsoring big events wherever it might be. I’m sure they’ll still even have sit down tables in cafes that you can put a message on the table, but how will that work? And then what message would you put there? What product would make sense? Sometimes some of these platforms are very expensive, so you got to think about, are you gonna be part of one that exists because there are a few. Or are you going to make your own most of the time it would be probably better to be part of one or two of them, or if they all join together the multiverse. But that’s something to explore as well, particularly how NFTS may work. Products themselves try before you buy, so that’s a fantastic marketing message as well. Imagine being able to push out there that using VR and AR that you can actually jump into a car. That you can actually feel what would be like to be behind a. New Mazda or a brand new Porsche? How would that feel to be able to sit there and behind the wheel and have a virtual tour on it? Can you click points for it? Can you get a discount? Can you actually share your feedback and they improve it before they actually roll it out on the production line? If you’re about to buy it, do you really like that colour? Is it really the right colour for you on all these different types of lights? So it’s it’s a magical thing to be able to push and say that you can try before you buy back in a virtual world.
And last again, it’s premier events. The flexibility for events and the cost efficiency alone enabling the collaboration of multiple different types of artists together that might be all over the world, but streaming down one line that is powerful and that’s one way to really be able to get to a whole pile of different audience members. And and and really ramp it up. So it’s so exciting and I it this one really, really does excite me. I haven’t been to a big one before, but I can imagine it would just be momentous to be part of that. I’d just be a bit worried. I’ll be banging into things around the house to be honest. But that with all these good things, there are some challenges you need to consider as well. And that’s going to be the newness and to also make sure you’re diving out at the right time. Always good to check regulations as well, just to make sure there’s no issues in one of your product and industry is. Technology is always going to be a problem, and that’s more because of maybe high costs or how to develop it or how it will actually work with, say, I don’t know a VI headset for example. And you’re not going to be hitting large audiences yet. It might be a little limited, small and niche audiences, so it might be something to hold off for a little bit, but it’s still got power there for you to build upon and learn. Test and learn is always amazing, particularly when you gain this one to one real ratio. You can do some really amazing things with that. Kind of behind it. If you’ve set it up correctly. Now the meta versus something that’s it’s still growing, it’s still evolving. No one knows what it’s going to end up looking like in the end. But whatever you do with your marketing and advertising, it needs to be as natural. And fit in as much as possible to the environment of the Metaverse, just like it does today in reality. There’s always going to be a concern as well when it comes to security, so think cyber security and people’s identity data privacy and all those kind of things. So it’s always important to make sure that on the product side. That that’s covered off as well. But the marketing in the metaverse, there’s so many opportunities from basic billboards through to that individual one to one level. As long as you’re looking at your 4P’s in particular, the product price promotion in place. You can make some magical things happen, and hopefully at a reduced price with a niche audience that’s going to be more responsive as well. Hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast on at the very beginning stages of metaphors. I’m sure I’m going to do more podcasts in the future on this topic, but don’t forget to follow to hear some more podcasts in the future. More to marketing.