At first glance, the Metaverse might seem like a videogame. To be sure, Meta’s recently announced flagship platform shares some key features with the popular pastime. For one, both involve using digital avatars to traverse digital spaces and perform various tasks. Similarly, both give users the chance to immerse themselves in extraordinary destinations. Such destinations are halfway around the world or on fantastical new worlds.
However, the similarities mostly end there. While most videogames have clear-cut objectives — like saving Princess Peach from Bowser, winning a race, or hunting a large monster — the Metaverse has no such end-goal. The platform will clearly mean a great deal for gamers, but the Metaverse is more than that: It is an immersive digital space within which users can do virtually anything. This includes, but is not limited to, holding and attending online concerts, setting up shops that accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for real or digital goods, and buying and selling digital real estate whose virtual “deed” is an NFT on a blockchain.
Expanding into the Metaverse
The Metaverse will open up exciting opportunities for business of all kinds. Some experts have predicted that the platform might someday be worth $13.1 trillion. Many businesses, such as Gucci, are already trying to carve out their niches. As it stands, an estimated 83.7 million United States residents used augmented reality (AR) — a key technology in the Metaverse — monthly in 2020. In addition, this number is expected to reach 110 million by 2023. These numbers have marketers and entrepreneurs thinking hard about how their brands will fit into this new space.
Of course, the Metaverse has not yet been released, so it is hard to say exactly how branding can and should be performed in it. However, consider the number of high-profile companies already looking to expand into this next-generation virtual realm. It is safe to say that now is the time for businesses and entrepreneurs to start considering their options and planning next steps.
Step 1: The Fundamentals
Most successful businesses have already put careful work into establishing their brands. Effective branding includes minutiae like logo color and font choice. In addition, it includes things that are harder to pin down, such as a company’s “voice” in official correspondence and over social media. The Metaverse can turn all of this on its head. Most internet-based branding is rendered in two dimensions. The Metaverse, however, is a three-dimensional space. In the Metaverse, people will not just be navigating web pages, but browsing around in digitally rendered retail spaces.
Certain brands will retain their iconic elements — Nike’s swoosh, Mastercard’s red and orange circles, etc. However, the Metaverse will allow businesses to profoundly alter their visual languages. The possibilities for branding and advertising will no longer be limited by the simplicity of a computer screen or even the physics of the real world. The Metaverse will allow brands to make their logos tangible. Moreover, it will allow users to participate, via their avatars, in the actual ads themselves.
Step 2: Experience Is Everything
The Metaverse’s new technological infrastructure will allow businesses and entrepreneurs to move beyond the purely visual altogether. Instead, it will create fully immersive user experiences. Right now, many internet users tend to ignore advertisements. The rise of drop-shipping websites, which tend to look quite good while selling visually appealing but ultimately low-quality products, has left some users jaded about branding. Moreover, there will be thousands, maybe millions of other companies all vying for attention in the Metaverse. In addition, each one will be putting extraordinary effort and creativity into their branding.
Today’s — and especially tomorrow’s — users want experiences rather than just simple information presented in pleasing ways. Businesses might cater to these desires by holding “live” info sessions in digital venues. Alternatively, they might offer “in-person” consultations between an employee’s avatar and those of prospective clients.
Step 3: Wait and See
It might be tempting for businesses and entrepreneurs to start strong and establish themselves in the Metaverse before their competition can get there. Certainly, there are benefits to adopting something as new and potentially revolutionary as the Metaverse as early as possible. Delaying too much can leave a company struggling to keep up. However, waiting and seeing what similar businesses do is a perfectly valid tactic.
It is important to remember that the Metaverse is still uncharted territory. The fact that a competitor starts exploring new branding opportunities first does not mean it will do it best. A great deal can change between now and when the Metaverse reaches its full potential. In the meantime, smart enterprises will take a close look at what competitors or even companies in completely different fields are doing to gain a general sense of which approaches are succeeding and failing. This more careful approach also allows business to refine and expand on the innovative yet flawed experiments of other brands.
First Things First
Therefore businesses start trying to develop a brand in the Metaverse, they should take some steps. The first of these is performing a “risk-reward equation.” Businesses need both time and resources to reach points at which they can even operate on the Metaverse — one essential piece will be developing the infrastructure necessary to deal in cryptocurrency and NFTs. Some companies have started trying to file for patents for certain digital goods, but this might not be feasible or even desirable for some businesses, especially those with limited resources.
The next things to consider are what kinds of experiences and infrastructures will be possible in the Metaverse. While it will certainly be unlike any other technology currently on offer, the technical limitations of the Metaverse are still unknown. With this comes the associated issue of cost. AR is already seeing widespread use across the globe. However, its sister technology, virtual reality (VR), requires expensive hardware to operate. If VR integration does, indeed, become a major feature of the Metaverse, businesses will need to consider the costs that machines like the Oculus Rift pose to users.
It is also certain that world governments will start regulating parts of the Metaverse, beginning with privacy and data protections. It is still too early to say exactly how the Metaverse will function. Therefore, businesses need to strike a fine balance between establishing their presences on the platform and keeping track of the broader trends at play. Either way, the Metaverse is a phenomenon that no enterprise can afford to ignore.
