Since Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta Platforms
six months ago, the share has lost over 30% of its value. Maybe shareholders are
less sanguine than Zuckerberg about developing the metaverse to attract a new
younger audience? Yet many others remain bullish on this space with about 3.1
billion regular gamers in the world today, growing at 5.6% annually.1
The metaverse is a digital world that co-exists with our
physical world having similar features and attributes but no physical
manifestation. It is a place to live a second life (also the name of a
metaverse/game), socialising and transacting through an avatar of our own
creation.
Like our own universe, different worlds exist in the metaverse. Each “world” is created, managed, and branded by a different corporate owner. A popular virtual world such as Roblox, has 220 million users, while another, Sandbox, recently sold a plot of virtual real estate for USD $4.3m. Africa too has its first virtual world, Ubuntuland, where MTN purchased 144 plots for an undisclosed sum helping to get the party started. These virtual worlds are leading the convergence of physical and virtual lives with activities such as games, concerts, art exhibitions and fashion shows.
Adding to the use of the metaverse is the rise of crypto
bringing commercial viability and the birth of the NFT2, a new
digital asset class. Now the things we can do in the metaverse go beyond chatting
and hanging out. We can go to concerts, buy food, and accessorise our curated
avatar with items advertised on digital outdoor hoardings. This is the rise of
homo virtualis.
The Fortnite platform, recently hosted a concert featuring
Travis Scott an American rap artist. The event drew over 12.3 million
concurrent guests setting a new metaverse concert attendance record in the
process. For those attending, mainly in the 16-20 age group - those born with
mobile devices at hand - the virtual experience was visceral.
Moving back to our consumer roots, imagine the possibility
of your favourite real world fashion retailer showing up with a virtual 3D
store from where you can buy real merchandise delivered later to your real-world
home. This changes everything and companies like Gucci, Calvin Klein and Nike
are leading the way.
And then there’s business. Bill Gates sees the metaverse as
a benefactor to business efficiency, improving meetings, presentations,
conferences and other engagements. Microsoft too has already launched Mesh for
Microsoft Teams under the enigmatic banner “Here can be Anywhere”.
With real world commercial investment in a metaverse comes
advertising and the search for branded interaction opportunities. Already the
world’s leading agencies are strategising how this might be developed and what
the ad product might look like in a metaverse. Tom Hostler, head of brand
experience at Publicis.Poke says: “They (brands) have to be there in a
different way than display advertising around content. They need to be much
more participative, collaborative and understand the culture. Whether that will
take the form of what we currently think of as an advert is hard to say. I
think it will be closer to brand activations and experiences.”3
It is likely that brand communication in the metaverse will
lean strongly towards incentivised immersion drawing on a gaming heritage.
Recently Chiptole in the USA opened a metaverse store on Roblox, encouraging
visitation with a coupon for a free burrito redeemable in a real physical
outlet but only after completing an in-game quest.
Notwithstanding a lack of current certainty on the ideal
metaverse ad, a new genre of metaverse specific agencies are springing up much
like specialist social media agencies a while back. Don’t think only creative,
there are already exclusive metaverse media agencies creating the
infrastructure to extend virtual brand presence, build avatar brand advocacy
and create activations. Global gaming and metaverse adspend will almost treble
from $47bn in 2021 to $131bn in 2025 according to Statistica.
Ocean Outdoor, a UK media specialist, made headlines
recently selling 3 digital billboards to metaverse ‘landowners’ for over $100
000. Working with Admix, they aim to offer advertisers a seamless presence
across physical and digital worlds with consistent real-time communication.
Going further, the question of ad verification and audience
measurement is getting early attention in the virtual environment. Companies
like Bidstack and Anzu.io that place ads in games and metaverses are already
working with Nielsen and Comscore to bring viewability verification tools to
the virtual space.
The metaverse is not fully formed yet. The big breakthroughs
may lie ahead. Optimists envision strong growth pointing out features and
benefits that will forever change humankind. As an example, the simple creation
of an avatar is interpreted by some as a process that will positively impact people
across the world at a personal inter-relational level. As we design and clothe
our avatar we are able to step beyond our physical limitations and explore new
personalities, cultures and genders. We may create an avatar very different
from our real personas. Through this discovery our virtual interactions can
heighten tolerance and understanding of others. Learnings in the metaverse could
make us better people on earth.
And then there are naysayers. Elon Musk sees little use for
the metaverse, “I don’t see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face
all day” he explains, and later “I currently am unable to see a compelling
metaverse situation”.4
Even at a subconscious level some are concerned that the
metaverse gives a false sense of agency. We have stronger autonomy in the
metaverse. But how useful is this? Our
lives in the real world are littered with challenges or disappointments from
which we sometimes do not recover. The metaverse masks this, acting as a
palliative, and reflecting nirvana. This, some say, could cause withdrawal, addiction,
and eventual depression amongst players. But doesn’t this happen in the real
world too?
1. https://financesonline.com/number-of-gamers-worldwide/
2. Non-Fungible
Token
3. The Drum: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/01/21/what-s-the-role-ad-agency-the-metaverse
4. The Verge:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/22/22849717/elon-musk-metaverse-web3-more-marketing-than-reality
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