Brands and the Metaverse
Mike Paffman, CEO, VIRGO PR
By now, practically everyone has heard about the Metaverse, since it’s not easy to avoid the news. In fact, in the last few months, there have been thousands of articles discussing it, while companies like Facebook, NVIDIA, Epic Games, Unity, and Fortnite have all joined in on the trend. Mark Zuckerberg is also planning the future of Facebook and Meta around the Metaverse, wanting consumers to see his corporation as a Metaverse company instead of a social media one. At the core, the Metaverse is simply a promise by some of the largest companies in the tech industry to take the next step in global connectivity, where large numbers of people can gather together to socialize, work, or play. However, it’s supposed to be different from the regular old internet, because the Metaverse is supposed to bring the digital experience that people have these days into the real world, and vice versa.
Advanced Data and Analytics
Until now, all of the data that companies could collect from their consumers has been two-dimensional. However, with the introduction of a third dimension, also known as the Z-dimension, companies can also collect information from real-time heat maps from the behavior of their consumers.
Virtual Stores
Virtual stores and showrooms will allow consumers to take a tour of any facility or space, as well as interact with different objects in them. Those objects range from small tools to industrial machines, and even to the engineering process itself. These stores can be used by customers to visualize and interact with any sort of retail product in 3D, such as apparel, jewelry, cars, and even NFT digital assets.
Sales Training
Companies can also use the Metaverse for product demos or even sales training. One of the top benefits from this is that the virtual space can just be created once, and then used many times by an organization. A great example of a company that recently did that was Samsung Electronics America, which created an immersive metaverse experience that transports customers into the brand’s flagship store in New York City. Although the store is only open for a limited time, it offers consumers a virtual experience of the Samsung 837 building.
Customization
With personalization and customization in marketing remaining popular, companies can utilize the Metaverse space to provide unique experiences to their consumers too. Plenty of big brands and corporations have joined in on the NFT space, which provides additional custom experiences to buyers. One of these brands has been Mercedes, which launched an NFT collection in a collaboration with Art2People, as a way to celebrate the brand’s signature vehicle, the G-Class.
Gamification
Companies can improve their gamification efforts in their PR strategies by creating games that consumers can play in the Metaverse. This improves the overall Metaverse customer experience. An example of this has been Balenciaga, which released the Fall 2021 collection in the form of a video game, where people could explore the latest apparel collection.
About the Author: Mike Paffmann is CEO of Virgo PR, a leading PR agency.
