A Marketing Insider’s Take on TIME’s Metaverse Report

At my daughter’s birthday party less than six months ago, I asked a 15-year-old computer whiz named Emmett to explain the metaverse. He referenced Fortnite and Second Life (a favorite of the hacking group Anonymous and The Office character Dwight Schrute), and ran through NFTs, cryptocurrency and blockchain, as well as the metaverse blockchain Metaverse ETP. Then he leaned back and said, “Really, it’s just a vibe.” Really!? A vibe!? 

Actually, this sounds about right in today’s online world dictated by Gen-Zers and millennials. But it’s not at all helpful to organizations striving to keep up with Meta (formerly Facebook, and now what you’d call a metaverse company), Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and all those pesky tech-centric startups. So, I pressed the young man: “Does the metaverse exist already?” Yes, he said. “Fortnite and Second Life are the metaverse.”

According to TIME magazine cover story writer Matthew Ball, though, “The metaverse is not yet here (even if some executives will claim it is, or at least imminent).” For Ball, author of The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything, the metaverse represents an intriguing opportunity with irrefutable risk. 

“Though the internet is resilient, wide-ranging, and powerful, it wasn’t built for live and interactive experiences involving a large number of participants — especially when it comes to 3-D imaging,” warns Ball. Collectively, we “lack the computing power to pull off the metaverse as we imagine it. And we will want many new devices to realize it — not just metaverse VR goggles, but gadgets like holographic displays, ultra-sonic force-field generators, and, spooky as it sounds, devices to capture electrical signals sent across muscles.”

Um, OK. That is a little dystopian, though apropos for a virtual world many think originated with Neil Stephenson’s dystopian novel Snow Crash. And that’s not the only reason: As Ball points out, unlike the internet itself — “built over several decades” by mostly nonprofit government research labs, universities and independent developers and institutions — “the current expectation for the metaverse” is a “corporate internet.” (Familiar with net neutrality?)

What is the Metaverse, Exactly? (Hint: There’s No Metaverse Definition)

Indeed, the metaverse is already being built (rapidly and inconsistently) by private, for-profit businesses that invested $120 billion in the first five months of 2022 alone. No, not 2040, 2022.

Back in 2016, a year before the release of Fortnite, Tim Sweeney, CEO and founder of Fortnite creator Epic Games, was already alerting VentureBeat that “if one central company gains control of [the metaverse], they will become more powerful than any government and be a god on Earth.” 

And that is terrifying — and no longer hyperbolic:

• According to Citi as well as KPMG, the metaverse could generate $13 trillion in revenue per year by 2030
• In January, Microsoft announced the largest acquisition in Big Tech history, paying $75 billion for Activision Blizzard to “provide building blocks for the metaverse” 
• Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, “believes the GDP of the metaverse will eventually exceed that of the physical world”

Also scary, particularly because this means many big businesses are wearing blinders; as Ball reports: 

Crypto has crashed. So too has Facebook’s market capitalization, which topped $900 billion when the company changed its name to Meta, but now sits around $445 billion. This year, the video gaming sales have fallen by nearly 10%, due in part to the end of the pandemic that forced many people inside.

And yet, though Ball insists almost all of the work “has, thus far, remained invisible to the average person… like the metaverse itself,” nearly one hundred-million people per day log into Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite — and these ‘games’ already operate tens of millions of interconnected worlds, support users’ consistent virtual identity (your “metaverse persona”) and virtual goods (including your “metaverse wallet”), and can be accessed via most devices. 

According to Ball “there isn’t really a metaverse product we can go buy, nor ‘metaverse revenue’ [that can] be found on an income statement,” but I’m pretty certain the brands that collaborate with influencers and artists to create exclusive metaverse experiences are generating income; if you host a metaverse concert, for instance, can’t you charge for tickets to offset the cost of the virtual location?

In fact, with crypto crashing, videogame sales shrinking and Facebook’s market cap nosediving 50% since its namechange to Meta, Ball says “it might seem as though the metaverse, to the extent it ever existed, has already come and gone.”

But, it hasn’t. The metaverse is still here, and far from finished. In spite of laggard post-COVID returns, the more innovative and daring corporations, private equity firms and venture capitalists aren’t cutting back on their metaverse investments, which “means an ever-growing share of our lives, labor, leisure, time, wealth, happiness, and relationships will [eventually] be spent inside virtual worlds, rather than just aided through digital devices.” 

The companies that control the virtual worlds, meanwhile, will outperform competitors that have missed out on early opportunities, as well as help determine whether our collective, increasingly online future will be brighter (or darker).

In my opinion, although the metaverse will undoubtedly shine a spotlight on “many of the hard problems of digital existence today, such as data rights, data security, misinformation and radicalization, platform power, and user happiness,” it can also serve as a democratizing factor, a la the original internet that allowed anybody to access and even contribute. History proves it: “Since the 1970s, numerous ‘proto-metaverses’ have emerged that have not been centered on subjugation or profiteering, but on collaboration and creativity.” Which is a good sign, finally.

I’m Not Afraid of the Metaverse. And You Shouldn’t Be Either.

As the internet developed over decades, its “openness” facilitated the creation of more companies, “reaching more users, and achieving greater profits,” while also “preventing pre-internet giants (and, crucially, telecom companies) from controlling it.” This openness is why the internet is known for democratizing information, and why most of today’s most valuable public companies were either created or reborn in our internet era. 

“Imagine,” says Ball, “how different the internet would be if it had been created by multinational media conglomerates in order to sell widgets, serve ads or harvest user data for profits.” While multinational conglomerates do use the internet to do just that, they didn’t create it — and that’s a major distinction from the metaverse, which is already being built with big corporate dollars and hasn’t (yet?) captured the attention of the government research labs, NGOs or universities that laid the foundation for our open internet.

I suspect this is why Ball coaches the reader that “we” — the developers (like the tech, web and design specialists on your digital marketing team) and consumers — “have agency over our future and the ability to reset the status quo, but only if we act now.” There’s no denying the unknown is scary, and for most of us the metaverse still represents some amorphous entity, but Ball’s right that “this moment of change is our chance to bring people together, to transform industries that have resisted disruption, and to build a more equal global economy.”

Precisely, the metaverse will allow us to: 

• Equalize the economy by enabling additional, unique, virtual marketing, advertising, customer experience and sales opportunities for businesses in less populated and more impoverished areas
• Join together in 3D — across the demographics that often, in person, keep us apart
• Enhance the offerings of organizations in industries like education, aerospace/defense, retail and food/beverage, delivering students, consumers and clients more creative ways to engage, train, try on and taste test

Take education, for instance: 

A class in an urban school without access to gardens to study botany could, through the metaverse, not only watch film about plant biology but hop a Disney-esque virtual ride through a shrink machine and into any plant in any ecosystem on earth — or on Mars, for that matter. 

Now that is a classroom experience I could embrace. But would I want to try on new rainboots or sample energy drinks in the metaverse? Not unless the virtual 3D goggles would allow me to feel my toes against the waterproof material or taste the beverage I’m ingesting. 

Which brings me back to one of the core focuses of my original exploration of virtual reality, augmented reality and the metaverse. Like any new, flashy trend, the metaverse isn’t a guaranteed goldmine, so simply shifting your content marketing strategy to create for it will not suffice. As always, you need to: 

• Think and act strategically and holistically 
• Formulate a metaverse strategy that aligns with your core mission and core values
• Deliver with consistency, empathy and authenticity

If you don’t, today’s sophisticated consumers will catch it and call you out — and your metaverse experiment will fail.

So, the question you should be asking yourself is: What can we create for the metaverse that would facilitate personal interactions (and transactions!) with consumers and prospects. Without appearing inauthentic.

Some Unique Metaverse Marketing Examples

• Dimension Studio made $6.5 million in revenue experimenting with metaverse marketing for fashion brands. The Studio established a virtual production setup that drops users into virtual worlds to try on garments and accessories — by scanning the individual with 106 cameras. Most notable of Diamond Studio's projects: Balenciaga's Afterworld game for it Fall/Winter line in 2021.
• At Google I/O in 2018, Google demoed what was originally called Google Maps AR, now known as Google Maps Live View, which uses augmented reality to help you navigate while walking. Precisely, the app feature uses the camera on the back of your phone to locate you, leverages GPS to position you on the map, and superimposes directions and details on the display. (If you live in New York City — or any city, for that matter — and haven't tried it, try it next time you're out.)
• And in my favorite use of the metaverse yet, to promote Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar Games released virtual clothing options mirroring the gear worn by Hong Kong protesters, allowing politically active Chinese youth to bring their battle in the streets into their 'second lives.' 

Now just imagine what you could do if you embraced this other world.

Becoming Masters of the Metaverse: 11 Metaverse Marketing and CX Tips You Won’t Want to Miss

1. Establish your niche
2. Be sure not to neglect your values, your value proposition or your core offerings
3. Define what you want your inclusion in the metaverse to mean for your customers
4. Define what you want the metaverse to do for your business
5. Focus on connectivity and ease of communication
6. Always demonstrate authenticity, transparency and empathy, and deliver personalized experiences based on your customer data
7. Update your overarching marketing strategy to incorporate metaverse marketing (metaverse-specific strategies, goals and tactics, like VR, AR, or a metaverse video)
8. Consider rebranding and/or updating products/services based on your updated strategy
9. Supplement and/or support your digital marketing team by hiring and/or training metaverse design/content creation experts who can produce, monitor, analyze, report on, iterate and optimize metaverse content
10. Gamify the metaverse content creation process, offering incentives for the most innovative, creative, popular and/or effective concepts and strategies
11. Get creative!

Need help crafting and/or promoting value-add custom content for the metaverse? This is what we do best.

Image Credits (in order of appearance)

1. Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/dhZtNlvNE8M
2. Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/rQlIcyjB6kA
3. Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/wCAa_rIG-Dc
4. Photo by 1MilliDollars on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/2LmOuVHEwwg
5. Photo by Andrew Scullin on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/J2CnXdOF2N8
6. Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/gMPWRj-jGF4
7. Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/photos/zVkL5L7eGrw