I'm currently reading the book, "Ready Player One", which got made into a film in 2018 by Steven Spielberg, which is about a world where people stay at home and life takes place in a virtual universe. 

I'm not a big sci-fi reader but it was recommended to me as it talks about life in the Metaverse and it certainly does this.

I've already written about the Metaverse for business What does the metaverse mean for the future of sales and business? but wanted today to focus on marketing. 

Let's think about retail

You drive to a wine shop, you park up, you walk into the wine shop and decide on what you want, you drive home.

If we think about the retail experience being like the "working from home" experience we have got used to over the last two years.  Rather than have the bother of driving to and parking up, you visit the wine shop in the Metaverse, while sitting at home, you choose the wine and then you have it delivered. 

Let's think about Business to business (B2B) business

We have spent the last two years, sitting at home having virtual meetings through Zoom or Teams, in the Metaverse we can sit at home and have virtual meetings in virtual meeting rooms.  We can sit around virtual board tables and have demos for software suppliers, all virtually and all while we sit at home.

Check out these two interviews on my podcast.

#TimTalk How the metaverse will impact business with Padraig Costello 

#TimTalk The future of online social experiences with Ethan Berg

Is your brand future-proof ready for NFTs, the metaverse, and web 3.0?

Important Terms To Know For Meta Marketing

Metaverse

Oxford Dictionary defines the Metaverse as “a virtual-reality space in which users can interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.”

Mark Zuckerberg said at Connect 2021 that the metaverse is “a virtual reality construct intended to supplant the internet, merge virtual life with real-life and create endless new playgrounds for everyone — you’re going to able to do almost anything you can imagine.”

NFTs

An NFT is a non-fungible token; an intangible digital asset in the form of images, video, or gaming items.

These virtual assets come with certificates that show ownership and are influencing the growth of the metaverse.  Think about money today, you are not able to copy it, the same with an NFT as it is registered on the Blockchain. 

NFTs are bought and sold using cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.

Web 3.0

Web3 or Web 3.0, the third generation of the Internet, is a decentralized version of the Internet.  We currently see the internet in 2 dimensions, the Metaverse will enable you to see the internet in 3 dimensions.  There are some major enhancements with web3 which includes virtual reality, augmented reality, and haptic capability. 

Metaverse growth

Recent reports predict the metaverse market will grow to over $1,544 billion in less than ten years.

Growth in this area is very similar to when the internet and social media took off back in 2007. 

“The similarities between where social media was 17+ years ago and where we are now with the emerging metaverse is wild,” Lindsey McInerney, former Global Head of Technology & Innovation at Anheuser-Busch InBev, noted in a LinkedIn comment.

How Are Brands Entering The Metaverse? 

First you need to understand that there is no playbook for this, there is no MarketingProfs article on the "top ten things ...".  You will make mistakes, go down blind alleys, make the wrong decisions, need to back track.  First and foremost you need to have a culture where people will be supported for these mistakes.  Experimental work is key.

In the world of improvisational comedy they have a term called "yes and".

Classically in meetings people will say, "yes, but", which is a sure way of killing an idea, with the Metaverse you need to have a "yes and" attitude. 

This isn't about replicating our current world in the Metaverse

If you read articles about the Metaverse, you will read that 

"Brands are building Vstores or virtual showrooms designed to allow customers to take a tour, interact with a space or interact with 3D products such as cars, jewelry, or any digital asset.

Virtual try-on will enable customers to tap into augmented reality, try on glasses or makeup, and visualize furniture and other products in their homes.

Innovative marketers are taking concerts, art festivals, and sporting events and transferring them into digital experiences.

Gucci, Nike, and Dior all offer digital goods that allow personalizing and customizing avatars, whether handbags, shoes, hats, or sunglasses, as avatars now need a wardrobe change based on events, seasons, and moods."

But this isn't innovative and the idea of advertisers buying ad space in the Metaverse is a massive yawn.

This is about being innovative, this is about enabling us to have conversations in the Metaverse, after all it's conversations that create sales.  The dating site, Match.com is an early investor in the Metaverse. 

How about some quick wins?

You can add a 3D Metaverse element to your current website.  Please don't make it an art-gallery of your founders, think about what buyers want.  Let them find insight, let them be educated and let them be entertained. They won't come with the usual "buy our stuff, because we are great" message.  

What’s An Easy Way To Get Started With NFTs?

Make a wallet (like MetaMask or Venly), transfer fiat currency (dollars) to Etherum or Hedera (crypto), and buy an NFT.  Just like your first Uber ride, you have to start somewhere.

Build a community in the Metaverse

What you need are more people that will buy from one, so start building a community in the Metaverse.  You can do this by starting a podcast or just start experimenting.