: The most popular concept in the past year has to be the metaverse. Data from Qichacha shows that as of the end of 2021, 1,692 companies in my country have applied for 11,400 Yuanverse trademarks. At the same time, experts, scholars, and practitioners from various industries around the world are having intense discussions on the possibility of implementing the concept of the metaverse and its main application scenarios. This article teaches you how to play with the Metaverse, let’s take a look!
While people still have doubts and debates about the Metaverse concept, implementation scenarios, development paths, etc., brand marketers who are always at the forefront have made many marketing attempts and attempts using the Metaverse concept itself or related technologies. Innovation. Smart brands hope to occupy a favorable position before the Metaverse is truly launched on a large scale so that they can seize more business opportunities in the future.
Although the long-term value of Metaverse marketing is still unclear, some leading brands in 2021 have used Metaverse technology and concepts to successfully reach and influence a wide range of users, and have accumulated certain successful cases.
By studying recent successful cases, we found that compared with the current mainstream marketing strategies, metaverse marketing shows four main characteristics: creation stories, digital virtual human endorsements, digital avatars, and blockchain-based digital rights.
At this stage, regardless of whether brand owners believe in the concept of the Metaverse, they should have an understanding of the characteristics and actions of Metaverse marketing. I believe that they will be able to find ideas and innovations that are useful for reference.
1. Create stories
Current mainstream brand marketing mostly narrates stories around the core values of the brand, thereby guiding consumers to generate more recognition or empathy . However, many successful metaverse marketing cases of use users as creators, driving the development of the overall story and providing rich and detailed content and experience.
Case 1: The world's largest multiplayer online creative game platform - Roblox, is also the first game UGC platform positioned as "tools + community", providing technical tools for creators to freely produce content, and a platform for players to conduct Games and social activities.
As of Q3 2021, the platform has attracted 47.3 million DAU. Roblox users use their own unique avatars to interact realistically with friends in UGC digital scenes, digitizing offline social activities, such as fishing, racing, shopping at Gucci, watching videos, exploring, etc.
The more developers create games and gameplay content, the longer players will be immersed in it, and the more new users will be attracted through social networks; while the player base is expanding, due to the incentive + feedback economic system of UGC, more players will become developers , forming a positive flywheel effect .
Case 2: has a Metaverse project under construction overseas called STARLINK. It is inspired by Musk’s space plan. It fictionalizes a future space station located in a certain quadrant of the Milky Way, allowing players to enter and become Galaxy Explorers. In the overall story Under the online framework, players can create their own living space, create their own stories, and ultimately create a sub-universe.
metaverse marketing, users are both content creators and players. How to break the boundaries between and form a positive flywheel effect. For brands, they need to re-examine their positioning, from story narrators to story co-creators, so that brand stories can continue to flow. develop. For example, brands purchase land and build communities in some virtual communities, but the stories in the communities are generated by player interaction.
2. Digital virtual spokesperson
The advantages of digital virtual spokesperson are obvious - low cost (high celebrity endorsement fees), low risk (collapse of the spokesperson's personality), high controllability (the virtual spokesperson's image, words and deeds can be controlled), long-term (Virtual spokespersons and brands can have long-term and stable cooperation).
But for brands, creating virtual idols is not easy. At present, the virtual human industry is one of the most mature commercial applications in the metaverse, able to bring rich content and immersive experience. Guosheng Securities divides virtual humans into four categories. The technical differences in production are small, but there are completely different development paths in application.
1. Service virtual humans (PGC+ functional)
This type of virtual humans can provide users with anthropomorphic services, such as Xinhua News Agency virtual reporters, CCTV virtual sign language experts, etc. It is foreseeable that in the future, brand customer service and private domain traffic operations , more virtual service personnel will also be introduced.
The picture comes from the Internet
2. Virtual idol (PGC+IP value)
This type is a virtual image displayed through technological means. It has its own personality and can be broadcast live, endorsed, held concerts, etc. Compared with celebrities or anchors, virtual idols do not need to pay remuneration, are not easy to fall over, and can be customized according to brand strategies.
For example, Nayuki’s Tea officially announced the virtual character NAYUKI as its brand ambassador on the occasion of its sixth anniversary. According to the official introduction, NAYUKI is a cosmic symbiote that will travel between virtual space and real life.
The picture comes from the Internet
3. Digital avatar (UGC+ functional)
This type is developed from the game "face pinching" and can bring high immersion to users, such as the face-pinching characters in cyberpunk . In the future, it can be applied to industries such as beauty, shoes and clothing. After users create a personal image, they can try on makeup or clothing online to reduce the uncertainty of consumer decision-making.
4. Creative carriers (UGC+IP value)
are mainly created and operated by individual enthusiasts and communities, such as virtual singer Luo Tianyi, virtual beauty blogger Liu Yexi, etc., which can become a bridge for interaction between brands and users. Carry out goods delivery or co-creation. However, the image and expression of this kind of virtual person are uncertain, and they are not suitable as brand spokespersons. These virtual spokespersons and related creative content of
are adjusted according to the audience's preferences, which is conducive to the extension of applications and scenarios in different fields. However, the phenomenon of homogeneity of virtual spokespersons is also serious. Based on appearance alone, virtual idols will eventually face aesthetic fatigue.
Overall, the virtual idol industry is optimistic in the long run, but it is also a red ocean with fierce competition. The brand is essentially chasing hot spots by taking advantage of virtual idols. How to properly integrate more advanced technologies into marketing actions and convert traffic is the key to continuous freshness.
3. Facing digital avatars
A very important change in metaverse marketing is that brands have to face not only real consumers, but also digital avatars of consumers - which have the attributes of social people and also have virtual properties. Interaction needs. Sharing virtual scenes with other users in the same world, and having a real sense of presence in the virtual world, this virtual + real sociality is a key element of the Metaverse.
takes Zepeto, which started as an avatar APP, as an example. Zepeto was born in 2018 and is an avatar APP launched by Naver, a leading Internet company in South Korea. Users can create avatars according to personal preferences and purchase virtual clothes to dress up. After completing the DIY avatar, users can choose the background and pose to take photos. The photo and sharing functions provided by Zepeto allow it to quickly spread in the social circle of acquaintances.
Pictures from the Internet
The large scale of young users and their strong sense of fashion make Zepeto a new frontier for brand marketing. Since the original version, fashion dressing has been an important element of Zepeto, and the application has attracted a large number of young female users. According to the latest data disclosed by Naver, 70% of all users are women between the ages of 13-24. Because user portraits highly overlap with the target customer groups of many fashion brands, Zepeto has attracted more than 60 well-known brands and IPs, becoming a new frontier for brand marketing and IP promotion.
4. Blockchain-based digital rights
NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token, which is a non-fungible token. Experts said that from a technical point of view, NFT is a digital certificate based on the contract of blockchain technology . It has the characteristics of verifiable, unique, indivisible and traceable, and can be used to mark the ownership of specific assets.Metaverse provides more diverse application scenarios for NFT. For brands, the following application directions can be considered:
- Provide users with personalized gifts, vouchers, etc.
- Use early access tokens before events and product releases Preheating
- uses digital goods to supplement physical products and open up new sources of income.
- pre-launches new digital products for market testing and guides actual production and sales.
On the International Friendship Day in July 2021, Coca-Cola launched four more Sensory NFT digital collectibles, including Friendship Box (imagining a vintage Coca-Cola refrigerator as a dynamic loot box), Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket (paying homage to Coca-Cola’s nostalgic delivery uniforms), Sound Visualizer (visualizing the audio of enjoying a Coca-Cola), Friendship Card (Inspired by Coca-Cola trading cards from 1948-1990).
Pictures from the Internet
5. Summary
Many people are skeptical about the Metaverse. For example, Musk said that "putting a display device on your nose" will not allow people to enter the virtual world naturally and comfortably. At present, there is no clear conclusion as to whether or how the metaverse can finally be realized. However, companies that do not want to miss the opportunity will not focus on the "metaverse", but on "marketing", that is, how to use these emerging concepts and interactive methods to enhance the stickiness between the public and the brand, and serve as the icing on the cake. role. If the
brand wants to truly seize the opportunity of Yuanverse, it needs to carefully study the core characteristics of Yuanverse marketing, and combine it with its own brand positioning and target group characteristics to formulate a long-term promotion strategy.
Reference source:
[1] "THE METAVERSE IS THE MEDIUM", MMA
[2] Metaverse Marketing: "Four Changes" Brands Have to Face, Shiqu Research Institute
[3] Metaverse Marketing Guide: 4 Some ideas, 5 major challenges, 15 cases, Decision Maker Retail Research Institute
[4] How to tell good stories in the metaverse? , Wang Qian
[5] Metaverse marketing, how to do it? , Qinggua Media
[6] Marketing in the metaverse: The biggest opportunities for brands, Campaign Asia
This article was originally published by @神思 Research Institute on Everyone is a product manager. Reprinting without permission is prohibited. The
title picture comes from Unsplash and is based on the CC0 license.
