The Metaverse Is Here. Are You Ready?

They described the metaverse quotas the future of all digital media and commerce the successor of the internet amp8230 made up of persistent shared spaces linked together into a universe underpinned by interoperability a fully functioning economy and open access to allquotamp160The word quotmetaversequot is a portmanteau of the prefix quotmetaquot meaning beyond and universeFrom Hearst39s recent launch of a blimp in the metaverse to give brands virtual visibility on an Airship to Gucci using virtual tryon activation on the Snapchat platform the rules of the game are now truly metaMay and Holland offered highlights ofamp160what they call the quot7 Ps of the MetaversequotAccording to May and Holland the metaverse is a profound new paradigm quotthat will come to define not only the next ten years but the next century of technological advancementquotamp160It represents a unique and accelerated way to communicate and share informationThere is an entire metaverse infrastructure stack that brings together content assets and identity services with virtual platforms interoperability standards payments networking hardware and compute platforms illustrated by the table belowConsumers will be moving from the physical to the digital to the virtual seamlessly interacting with digital assets and reallife tactile assets along the way depending on the digital path they chooseGaming is the superhighway of the metaverseamp160quotIf web developers are the architects of the internet as we know it Web 20 then game developers are the architects of the metaverse Web 30quot said Ryan Gill CEO ampamp CoFounder of CrucibleDuring the pandemic gaming became the test bed for new metaexperiences from people getting married on quotAnimal Crossingquot because they were unable to host an inperson special ceremony to over 123 million views of Travis Scott performing in Fortnite A whole new dimension in eCommerce is emerging in terms of creating digital marketplaces and assets with Gucci bags selling for 6 in Robloxamp160and then reselling for over 4000 the next day in the physical worldGone are the days that gaming was seen as a young GenZ or Millennial pursuit Todayamp16087 of all internet users are playing digital games which is equal to almost 3 billion gamers globallyThe gateway to pop culture is increasingly being driven by gaming from Alist music artists to awardwinning movie franchises and the latest fashion trends from New York Milan and Paris Global brands are leveraging the power of gaming to serve as their canvas as they experiment with new ways to tell digital stories It is no longer a niche platform reserved for the elusive male teen audience but is becoming part of the zeitgeist and serving as a barometer for relevance edginess and simply being on trendThe big players in this ecosystem include Epic Games makers of Fortnite who recently announced a 1B funding round to support its longterm vision for the metaverseAriana Grande did a recent concert with Fortnite where fans could immerse themselves into digital assets from skins emotes and piggy smallz back bling and showcase their digital goods on Fortnite charactersamp160while enjoying the concertEpic also created the quotUnreal Enginequot not only for games but also for architectural concepts and product design with Ferrari and McLaren both using it to design nextgen automobilesTo experience the sheer realism and technological advancement of the metaverse visit the Metahuman Creator program and see how digital humans are created These developments remind us that game engines and 3D engines are the future of creative asset productionAnother important player in the spaceamp160Roblox currently at a valuation at 45B has been largely responsible for driving the creative economy in gaming By enabling gamers to build their own gaming environment a new digital economy has arisen using the new currency Robucks This has propelled over 12250 Roblox developers to earn 10K or more in Robucks in a given year with over 300 of these developers earning over 100KRoblox has teamed up with leading brands including Netflix with Stranger Things and Vans for Vans World to transport fans and consumers into fully immersive virtual worlds where you take on the persona of a skateboarder or appear in your favorite demogorgon costumeAnother company leading the way is Vietnamese studioamp160Sky Mavis which launched its popular quotplay to earnquot games also known as Crypto games It39s latest game Axie Infinity allows players to earn income through NFTs nonfungible tokens and cryptocurrencies by breeding battling and trading digital pets called AxiesSky Mavis has recently raised 152 million at a nearly 3 billion valuation with funding backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Mark Cuban stirring a developer and player revolt against the establishment of gaming Sky Mavis has made over 2B in revenues to dateA great brand partnership that has also pushed the envelope is the Louis Vuitton and League of Legends collab where fans canamp160buy skins for just 10 and firmly give a prestige brand a front seat with younger audiencesNFTs are unique oneoff digital assets that maintain stores of value amp160from art real estate fashion and even sports history These ecosystems are fairly complicated but with the right advice can be navigated strategically to capture the most value Alex May explained see NFT table belowCocaCola has also made a play in the fastgrowing metaverse with its firstever NFT collectibles On International Friendship Day four unique CocaCola NFTs by design artists were up for auction as a single quotloot boxquot through the OpenSea online marketplace with proceeds of over 500K going to the Special OlympicsMcLaren worked with Unreal Engine to design new cars first in the metaverse before launching in the real world By dropping new virtually designed cars into Rocket League marketers could get an early read on consumer sentiment and assess engagement with a younger audienceFrom cars to fashion omni reality commerce takes on new heights with the BalenciagaFortnite partnership where a speciallydesigned sweater can be purchased for 850 versus the realworld sweater at 725 This duo was also featured in a metaverseque anamorphic illusion execution in Times Square and Piccadilly CircusAs brands look to enter the metaverse and create new exciting environments it is important that they are guided by experts who are able to bridge across the three realities physical digital and virtualDan Holland remindedamp160us that dentsu Gaming39s mission is to quotcreate brand love through fandomsquotamp160For marketing leaders it has become increasingly important to understand the culture of gaming adopt an omnireality mindset and learn the new language of a metaverse world that immerses inspires and invokes a completely new reality of selfexpression and engagementClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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The Metaverse Is Here. Are You Ready?

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Raquelle Zuzarte

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The Metaverse Is Here. Are You Ready?

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