Metaverse has a different significance for different sections of people- the audiences, the advertisers, the tech giants etc. The key points of significance are persistence, synchronous and live, unlimited users, span both physical and digital worlds, digital assets, transportation across virtual worlds, features content or experiences from a wide range of creators, as per Publicis Media’s Metaverse report.
The report highlights what metaverse can offer to the end-users, gaming companies, brands, and more.
Tech companies: As more and more people join the platforms; it creates massive advertising opportunities for them.
As metaverse expands- it creates more avenues and opportunities for growth and development.
Marketers: From events to accessories and OOH and more- Metaverse will open a whole host of avenues worth exploring for marketers and brands.
Metaverse will also give the opportunity to marketers to reach a wider audience- an audience that might/could not otherwise afford their product or service.
Gaming companies: Gaming and eSports are a growing segment of the Media and Entertainment category and metaverse creates opportunities for players and potential players to not just play, but live the game.
As gaming is a crucial tool in the development and incentivising for the metaverse, this will create more revenue opportunities (more players, more in-play purchases, more ads etc).
Creators: Creators can’t be far from where the audiences are- new and old creators in the arena will be driving traffic and engagement.
What’s in it for users?
Metaverse has a lot to offer to the users. The users can move within the three-dimensional space, dancing and expressing themselves using their avatars. Avatars are the digital identities of the users. Platforms like Roblox and Fortnite offer deep levels of customisation to allow the player to express themselves with their avatars.
The Metaverse can be considered as a new customer universe with systems that let you produce and publish content. Brands can redefine their approaches to audience engagement and create experiences people actually want, as there are virtual showrooms for the brands for better customer experience, where customers are not just looking at a product, they are actually the part of the experience, which on the whole makes the experience more engaging and interesting. It also gives a new direction to the brands to advertise themselves in the market and engage with the prospective audience.
Users get new, enriching, immersive experiences that aren’t accessible or available in the physical world, the sense of self within it and will also help build social mileage for the users.
The report also highlights the specific areas that are seeing traction in the Metaverse, like
What the big Tech Giants are doing in this space?
The report says that post Mark Zuckerberg’s commitment to the metaverse, tech giants have announced their interest and commitment to developing towards metaverse and has put together a list of what leaders from the leading tech giants have said.
“When we talk about the metaverse, we’re describing both a new platform and a new application type, similar to how we talked about the web and websites in the early ’90s. It’s no longer just playing a game with friends. You can be in the game with them.”- Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft)
“If you take ‘Halo’ as a game, it is a metaverse. ‘Minecraft’ is a metaverse, and so is ‘Flight Sim'. In some sense, they’re 2D today, and the question is: ‘Can you now take that to a full 3D world?’ And we absolutely plan to do so.”- Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft)
“We’re a company in the business of innovation and we have over 14,000 AR apps in the App Store. There’s quite a bit of investment going into things that aren’t on the market at this point.” - Tim Cook (CEO, Apple)
“We’ve always said that AR is a core technology, and it’s a technology I get super excited about. I think it’s profound in terms of the things that you can do with it and the enhancement to people’s lives … but humanity has to be at the centre of it.” - Tim Cook (CEO, Apple)
Here’s a list of the forays of tech giants in metaverse:
What are the gaming companies doing in the space?
Similarly, as per the report, after Zuckerberg’s commitment to the metaverse gaming companies too have welcomed the idea and have shown eagerness for the possibilities offered by the Metaverse. They said:
“Over the coming decades, the metaverse has the potential to become a multitrillion-dollar part of the world economy. The next three years are going to be critical for all of the metaverse-aspiring companies like Epic, Roblox, Microsoft, Facebook. It’s kind of a race to get to a billion users, whoever brings on a billion users first, would be the presumed leader in setting the standards.”- Tim Sweeney (CEO, Epic Games
“I do believe in this future of the world in which billions of people are wearing AR hardware, AR glasses are their everyday life and I believe that’s the entertainment platform of the future. And we’re gonna be there.” - Tim Sweeney (CEO, Epic Games)
The report has also put together a list of the gaming companies’ activities on this front.
As per Publicis Media, part 2 of the Metaverse series will cover its implications for the brands in detail.
This module has been developed by Rajiv Gopinath and Ayushi Sharma from Publicis Media. So, if you are ready to make your brand future-ready, connect with them at Publicis Media to help take your brand to the next level! Email: rajiv.gopinath@publicismedia.com & Ayushi.sharma@publicismedia.com
In this three-part series, the two will look at the current state of play, the opportunities for brands and how they can equip themselves to make the most of the future opportunities.
