Metaverse is it the future? Is anyone using it? The truth may surprise you.
First things first, what is the metaverse?
Depending on who you ask this question to, you may get different answers. “It’s the future!” some will say. Another group of people will listen and reply, “It’s not, that was a failure!“
It’s very funny to observe the discussions that the metaverse has created among people, especially because the metaverse isn’t even new.
Many people associate the metaverse with Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s project and its failure. In fact, the metaverse created by Meta was an ambitious idea that ended in huge losses, and I won’t deny any of that.
But that alone is not the whole metaverse.
The reality is that the metaverse is just an alternative world that we can enter and interact with. Now you might be thinking, “What do you mean by “just”? that sounds very high tech to me”.
Let’s do an experiment, close your eyes and imagine that you are on the moon. Done, you have projected your mind to the moon. “But I’m not really in the moon,” you might ask. True, but in the metaverse you won’t be on the moon either, which is good, it must be cold there. The principle was created, the execution is not as surreal as you might think.
Children like to play this all the time. Since the 80s, when the first “Dungeons & Dragons” was released, and the Role-playing game (RPG) genre was born. A type of game where the user takes on the role of a fictional character in a fictional world. Sound familiar to you?
So… Is the metaverse a game of imagination?
Of course not, because a lot has changed since paper and pen.
As technology evolved, the projection of virtual worlds became increasingly common. In the 2000s, Habbo emerged as a way to connect young people in a virtual space where they could interact and play games. What you read is true, more than 20 years ago a metaverse already existed.
And don’t think it stopped there, maybe you’ve already heard of World of Warcraft? A video game launched in 2004 that in 2008 already had more than 10 million registered users. These are real numbers! The metaverse was already popular among the young, even before they even knew its meaning.
What is the limit of technology?
The technology doesn’t stop, and so do the possibilities. With the emergence of VR technology and the growing demand for VR headsets, new opportunities to combine VR and Metaverse have become real.
A good example is the VRChat video game launched in 2017. A virtual 3D platform that allows users to create avatars and interact with people from all over the world. The platform saw a spike in popularity in 2020 with the events of COVID-19 and the pandemic.
The concept is old, and its future possibilities have already been explored in fiction. If you’ve already watched the movie Ready Player One, you might have an idea of what I mean.
We’re not in a fiction film yet, the current metaverses are a great way to stand out from your competitors, but you need to pay attention to some things.
The 3 pillars of the metaverse marketing strategy
Have a clear goal.
If you’ve read everything so far, you may have noticed that all my metaverse examples are from video games. This happens precisely because the metaverse proposal is to be entertaining.
The goal was never to recreate the entire world digitally. In fact, most metaverses don’t care if they are realistic, the focus has always been on the fun.
Accessibility
There is a big difference in the technology we can achieve, and the technology people can use.
Meta’s attempts to create something revolutionary resulted in only a small portion of the population being able to participate. The metaverse is not an environment that few people can sustain, it requires a large community of users. Knowing how to use the devices we all have access to interact with the metaverse is crucial.
For a metaverse to work it needs to be accessible! VRChat knew this, so much that the use of VR technologies was not necessary to play the game, ironic right?
Communities
No, you won’t build a metaverse from scratch. That’s way to crazy.
You most likely don’t own a game development company. Your goal is not to create a place for these generations, it is to invade those that already exist.
Choose the metaverse that houses the largest portion of your target audience and enter it.
Fortnite broke audience records with collaborations with famous personalities, including shows from artists like Ariana Grande, DJ Marshmello and Travis Scott. But you don’t have to be an international star to promote in the metaverse.
Since Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) allowed users to create modified servers, many users have started to create their own metaverses.
Even if you’re a local business, there are servers of all sizes needing resources to continue operating. That’s what the Portuguese company Sumol + Compal did. Getting in touch with the largest personalized server in your country, creating your products within the metaverse and promoting them through events.
Is it worth my company investing in metaverse?
It depends. What is your company’s target?
As you may have already understood by now, the metaverse that works today is dominated by the new generations.
Getting together virtually to play a game or chat is something young people do. They were born with the internet in their hands and know the globalization of the world better than others. Many have friends around the world that they have never met in person, finding a metaverse to serve as a bridge is an everyday thing.
If your company has many consumers from the Millennial, Gen Z or Alpha generation, investing in the metaverse is a direct hit on where they are. But, if the core of your customers is not these generations, the use of other strategies may be more recommended.
If you are curious about the best metaverses to invest in, contact us or read our post about Generations Z and Alpha
