Melissa M. Dunn 
How should brands think about advertising in the metaverse?
The question is a bit difficult to answer when there is no consensus on what exactly the Metaverse is or what it could become.
You don’t need a helmet, but you do. It’s like a video game, but no. Something about VR, but also something about AR. It is an immersive virtual world. Scratch that – it’s various immersive virtual worlds that don’t yet talk to each other, but will.
In his 1993 cyberpunk novel, “Snow Crash,” author Neal Stephenson coined the term “metaverse,” which he defined quite broadly as a world made of code.
But some brands and social platforms seem to want to define it as a world where people will spend thousands of dollars outfitting their 3D avatars in fancy gear (but not pants, because there’s no point right now).
Meta recently introduced the Meta Avatars Store, where you can buy schmancy virtual clothing from Prada, Balenciaga, and Thom Browne to dress up avatars on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger (but not yet in VR).
Mark Zuckerberg is betting that people will view digital clothing as an important form of self-expression, just as they do in their non-virtual lives. Count me as a skeptic, even though I don’t even like shopping in reality.
But there is precedent, as Alex Kantrowitz, tech journalist and author of the newsletter Big Technology, pointed out on stage at the Collision conference in Toronto last week. Just look at Fortnite skins. And last year, someone apparently spent $4,115 to buy a digital-only Gucci bag on Roblox, or $800. After that the handbag sells for in actual stores.
Bloomberg estimates that the metaverse will represent an almost $800 billion market opportunity by 2024, and so the opportunity for brands to use it as a marketing platform is undeniable, said Gonzalo Brujó, global president of ‘Interbrand Group, a consulting firm owned by Omnicom.
“Are we ready? No. There is still a lot of innovation to be done,” Brujó said. “But it can help you differentiate yourself, be a more relevant brand, and engage with your customers in different ways. “
To date, however, these “different ways” mostly come in the form of one-off experiences, like the Wendy’s-themed Wendyverse in Horizon Worlds or branded NFTs. (“Why would anyone want a Burger King NFT?” asked Kantrowitz. Good question.)
But, cynicism — and multi-thousand-dollar Gucci bags aside — the metaverse will take shape at some point, like it or not, and brands are trying to figure out what their role, if any, should be.
The tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars businesses spend on their physical retail experiences today will begin to shift to digital interfaces and more metaverse experiences (sorry, the best word I can think of), Brujo said.
“Yeah, the quality isn’t fantastic, but that’s where the customers will be in the long run,” he said. “The reality is that every brand around the world is wondering where to go, but first they need a strategy.”
And, ideally, this strategy won’t involve copy/pasting from Web2 to Web3. There has to be a happy medium between luxury branded gear that costs double what I made per month in my first job after college and… displaying ads in the metaverse.
“I really hope it’s not billboards and banner ads – that would be failing, just taking what we already know and not learning in any way,” said Amy Peck, CEO and founder of EndeavorVR, an AR and VR consulting company.
“There may be an evolution in how we tell stories and bring brand experiences into this digital landscape,” Peck said.
For example, let’s move away from a traditional understanding of advertising and start thinking more about “a transparent exchange of value for data,” she said.
Rather than spending billions of dollars harvesting data to understand someone’s behavior, why not just ask people for their data in exchange for some form of value, like early access to digital assets with a physical component, suggested Peck.
Sounds familiar. It’s the old trusty argument of value exchange, but this time with non-fungible tokens. Wondering what a consent pop-up would look like in the metaverse?
It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
