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📱 Reddit rolls out updates to Ads Manager, including new Targeting and creation tools
💻 New personalised ad targeting options for Display and Video 360 campaigns on Google
The Metaverse is considered the next evolution of the internet and social media, with it offering a new experience for users to socialise, play games, work and even make purchases. Many big-name brands are already taking advantage of the Metaverse as a marketing tool and a way to drive sales.
So just how do you go about entering the realm of the Metaverse and building it into your brand proposition to successfully connect and engage with your customers? Here are just a few tactics to consider:
Create a world for customers to play and explore
The Metaverse is not just another retail space or marketplace, but somewhere that brands can push boundaries and do something different from what they would in the ‘real world’. It’s a fully immersive experience that provides a new level of escapism and inspiration where people can play, explore and build meaningful connections with peers, communities or brands.
Whilst not necessarily having a direct commercial outcome, having a presence and building a space for customers to hang out and interact in this 4D universe is one sure-fire way to be more playful and innovative as a brand. Creating your own ‘land’ or ‘verse’ like brands such as Nike and Miller’s could be a great way to build brand awareness, engagement and customer affiliation with an audience you may not have already tapped into.
Two is better than one.
Shoppers are ready to start purchasing ‘digital twins’ - a virtual, identical good that comes with a physical item, with 46% of those surveyed saying it’s important that new real-world products are available virtually too, and 1 in 3 shoppers willing to pay more than $100 for them!
Not only a great commercial opportunity but one that can reinforce consumer loyalty, with virtual products often seen as a reward to a customer for their brand loyalty, and providing customers with a feeling of association with a brand by offering something rare and unique.
Be who (or what ) you want to be!
Avatar personalisation is a key driver in the interest in digital or virtual goods, with 49% of shoppers opting to create an avatar that is ‘the best version of themselves’ and 51% opting for someone or something completely different altogether to present a more surreal identity, or one they feel is more suited to the communities within which they operate.
Creating purchasable virtual goods specifically built for avatars could be a simple and effective way of increasing customer spending that leans on the mindset of wanting to own something new, novel and unique.
Augmented Reality can be a bridge to the Metaverse
Instagram recently launched an open beta test of AR ads in both Feeds and Stories through which brands can encourage viewers to interact with an effect through their surroundings, for example testing what furniture would look like in their own home or what it’s like to test drive a car, like MINI successfully did with their recent Miniverse go-kart style VR experience and companion AR effect.