Web 2.0, the most recent iteration of the internet characterized by the rise of social media and user-generated content, did much to reframe the social consciousness around race, gender, sexuality, disability and more. While social platforms elevated a diverse range of voices, the leadership behind them are often white and male, betraying the notion that digital is the welcome space for everyone that it should be.

As we begin to envision and engage with the metaverse, we have the responsibility to help build a digital environment that is truly inclusive and accessible, that gives everyone (regardless of ability, economic situation, or any other factor) the chance to create and participate. Because the more people who can, the better the metaverse will be for everyone.

We All Have a Responsibility to Make the Metaverse Accessible

There’s the phrase “Nothing for us without us.” What it means is that the design of policies should not be decided without the representation and participation of those who are affected. To this respect, the gaming industry has made considerable inroads with the disability community: the much-celebrated accessibility features of racing game Forza Horizon 5, which released late last year, were created in partnership with direct input from the community. These features tend to trickle down into other games and immersive experiences like those found in the metaverse. Still, brands and businesses that lead in the creation of the space—builders of hardware, platforms and digital experiences—can do much more to enable true access and participation.

Broadly speaking, accessibility in the metaverse means providing an equitable playing field so everyone can contribute to the key economic driver it is: the metaverse economy is expected to be worth $13 trillion by 2030. Yet only 63% of the world’s population are connected to the internet at all. Lack of connectivity isn’t reserved for developing countries. Nearly a third of New York City households lack broadband internet, a base requirement for the immersive experiences that characterize the metaverse. Having access to broadband internet is essential for any creator hoping to build, sell or trade assets in these new worlds, or to develop the fundamental skills needed to thrive in the metaverse.

Many countries are addressing these concerns by declaring digital access a human right, including Estonia, which has established a national digital literacy system. But we shouldn’t wait for governments to catch up to the pace of technology; businesses can play an important role in upskilling and providing access. This could include supporting coding camps or donating hardware to schools, helping the next generation prepare and keep competitive for the virtualized economy.

The Importance of Representation and Self-Expression

Building is a fundamental activity in the metaverse, in which audiences participate in shaping experiences by leveraging the tools provided by developers. This makes representation important in metaverse experiences and storytelling, enabling audiences to construct identities that feel authentic to them—whether that means a 1:1 representation of the physical self, a complete departure from reality, or somewhere in-between.

Just as accessibility options have opened gaming to large audiences, a wide variety of representational options can enable belonging in the metaverse. While there’s still room to improve, games like The Sims serve as an excellent example for how to represent diversity to construct avatars and identities, like expansive gender options and eliminating the exclusivity of options between male or female characters. Likewise, those building and designing metaverse experiences can include inclusive options like Black hairstyles, prosthetics, assistive/mobility devices and more to ensure everyone in the metaverse can be themselves.

Still, real-world biases are likely to spill into the metaverse—meaning people may not always feel comfortable representing themselves in ways that reflect their physical appearance. Hardware limitations may also affect the faithfulness in representing a wide variety of bodies; for example, VR headsets on the market today were originally developed with certain color gradients as a lesser priority, evoking similar issues in photography from the days of film to now. Though by enabling diversity in both the creation and participation in these spaces, developers of metaverse platforms and experiences can cultivate a digital culture of respect where we hope to see a shift away from these concerns.

Platforms Must Anticipate Safety Concerns

Access and representation are crucial so that people of all walks of life can visibly participate in the metaverse, either as industry professionals building the technology or audiences participating in communities and experiences. But these efforts fall flat if it’s not a safe space for everyone, meaning an inclusive and equitable metaverse must account for user safety.

As we’ve seen over the last two decades online, anonymity can lead to destructive behavior—and there’s no reason to believe those behaviors will simply go away in a more embodied digital space. Moderating in digital has historically been difficult to scale, though the developers of games and tech platforms can mitigate unsafe experiences by implementing features that help people take greater control over how others can interact with them. The Safe Zone feature in Meta’s Horizon Worlds, for example, allows people to distance themselves from others by setting personal boundaries. Metaverse platforms can continue to evolve and adapt these features as needed.

No single company or culture can build an equitable and inclusive metaverse. That’s why those in our industry—including the brands, partners and tech platforms we work with—must unite with the communities we serve to develop open, secure and trusted virtual environments. Together, we have an opportunity to do better and build a new era in digital that’s inclusive from the start. Let’s get working.

Insights for this piece were contributed by Catherine D. Henry, SVP Growth, Metaverse & Innovation Strategy; Lewis Smithingham, Director of Creative Solutions; James Nicholas Kinney, Chief of Diversity and Talent Discovery; Iulia Brehuescu, Digital Accessibility Manager; Sam Haskin, Inclusive Marketing Practice Lead; Rona Mercado, Chief Marketing Officer, Cashmere Agency; and Vanessa Zucker, Director of Marketing and Communications.

“Television award shows are seeing a decline in viewership, while social media and audience expectations have challenged what an award show should even be,” says Eric W. Shamlin, Media.Monk’s Global Head of Entertainment. “Today the audience is more demanding and in more control than ever before.”

Digital culture has already made its mark in mainstream ceremonies, as exhibited in TikTok’s influence over the Best New Artist category at this year’s GRAMMYS. But more broadly speaking, the internet has played a substantial role in shaping culture through music. This trend is proven by the Billboard Song Breaker Chart, a monthly music industry chart co-created with Logitech For Creators, to spotlight trendsetting creators who are driving music consumption through content creation and positively disrupting the traditional music business model.

This year the second annual Song Breaker Awards, presented by Logitech For Creators, is putting those names on display. The ceremony will take place in Roblox on April 30 at 10 a.m. PST, pulling back the velvet rope to deliver a creator-centered, fun-first experience honoring ten individuals driving culture. As reported by Fast Company, it’s the first music award show in the metaverse and will be hosted by Bretman Rock. The experience culminates in performances by singer-songwriter GAYLE and multi-GRAMMY award-winning artist Lizzo, who is making her metaverse debut with a new single. But more importantly, the show offers a blueprint to how metaverse worlds can uniquely celebrate and enable creativity at an unprecedented scale.

"In re-imagining what a creator-focused award show could look like in the metaverse, we sought a partner that could guide us in this brand new space,” said Meridith Rojas, Global Head of Talent and Entertainment, Logitech. "In order to create for this format, you need to know this format. Media.Monks' inclusion of narrative and game-play resulted in a truly vibrant and engaging environment and production that's sure to surprise and delight the audience."

An Awards Show Starring… You

Owing to the Song Breaker Awards’ roots in digital creativity, Roblox itself is a robust platform for creative expression. It makes game and experience development easy for audiences with little to no background in programming, which has sparked a thriving creator community of 49.5 million average daily active users in Q4 2021. This makes the platform an ideal space for an engaging twist on musical award shows—if you know what the community values.

We partnered with Kurt Bieg, Chief Game Designer at Simple Machine, to create an experience that feels authentic and engaging to the Roblox community. “We built the show around a story that kids will care about,” says Bieg, teasing a high-stakes plot that players will engage with in real time. But focusing on a participatory narrative doesn’t mean the award ceremony itself falls into the background. “As viewers will see, the honorees will play a key role in shaping the story. It supports Logitech For Creators’ promise, ‘Together we create,’” says Bieg.

Once inside the world, attendees can explore a futuristic city tricked out with gamified and interactive elements, from larger-than-life selfies, a shop stocked with digital Lizzo and Logitech merch, and even a roller coaster that glides throughout the city’s borders. What makes this space unique to other high-profile Roblox experiences is that the entire event takes place within one seamless environment. “Usually, Roblox experiences play out across a series of scenes like dioramas, but ours is one persistent world,” says Bieg.

In that respect, the Song Breaker Awards might be more like a physically embodied event than initially expected. “We treated the show more like a traditional stage, where set pieces are moving in and out,” says Brett Burton, Creative Director at Media.Monks. “It seems like an old-fashioned way of doing things, but it is technically challenging.”

Interactive Environments Range from Chill to Thrill

As people explore the city, they’re met with a series of experiences that build up excitement before the big show—perhaps the flashiest being the Selfie XL, a unique innovation developed for the Song Breaker Awards. Rather than take a photo, the camera recreates players’ avatars with a clone that towers over the city skyline for everyone to see.

The Selfie XL is made possible through a quirk in the way selfies  function in the platform. When you take a photo in Roblox, the program renders a copy of the scene and flattens it into a 2D image. “We thought, ‘If we’re cloning the models, why don’t we just make them ginormous and not flatten them?’” says Bieg, who expects fans will try to push the Selfie XL to its limits, like trying to fit as many people as possible in its field of view.

A roller coaster designed to look like Logitech mice makes for another way to immerse oneself in the city as it travels across various places of interest. It’s just one of many creative nods to popular Logitech products that players may recognize from their own setups. “We wanted to turn Logitech’s products into unique experiences that would surprise everyone,” says Burton. “We wanted to incorporate them in ways that didn’t feel heavy handed but fit the world.”

Taking another cue from amusement park design, these main attractions—outside of the musical performances and award ceremony itself—are cleverly spaced out to invite attendees to explore around the entire city. Burton notes that many nooks and crannies are designed to be meme-able to encourage sharing—think of them like the virtual version of selfie stations you might find at a zoo or a museum. As people wander, they may uncover a handful of Creator Coins that unlock exclusive dances and animations to uniquely express themselves throughout the show.

Doubling Down on Creative Expression

Speaking of expressing oneself, one of the most fun things about Roblox is outfitting your avatar and showing off your style. Meanwhile, one of the best parts of seeing a good show is hitting the merch store for a memento that expresses your fandom. Those who attend the Song Breaker Awards can do both by exploring an immersive shop filled with virtual Lizzo merch and gear based on Logitech products, like a Blue Yeti microphone arm or an Astro headset.

The approach to merch hearkens back to Logitech For Creators’ purpose in supporting digital content creators. “We thought around what would make the merch valuable to someone playing Roblox. The idea was to let people dress themselves like a walking influencer,” says Bieg. Some of the pieces, like a body suit in the shape of a mouse, are sillier—serving the community’s love for funniness and memes.

Of course, the headlining experience of the Song Breaker Awards is the show itself, as well as lifelike virtual performances by GAYLE and Lizzo using motion capture. Viewers will also get to see MeganPlays (known as “The Peachy Princess of Roblox”), musician and activist Jaden Smith and Twitch streamer Shroud throughout the event. But beware: we hear that a mischief maker may crash the party to throw things into disarray. Can the power of creativity and community set things right?

“From start to finish, the level of detail that went into designing a fully-immersive and interactive world inside Roblox is truly unmatched,” said Nick Cicchetti, Media.Monks Senior Producer. “Beyond that, the narrative and storytelling that ties the performances together with internet culture to bring everyone in the audience from passive viewer to active participant is something that can only be done in a new environment made possible by technology and creativity. I’m thrilled to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the metaverse to bring the Song Breaker Awards to life, and I can’t wait for everyone to experience it firsthand.” 

You can explore the Song Breaker Awards pre-show area in Roblox right now. Look forward to the main event on Saturday, April 30 at 10 a.m. PST with three additional screenings throughout the weekend.

While some may mistake them for another trend in the new era of virtualization, a mere by-product of the metaverse, or a new development to demonstrate the power of artificial intelligence, these virtual personalities have been around for a while. You may have heard about Hatsune Miku, for example, a virtual singer created by the music technology company Crypton Future Media, Inc. She was released to the world in 2007 and has since performed sold-out concerts worldwide—including venues in LA, Singapore and Tokyo. Or perhaps you remember Lighting, a character from the Final Fantasy franchise with whom Louis Vuitton partnered in 2016 to model their Series 4 collection.

Either way, the concept of a virtual celebrity is not new. Its widespread growth, however, may have been deferred by a lack of access to certain technologies like CGI, or the necessary computing power for people to interact with them, things that we now hold—quite literally—in the palm of our hands. Moreover, as virtual influencers became more realistic and our lives moved increasingly online, people began to form communities around them, thus spurring a new level of engagement.

In the latest edition of Social Bites, the Social Innovation Lab explores the opportunities that virtual influencers bring for brands today, as well as how they are challenging our concept of beauty, talent and creativity. You can find the issue of Social bites here, and get into the swing of things with our key findings below. 

A Perfect Fit for Transmedia Storytelling

At their core, virtual influencers are computer-generated characters that engage directly with an audience on social media, live-stream commerce, in video games, or even in mainstream media. They have one main purpose: to increase followers, engagement and conversion. 

That said, many characters who now operate as virtual influencers were not born digital. Barbie, the fashion doll who debuted in 1959 long before the social media era, now communicates with fans through a popular YouTube channel and Instagram account. Now a virtual influencer, she moves across platforms and formats as needed to show up for her community. 

Because they are so diverse in form, virtual influencers offer endless possibilities in transmedia storytelling. They can seamlessly transition between different virtual environments to tell a single story, all while remaining recognizable to audiences. These benefits apply to marketing campaigns as well: the presence of a virtual character representing a brand can feel authentic anywhere from the metaverse to social media. On occasion, they even outperform their real-life counterparts when it comes to engagement.

What’s more, virtual influencers are never stuck in one place at a time. This great advantage extends to virtual versions of real-life celebrities. Last year, we worked with Pokémon and director Jason Zada to celebrate their 25th anniversary by hosting a computer-generated concert featuring Post Malone. The rapper performed for more than 10 million viewers on YouTube and Twitch, taking his fans on a journey “across the land”: a series of diverse biomes populated by Pokémon. We’re looking at a very scalable setup: in addition to virtual venues fitting more people than a physical stadium, it’s also possible to give the same concert several times, across multiple time zones. 

Ethical Considerations for Working With Virtual Creators

Just like real-life influencers, their virtual counterparts are diverse in their personalities, but they all have one dangerous thing in common: they can be shaped into any form their creators desire. They can advance unattainable standards—they don’t grow old, they don’t get tired and they can change their looks to match new trends at a moment’s notice. And while it may be tempting to use these unique qualities to your advantage, upholding such standards are counter to goals around diversity of representation. We recommend that brands working with virtual influencers focus on these matters as they would do with their real-life predecessors.

Tech companies are working on making virtual influencers showcase a larger diversity of body types and flaws. It’s about ethics, but also relatability. After all, people need to be able to connect with a creator to be truly engaged. The good news is that we’re already seeing progress in this respect. Angie, who was named “the imperfect virtual influencer” by CNN, offers a refreshing alternative. With her creased makeup, faint acne scars and uneven skin, she is challenging beauty standards in China and beyond—showcasing her imperfections for the world to see. 

That is to say that if done right, virtual influencers have the potential to reshape digital culture and our ideals of beauty, coolness or even what it means to be human. Brands that lead this evolution in marketing can strengthen their bonds with consumers, but only as long as diverse creators are involved and provide the space for consumers to feel seen.

The Immediate Evolution of Virtual Influencers

While virtual influencers operate under no location or time zone constraints, it’s true that the APAC region is leading the way in facilitating real-time interaction between them and their followers. Dior, for instance, created a digital avatar of its regional ambassador, Chinese celebrity Angelababy. As reported by the South China Morning Post, Angela 3.0’s surprise appearance generated more than 90,000 Weibo interactions in two hours.

Meanwhile, the ecommerce giant Taobao developed a gamified community where users create and dress virtual avatars in real-world items available on the platform. These 3D avatars can interact with others, perform daily tasks and use virtual coins to purchase items. 

There’s clear evidence that these brands have found virtual influencers to be a great tool to further engage their audience, and there’s a lot the rest of the world can learn from these advancements in APAC. Virtual influencers are here to stay, and the doors of opportunity are wide open for brands to experiment in this space. Especially for those who feel like working with a real-life influencer poses a risk, creating their own virtual influencer may be a perfect choice.

Right now, a need to differentiate and capture first-party data is revitalizing the potential of the web experience. In my new role with the Jam3 team, we focus on combining insight, creativity and technology to align with culture and connect with people. Because websites have become the primary sales support and source of information for audiences once again, they must also pull their weight in building deeper connections with audiences. Yet many designers and development teams are focused on ticking every best practice off the list, resulting in websites that end up looking and feeling the same, lacking the unique spark needed to make an indelible impression with audiences. 

We need to raise the standards and expectations on what a website can achieve—so I say rip up the rulebook and trade best practices for bespoke, premium solutions that forge deeper connections with audiences and immerse them within the world of the brand.

Set Your Brand in Motion—Literally

There’s a saying we like to use: the interface is the brand. It means every experience across the digital ecosystem becomes a direct reflection of its core products and services. So when we set out to build an immersive web experience, we begin by examining the essence of the brand and how to communicate that through a series of moments. What is the emotion we want to trigger with visitors? Building a uniquely differentiated platform starts with defining what you want audiences to feel at every step.

This is where conventional wisdom to stick to standard best practices falls flat. Limiting your website interface to static text and images does little to bring brand moments to life. Interactive elements in particular—think real-time rendering and explorable 3D product models, or even full games themselves—enable user journeys that feel premium and personalized, but even little touches in motion design go far beyond user expectation.

Form Meets Function

Elements like those described above aren’t just for looking good; they can also help translate abstract concepts into tangible, memorable experiences. Product demonstrations are a great example of this. With 3D interactive models, you can break apart a product to explain its various pieces, like an exploded-view diagram.

This was our approach to building a strong online identity for Lucid Motors, creators of the most luxurious electric cars on the market. We built the user journey around motion visuals and CGI assets that were animated to perfectly highlight key features of the automaker’s technology, including components of the chassis and the battery pack that powers it all.

The scalable platform is also lightning fast. This is an important consideration that can’t be overlooked: when you have resource-intensive, motion-heavy assets and animation, your team must ensure the experience doesn’t slow down and freeze up—especially for those on mobile devices. What’s the highest performance, most flexible way of representing the brand? This is a critical question but one that most production studios skimp out on, sacrificing performance for flashy visuals. But the fluidity of moving through a platform contributes just as much, if not more, to the experience than visual fidelity alone.

Building Effective Experiences

With the rise of the immersive web, much of the work that was once restricted to microsites has made its way onto brand platforms and commerce. Which means truly standing out requires a totally different set of skills than many teams may be accustomed to. Realizing the market need for experiences built upon a foundation of data-driven and strategic insights, we’re scaling up our own capabilities within the Media.Monks team to defy convention and create work that breaks new ground.

What we do is highly specialist—and that can make it tough to find the finest talent in-house to support brands’ growing ambitions. To combat this lack of talent, we recently launched a six-months paid immersive web traineeship to cultivate a pool of specialist creative web developers who have instilled our values and pursuit of perfection from the start.

This means tackling historic challenges like measuring the value of touchpoints like microsites. In the early aughts (when the microsite was king), they lacked the analytics to understand if their million-dollar investments were worth it. The present-day focus on conveying the feeling of a brand may not be as concrete as selling X amount of product, but it’s no longer immeasurable.

The ultimate goal is to forge a connection and relationship with audiences. While today’s immersive web thrives from CMOs willing to take creative risks to build something special, there’s opportunity to bridge together creative UX design, strategy and analytics to eliminate risk and enhance the brand—even without relying on best practices that have sucked the feeling out of the everyday digital experience.

With Wajer Yachts, for example, we used the website to transport visitors to the exact moment of casting off with a yacht in a single click. 360-degree product views and gorgeous imagery of the yachts’ interiors offered a vivid experience and a sensation of ownership. But it didn’t just look good: time spent on the website increased by 250% after launch and generated qualified leads increased by 450%, demonstrating the value of bespoke branded experiences.

The internet in its current form is closing to its end. A new era of immersive, personalized experiences is emerging, as evidenced in recent discussion around the metaverse. As brands aim to build relationships with consumers through bespoke touchpoints, the role of web experiences—enhanced by immersive web technology—has elevated to become an essential space to differentiate the brand and translate it into compelling experiences.

Hosted by Director of Content Marketing Adam Remson, the first episode of the monthly series is a special “Ask Me Anything” edition focused on NFTs featuring Jam3 Strategy Director Rachel Noonan, Lead Creative Strategist Michael Litman and Strategy Director, FLUX Dan Lewis.

As one of the biggest trends in marketing last year, NFTs have gotten a lot of attention from marketing teams and have become an accessible entry into the metaverse. But the tech behind them can add a bit of an esoteric mystique. An NFT is a token showing ownership of a digital asset. Because they can be proven unique, they can be assigned value (and accrue more before being traded or sold). This has led to incredible interest in the space, including from people willing to pay top dollar to dress their avatars in designer sneakers, purchase unique digital artworks or even land in the metaverse. Watch the episode of IMO to see how NFTs are being used in a marketing context already:

Throughout the live webinar, our audience flooded our inbox with questions about the technology and how to use it effectively—more than we could cover in a single webinar. Here, we’re surfacing up marketers’ most urgent questions about NFTs, ranging from their fundamentals, safety and security concerns, costs involved and use cases.

What does it mean to own an NFT?

If you are considering creating your own NFTs, first think of them as a “certificate of ownership” and not as a copyright. It is like verifying a painting you own as an original piece. You own it and can now price it to sell based on its value in the art market. This however does not prevent people from printing out images of your artwork from the internet, framing it and hanging it on their walls.

How do NFTs have value?

The value in physical objects is clear: they’re tangible and unique goods that tend to grow in value as they become scarce over time. Digital assets meanwhile run the risk of being duplicated. Still, NFTs are widely understood to have tangible value; because each digital asset is unique or limited in quantity, NFTs have the potential to benefit from the same sense of scarcity that applies to physical goods. In minting your own NFT, you are in control of how many are produced (ie, the scarcity of the asset) or a specific window of time in which they are available to buyers.

Are there any moves being made to increase the accessibility of NFTs? 

NFTs are a nascent technology. That, paired with “gas” fees (essentially a transaction fee that changes throughout the day based on network traffic) can make minting NFTs an expensive and confusing affair. But many are already making the creation or purchase of NFTs simpler for the average user. Platforms have already emerged allowing the purchase of NFTs via credit card, for instance, cutting out the need to purchase cryptocurrency altogether. But for now, the sense of exclusivity may work for some—the fashion and luxury industries, priding themselves for being at the cusp of artistry and craft, have adopted the technology well.

Should I be concerned about security?

Blockchains are decentralized, relying on a network of servers that confirm and validate transactions along a digital ledger. This means the record of ownership of an NFT or cryptocurrency isn’t contained on a single server, making them tamper-proof and more secure by design. Therefore, even if the server where the NFT is hosted is taken down, the NFT is not lost due to the decentralized nature of the mechanism that verifies the authenticity of NFTs. Still, NFTs are not 100% safe. They can be stolen from their owners’ crypto wallets through phishing schemes, and marketplaces that mint or exchange them can be hacked. NFT thefts occur when an owner is tricked into opening up their digital wallets and transferring the ownership of their NFT property.

How much does it cost to create NFTs?

When it comes to the cost of minting one, look at a minimum of $70, with costs fluctuating based on gas fees (which can drive costs to over $100) and the volatility of the cryptocurrency used to pay. There is also a commision fee levied by the host server of the initial sale of the NFT that a seller bears, which ranges between 3% and 15%.

How can marketers utilize NFTs?

NFTs may not be right for every single brand or every single industry. A brand needs to understand what it wants to achieve with an NFT activation, and an NFT should be part of a longer-term roadmap where it can provide unique benefits and virtualized experiences for people that wouldn’t be experienced anywhere else.

One of the best examples in use case for NFTs can be seen in events and entertainment. For example, NFT concert tickets can open up a world of opportunities and ways for artists to connect with their audience. The NFT not only acts like a music pass but is also a collectible and a tradable asset. It can be a tactical enablement tool for marketers in which users can unlock exclusive experiences like early-access to sale tickets of the next concert, special meetups with the artists, and cross-promotions with other brands. Concert tickets are the one of the most obvious places right now, especially when there’s fandom or a community that hinges on it. Used this way, artists and creators benefit because they can bypass intermediaries to connect directly with their audience.

How might NFT ownership translate to physical goods and experiences?

Sometimes an NFT isn’t tied just to the ownership of a digital good but confirms the ownership of a physical good as well. This type of hybrid NFT arises when NFTs expand their scope and utility by bringing the real world on-chain. The Real-World Asset NFT (rNFT) is a way of tokenizing physical property or goods so they can be traded, collateralized, governed and owned using smart contracts on blockchains. Tokenizing products can generate new revenue streams for fashion brands by increasing the penetration of physical products and adding new services such as early access to limited collections, special events, experiences or even unique virtual products and activations. An interesting recent example of virtualization leveraging NFTs is Dolce & Gabbana’s Collezione Genesi, a nine-piece virtual fashion collection released as NFTs. Five of them offered their owner the opportunity to redeem the corresponding physical pieces. This type of utility is exciting in the world of luxury and art, but it’s safe to assume use cases will start to proliferate across many different categories.

Often, investing in gaming activations and experiences has served as a simple way for brands to enter this new space, some of which have garnered media attention and largely positive sentiments among players. These include Ally Bank’s customized island on Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the Uncensored Library, both of which Media.Monks helped create. Whether you want to build a game from scratch or put your unique spin on an existing world, here’s why gaming platforms are top-of-mind in brands’ virtualization strategies—and how you can create a high-scoring metaverse experience of your own.

Why Games Are a Go-To Entry Point

Andy Loo, VP of Operations in APAC says that games make for an easy starting point. Many online games offer pre-existing, fully realized virtual worlds through which brands can engage with consumers—cutting out much of the complex legwork that comes with building a metaverse experience from scratch. “Other points that brands can leverage are the hype that is already built around popular multiplayer games and the ability to connect with players online through their social features,” he adds.

Furthermore, game platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft have libraries of predefined tools that let players easily develop their own games and virtual worlds. These very same gameplay features can be leveraged by brands, too—building on gamers’ desire to create and collaborate. With Ally Island, for example, Ally Bank was able to exhibit their brand promise in a compelling way by helping players manage their in-game money and even invest in the “stalk market”—the game’s play on the stock market—much like it helps customers attain financial literacy and security in real life.

Social Media Gives Way to Social Gaming

In recent years, games have become important places to meet and socialize virtually, particularly for younger audiences. Spurred further by the pandemic, more people have jumped into online gaming, not just for its entertainment value, but also as a social lifeline to connect with family and friends. Statista’s 2021 survey of gaming audiences released in April found that the social side of gaming is very important to the majority of players: 77% respondents said that gaming helped them stay in touch with friends and 80% reported that video games helped them to meet new people. 

With the social and entertainment aspects of games intersecting, it’s no wonder that online gaming is gaining ground. Major game developers are also building enhanced social capabilities in their products. Sony is partnering with Discord to build a voice chat app into PlayStation consoles and Bitmoji will be integrated into Gismart-developed games in Snapchat. These are just a couple examples of games evolving towards spaces for socialization.

“We’re constantly looking for new ways to enable players around the world to connect with one another, form new friendships and communities, and share fun experiences and lasting memories,” Sony president and chief executive Jim Ryan said in a blog post.

These trends support a cornerstone characteristic of the metaverse: it’s an intrinsically social space. Much like the internet, the metaverse fulfills a desire for connection between people—but unlike the asynchronous, feed-based internet we know today, the metaverse is set to thrive on live interaction, like attending a virtual concert where players can interact with one another and enjoy the performance together.

A focus on sociality and relationships presents another way brands are entering the metaverse through gaming: by creating avatars and “skins” that players can personalize to show off their identity and style. “Fashion has always been used as a building block of identity, so what you wear says something about you, as a person in the real world,” Liam Osbourne, Global Client Partner of FLUX, our fashion and luxury team, told Digiday. “As we’re seeing things get more advanced digitally, it’s only natural that your avatar or virtual version of you gets given the same level of importance and attention.”

A World Customized for Your Brand

While many brands have had success tapping into existing game worlds, others have taken a more bespoke approach by building experiences from scratch. Sure, it’s going to require more effort and resources, but you will have full creative control in tailoring your own world.

In promoting Netflix’s first-ever original anime series Eden, we built a VR racing game from the ground up. Available in English and Japanese, the game is based on the unique art style of the show, which is a mix of 3D cell-shaded characters and 2D painted backdrops. Developed as a companion to the series, the game lets players ride through Eden’s luscious environment to discover key locations and piece together the series’ story.

The benefit of these custom environments is that they are longer-lasting than one-off campaigns or ephemeral in-game activations. To that point, Eden Unearthed expands the world of Eden into a living, immersive world for fans to explore as they create their own stories inside.

“By establishing their own virtual worlds and encouraging people to interact within them, brands can seize opportunity in the metaverse to fuel future marketing and engagements with their audiences,” suggests Loo. Continually filling these spaces with fresh content helps them feel dynamic and real—and keeps audiences engaged into the long term.

Whatever your method to approach the metaverse or gaming, begin by considering which kind of experience is the best fit for your audience. Questions to ask include: what is a suitable gaming platform or type of world that would appeal to them, and what is the level of engagement you seek? For example, if you are trying to reach a young gaming audience, then customising a world within games such as Fortnite or Roblox—whose core players belong to Gen Z—may be the way to go. Free, multiplatform games may also be preferable for reaching the widest possible audience and lowering the barrier of entry.

Creating an affinity with your audience and connecting with them is key; there is no place for hard selling here. Be creative in making use of the environment to build value. The metaverse is a place to unlock new creative expressions, and brands are presented with numerous opportunities enabled through gaming.

We get that the metaverse can be confusing, which is why we wanted to make it more understandable for everyone. Titled “Making the Metaverse,” our report discusses recent trends that have set the stage for what some have called “the successor to the internet,” and the moves that brands can make right now to realize their role within it.

Virtualization Lays the Groundwork

Understanding the metaverse begins with understanding virtualization. Last year, our commissioned study with Forrester Research found that “The next frontier for digital transformation is brand virtualization—meeting customers where they are with differentiated, digital environments.”

Digital transformation in the traditional sense has covered table stakes groundwork as brands moved offline to on, but virtualization’s focus is on putting emotion into the code—the process of adapting to a state in which the digital environments, relationships and activities are perceived as being just as real as their physical counterparts. While virtualization is considered the next phase of digital transformation, the metaverse is often discussed as the next iteration of the internet—what Mark Zuckerberg calls the “embodied internet.”

Think of how the internet has evolved over the decades. In the days of dial-up, navigating web pages and bulletin boards connected via hyperlinks were the primary form of consuming and producing information online. The rise of social media gave way to “web 2.0,” an era of user-generated content and a more participatory way of consuming and co-creating content. Around the same time, smartphones made the internet mobile friendly.

Now, technology like extended realities and gaming are fueling a desire for more meaningful connections and collaboration experienced in real time. "While these environments are virtual, the emotions that they evoke are very real,” says Catherine Henry, SVP of Growth, Metaverse and Innovation Strategy.

Sima Sistani, Co-Founder of the video chatting network Houseparty, describes the shift this way: “If the last generation is about sharing, the next generation of social is going to be about participating.” A great example of this is the Rift Tour featuring Ariana Grande in Fortnite—a performance that you don’t simply watch, but navigate and explore with others to the sound of the music.

Opportunities Abound for Brands in the Metaverse

While a fully realized metaverse doesn’t exist yet, many of its building blocks do, from virtual assets to embodied, digital experiences like the concert mentioned above. These technologies and platforms present myriad opportunities for brands to stake their claim in the future of digital expression as the metaverse begins to take shape.

 “Just as every company a few decades ago created a webpage, and then at some point every company created a Facebook page, I think we’re approaching the point where every company will have a real-time live 3D presence,” Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, told the Los Angeles Times last year. Brands may naturally wonder: what could that look like?

Ally Bank, a leader in online banking, partnered with gaming experts on the Media.Monks team to bring its outstanding service to the hit Nintendo Switch game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. We furnished an island with branding and minigames that aligned the bank’s promise—to be a relentless ally for financial wellbeing—with a crucial aspect of the game: money and resource management. We not only helped make the only bank worth visiting in Animal Crossing—we also won a Silver Effie Award for the US Brand Experience: AR/VR/Digital category and were a Finalist in the US Finance category.

Building a 3D presence can also open new revenue streams. Recent enthusiasm around the collection of NFTs (in simple terms, a certificate of authenticity for a digital good) has normalized the idea of owning unique digital assets. And that doesn’t include only works of art; NFTs are also being used to buy digital objects and even virtual real estate. To promote the final season of the AMC series The Walking Dead, we partnered with Verizon to build a platform where fans can receive unique virtual collectibles—and even get them digitally signed by a member of the cast. The platform, whose launch coincides with New York Comic Con, virtualizes the excitement of fan signings.

Branded mascots may also be overdue for a digital upgrade. The Labs.Monks, our R&D team, has explored possibilities surrounding virtual humans. Whether they take the form of fictionalized influencers, give a face to digital assistants or serve as avatars to be “worn” by fans, these characters present a way for brands to connect with their audience on an emotional level everywhere they’re at.

Cooperation and Collaboration will Bring the Metaverse to Bear

With urgency and opportunity to virtualize, you may be wondering: what needs to be done before the metaverse truly exists? In coming years, advances in wireless connectivity, cloud computing and incrementally smaller GPUs will bring the metaverse closer to reality. But those aren’t the only hurdles for tech companies to solve.

A crucial characteristic of the metaverse is interoperability, or the seamless connection between digital experiences. Yet currently, closed platforms are the norm. Developing the decentralized, interoperable environment of the metaverse will require the creation of open standards that allow for the exchange of information between one platform or system to another.

Otherwise, what’s the fun in buying a digital outfit that you can’t take with you to other worlds? Geert Eichhorn, Innovation Director at Media.Monks, likens it to the development of public space shared by and accessible for all: “Walled gardens make no sense when you’re trying to build a park.” He sees an opportunity for teams like ours to connect the dots among our partners as competition gives way to cooperation, and his team of Labs.Monks have explored several applications of the metaverse already.

So, no single person or team is building the metaverse—we all are, and while there’s much work to be done, there’s boundless possibilities for brands to kick off their virtualization journeys and build value already. You can learn more about how to prepare for the metaverse in our report.