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.