During the pandemic doldrums, we all saw how difficult it can be to translate the magic of in-person events from the stage to the screen—but increasingly immersive platforms solve these challenges by enabling a sense of presence within. While not a replacement for the experiences that inspire them, these activations can level up their ambition and become strategic, long-term additions to a brand’s digital strategy. Here’s how two brands were able to transform iconic IRL experiences into significant, long-term elements of their digital experience strategy.

Start with community.

 Metaverse spaces serve as environments where people can connect with one another in real time, much like events in the real world. In fact, communal experiences are a hallmark of successful metaverse-related activations and Web3 projects, making community building a key design consideration. This was the case for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which we marched into the realm of Web3 with a virtual recreation of New York’s Fifth Avenue—the IRL route for the parade—and a series of galleries featuring NFTs inspired by the parade’s iconic balloons and other popular projects like Cool Cats, VeeFriends and more.

Throughout its history, the parade has brought more and more people together through mass media channels: originally broadcast locally in New York in 1939, today more than 44 million people watch the parade each year. By building an immersive space where people can interact and engage with one another, even more attendees could enjoy the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in a totally new way no matter where they are: the event brought in over 90,000 users.

And for some virtual attendees, that’s just the start of the journey. With the ability to buy NFTs from some of the most popular projects, each with their own communities built around them, those who make a purchase are initiated into new entrepreneurial or artistic social circles.

Add value and cohesion through interoperability.

Culture doesn’t happen in a silo, so neither should a brand activation. One of the key promises of metaverse and Web3 technology is interoperability, or the ability of two or more systems to exchange and use information. Interoperability can mean enabling compatibility between different platforms or—perhaps more compelling for virtualizing IRL experiences—seamlessly bringing together both the real and virtual worlds.

For that latter point, look at ComplexLand, a 3D digital platform inspired by ComplexCon—the cultural mecca bringing together the Complex Networks community, the hottest cultural trends and hype-fueled brands. Reimagined in a virtual format, ComplexLand provided a seamless shopping experience so attendees could fill both their physical wardrobes along with their virtual ones. Attendees could even unlock food deliveries by interacting with virtual food trucks parked throughout the world, bringing a little piece of the IRL festival experience to audiences from afar.

When it comes to interoperability in the more technical sense, the virtual Thanksgiving Day Parade was designed for attendees to take a little something with them across the metaverse. After purchasing an NFT, visitors could carry them into other worlds thanks to blockchain technology. They also had the chance to vote for which NFT project on display deserved to become a balloon in next year’s IRL show, further bridging together the real and virtual world (Cool Cats ultimately won).

Build towards the future.

As metaverse spaces mature and the hype cycle winds down, brands are beginning to look beyond one-and-done activations for ways to build meaningful interactions that fuel long-term value. From setting the foundation for new revenue streams to iterating toward increasingly sophisticated metaverse experiences, reimagining an event can become a springboard for innovation.

You can trace this concept in action through the evolution of ComplexLand, with each annual edition building on those of previous years. Originally launched in 2019, the first ComplexLand was a single-player experience, though the following year added more opportunities for attendees to engage with others: sharing drops, having one-to-one conversations and interacting with branded non-player characters. This year’s version added Web3 capabilities—like minting NFTs—to enable new forms of connection and creative expression. The journey has led ComplexLand to become Complex Networks’ second-largest source of revenue and a key part of its events strategy.

The virtual Thanksgiving Day Parade similarly builds on Macy’s earlier Web3 efforts. Last year, the retailer celebrated the 95th anniversary of the parade by launching a series of 9,500 NFTs based on classic balloons. The addition of the immersive parade route and NFT galleries not only brings the magic of the holiday season to people everywhere; and introduces new audiences to both virtual spaces and NFTs.

Build in authenticity by seizing the spirit of the event.

Finally, consider the overall purpose of your event or activation. Reinforcing a sense of purpose helps build authenticity into the overall experience. Macys captured the spirit of Thanksgiving with their virtual parade by donating all proceeds from NFT purchases to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting mentoring relationships for youth.

From the abstract world of ComplexLand to a virtual Fifth Avenue, both Complex Networks and Macy’s were able to expand the reach and relevance of their iconic IRL events. At the very least, these reimagined experiences offered moments of surprise to those familiar with their original in-person iterations. But more significantly, they serve as iterative steps that symbolize both brands’ willingness to continue building maturity in Web3 and the metaverse. By folding their core values into features that are inherently unique to the space, both brands authentically set the stage to meet digital-native audiences where they’re at.

In partnership with Vault, SuperRare and NiftyKit, we launched the Vault Art Space during NFT.NYC, thereby helping the luxury brand cement its Web3 credentials. It is a place where Gucci fans, art lovers and crypto-natives can bid on, mint and collect curated digital artworks that are available exclusively on this platform—making Gucci the first legacy brand in the world to own and manage its own digital art marketplace. In its first online exhibit and auction titled “The Next 100 Years of Gucci,” 29 carefully selected artists share their vision of the brand’s infinite horizons. Despite a crypto downturn just days before the launch, the Vault Art Space managed to attract Gucci connoisseurs and other Web3-savvy fashion fans far and wide, as the highest valued artworks were snapped up in a matter of days.

While Gucci was already one of the most active fashion brands in Web3, it has now truly demonstrated its literacy and legitimacy in this space, as well as its ability to move beyond the hype. When it comes to the next web, there’s an important chain of causation at play: culture, community and then commerce. Without your cultural credentials, consumers won’t take you seriously—and with the Vault Art Space, Gucci shows that it has understood the assignment. How so? Let’s lay out the evidence. 

Without strategic direction, one might get lost on the road to success. 

It’s safe to say that in terms of legacy brands, Gucci has been leading the charge for a while now. Having dabbled in NFTs and collectibles—and successfully so, as it was the first luxury brand to sell an NFT—it was high time to venture into new territory: the art space. What differentiates Gucci is that it’s truly alive to the real spirit of Web3. To Michele and his team of creatives, it’s not just a buzzword. Instead, they understand that this is the future of the internet, and so all their investments in this space are to future-proof their business. In other words, Gucci is in it for the long run.

To play the long-term game, you need an airtight strategy. This starts with why Gucci wanted to build their own digital art marketplace. In previous activations, the fashion brand leveraged existing communities and marketplaces, like Bored Ape Yacht Club through 10KTF and OpenSea, essentially Guccifying things that were already out there. However, the issue with this is that you lose control over the customer experience; product details may be stated on the webpage, but everything around it is typically commodified. Especially for a luxury brand, this is challenging. Therefore, Gucci made the conscious decision to leverage their own community and create their own marketplace, with the aim to regain control over their customer experience. This circles back to our point about the “culture, community and commerce” chain of causation—to all brands planning to follow suit, it’s absolutely critical to take this into account when treading into Web3. 

The next era of the internet is all about culture and community-building. From day one, this has been at the heart of Gucci’s digital gallery initiative. As such, it’s only natural that Vault—a vehicle for novel brand partnerships and spotlighting upcoming talent—is the context within which Gucci is experimenting in the Web3 space. Vault is not only about creating cool, cultural stuff, but it’s also about learning what latches onto people and what tends to lose value. “It’s about building and playing in public, which is very true to the spirit of Web3,” says Sophie Dean, Associate Account Director.

When talking about the strategic foundation of this project, another main pillar is the question of how. We’ve already mentioned our FLUX.Monks joining forces with Vault, SuperRare and NiftyKit to bring this marketplace to life, but what about the content? Next to building the platform, we helped Gucci curate the selection of artists, which includes both cryptoart natives and more traditional creatives looking to experiment with digital platforms. Given this interesting mix of crypto-focused and “real-world” artists, it’s important to highlight the casting process.

"That’s why we wanted to find a way to bring real-world artists into the crypto realm,” Dean says. Interestingly, this strategic decision reverberates another key element of Web3: its promise to facilitate mobility between URL and IRL. 

Web3 is not a one-time gig, it’s a long-term game. 

Moving beyond collectibles and one-off NFTs, Gucci’s Vault Art Space demonstrates that the brand is committed to Web3. In the end, the reality is that the digital art market in particular is a long-term play. You don’t enter this space if you want to make a quick buck, because the rules of the game in the NFT world are—unsurprisingly—very similar to the rules of the art market in the real-world; if there’s money to be made, it’s generally on the secondary market, not the initial sale. But what is beautiful about Web3 is that everyone gets remunerated for each subsequent sale on the secondary market, for eternity. In other words, if you truly want to make a difference in this space, it’s crucial to think about long-term strategies. 

And that’s exactly what we did in collaboration with Gucci’s Vault: the luxury brand not only wanted to innovate with the speed of digital, but especially be able to control the customer experience, ensuring their cultural touch is at the heart of everything they create, and learn what it takes to own and manage their own digital art marketplace. “With this digital exhibition platform, they’re literally two years ahead of everybody else. This can’t be thought of as a singular project,” says Liam Osbourne, Global Client Partner, FLUX.Monks. “This is now going to be a Web3 platform for a multitude of endeavors—and we’re excited to continue to partner with Gucci on this initiative.”

In this episode of Meet Me in the Metaverse, host Ashley Musumeci, Director, Go-To-Market at Media.Monks, sits down with Jordan Cuddy, Chief Client Officer at Jam3, and Avanthika Ramesh, Senior Product Manager, NFT Cloud at Salesforce, to explore how building a resilient data foundation will help brands get a head-start into the Web3 future. Watch and listen below.

In this episode

2:13: Customer engagement changes in Web3

5:48: Ensuring long term value and utility of your Web3 activations

11:24: Choosing the right platforms

16:27: How to build people’s trust in brands

21:33: Activating responsibly

24:23: Change management needs

Solving the Web3 identity crisis.

Web3 offers new customer touchpoints, and with them come new kinds of personal data like anonymized wallets or communication in new channels. But elements of privacy and consent that were required in Web2 engagements still carry over into Web3, says Ramesh, introducing an identity crisis for brands to solve. “Even if you are bridging Web3 and Web2 data to bring all these identifiers about a consumer together, it’s really important that the user opts in and provides consent to merge these identities,” she says. This challenge has led to the release of new, Web3-connected CRMs from businesses like Salesforce who aim to solve the need for a full, 360-degree view of the customer.

For brands who want to engage meaningfully with consumers in the space, Cuddy encourages starting with a purpose. Jam3 helped Adidas take its first, sneaker-worn step into the metaverse to build hype for its new collection of Ozweego shoes. “What our strategy team found was that there was a shift from ‘Where can I go in the metaverse’ to ‘Who can I be in the metaverse.’” The team realized that options for self-expression in the metaverse were often limiting. Ozworld Alter Ego, a generative platform that creates a unique avatar based on personality and style, made perfect sense for a brand focused on self-expression through fashion.

As brands seek a unified approach to their data-driven marketing, a strong Web3 strategy makes for a valuable addition to their existing data foundations. From experimenting with new channels to developing your own platform like Complex did, there are many ways to test and learn your way to Web3 success. And by delivering experiences that people value, you’ll incentivize customers to share data that will help strengthen customer relationships.

Eager to learn how to build solid data foundations in Web3 and beyond? Catch the full episode of Meet Me in the Metaverse above.

Media.Monks will take on media strategy, planning and buying, and measurement for Unity globally. With subject matter expertise in gaming, VR, Web3 and the metaverse, Media.Monks’ integrated team will scale up media to engage Unity’s core gaming business and its B2B audience.

“Media.Monks is the right fit for our business given our shared expertise and belief in how RT3D, the metaverse and the next phase of the internet are changing not only gaming but many other industries,” said Carol Carpenter, CMO, Unity. “We are excited to partner with them to unify our media efforts globally, and work together to deliver unique solutions for customers.”

In addition to the media AOR assignment, the Media.Monks creative development teams use Unity software to deliver real-time 3D solutions for clients across a wide range of industries. Recently, the Unity technology powered Media.Monks’ development of an award-winning AR experience, ‘Anne Frank House: The Bookcase for Tolerance,’ honored at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in the Digital Craft category, and many more including The Webby Awards, The One Show, ADC Global and D&AD.

Learn more about the work Unity and Media.Monks are doing to build successful B2C brands in the metaverse by tuning in to an on demand discussion between Unity’s VP of Accelerate Solutions, Ryan Peterson, and Media.Monks' SVP, Tim Dillon. Tim will discuss insider lessons and insights gained from working with major consumer brands––from getting started in the metaverse, ways to leverage a real-time 3D game engine to making a genuine impact, and more. Listen now.

This review was led by Tenx4, an agency search consultancy who specializes in helping Global B2B Brands identify the right agency partner. “We’re on a mission to fix the broken agency RFP process to be about ‘the fit’ rather than ‘the win’ and it is clear that the partnership between Unity and Media.Monks is the perfect fit,” said Ashley Cohen Chandler, Partner, Tenx4.

Enter the New Frontier for Business Growth

Virtualization is the transformation of digital: a set of new audience behaviors, cultural norms and technology paradigms resulting from 30 years of digital transformation, hyper-accelerated over the past five years. It follows previous eras of globalization and digital transformation. While digital transformation now focuses on the pipes and plumbing to connect digital touch points, virtualization concerns the experience layer on top of a brand’s digital investments. In the overlap of new consumer engagement and the possibilities of tech transformation, new business models are emerging to better support digital-native audiences and accelerate growth.

Virtualization Is Launching New, Lasting Legacies

The traditional customer acquisition model is over saturated and highly competitive, yet virtualization is a white space that provides room for early movers to outcompete. At the same time, it’s essential we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past as new ethical standards take hold. Through innovative ways of creating community, meaning, and value, virtualization is a new canvas to engage in culture upon which brands can mint their legacies, fuel longevity and define a new era.

Begin Your Virtualization Journey Now

We’re already partnering with the world’s most valued brands to drive incredible growth through virtualization, and we can help you do the same. Connect with us to explore the emerging consumer behaviors of the virtualized era, the influences that shape them, and how you can learn from them to better connect with your audiences.