“This is perhaps one of the most hotly anticipated product launches in recent years,” says our VP, Interactive Projects Simon Joseph. “It not only gives credit to the field of augmented and mixed reality, but also to its staying power and the potential for the future to come. For the era of spatial computing and AR, this is only just beginning, and we are so excited to see where it goes from here.”   

Anyone who has ever dabbled in augmented reality (AR) knows that it’s a powerful tool for capturing people’s attention and standing out in a crowded market by seamlessly blending digital content with the physical world through visual overlays, engaging audio and motion control. Parallel to the metaverse’s rise in the cultural consciousness, these immersive features are proving advantageous to brands who aim to shine in an abundance of content, stuffed social feeds and crowded app ecosystems. On top of that, the technology promises to evoke truly memorable and emotional responses in consumers. 

Innovations across the board are helping AR advance at speed.

Compared to consumers, brands have been slower to recognize AR’s practical use. Data from Snap and Ipsos shows that 90% of brands think AR is primarily for fun, while only 57% of consumers think of it that way, instead seeing potential in activities such as shopping. As a trio of technological forces—not just hardware, but also software and heightened connectivity—converge to enable a new breed of AR experiences, we believe brands will realize AR’s potential across the customer journey. 

New AR headsets are gaining interest and intrigue—there will be over 1.7 billion active AR devices worldwide in 2024, and 18 million AR/VR headsets will ship this year—but software like visual positioning systems will also greatly enhance multiplayer digital experiences on mobile devices. Moreover, 5G Advanced is set to improve speed, coverage, mobility and power efficiency, which means no latency and no more cache limitations as people will stream high-quality experiences in real time. 

The fact that AR experiences will become more easily accessible for consumers is great news for brands, because AR’s value extends from the top to the bottom of the sales funnel. Research from WARC found that “AR ads capture the attention of broad audiences who are early in their purchase journey, with a +7% increase in aided ad recall among this group of consumers. And AR can help brands nudge consumers who are in the consideration phase by making the brand seem more up-to-date and differentiated.” 

Dive in head first to get ahead.

Time has shown that early adopters can reap first-mover rewards, and the present moment offers brands a chance to get ahead: with the launch of new hardware comes a new app marketplace, and early explorers of AR are primed to benefit from being quick to take the plunge. That said, effectively introducing AR into your customer experience journey requires careful consideration—questions around the medium, culture fit, and collaborating with vendors are bound to come up—so here are some chief concerns marketers should consider in setting themselves up for success.

For starters, find out whether immersive AR experiences will excite your audiences. To understand how AR might make sense for your brand, follow the “jobs to be done” framework, an important tool for assessing any innovation. Consider customer needs and the motivations that drive them, as well as the circumstances in which they achieve them. 

Furthermore, make sure you take advantage of the medium. Whether you’re aiming to drive powerful immersion through interactive content or overlay real-world contexts with useful information, the medium determines the benefits. That’s why it’s important to carefully plan how certain benefits from AR can help your brand achieve its goals. 

Finally, explore other tools that aid AR development. Thanks to software kits and frameworks, creating AR experiences has never been easier—and with new urgency to develop immersive 3D content, various AI-powered tools have emerged to streamline content creation. Nvidia’s Instant NeRF allows teams to quickly create digital doubles of photographed objects, while Stability for Blender adds the force of Stable Diffusion to 3D software and Unity AI leverages the power of Unity game engine and large language models by building entire scenes based on a written prompt.

It’s time to break the mold and trust the potential of AR. 

AR is an undeniably powerful tool for brands to connect with their audiences. Through immersive and interactive experiences, this technology is transforming the traditional customer journey, offering a blend of entertainment and utility that captures people’s attention and drives engagement. Several brands are already shaping the future of consumer engagement. By exploring the vast possibilities of AR, addressing key considerations, and leveraging innovative technologies, your brand can unlock the full potential of the technology, too, cementing your position as a leader in this rapidly evolving landscape.

10. Digital humans get more realistic.

Digital humans may have earned a spot on our list of trends last year, but we haven’t grown tired of traversing the uncanny valley to play with the technology. In fact, the recent explosion of conversational AI will likely inject new life into digital humans and transform the realms of customer service, entertainment and more. Whether used to hand-craft original characters or refine scanned-in digital twins, digital human creation tools are becoming increasingly complex to deliver lifelike avatars. 

“We’ll see more competition between Unreal’s MetaHuman Creator and Unity’s Ziva,” says Geert Eichhorn, Innovation Director. In fact, Media.Monks has used Unreal’s tool to create a digital double of our APAC Chief Executive Officer, Michel de Rijk. Because why not?

9. Motion capture becomes more accessible.

Last year, we released a Labs Report dedicated to motion capture and how its increasing accessibility influenced content production for both professional film teams and everyday consumers. New technologies available at consumer price points are helping to bring motion capture into even more people’s hands. Meta’s Quest Pro headset, which released late last year, features impressive facial tracking that will be key to expressing the nuances of human emotion in VR. Move.ai, currently in beta, enables 1:1 motion tracking with a group of mobile devices—no bodysuits, no markers, no extra hardware needed. Using computer vision, the platform allows anyone to make motion capture video in any environment.

8. Mixed reality and mirror worlds mature.

With smaller and more comfortable AR headsets shown off already at CES, we can expect augmented and mixed reality to become more immersive, accessible and practical over the course of 2023 (check out more of what we saw at CES here). The VIVE Flow, for example, includes diopters so that users can replicate their prescription lenses in the device, amounting to a more comfortable experience overall. 

But it’s not just about hardware. “One of the major advancements is not in the headsets, but in the software,” says Eichhorn, noting that VPS has the power to pinpoint a user’s exact position and vantage point in the real world. “They do this positioning by comparing your camera view to a virtual, 3D version of the world, like Street View.” We covered mirror worlds in last year’s trend list, but the development of VPS is now bringing this vision closer to everyday consumers.

While VPS currently works only outdoors, we’ve already seen the power of the technology with Gorillaz performances in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus in December 2022.

7. More enterprises embrace the hybrid model.

For many businesses the return to the office hasn’t been a smooth transition; while some roles require close collaboration within a shared space, others enjoy more flexible setups that support childcare, offer privacy for focus work or greater accessibility. Given the benefits of flexible work setups and the development of technologies that build presence in virtual environments, Luis Guajardo Díaz, Creative Technologist, believes more enterprises will embrace the hybrid work model.

Media.Monks’ live broadcast team, for example, built a sophisticated network of cloud-based virtual machines hosted on AWS to enable people distributed around the world to produce live broadcasts and events. Born out of necessity during the pandemic, the workflow goes beyond bringing teams together—it’s designed to overcome some of the challenges traditional broadcast teams face on the ground, like outages or hardware malfunctions. It stands to show how hybrid models can help enhance the ways we work today.

6. Virtual production continues to impress.

Virtual production powered by real-time become popular in recent years: the beautiful environments of The Mandalorian or grungy urban landscape of The Matrix showed what was possible by integrating game engines in the production process, while pandemic lockdowns made the technology a necessity for teams who couldn’t shoot on location.

Now, further advancements in game engines and graphics processing offer a look inside the future of virtual production. Sander van der Vegte, VP Emerging Tech and R&D, points to Unreal’s Nanite, which allows for the optimization of raw 3D content in real time.

Localization of content is one example. “In 2023 we’re going to see this versatility in the localization of shoots, where one virtual production shoot can have different settings for different regions, all adapted post-shoot,” says Eichhorn.

5. TV streaming and broadcasts become more interactive.

With virtual production becoming even more powerful, TV and broadcasting will also evolve to become more interactive and immersive. “Translating live, filmed people into real-time models allows for many new creative possibilities,” says van der Vegt. “Imagine unlocking the power to be the cameraman for anything you are watching on TV.” 

It might sound like science fiction, but Sander’s vision isn’t far off. At this year’s CES, Sony demoed a platform that uses Hawk-Eye data to generate simulated sports replays. Users can freely control the virtual camera to view the action from any angle—and while not live, the demo illustrates the power of more immersive broadcasts. The technology could be a game changer for sports and televised events that let audiences feel like they’re part of the action.

4. Metaverse moves become more strategic.

“2021 was a peak hype year for the metaverse and Web3. 2022 was the year of major disillusionment,” says Javier Sancho, Project Manager. “There are plenty of reasons to believe that this was just an overinflated hype, but it’s a recurring pattern in tech history.” Indeed, a “trough of disillusionment” inevitably follows a peak in the hype cycle.

This year will challenge brands to think of where they fit within the metaverse—and how they can leverage the immersive technology to drive bottom-line value. Angelica Ortiz, Senior Creative Technologist, says the key to unlocking value in metaverse spaces is to think beyond one-time activations and instead fuel long-term customer journeys.

A great example of how brands are using Web3 in impactful ways is by transforming customer loyalty programs, like offering unique membership perks and gamified experiences. These programs reinforce how the Web3 ethos is evolving brand-customer relationships by turning consumers into active participants and collaborators.

3. Large language models keep the conversation flowing.

With so much interest in bots like ChatGPT, the Labs.Monks expect large language models (LLMs) will continue to impress as the year goes on. “Large Language Models (LLMs) are artificial intelligence tools that can read, summarize and translate texts, and generate sentences similar to how humans talk and write,” says Eichhorn. These models can hold humanlike conversations, answering complex questions and even writing programs. But these skills open a can of worms, especially in education when students can outsource their homework to a bot.

LLMs like GPT are only going to become more powerful, with GPT-4 soon to launch. But despite their impressive ability to understand and mimic human speech, inaccuracies in response still need to be worked out. “The results are not entirely trustworthy, so there’s plenty of challenges ahead,” says Eichhorn. “We expect many discussions over AI sentience this year, as the Turing Test is a measurement we’re going to leave behind.” In fact, Google’s LaMDA already triggered debates about sentience last year—so expect more to come. 

2. Generative AI paints the future of AI-assisted creativity.

If 2021 was the year of the metaverse, the breakout star of 2022 is generative AI in all its forms: creating copy, music, voiceovers and especially artwork. “Generative AI wasn’t on our list in 2022, although looking back it should have been,” says Eichhorn. “The writing was on the wall, and internally we’ve been working on machine learning and generating assets for years.” 

But while the technology has been embraced by some creatives and technologists, there’s also been some worry and pushback. “These new technologies are so disruptive that we see not only copywriters and illustrators feel threatened, but also major tech companies need to catch up to not become obsolete.” 

In response to these concerns, Ortiz anticipates a friendly middle ground where AI will be used to augment—not erase—human creativity. “With the increasing push back from artists, the industry will find strategic ways to optimize processes not cut jobs to improve workflows and let artists do more of what they love and less of what they don’t,” she says. Prior to the generative AI boom, Adobe integrated machine learning and artificial intelligence across its software with Adobe Sensei. More recently, they announced plans to sell AI-generated images on their stock photography platform.

1. The definition of “artist” or “creator” changes forever.

Perhaps the most significant trend we anticipate this year isn’t a tech trend; rather, it’s the effect that technology like generative AI and LLMs will have on artists, knowledge workers and society. 

With an abundance of AI-generated content, traditional works of art—illustrations, photographs and more—may lose some of their value. “But on the flip side, these tools let everyone become an artist, including those who were never able to create this kind of work before,” says Eichhorn. This can mean those who lack the training, sure, but it also means those with disabilities who have found particular creative fields to be inaccessible.

When everyone can be an artist, what does being an artist even mean? The new definition will lie in the skills that generative AI forces us to adopt. Working with generative AI doesn’t necessarily eliminate creative decision-making; rather, it changes what the creative process entails. New creative skills, like understanding how to prompt a generative AI for specific results, may reshape the role of the artist into something more akin to a director. 

Eichhorn compares these questions to the rise of digital cameras and Photoshop, both of which changed photography forever while making it more accessible. “The whole process will take many more years to settle in society, but we’ll likely see many discussions this year on what ‘craft’ really entails,” says Eichhorn.

That’s all, but we can expect a few surprises to emerge as the year goes on. Look out for more updates from the Labs.Monks, who regularly release reports, prototypes and podcast episodes that touch on the latest in digital tech, including some of the topics discussed above. Here’s to another year of innovation!

Virtualization defines the transformation of digital.

As the world opened back up, an era of digital transformation gave way to the transformation of digital. By this, we mean virtualization: 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. Virtualization, covered in our report earlier this year, marks a revolution in consumer behavior as people demand more from the digital platforms they engage with, which implicates the ways they look at digital experience, community, ownership and identity. For example, the design of ComplexLand, a virtualization of the hype-fueled annual event ComplexCon, was built around the insight that today’s fashion trendsetters are becoming just as invested in their digital identities as their corporeal ones.

The Social Innovation Lab, who explores up-and-coming trends in social, delved deeper into what motivates some of these behavioral changes in The Search for Meaning. By exploring how technology shapes the ways consumers find and make meaning in their lives, the Social Innovation Lab uncovers how brands can adapt to the new era in digital.

Experiments in the metaverse drive real success.

One of the biggest manifestations of the virtualization trend has been the rise of the metaverse, which many brands have experimented with this year to find their footing. Duolingo celebrated the birthday of its lovable (and persistent) mascot by hosting a game jam in Roblox and building larger-than-life public artwork in Decentraland. Logitech for Creators reinvented the awards show format by building the first music awards show in the metaverse, the Song Breaker Awards.

The fashion industry in particular has found a lot of success in the space. Liam Osbourne, Global Client Partner at the FLUX.Monks, our dedicated fashion and luxury team, shared with Vogue some insight on how the metaverse is an opportunity to become more inclusive. For brands exploring that question and more, the FLUX.Monks have authored a quick bulletin on why the metaverse matters.

As the metaverse continues to take shape, now is an excellent time for brands to continue experimenting in the space, which was a large part of a discussion shared between SVP Web3, Metaverse & Innovation Strategy Catherine D. Henry; Chief Innovation Officer Henry Cowling; and Mike Proulx, VP and Research Director at Forrester as part of our Meet Me in the Metaverse series. Eager to get started experimenting in the metaverse yourself? Our map of the metaverse can help you find the right home for your brand within this quickly evolving space.

Web3 and other emerging tech begin to mature.

In addition to the metaverse, other emerging technologies have fueled transformative digital experiences—most notably Web3. We showed up at NFT.NYC, the biggest Web3 conference on this side of the screen, with an immersive installation for Cool Cats that blurred the boundary between virtual and the real. Meanwhile, Gucci opened the virtual door to an immersive gallery space used to host an auction of NFT artwork.   

More than just a new tech infrastructure, Web3 marks a foundational shift in brand-consumer relationships, a topic covered in a bulletin we released in collaboration with Salesforce this year titled Web 3: The Future of Customer Engagement. For those wondering how to begin making moves in Web3, check out insights from our In a Monk’s Opinion series, which lays out everything you need to know about NFTs and the blockchain. One tip from the Labs.Monks: be sure to make your NFT projects sustainable.

Speaking of the Labs.Monks, our R&D team has continually released missives on the bleeding edge of tech throughout a year of innovation. Their most recent report on generative AI explores the potential of AI tools like Dall-E and Mid Journey that have captured creatives’ imagination (and people’s social feeds). One example of what the tech can achieve: unlocking efficiencies in animation and other production needs.

Creativity and media go hand in hand.

Throughout the digital era, it’s been tempting to focus attention on vanity metrics. But as CMOs invest more dollars into media (and face increasing budget scrutiny with a possible recession), they will benefit from transforming their approach to a more holistic strategy that blends media and creative to optimize their spend. Speaking to Digiday, Media.Monks Global Head of Media Melissa Wisehart unveiled how our integrated media pillar is designed to help brands make this leap.

Uni's relaunch campaign demonstrates this more holistic approach through the development of both the creative and media placement by one partner. With three creative variations and four measurement initiatives, we ensured the creative rolled out across today’s most relevant channels according to their purpose within the brand ecosystem.

When it comes to creative optimization, wellness brand Hatch found great success—and shared some of their secrets in an episode of In a Monk’s Opinion featuring Hatch’s VP Growth Marketing Holly Elliott. Many brands that rely on digital platforms for their marketing face a series of challenges: rising acquisition costs; a limited ability to manage their performance, attribution and audience targeting; and the risk of losing brand authenticity. Hatch assuaged these concerns by striking a balance between creative and performance. In the episode, Holly and our creative performance experts offer insight into how historical performance data can fuel further creative iterations.

Brands prepare for the oncoming privacy era.

While media optimization and performance may be top of mind now, budget conscious CMOs are also eyeing another obstacle on the horizon: overcoming their reliance on third-party cookies as attitudes in privacy shift and as Google aims to sunset third-party cookies with the Chrome browser. And speaking of cookies, VP of Data Services and Technology Doug Hall recently shared ways marketers can rethink cookie consent and management using the Privacy Sandbox platform.

Add to the mix that Google is sunsetting GA360 to make way for its new GA4 platform, meaning brands have plenty of adjustments to manage in the near future. Thankfully, GA360’s sunset was postponed to July 2024, meaning they have more time to perfect their migration strategy. Our data experts put their heads together to create a short guide on how to maximize your move to GA4 before the deadline.

We’ve also got some inspiration based on how other brands have future-proofed their data strategies with great success. We began our partnership with Molson Coors in 2021 with the goal to bring more of its digital media in-house. By taking an ambitious, holistic approach focused on modernization, we’ve since helped the brand future-proof with a robust, in-house digital media team: a data transformation that ranges from data acquisition, data activation and enrichment, and optimization.

And in the commerce space, leadership from Canadian retailer Reitmans shared the role cloud computing played in building a single source of truth throughout its entire organization, joining online consumer behavior with data from over 400 brick-and-mortar locations. Check out the episode of IMO to learn how a strong data foundation helped the brand adapt at speed.

Speaking of data foundations, emerging technologies like Web3 offer new ways of connecting with consumers and strengthening relationships. In an episode of Meet Me in the Metaverse, Ashley Muscumeci, our Director, Go-to-Market, sat 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. One key insight: despite being a new space, the same rules apply when it comes to user consent. “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,” says Ramesh.

Commerce goes social and creators go virtual.

In recent years, creators have expanded their digital footprint into new spaces—like gaming and social audio—and have even adopted new content ventures to translate audience engagement into revenue for brands. So, what does the intersection of content, commerce and entertainment look like today? The Social Innovation Lab launched a report earlier this year, The Year of Digital Creators, to explore the state of the creator economy in depth, available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

One example of how creators have transformed the consumer journey is through the rise of live commerce, the subject of a recently released Social Bite from the Social Innovation Lab. Live commerce blends communities and real-time connection to offer entertaining, interactive and personalized experiences for audiences, and the short deck offers a glimpse into the live commerce journey and how brands can activate audiences every step of the way.

What’s next in the realm of digital creators? Expect more and more virtual influencers in the form of CGI-rendered fictional characters or avatar alter-egos of real people. With the rise of the metaverse and more accessible motion capture technology, virtual influencers are primed to become a more common presence in brands’ influencer marketing strategies—and if you’re curious about the role one could play in your own marketing, check out another Social Bite about how virtual influencers are coming alive.

Here's to a new year of innovating!

With so much innovation in the last year spanning experiences, content creation and optimization through data, there’s a lot to celebrate as we cap off 2022. Looking ahead into the new year, these trends will continue to shape brands’ strategies as they seek to engage with hyper connected audiences in the new digital era.

Where will you begin? Reach out to start your 2023 journey with confidence.

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 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.

Many might think that broadcasting is very traditional, loosening its grip on the cultural current as people turn more and more toward immersive, interactive experiences like gaming and the metaverse. But the IBC Show is anything but traditional, and this year our Monks on the ground (and on the stage) explored the broadcasting’s transformation in the virtualized era, from capturing new kinds of content to showing off workstreams that unlock incredible, new storytelling opportunities.

If it’s not interactive, it’s broken.

Video killed the radio star—and with the rise of the metaverse and an increasingly digital culture, is TV next on the chopping block? Smithingham opened the second day of the event with a keynote talk, “Step Into the Metaverse,” in which he set the stage for a new era of multi-dimensional, interactive media. The central thesis: traditional, flat media is less relevant today’s Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences. “A core undercurrent across all of this is if something is not interactive to younger generations, it feels broken and disconnected,” says Smithingham, showing how live sports viewership is down and that most of the discussion surrounding the Super Bowl is about the halftime show instead of the game.

Still, Smithingham doesn’t want to discourage the industry; rather, now is the time for broadcasting players to take an active part in driving culture forward. “Broadcasting is culture. It’s the vehicle by which culture spreads,” he says, making the case by illustrating how text messaging volume directly correlated with American Idol viewership throughout the aughts. Likewise, broadcasting can embrace emerging technologies and behaviors—like livestream commerce—to connect more closely with today’s audiences and tap into new storytelling possibilities. For example, we partnered with Logitech to break out of the exclusive, VIP-focused awards show format with the Song Breaker Awards, making it more accessible and interactive for audiences in the metaverse. 

To Rob McNeil, VP of Live at Media.Monks, these immersive experiences will become complimentary to more traditional broadcast experiences. “It will coexist. Certain people will gravitate toward certain kinds of content,” he says, noting how he personally would rather watch sports in VR rather than on a TV. While he sees a future in 180- or 360-degree movies and TV shows, music performances and sports seem to be the use cases that make the most sense right now. “These are natural areas for immersive experiences,” he says, noting how music in particular takes advantage of spatial audio in the Meta Quest 2.

The lesson for brands and broadcasters? Break out of the traditionally one-way conversation of broadcasting and instead create a multidirectional ecosystem: a halo of virtual worlds, social content, streaming content, creator channels, podcasts, audience interaction and more. “It’s about feeding an audience that’s always on,” says Smithingham. “We have to evolve how we tell our stories.” You can learn more insights from Smithingham in the IBC interview below.

Esports points a way forward.

Marketers and broadcasters looking for examples of multidirectional ecosystems can turn to the esports space, which is taking some learnings from traditional sports while also establishing best practices of its own. Esports are a fast-growing industry, with 29.6 million monthly esports viewers this year—an 11.5% increase over 2021, according to Insider Intelligence. Funs Jacobs, our Gaming Category Lead, shared the stage with Nicolas Bourdon, CMO at EVS, and George Pratchett, Production Manager at Promod Esports, to discuss the new frontier of esports as they become increasingly mainstream.

Jacobs notes that most of the revenue earned in esports comes from sponsorships—but the number of esports games per year pale in comparison to, say, your average FIFA league, which amounts to less opportunities for sponsorship overall. That’s why in addition to hosting more games and tournaments, Jacobs encourages competitive gaming developers, leagues and teams to explore fan engagement on new social platforms. In addition, there is a new opportunity to strengthen their communities with blockchain-enabled technologies like NFTs, as brands can now cultivate a sense of ownership with their fans.

Teams like FaZe Clan and 100 Thieves have done well to expand beyond tournaments into video content—FaZe Clan has four YouTube channels and 8.66 million subscribers to its main one—apparel, NFT drops, podcasts and dozens of channels run by individual content creators and pro players that have signed onto teams. 100 Thieves is even in the early stages of developing a game of its own. 

The variety of digital content offers not only new opportunities for sponsorship and revenue, but also different options for fans and viewers to engage as they see fit. “One thing we can learn from streamers is the level of accessibility,” says Jacobs. “These creators are so accessible despite being so far away in terms of lifestyle and skill level.”

Cloud-based workflows unlock new storytelling opportunities.

Broadcasting of the future requires new ways of working, and Smithingham joined Samira Bakhtiar, Director of Sales, Media & Entertainment at Amazon Web Services (AWS) to give conference attendees an inside look at our global, AWS-based virtual production team. While broadcasts are typically produced by an on-the-ground team tangled in wires and packed in a truck, our cloud-based setup unites personnel who are working across several different locations. 

Here's what it looks like. We put together a rack of gear, coders, monitors and uninterruptible power supplies. We then send two or three people to a location who take the rack, power it up and plug it directly into AWS via a network connection. “This is a direct connection outside of the internet, so we’re not susceptible to interferences, says Patrick Jones, Senior Director of Engineering, Live/Broadcast and Creative Solutions at Media.Monks. “We don’t have issues like outages from local ISPs.” 

Anywhere from 36 to 40 virtual machines are connected in the cloud, ranging from graphics servers, audio servers, playback servers that enable instant replays, and more. The cloud also connects dozens of people throughout a distributed team. “A director in Florida can collaborate with a tech director in England and audio people in New York,” says Jones. And despite the distance across teams, latency is negligible and just a matter of milliseconds.

Still, any live broadcast comes with a series of factors that may present the need for redundancies, whether that be extra equipment or multiple recording backups. “We’re the department of redundancy. It’s what we do: continue to make sure we have multiple systems in place to protect us,” says Jones. He notes that while traditional broadcasting trucks also have redundancies built in, things break, and having two of every piece of equipment isn’t practical. “If you’re in a truck, you may not have the ability to get another computer in. But in the cloud, we can quickly pivot to spin up another system or backup.”

Beyond the added efficiencies in stability and collaboration, one benefit of the AWS-powered workstream shouldn’t go unnoticed: it greatly reduces the carbon footprint of a broadcast, which would traditionally involve flying out an entire fleet of professionals. “We just have three people flying in for a typical production, and everyone else is in the cloud,” says Smithingham.

Broadcasting continues to evolve and innovate.

“Two years ago, we didn’t have some of the tools in the cloud that we have now,” says Jones. After exploring the showroom floor, he applauds the level of innovation at IBC. “Seeing all the people that are innovating, we advanced by maybe three years in six months. The pandemic forced a lot of companies to up their game, and we’re all reaping the benefits of that.”

We showed off our own innovation at the booth for RED Digital Cinema, who is disrupting the film production scene with camera equipment that is more affordably priced than more traditional names. At the booth, we shared a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Post Malone’s Twelve Carat Toothache VR performance, viewable on Meta Quest devices captured on RED’s cameras. Our team built a way to live-stitch the footage to accommodate VR viewing in a 4K resolution, streamed directly to Quest headsets as the footage is captured.

The shooting-to-viewing pipeline is important because advanced imaging isn’t just a learning curve for production crews; it forces performers to engage with the camera in new ways, too. “The camera’s movement is often limited, due to naturally occuring motion sickness,” says McNeil. “For artists, that’s challenging because they have to come toward the camera, rather than have the camera come to them.” Throughout the Twelve Carat Toothache shoot, the crew could let Post Malone inhabit the viewer’s perspective in between performances, influencing his stage presence.

To bring the same experience to the demo booth, we had headsets on hand capturing live footage of the conference floor. “As people create content with technology like this, we become desensitized to it, but people experiencing it for the first time were like, ‘This is simply stunning—absolutely amazing,’” says Jones.

The demo between team Media.Monks and team RED demonstrated more than just the potential of new technology. It also showed a spirit of partnership that permeated much of IBC this year. “You saw a lot of people going from booth to booth—not like an upstart going to the industry giants to get their foot in the door, but rather a lot of established names wanting to work together,” says McNeil.

To say that the world has changed since IBC’s last in-person conference in 2019 would be an understatement. But this year’s edition showed how the broadcast itself is in a state of evolution—one that will show no signs of slowing down soon. “We need to virtualize everything from our culture to how we do our work,” says Smithingham. From expanding content across different formats, to learning from emerging industries like esports, to exploring entirely new workflows, IBC 2022 offered several looks into the future of broadcasting—and it’s looking bright.

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.

In addition to making digital spaces like the metaverse accessible to audiences far and wide, it’s crucial that brands offer consumers a wide variety of representational features to facilitate self-expression and secure a sense of belonging. Online you can be whoever you want—the beauty of the internet is that it has long enabled people to self-present on their own terms, but it is up to the creators behind the scenes to provide consumers with the tools to do so. 

Why are representation and self-expression in the metaverse important?

To younger generations, real-life and digital identities are equally important. The first generation that grew up with digital avatars has now come of age, and digital experiences are pivotal to shaping their identity, our virtualization report highlights. In fact, 60% of Gen Z and 62% of Gen Y “believe that how you present yourself online is more important than how you present yourself IRL.”   

Digital platforms are important spaces for identity construction, and virtual-first brands can satisfy an audience’s desire to build identity by providing accessible, personalized experiences that enable self-expression. Movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #SayHerName, which have a standing both online and offline, are driven by identity and fuel the growth of social groups connected by shared beliefs, interests or experiences. Virtual-first brands that actively engage with such new, hybrid identities are able to foster a sense of belonging for diverse audiences.  

Beyond the element of fun, the metaverse can serve as a tool for empathy. Brands play an important part in determining the metaverse’s impact on consumers. The Ancient Greek philosopher Plato once said, “you learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a lifetime of conversation.” While we’re well into the 21st century, this statement is as valid today as it was back then. 

“The metaverse gives us a shared sense of space that you don't get through 2D experiences,” says Catherine D. Henry, SVP Growth, Metaverse & Innovation Strategy. “This medium enables intellectual and emotional connections that transcend our physical bodies, allowing us to experience (once again) the purity of relationships formed as children—when people connect over interests and shared play, rather than commonalities and socially imposed signifiers. This is truly liberating, and the reason why fantastical avatars and gender fluidity in the metaverse are so important.”

Through play, people can engage with others in a fun and meaningful way and learn to get along with their peers, as seeing others from a different point of view allows people to practice empathy, our Social Innovation Lab argues. Research shows that the embodied experience of inhabiting an avatar that is physically different from oneself can lead to behavioral changes that align with that avatar and influence someone’s self-perception, suggesting one can start to see overlap between the avatar and the self. “This is important because empathy and tolerance can be fostered in virtual environments, and help bridge the social divide created by Web2,” says Henry. “The missed opportunity for brands is not so much to have games, but now it’s more about amplifying authentic, often underrepresented voices and creating space for people to learn.” So, rather than an escape from real-world problems, virtual-first brands view digital as a tool to help solve them.

Besides all the perks, digital spaces also come with problems—that’s no secret. One thing to watch out for is (unconscious) biases of creators that limit representation and self-expression, such as customization options based on stereotypes and cultural appropriation, or exclusion of customization features that people want to use, like Black hairstyles. Even more worrisome is the issue that user behavior can go against expectations. Think of how some social media platforms are used as a tool to manipulate through fake news, or how online groups are weaponized to harbor hate groups—when they could serve as a refuge for those looking for belonging. However, the metaverse is a new digital chapter and thus presents new opportunities to do better. 

So, how do we achieve representation and self-expression in the metaverse? 

Diversify avatar use and customization. Given that in the US 48% of Gen Z consider themselves non-white and one-third of Gen Z identify outside the gender binary, providing a wide variety of representational features to facilitate self-expression and belonging is essential. This means offering a range of skin tones, choice of prosthetics, hairstyles, body shapes, voices, and so on. Another important step brands can take is to keep default avatars free or cheap, and only charge (more) money for additional differentiators, like a cool jacket. That said, features for self-presentation can go beyond physical characteristics to represent a more emotive sense of self-identity as well. Adidas, for instance, partnered with Ready Player Me to create unique avatars that are based on a person’s personality rather than their physical likeness, ensuring an authentic reflection of who they are. Above all, don’t force people to show up as themselves, but allow them to choose whatever they want their avatar to (re)present in the metaverse. 

As a brand, give user-makers the tools and get out of the way. It’s crucial not to constrain user-makers, since they’re the ones forging the future of how we use the metaverse—keeping in mind that we encourage brands to be transparent about how they monitor their users’ contributions to ensure the metaverse remains a safe space for everyone. That aside, brands can invest in education and work with influencers to market the tools they offer to DIY. Duolingo is a great example of a brand that has built assets for its users to create their own games, but then got out of the way. This circles back to the point of accessibility; we need to make sure as many creators from different walks of life as possible are included in the building process to counter biases.

Allow ways to gather and group for belonging. Digital environments offer a safe space for exploring identities—and to ensure safety, brands need to establish ethics and guidelines from the get-go. Online you can be whoever you want, so people tend to feel more confident to speak up. Fortunately, many people are able to bring something from that experience back to their real lives. For instance, people from the LBGTQ+ community were able to form community support systems within social VR—and for some, this offered the only form of support as they weren’t able to access any offline. This combination of a supportive community and the embodied avatar experience empowers many in the real world and helps them understand their identities better.  

In all, the whole engine behind the metaverse world must be diversified. From executives and employees who work at the companies making the metaverse, to decision-makers at brands creating experiences in the metaverse, owners of digital environments, and influencers and user-makers—the metaverse is for everyone, so everyone should be able to contribute a building block. The issue is, many people don’t know how.

In the same vein, looking at the expected influence and impact of the metaverse, brands can integrate metaverse strategies into their ESG commitments—the possibilities to diversify are endless. 

How does this all come back to the real world?

Digital behavior inspires real-world change, that’s a fact. Conversations that take place in the metaverse expand out into other spaces, such as meet-ups, talk shows and other real-life events. In a digital environment like the metaverse, we’re able to meet people from around the world that we would’ve otherwise never met and actually get to know them on a deeper level. Some may just see avatars, but we see people who are willing to be their authentic selves in connecting with others. 

“People are more willing to be open, vulnerable and their real selves when, ironically, they're not actually in person and when they’re behind an avatar, so people have more ‘real’ experiences connecting with somebody that in real life they wouldn’t have ended up talking to,” says Susan Parker, Executive Creative Director. “And then they might take it outside the metaverse.”

The idea of people coming together in virtual environments isn’t new, as any fan of online games will tell you. But as these worlds become more mainstream, we’re seeing a shift in the role they play in our lives, whether it’s a pivot from competition to cooperation or enabling people to push beyond limits that hold them back IRL. This is virtualization in action: a set of new audience behaviors and cultural norms resulting from 30 years of digital transformation, hyper-accelerated over the past five years. These behaviors vary from one metaverse platform to the next, meaning an understanding of its culture is crucial to success in the space. In some ways, it’s not so different from identifying which city or neighborhood is the best location for a brick-and-mortar store.

Do you need to find your way into the metaverse? Don’t despair, because we’ve mapped out some of its preeminent worlds. Discover what differentiates one from the next with the information below. With a better understanding of each space, you’ll be able to better envision your brand’s place within the metaverse—wherever that may be.

Roblox.

Despite its quick rise to fame in recent years, Roblox dates back to September 2006, and today has a monthly average user base of 190 million. Its worlds are user-created, meaning they can vary drastically in look and feel; you never know what you’re going to find there. Users have the ability to develop their own assets (models, textures, audio and more), adding to the variety on the platform. This ability to create and sample a diverse array of activities is what makes it so appealing to players. Roblox is free and multiplatform—available on PC, mobile, Xbox One and VR platforms—and its developer tools are surprisingly accessible for those without deep coding experience.

More than a game, Roblox is a creation platform that has allowed millions of amateur developers to try their hand at making games and virtual environments for the first time. Players can both create and share individual assets, build robust games or simply play. The level of creation enabled by the platform, as well as its younger-skewing audience, makes it ripe for memes. Don’t expect avatars to mirror players’ physical likeness; fanciful avatars are the norm here. One great example of a brand embracing gamified elements in Roblox is the Song Breaker Awards, presented by Logitech For Creators. The experience reinvented the awards show format to be more accessible and interactive, inviting viewers to participate in a narrative that unfolded throughout the show.

Horizon Worlds.

Meta’s foray into the metaverse is the newest virtual environment on our map—and the only one that requires a headset to enter. Since its launch in December 2021, Horizon Worlds now has 350,000 monthly active users. Like Roblox, environments in Horizon Worlds are largely user-created, meaning there’s a lot of variety in the worlds you can build or step into. The Unity-powered platform has a cartoon-like look and feel, with environments ranging from the fantastical to the ordinary, like a virtual comedy club or recording studio. Based in VR, Horizon Worlds requires an Oculus headset to enter, although its creation tools are accessible and intuitive.

Built by Meta, developer of some of the biggest social platforms on the internet, Horizon Worlds is first and foremost a space to socialize and create. While users can build competitive environments, connection among communities is key. The space also lends well to cultural moments like live sports or musical performances, which users can immerse themselves within from afar. Given the platform’s connection to Facebook—users can join with an existing Facebook account, although Meta just recently announced a unique account system—avatars and identities in Horizon Worlds are meant to reflect one’s real-world identity. This also makes safety and moderation a key consideration on the platform. Speaking of identity, a stand-out Meta’s Going Beyond: Women’s History Month event, made in collaboration with the NBA, is a stand-out experience. Throughout an interview focused on representation, viewers had a front-row seat.

Minecraft.

Officially launched in November 2011, Minecraft is home to 170 million monthly average users. The blocky, open-world simulation game places users within a unique, procedurally generated landscape that they can explore and manipulate to their desire. What’s really driven Minecraft’s popularity over the decade is its marketplace of downloadable content and customization tools, allowing for the design of diverse worlds and environments. While Minecraft is a paid download, its wide availability on PC, consoles and mobile make it widely accessible to audiences.  

Minecraft’s culture is focused on building. Players take enjoyment in creating environments together and sharing them with the community—or even breaking apart pre-made environments. Users are afforded complete control of virtual spaces they inhabit, allowing for a high sense of ownership and collaboration. One of our favorite Minecraft activation is the Uncensored Library, which cleverly uses the game to circumvent state censorship and offer access to articles banned around the world. Of course, we have a soft spot for the time our VP of Platforms and Products Brook Downton built our New York office in Minecraft, too.

Fortnite.

Epic Games’ wildly popular shooter, powered by the developer’s own Unreal Engine, launched in July 2017 and boasts 280 million monthly average users. Having risen to fame at the height of the “battle royale” trend in gaming, Fortnite offers a handful of different game modes that take place on an island that grows and evolves over time. It features a cartoon-like art style, similar to what you might expect from a CGI-rendered animated film. As a free-to-play, cross-platform title available on consoles, mobile and PC, Fortnite has a very low barrier of entry for players.

Fortnite is an evolving space, refreshed seasonally with new competitive modes and events featuring limited-edition skins (avatars) depicting characters and celebrities from pop culture. The promise that there’s always something new is what keeps players coming back. In late 2021, Fortnite launched Party Worlds, or social spaces where players can access minigames, concerts, movie screenings and other content. The space demonstrates the kinds of ways that metaverse worlds can uniquely bring people together in shared, persistent social spaces.

Decentraland.

Decentraland launched in February 2020 and is frequented by 330,000 users each month. There’s a big difference between Decentraland and the other platforms mentioned above: it’s a Web3-based environment built on the Ethereum blockchain. While platforms like Roblox and Horizon Worlds invite users to jump into self-contained worlds, Decentraland is a seamless, persistent landscape in which plots of land are bought, sold and redeveloped by the community—just like in the real-world real estate. Decentraland is accessible in a browser, though the need to connect a crypto wallet can be a technical barrier of entry to users.

The culture in Decentraland is more plugged into the Web3 space and skews very digitally mature. In addition to in-world games and activities, this environment is a place to flaunt what you’ve got: art galleries designed to show off NFT collections are popular, and a bustling marketplace allows users to trade ownership of unique digital outfits and objects. Duolingo expertly captured the playfulness of the space by dropping a giant statue of Duo, its infamous mascot, into Decentraland’s leisurely Terra Zero area. Holding a billboard that cycles through snarky push notifications reminding visitors to do their language lessons, the activation cleverly emulates Duo’s pesky habit of popping up right when the leisurely activities tee off.

The Sandbox.

 Our final metaverse world covered here is also one of the oldest, having launched back in May 2012. Since then, the Sandbox is enjoyed by 300,000 monthly users. Like Decentraland, it’s a Web3-based world where users can purchase land and build their own monetized environments. The platform is relatively consistent in look and feel, taking a voxel art style reminiscent of Minecraft as a nod to its 2D roots. Available on PC and mobile platforms, the Sandbox handles onboarding very easily: new users have the choice to connect a crypto wallet or a social account if they lack one.

As far as interactions go, the Sandbox offers a mix that you’ll find in other platforms. Like Roblox, users can easily construct their own games without coding experience. A play-to-earn model rewards creators and players, incentivizing play on the platform. And similar to Decentraland, a marketplace of NFTs in the form of avatars and unique parcels of land add to the opportunities for users to earn real-world value from their digital creations. One cool example we love is a collaboration between Tony Hawk and Autograph to build the biggest skatepark in the metaverse. In addition to hanging out in the space, visitors can purchase NFTs inspired by Hawk’s career.

Find your place in the metaverse.

Just like how the universe contains too many planets to count, the metaverse is a vast space comprising unique worlds—each with their own distinct culture. From video game worlds to Web3-native environments, each platform offers different tools for people and brands to engage with one another. Before jumping into the metaverse for the sake of it, carefully consider the audience you want to reach and how your brand can uniquely add value inside the world cultivated by its community. After making the right culture fit, you’ll have made the crucial first step in building impactful, authentic metaverse experiences.

The metaverse is a natural progression of the internet, and it reflects a cultural shift brought on by the ongoing process of virtualization. The metaverse is everywhere––a universal and connected experience that transcends geographical barriers and presents exciting opportunities for brands to show up. But, the stakes are high and the barrier to entry is steeper than ever. Advertising in the metaverse shouldn’t look like advertising at all. Brands need to strike a balance between being present and being authentic by providing utility and meaning for people through creativity and technological innovation. In short, brands must create experiences people actually want. While this isn’t a new idea, marketers will have to stretch their thinking for a new, fully-virtualized medium and a highly engaged audience quick to criticize disingenuous marketing efforts.

Want your own map of the metaverse worlds? Download it below: 

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