A new twist to the festival of colours, almost the real feeling of Holi, spent on the web in the choicest of digital avatars, a digital pair of Gucci footwear, of course that can be personally owned, and finally, a digital beer, not tasted but experienced for sure. The world of marketing is at the cusp of another time-defining transformation - one that is as real as it is virtual. But, are the marketeers prepared, are the brands equipped, are we ready?

Metaverse, an online 3D virtual universe that works and behaves starkly similar to the real world is the next big space that all brands, big and small are gravitating towards. While some are using it to host experiential parties and events at the grandest level, others have gone a step ahead and used it as a platform to launch digital avatars of specially curated products in the digital form.

What avatar does Marketing adorn in the Metaverse?

The early snapshots on the Metaverse way of things that have surfaced are promising indeed. The targeted audience in the young buyer is developing an instant liking to the augmented reality flavours that the Metaverse provides, thanks to their long acclimatisation to video-game experiences. The new buyer loves freedom, appreciates the ease of accessibility to products and services from the comforts of home, and adores the limitlessness of the virtual world - all that are going to be the USPs of Metaverse.

This very expansiveness inherent to the Metaverse cosmos leaves an empty playground for brands to disrupt the market with new innovative ways of branding, extend their reach to a much wider audience and explore fresh and imaginative ways of buying and selling.

That is not it. With the addition of features that enable the user to experience life-like sensations of touch, feel, or even kissing through vibrations and haptic sensing, the Metaverse is sure to open doors to a never-before imagined immersive environment where it’s all not physical, but real. After all, who doesn’t like the idea of existing in a parallel universe!

The issues of safety and privacy

A new format that is creating waves, a concept that was once attributed to wildest imagination but is now close to becoming a reality. And just like anything new, the Metaverse is still a deep ocean of potentiality and prospects that needs to be explored, observed and understood before being claimed. The next obvious question remains - If the Metaverse is the most realistic imitation of the real world as we know it, what levels of governance will it need and/or what will its governance look like? How will the concepts of safety and security be addressed in the virtually real world of the Metaverse?

Although we may find the answers to these fundamental queries in the blockchain technology, will its application in the current extent be enough to make existence in the Metaverse safe or will it need to evolve and adapt to the Metaverse cosmos? Data privacy is a continuing major concern in the rapidly expanding digital macrocosm and how it is ensured in the lesser-known world of Metaverse is to be seen.

Will marketing as we know it, need recalibrating?

For every new game, the rules are new. That is what makes it different, and also relevant. A set of rules that align with the end goal, the purpose of the play. The same will and should/does apply to the marketing ecosystem in the Metaverse.

Imagine yourself in a mall, you enter the building and set foot into an aligned, organised place, created to serve the buyer/customer that enters it, marketing in the hyper-integrated world of the Metaverse may need a similar re-fashioning to serve its purpose well in the new environment. 

To sum up, although a fully developed Metaverse is still a gambit the world is passionately wagering on, its seedlings in the present have taken a very real form. Promising a future that is not separate from our reality but perhaps an extension of it. Clearly, the Metaverse is bound to change the ways in which marketing is done, but it’s true impact and intensity remains to be seen.