Head of Online Marketing and Development at 9thCO , a Canadian digital agency focused on B2B marketing and development for e-commerce.
In the year 2022, the world is forced to wake up to many disruptive new technologies. Blockchain has shifted from geek talk to an accepted party topic. Celebrities are so used to adopting NFTs that when most of us ask, “Is it an interchangeable word?” Tech blogs are obsessed with Web3, and many of them don't even explain how much better it is than the web we already have.
Then there is the metaverse. Agencies and brands, experiencing extreme FOMO, are quick to conceive and create some sort of metaverse strategy. Some even hire metaverse directors with huge salaries, while the average consumer simply asks, "What exactly is a metaverse, and why should I spend hundreds of dollars on a VR headset just to see a comic book version of me?"
Then it all hit the fan. Cryptocurrency fell off a cliff. NFTs have lost their value and glory. Some would say the whole "blockchain revolution" is mostly exaggerated. But not the Metaverse. It's here to stay, and in my experience, it can be a great opportunity for the brand.
What exactly is Metaverse?
The best place to start is to clear up some of the confusion. The Metaverse sounds "out there" as a concept, but it's actually very simple: It's a digital platform with shared or private virtual experiences as well as ownership of assets. There is a strong focus on digital self-representation (avatar) and some forms of currency and market transactions. That's what the Metaverse is about.
Note that there is no mention of NFT, Blockchain, or VR. None of these are prerequisites for being a metaverse (although the VR-enabled experiences are certainly more inclusive).
Finally, to qualify as a really powerful Metaverse platform, you need two more things: a customizable developer experience and a lot of users. (People want to be where everyone else is, so it would be hard to reach critical mass for any platform with a few thousand users.)
During the NFT craze, many platforms have garnered attention, notably The Sandbox, Decentraland, and Roblox. While our digital agency helps clients build their presence in the Metaverse on virtually any platform, in this article I'm going to focus specifically on Roblox. We've seen the biggest marketing impact with this Metaverse platform, due to its active user base, its accessibility on most devices, and the fact that it offers an open environment for creators to create anything they can dream up.
Think Roblox and beyond
The common response we hear often is, "Isn't Roblox just a child's play?" But this is only partially true. Two-thirds of active users are under the age of 16, one-third (about 20 million daily users) are over 16, of which 14% are 25 or older.
Translating for Brands - If your target demographic is kids or young adults, this could be an ideal platform to drive engagement. However, even for brands whose target audience is not young adults, such as Gucci, the sheer number of users combined with their participation provides huge opportunities for recognition.
The bottom line is that with the right mix of creativity, research, and planning, Metaverse, Roblox, or other popular platforms are fertile grounds for expanding the reach of almost any brand to a multinational audience. I say "almost" because there are realistically many types of businesses that have nothing to do with Roblox. If your target audience is B2B or C-tier, etc., it might be best to use a corporate metaverse (such as Decentraland).
How do you use the Metaverse for marketing?
The simplest way to metaverse marketing is to create brand assets. Standard 3D modeling software can be used to create these assets and you can then make them available to all users in your experience, in the case of Roblox this will be done through the Creator Marketplace. The advantage of this approach is the low barrier to entry, but the disadvantage is the limited possibility of participation.
Realistically, the most effective (but most resource-intensive) strategy is to create a personalized brand experience, overtly or subtly. Some companies or destinations are digitally recreating their IRL experience. Others create worlds filled with mini-games, rewards, and badges linked to user achievements that create "fortitude".
As with any platform, significant initial research and beta testing should be done prior to launch to avoid experience crashes. Once your experience is ready to go live (after a few rounds of user testing and implementation feedback), it's important to have a strategy in place to engage your users. There are millions of experiences available to users, so advertising is important. Native within Roblox, you can easily promote your experience to users on the platform's homepage or explore screens. You can also load basic static ads - offers with Robux in a very simple pay-per-click (PPC) interface.
If you want a more strategic and far-reaching campaign, you can even advertise your experience outside of the platform. We've seen brands successfully run ads on YouTube and even Reddit to gain more exposure by curating their target audience, building awareness and keeping users coming back to their experience.
Begins
Getting started is easy. All you need is a free account on the platform of your choice, and if it's Roblox, you'll also need Roblox Studio. However, to ensure the highest chance of success in meeting your Metaverse KPIs, it is generally recommended that you work with an experienced studio who can guide you through the process from concept to storyboard to MVP to ad management.
Is your brand ready? Metaverse is waiting for you!
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