Brands Unlocking the Metaverse
Image: What Is Web3? Harvard Business Review
If you’ve been on the internet any time in the last year or so, you’d surely have heard about the Metaverse. That chaotic, wild west of the web, where fortunes are made and lost in minutes on cryptocurrencies and NFT’s. It’s a nascent concept, raw, emerging and possibly, limitless in its potential. With the space so undefined in all the best ways, watching brands seeking to include crypto and NFT’s in their marketing strategies is fascinating. What’s clear is you need to be authentic and you need to be daring. Here are some of the ways brands are looking to unlock the Metaverse.
Brands Collaborating with NFT brands
The NFT space is community-driven. A decentralised space on the internet where the communities are the guardians and architects of its future. This means brands edging in from the centralised ‘real world’ need to come in with a lot of tact. One way is to partner with an existing presence in the space. High-end fashion labels have dipped their toes in the metaverse a lot.
Gucci created a 2-week virtual art installation, Louis Vuitton created a virtual game to celebrate 200 years in business where punters could find 30 unique, exclusive NFT’s and in a mega-crossover Balenciaga partnered with Fortnite to create an array of wearables for their characters inside the game itself. While this Balenciaga collaboration isn’t necessarily executed as NFT’s, the diverse explorations of the metaverse are seen through in-game cosmetics and the value of proof of ownership in these digital spaces becoming more recognised.
Including NFTs in your marketing strategy
A lot of FMCG (fast-moving-consumer-goods) brands have also dipped a toe in. Pringles, Coca Cola, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut (to name just a few) all have come out with their own NFT ranges, their success or demise often comes down to their understanding of the space and how to most authentically engage with their audience within it. Rather than elbowing your way into the space, take some time on Twitter and Discord and get to understand the communities that are driving the multi-billion dollar space forward – ask questions.
We get excited by a space that is yet to be clearly defined, rife with possibilities and opportunities. It gets our creative juices well and truly pumping. The opportunity to think conceptually with true freedom – it’s why we get up in the morning. Having been lucky enough to work in the Web3.0 space recently, we understand what it takes to create the architecture for a brand to be suitable and accessible in the space. Drop us a line if you’re looking at dipping a toe (or a whole lot more) in. We’d love to chat.
