Influencer Marketing in the Metaverse: What Brands Need to Know
We all remember when ideas of virtual realities seemed like they would only live in movies or books. It’s hard to believe we’ve already arrived at a place where it exists. Welcome to the metaverse. The metaverse is an immersive, 3-D virtual environment that is built on virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), and other technologies. While the metaverse has been used as a place for play, socializing, and creativity, it is quickly (to no surprise) becoming an important asset to influencer marketing. Let’s talk about what brands need to know about incorporating it into their strategy.
Immersive Experiences: Brand Collaborations
One of the coolest things about the metaverse is that it connects people all over the world to each other through immersive experiences. For brands, this means that you can grow your audience without being restricted to a location. Typically when a brand hosts a meetup, it is limited to wherever the headquarters are located which can dampen the success of the event depending on their geographical demographics. This is where the metaverse can step in because you can host virtual meetups where everyone can interact with each other live online. In a Hubspot blog, they suggest hosting on your brand’s virtual land or in a free-to-access metaverse space to chat about industry-related topics or products.
In these virtual meetups, you can go more in-depth about your brand’s products or services, what makes your brand special, and your brand values. When your audience knows more about the product, they are more willing to make that first purchase and they’re more likely to become repeat customers. While you can accomplish this on Instagram Threads or X (Twitter), the experience of interacting with the audience live allows for a more authentic conversation. Additionally, interacting in the metaverse helps to keep your brand relevant because it shows your audience that you are attuned to marketing trends and evolving technologies.
Hosting a meetup in the metaverse is also cost-effective, especially if you use a free-to-access metaverse space. Or you can customize a space for your brand, which can be a bit pricey but worth it in the end. Creating a space where your brand, influencers, and followers can all interact with each other is an invaluable asset to your strategy.
Aside from meetups, you can create virtual storefronts that blur the lines between in-person and online shopping, creating a more convenient and comfortable shopping experience for your community. This opens the opportunity for more targeted advertising because it is easier to incorporate personalization within the metaverse.
A New Face for the Brand: Avatars
Along with creating a personalized brand space in the metaverse, you also have the opportunity to bring your brand persona to life. Every company has their idealized version of their representative and now you can create that in the metaverse through avatars. The greatest example of a brand utilizing avatars is Yoox’s virtual influencer, Daisy.
Daisy has collaborated with brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Persol, and New Balance so far. While it is invaluable to have influencers or celebrities attached to your brand, there is something to be said about a fresh face that has no other connotation associated. When a fitness influencer represents your brand, parts of their lifestyle will now be part of how your brand is seen. This is great especially when you have found influencers that share the same values as your brand, but creating an avatar takes away the step of research in finding brand representatives.
In an article by Vogue, they mention that using avatars is also cost-effective because virtual avatars cost “much less” than regular influencers. Additionally, they are fully controllable, can appear in many places at one time, and can communicate exactly what you want to talk about. It’s like creating your own influencer. This doesn’t mean that traditional influencers or UGC creators won’t have a place in your marketing plan, it just adds in another tactic.
Products in the Metaverse: NFTs
The term NFT has floated around for a few years now and has been associated with various controversies, mostly because it was new and people didn’t know that much about it. While on social media NFTs seemed to fizzle out of the spotlight, they are still valuable in the metaverse, especially for brands who are entering the metaverse for influencer marketing.
NFTs or non-fungible tokens are digital assets that can be purchased and sold online. They are completely unique and cannot be replicated or exchanged for things of equal value which makes them desirable. In simpler terms, it is like owning a piece of art that is digital.
Brands can use NFTs to their advantage by creating their own assets and having them available to the community that interacts with them within the metaverse. Companies like Nike have already begun to use NFTs to their advantage by creating spaces like Nikeland where products are available to purchase according to Forbes. Adding NFTs into your strategy is another way to connect with your customers and boost sales for your brand.
Be Cautious and Curious About the Metaverse
There are many great things about the metaverse but it is still a fairly new technology which means it comes with some cautions. With the tech constantly changing and the fact that not everyone has access to the metaverse, it is hard to predict ROI. Incorporating the metaverse into your strategy is exciting and innovative but won’t guarantee success or a high return on investment. Gravital Agency recommends thoroughly researching the metaverse to have a strong understanding of the platform and the potential benefits before committing to adding it to your strategy.
The world of influencer marketing continues to become more and more exciting with the evolution of technology. The latest is the metaverse and it is only just beginning. Let us know how you feel about entering the metaverse and incorporating it into your influencer marketing strategy.
