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Why Do Brands Need Metaverses: Top-9 Reasons By The Metaverse Studio

Why Do Brands Need Metaverses: Top-9 Reasons By The Metaverse Studio

More and more companies are opening their offices and locations in metaverses. That’s why, it’s important to understand why companies do this and what business they solve using virtual worlds. We’ve collected 9 reasons for the brands to enter metaverse projects based on our own experience as a metaverse studio.

About Terminology

But before we start the list, we should mention a few things in order to avoid confusion regarding terminlogy:

  • Now it’s okay to refer to metaverses in the plural, because so far there are lots of separate metaverse projects. Examples include Roblox, Decentraland and The Sandbox. But we understand the metaverse as the technology that will be formed from all these projects in the future;
  • Brands are already a part of metaverses and there are dozens of brands using metaverses already;
  • In the beginning, only crypto-industry companies came to metaverses like Decentraland. Now companies from the Fashion industry, event organization and other segments are already coming there;
  • Metaverses are new platforms for those brands that have advertising restrictions in traditional media. For example, at least 6 alcohol brands entered the Decentraland metaverse in 2022, including Miller, Heineken and Absolut.

Recommended article

For those who want to learn more about content creation in metaverses. In the article, we talk about companies that have already opened their offices in the metaverse and about the studios that have built these offices for these companies. 

Community Management

Engaging with your audience and getting feedback from them is essential for any business. And if this audience exists in the metaverses, then it is necessary to work with it there as well. Community managers can perform this function. Just like in social networks, they communicate with users, answer their questions and help solve any problems.

And the interactive format of the metaverses makes it possible to gather people from different social networks in one place. For example, in November 2022, BeFuture studio held an online hackathon in the Spatial and Decentraland metaverses. The goal of the studio was to bring together a community of Web3 developers and introduce them to each other. As a result, BeFuture have brpught together 35 development teams from different cities and countries.

befuture move your brand to the metaverse banner

PR And Media Coverage

Metaverses are a new technology, the trend for which only began in November 2021 with the news of rebranding Facebook to Meta. And so far, not many companies use it. That’s why, opening an office or hosting an event in the metaverse is an interesting newsbreak for the media that will collect enough traffic even in 2023. It’s a simple way for the company to get mentions, publications and positive PR.

Heineken brewery in Decentraland
Heineken Silver Brewery in the Decentraland metaverse

For example, the Heineken company has built a brewery in the Decentraland metaverse, where it invites users to try virtual beer. Advertising of alcoholic products is limited, and such an event provides enough information to get the Heineken brand mentioned in various media.

Audience Engagement

Metaverses are a more interactive environment than social media, so the audeince’s engagement is higher there. Companies create quests and interactive spaces that may interest both to their audience and the audience of the metaverses in general.

Stranger Things game in Roblox
One of the mini-games in Roblox based on the Stranger Things series

For example, Netflix developed an interactive space in Roblox based on Stranger Things with various mini-games. Since December 2020, users have visited it more than 35 million times. The company used metaverse to maintain the audence’s involvement between releases of the series’ seasons and stirs up interest in it.

To Show The Company’s Innovativeness And Technological Advancement

Metaverses are a new technology that is just beginning to develop. That’s why, if a company uses it, then it will be considered an innovator in the face of the audience and the media.

For example, Samsung has built a copy of its New York store in the Decentraland metaverse. There are various interactive zones inside: nature, technologies and wearables for avatars.

Samsung store in Decentraland
The Samsung 837X store in Decentraland looks like a real building in New York

This building also hosted the presentation of the new line of smartphones Galaxy Unpacked 2022, where visitors could get an exclusive NFT. So the company showed that it follows all the new technological trends.

To Be The First In The Segment To Enter The Metaverse

The metaverse situation in 2023 is similar to social media in 2005. The technology is new and not everyone uses it yet. So now is the perfect time to be the first among competitors to occupy this niche, just as in 2005 there was a perfect time to be the first to create the company pages in social networks.

For example, JPMorgan became the first bank with an office in the metaverse. The object turned out to be small and, according to our evaluation, not very labor-intensive. But on the other hand, the company received “the first bank in the metaverse” title, mentions in Forbes and other media, and also showed its innovativeness and technological advancement.

Audience Reach

Metaverses already have an audience of millions of users to work with. At the same time, you can find a hard-to-reach audience there that traditional advertising and PR channels don’t work for anymore: television, social networks, and the press. For example, generations Alpha and Zeta.

Vans World in Roblox
Vans has built a street and a skate park with mini games in Roblox. Source: vans.sg

So, most of the Roblox audience are teenagers under 13 years old. The Nike and Vans brands have built their spaces in it. Users visited Nike’s object 12.5 million times, and the Vans’s one — 60.9 million times.

An Experiment

Companies with sufficient advertising budgets are ready to explore the metaverse as an experiment. This is how they test new ways of working with the audience and promoting the product.

For example, Manchester City Football Club has announced the construction of a virtual replica of its Etihad Stadium. Fans of the club will be able to watch games broadcast using VR-headsets. Manchester City have already partnered with football sim makers, but using VR to stream games from a virtual stadium is an experiment for the company. Besides, the Club plans to create at least two metaverse projects in cooperation with Sony and the OKX crypto exchange.

If you need custom location, you can contact our specialists from BeFuture Studio. They will create the design of the location, develop interactives and help to promote your event.

Monetization

Metaverses are an additional platform for selling your goods or services. For example, lots of clothing brands were selling NFTs during Decentraland Fashion Week, including Dolce & Gabbana, Philipp Plein, Hogan and other brands. And these NFTs gave users the opportunity to get a real fashion item from the manufacturer.

Hogan store in Decentraland
Hogan shoe brand store in Decentraland. The booth says “Physical item” —  this means that you can buy a real pair of shoes through the booth

Another example is a collaboration of ICE Poker and Decentral Games. They built a network of casinos in the Decentraland metaverse, which is visited by 183 thousand users per month. And the monthly profit from these facilities is $19-20 million.

New Markets

Metaverses allow brands to sell products that are specifically needed by users of the metaverses. For example, digital clothes for avatars. So the brand’s audience can wear its clothes not only in real life, but also in the metaverse. And the company earns on the sale of both real things and the virtual ones.

There have also been companies that specialize only in digital avatar clothing. For example, Gravity The Studio is designing digital 3D clothing and is already starting to collaborate with Chinese metaverses. And digital clothing manufacturer named DressX has already built its showroom in Decentraland.

Recommended material

For those who want to know what the metaverse is. The article explained what the metaverse is and what it is often confused with.

TL;DR

We collected the main theses from the presentation of the . named 9 reasons why brands master the metaverse:

  • community management;
  • PR and media coverage;
  • audience Involvement;
  • to show the company’s innovativeness and technological advancement;
  • to be the first in the industry to enter the metaverse;
  • coverage, including hard-to-reach Alpha and Zeta generations;
  • an experiment;
  • monetization;
  • new markets.
befuture enter the metaverse banner

Editor:
Andrew Lawrence

Cover and illustrations:
Delilah Jones

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