By Shiva Bhavani, CEO & Founder, Wing Communications
June 13 2022: The advertising and marketing industry has undergone major transformations. During the pandemic, metaverse marketing emerged as one of the biggest new platforms for marketing. The term metaverse can be described as an immersive, digital world where virtual avatars represent real people. Just like the hit video game Fortnite, a virtual reality game where players fight against each other and attend events that are held within a specific metaverse. A person playing in the game in real life has their own avatar, and the digital representation of the person in the game is also personalized.
Although many industries are adapting to the idea of the metaverse, the gaming industry was the first one to take a leap of faith.  The Metaverse, the evolution of the internet, has emerged as a potential tech innovation in marketing and social connection. It entails a set of immersive virtual experiences that allow people to exist and interact on virtual platforms. With augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), blockchain, and digital media principles, it creates rich user-engaged virtual spaces. Metaverse blends virtual, physical, and augmented reality in real-time, allowing interaction in a virtual 3D environment through avatars.
As we adapt to new ways of reaching consumers through virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality, the future of marketing will be wild. By 2024, it has been estimated that VR revenues will double to 12.19 billion U.S. dollars, and climb to 6.71 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. In the spheres of marketing and social connection, metaverse technology is emerging as a potential innovation. From founders and investors to futurists and executives, everyone is looking to stake their claim in the metaverse, seeing its potential for social connection, experimentation, entertainment, and, ultimately, profit.
Metaverse making a mark in the advertising industry
As we usher in a new era in technological innovation, it's becoming apparent that consumers and brands will interact differently in the Web 3.0 era - and the metaverse that will emerge from it. Immersion, personalization, and connectivity will be some of the key selling points of hybrid experiences, which will blend physical and digital elements.
For advertisements to prevail in the metaverse, they need a new approach that prioritizes creativity, a significant shift in strategy, and the user experience above all else. This implies that, as a creative industry, marketers must not only focus on providing better, broader, and more sophisticated branded experiences, but must also identify the right audiences based on the content and their mindset.
There are several obvious benefits for companies that can make the case for exploring the metaverse to create value in the advertisement sphere. Metaverse is believed to have a high engagement rate. Tech-savvy gen-z and millennials who engage in it are the future customers. As they spend their significant time on the internet. To advertise and capture this expansive audience, companies and brands need to move into the universe of the metaverse. In addition, since it is a new concept in the market, it is less expensive than standard advertising methods. Consequently, the first-mover advantage has a cost-benefit for businesses.
The data-driven interaction is another benefit. As avatars, real people will collect data in the virtual 3D environment. This data can be analyzed and used to forecast or make business scaling strategies both for the online and offline market. Technology companies, business industries, and even government agencies are keen on investing in the multiverse. So far, several innovative advertising methods have been explored. Non-fungible tokens, collectibles, cryptocurrencies, in-game activities, and virtual billboards are some examples.
A trillion-dollar market opportunity is being billed for the metaverse. With their first forays into virtual worlds, brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Ralph Lauren are already carving out their influence in the metaverse and making big money. The trend of brand experimentation has become a top trend to follow, even for those who aren't quite ready to commit yet. The real world can already benefit from having a presence in a virtual world, even though these advancements are just the tip of the iceberg. As a result of the new (and extremely profitable) avenues being opened up in the metaverse, advertising and marketing are likely to grow even larger industries.
Finally, with real-world limitations no longer in the way, advertising in the metaverse can reach new heights - without breaking the bank. Gucci's wildly successful Gucci Garden campaign, for example, is a recreation of one of the fashion house's most imaginative advertising campaigns. A virtual space hosted within Roblox allowed users (avatars) to walk through a forest-like scenario while browsing through Gucci's digital fashion collection. This activation enabled the Italian fashion house to sell a virtual bag for more than its real-life counterpart.
Throughout history, advertising has been quick to embrace new trends and technological advances. A new era is opening up through the metaverse - and a new platform through which marketers and advertisers can reach their audiences. In light of the increasing number of advertisers bidding big in advertising, marketers will be able to use the metaverse to flex their creative muscles in a lucrative new market, as it is clear that metaverse real estate is soaring and the time is right for marketers to go for it.

Wing Communications is a full-service digital marketing agency
Shiva Bhavani, CEO & Founder, is a business development expert who started his career as Marketing Executive in MovingDneedle. A B.Sc Computer Science, Shiva holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration.