Welcome to another post in our Metaverse series! Today, we talk about advertising. There’s a lot to dive into, so I won’t keep you up here. Grab a drink and a snack, and let’s go!
Advertising is such a broad spectrum of items. There are print ads, digital ads, email ads, influencer ads… That list goes on and on. In the Metaverse, we’ll be looking at mostly digital ads and influencer ads.
If you remember from our first blog post on the Metaverse, there are two types of ways people will be able to interact with this virtual world, VR and AR. Ads will appear differently in each of those, so we’ll break this post up into two parts, starting with AR.
In an Augmented Reality (AR) interaction with the Metaverse, you’ll be shown ads that will superimpose on the world around you. These will be of both varieties listed above. Since AR allows the alteration of your tangible world, you’ll have ads presented to you as you interact with places or things.
When you visit a grocery store, for example, you’ll be able to see sales superimposed on the items you choose from the shelf. Those cereals are two for one? It’ll appear above the included products to aid you in your selection process.
Say you’re a business that makes t-shirts with logos or sayings on them. You may pay an influencer to carry a digital token that allows people to purchase the shirt your influencer is wearing by simply waving a hand and agreeing to a purchase.
If you’re a business that creates ads in the AR world, you’ll want to have spaces where you can flash a banner that invites someone to “advertise here” like a billboard does on the side of the road.
In these types of scenarios, of course, placement for high visibility will be the key to success. So, start thinking now about where and how you might want your ads to appear. That way, when the technology emerges that allows you to purchase that space, you’re ready to do it. Your only limit is your imagination. If you want it done, there will be someone who can make it happen.
If you happen to own a tech company, you’ll probably want to start looking into ways to craft these options for the advertisers of the future and ways to showcase what you can do for them. It won’t be long before the leap from real-world to virtual-world advertising takes place. It’ll require a whole new kind of programmer and a whole new understanding of how the technology can be manipulated.
Now, if a person is interacting with the Metaverse in a VR capacity, there will be a different set of parameters. These people won’t need to grocery shop. Instead, they’ll be shopping for games to play, skins and upgrades for their avatars, and experiences.
When browsing store shelves in the Virtual Reality world, there will be items like NFTs, skins, and enhancements. There may even be boosters to popular games that take place, communally, that people can buy and use to get ahead.
Today’s FarmVille will be tomorrow’s farm, and the local Co-op will sell virtual tomatoes to feed to your virtual sheep to produce virtual wool.
If you’re a business, you may want to pay to have your logo on a box of virtual tomatoes or added to the blockchain as an NFT so people can purchase access to it to wear on a t-shirt or handbag. You may sponsor the tractors on the farms, and in exchange, the tractor company can offer a discount code for consumers to use when purchasing your goods or services—by simply waving their hand.
Again, your imagination is your only limit, and if you can think it up, someone will be able to do it.
There will be games, towns, shopping centers, parties, and experiences in the VR world, and your business should be prepared to be a part of it. You need to consider currency, too. Will you begin to accept digital tokens (like Bitcoin or Ethereum) for payment, or will you stick to real-world currency?
Make decisions today, and start thinking about the future of advertising, so you won’t be left out of the world of tomorrow. Once someone lands on something that works, it’ll be overused to the point of no longer working, and you’ll be left in the dark wondering why you didn’t do it first.
Our Metaverse blog series can set you on the path toward thinking about some of these things and maybe even putting them into action in the near future. Keep your eyes on this space for more mind-activating articles about what will be possible in the Metaverse and how you might prepare for the launch.
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