Search Engine Journal calls the Metaverse the “future of search and social” and says, “Just like the internet, industry insiders are predicting the metaverse will become a necessity for all brands.” Similarly, Gartner anticipates that it will “impact every business that consumers interact with every day.”
Specifically, by 2026, Gartner predicts:
  • “25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse for work, shopping, education, social and/or entertainment.”
  • “30% of the organizations in the world will have products and services ready for [the] Metaverse.”
Statista reports, “It’s estimated that the 2021 global Metaverse market size stood at $38.85 billion. In 2022, this is expected to rise to $47.48 billion before surging to $678.8 billion by 2030.” With this kind of potential – $82 billion by 2025, says Business Insider – “Companies are willing to make large investments in the Metaverse, even if they don’t fully understand it yet… Companies plan to expand their goods and services into the experimental virtual space.”
Matt Maher in Marketing Dive says this creates “massive opportunities for advertising.” Or, as Retail Touchpoints says, a “goldmine,” especially for “capturing the attention of digitally native audiences.”
 
Citing survey data from TINT, Digiday says, “49% of marketers believe the Metaverse will impact their strategies” this year. Here’s some of the current buzz about how the Metaverse will change marketing:
  • “Marketers will become world builders. We need to take [experiential marketing] a step further and think of ourselves as full virtual world creators.” (SOURCE:  Quiet Valor’s Sarah Malcolm in Forbes’ “Get ready to market in the Metaverse”)
  • A move “beyond e-commerce into i-commerce, or immersive commerce—transactions based on users’ deeper interactions in this new digital environment.” (SOURCE: Fast Company’s “Building a brand in the Metaverse”)
Digital Agency Network calls the Metaverse “the new platform for digital marketing” and says there are “countless possibilities,” including games, events and virtual shops. The purpose of these ventures will sound familiar to marketers: building strong connections, focusing on engagement and earning conversions.
Likewise, marketers will recognize the specific marketing activities likely to proliferate in the Metaverse, according to industry experts like Nick Heethius. In a column for Entrepreneur, he lists the following:
  • Sale of virtual goods. “Eliminating the manufacturing and transportation costs associated with physical goods is a major opportunity for every brand. From selling upgrades, to online avatars, to selling virtual versions of physical products, there’s no shortage of ways your brand can capitalize on selling virtual goods.”
  • Community building. “Brands can build engaging communities that provide a place for customers to participate with both the brand itself and fellow supporters of the brand.”
  • Gamification. “This rewards system can involve strategies that encourage shoppers to engage with the brand or help disseminate important brand news.”
For most brands, the current opportunity is to test and learn – another well-known marketing staple. Digiday takes the pressure off brands by putting it this way: “Many of today’s virtual brand activations are intended more to demonstrate brands’ willingness to experiment with new technologies than to generate high ROI or create direct e-commerce opportunities.”
 
Cautions and Challenges for Marketers in the Metaverse
Harvard Business Review warns, “Sitting on the sidelines too long is not likely to be an option.” Instead, it encourages “intellectual curiosity” about Metaverse, which it says is “potentially the next iteration of how humans use the internet to connect, communicate and transact.”
As brands explore opportunities in the Metaverse, they’ll also want to understand some of its current challenges:
  • Despite the growth predictions, Metaverse participation is not widespread, and most people don’t understand it yet. The result is a “smaller consumer segment,” says Saeed Elnaj in Forbes, complicated by the current requirement for “expensive and not so easy to set up AR/VR tools.”
  • While companies like Meta are making claims about proactively building diversity and inclusion in the Metaverse, concerns about equal access and representation remain.
  • Much like the internet and social media, the Metaverse will face issues related to cybersecurity and privacy and hate speech.
  • Brands will also need to be concerned about identity, ownership and intellectual property, say experts.
And of course, there’s a risk to brands that isn’t unique to Metaverse: the hard sell. The type of overly promotional content that flops on social media and blogs will also be less successful in the Metaverse. In an interview with Retail Brew, gaming/Metaverse expert Charles Hambro “emphasizes the value-add over the advertising opp” and urges brands to ask themselves how they can “enrich the experience of the user.”