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You don’t have to pick one. Life is going to be virtual and real at the same time.
The universe is passé. Web 1.0 was for one-way data gathering. Web 2.0 was all about user-generated content, the social media boom and the maturation of e-commerce. Web 3.0—the combination of technology and data management that could host the metaverse—is a place you don't have to log onto any more, it's just there. Everywhere and always. You don't go on the Internet, you are smack dab in the middle of it. From now on, we will live in the Metaverse, which will consist of our world and its digital twin. Unless you want to exist only halfway in the future, you had better start assembling a Metaverse team. Or at least start gaming. Ever heard of eSports?
As is
New tech has a habit of invading our spare time, before becoming impossible to live without. Sports, for one, walk the thin line between nice to have and can’t do without—and tech is happily walking along. With the introduction of the metaverse as a hypothetical future, branding is being reimagined. If consumers will spend more and more leisure time in virtual realities, rather than in the physical one, should our marketing efforts move with them? Or, to make the question more tangible, should you pay for a courtside banner if in a faraway future when nobody’s sitting courtside any longer but watches the game in a game?
Kids meet up at 6 to play hide and seek in Roblox. As brands, we should be there with them.
Could be
Fashion is taking the metaverse by storm. It makes sense: for those roaming the metaverse with their avatar, it’s all about identity and self-expression. They want to look like themselves, feel like themselves, even if their online self is only made out of bits. Another domain of life where people want to look a certain way to manifest their identity or preferences? Sports. Imagine being a Lakers supporter. If you’re going to watch them play in the metaverse, sitting next to Dr. Dre, you’ll want to make sure your avatar is wearing the right jersey. The LeBron one. While feeling complicated, the metaverse is actually rather simple. It’s an expansion of the universe as we know it, which is philosophical slang for saying ‘Guys, the market just got bigger!’ If your audience is moving online—and you’d better believe they are—so should you. If the universe is expanding, so should your brand.