There are many reasons for businesses to transform and get involved in the metaverse. By all indications, it looks like it will become the future of how we communicate. It’s also the space in which our digital identities will come to exist.
While how web3 technology will evolve may still not have a clear outline, the good thing is that, as long as you define the right strategy, there are no limits to what your brand could achieve in the metaverse.
Different enterprises in different industries can make use of the metaverse to create truly unique experiences.
Emerging Metaverse Opportunities
Transforming Marketing
As with any other form of media, the metaverse can be used by brands to transform their advertising and marketing. The ways to do this include native in-game advertising, offering limited edition digital collectibles, selling virtual goods for consumers’ avatars to use, creating virtual venues, or hosting virtual events.
Many famous events such as live concert performances have already been held in the metaverse. A replica of the iconic Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop was replicated virtually in the Decentraland metaverse. These progressions signal that a lot of opportunities await marketers who are willing to bet big on the metaverse.
Ecommerce
By using digital products, such as clothing designed to move in AR (augmented reality) or for avatars to wear in VR (virtual reality), consumers can express themselves while lowering the impact on the environment. These mixed reality experiences can help to reduce the number of physical products produced to be thrown away later.
Digital experiences such as this can also be harnessed by brands to boost sales. Digital products like furniture, makeup, and accessories all have their place in the metaverse. This new economy has already created new streams of revenue for entrepreneurs working in the space.
Fashion
Direct-to-avatar (D2A) collections by brands such as Gucci and North Face have already hit the market. Other brand names like Adidas, Nike, and Zara will also virtualize their collections in the near future. Balenciaga and Louis Vuitton use video games as a way of engaging with consumers.
As VR headsets improve and increase in popularity, brands will look to offer personalized shopping experiences. The metaverse seems on track to become the biggest showroom floor imaginable.
With the future of fashion becoming digital, we will likely see more brands entering the metaverse alongside technological improvements.
Hospitality
AR and VR will completely transform the way travelers might experience a destination or location. Virtual tours allow guests to experience a place before physically reaching it. With the use of augmented reality, businesses can create an unlimited amount of engaging experiences. Also, VR could help to create unique experiences for guests that will have more of a personal touch.
Manufacturing
VR and AR used in manufacturing systems help lower the cost of building complex machinery. This also minimizes the potential for human error. Augmented reality helps with communicating instructions in a step-by-step manner. Simulation and modeling tools such as Azure Digital Twins can increase productivity and visibility for stakeholders and reduce risk. Anheuser-Busch InBev has already taken advantage of this technology to drive its commercial and operational growth.
Education Transformation
Educational institutions had to transform to blended education models during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students seemed to opt for online learning, and college registrations fell. Coursera saw enrollment figures for their online training programs rise from 53 million to 78 million students early in 2021.
While these digital solutions provide the means to deliver online lectures, they leave out the practical elements of teaching, like lab experiments and other hands-on teaching components. VR, AR, and other such technologies, however, would allow students to participate in a wide variety of science experiments, and build and test prototypes, to name just a couple of many possible examples. 3D simulations and virtual spaces could also offer immersive, gamified learning experiences for students to play with.
The possibilities offered by metaverse applications could erase the geographical distance between the students and campuses. This would make higher education accessible to anyone who has access to a mobile device or computer. Universities will have to start investing in digital infrastructure now, though, if they want to support such innovation.
Banking And Finance
The metaverse has transformed the landscape of digital transactions. The rise of the virtual economy through blockchain technology and its decentralized approach to storing data actually produced a whole new alternative financial system formed around digital assets.
Banks and other traditional financial institutions will eventually have to adapt to these changes and invest in their own digital transformation to create innovative solutions for both consumers and businesses. Several institutions, including Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Citi, and Bank of Kuwait, have announced initiatives such as VR training and customer applications.
Food And Beverages
Coca-Cola has launched an exclusive NFT collection and Wendy’s recently won awards for its memorable campaign on Fortnite’s gaming platform. The food metaverse by OneRare will tokenize chefs’ signature dishes as NFTs, which players can collect and claim.
Such campaigns will serve as inspiration for further innovation in the food and beverage industry, giving brands new ways of engaging with consumers. The potential for brands to innovate using AI (artificial intelligence) will create value for consumers by reducing food waste, and creating new food trends, for example.
Healthcare Transformation
Using a mixture of AR, VR, MR, and AI, the healthcare industry is exploring ways of reaching a wider audience.
According to CNBC, companies building medical devices have begun to make use of MR in the design and assembly of surgical tools and also operating rooms. The WHO trained COVID-19 first responders during the pandemic using AR and smartphones. Some other applications of these technologies include psychiatrists transforming to used using VR as a tool to treat post-traumatic stress in combat veterans and medical schools using the tech to provide surgical training. Neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins already use AR to assist in surgeries on living patients. The data collected from MRI and CT scans can be used to allow surgeons to more accurately visualize a patient’s anatomy.
We can expect massive business transformation over the coming years. The metaverse is not solely about entertainment. It also offers brands the chance of making their mark in completely new and unexpected ways. This brings tremendous opportunities for business transformation across many, if not all industries.
As this technology evolves, brands have the chance to learn from other businesses’ experiments and transfrom to new applications of the metaverse. With a sound strategy, brands can use the metaverse to engage in a dialogue with consumers and create experiences that are truly unique.
