The metaverse is powering brand storytelling, and increasing interaction across different formats. Photo Credit: gettyimages/wildpixel
Virtual, online and hybrid events have become familiar terms to every
event planner over the last two years. The metaverse is promising to
take the best of all these to a whole new level. It’s an immersive 3D,
high-definition online environment where you can move around, play,
interact and engage. In the metaverse, you aren’t just watching an event
on a screen, you are in the event.
So what are the benefits? Scale is an obvious one - by hosting an
event in the metaverse, your audience is unlimited, meaning you can
target a huge number of attendees.
While the technology isn’t quite there yet, Fornite’s tie-up with
Travis Scott in 2020, where millions watched a giant-sized version of
the artist marching through the game, gives a taste of what could be
achieved. The ability to provide exclusive ‘areas’ is another benefit -
where VIP guests can mingle, where event-themed purchases can be made or
where exclusive content can be hosted.
The influencer of the future inspired us, says Adam Harriden, executive creative director at Invnt APAC.
For Invnt Group, the Global Brand Story Project, the metaverse is
enabling events and live experiences to be reinvigorated with a
flexibility that allows for more interaction, creativity and global
community building. It says that more and more brands are including
innovation verticals into their plans and brand roadmaps.
Not only is the metaverse powering brand storytelling, it’s also
increasing interaction across different formats, from the virtual to
out-of-home advertising platforms. Invnt APAC, part of Invnt Group,
created and launched Australia’s first-ever 3D billboard, providing an
insight into the way technology and data can evolve to help brands
create deeper connections with consumers in a metaverse-inspired world.
Adam Harriden, executive creative director at Invnt APAC, who led the
project, says the agency wanted to create an experience that showed
Australia’s leading tech and gaming influencers a new future self,
essentially enabling them to be the ‘main character’ within their lives.
“In a world that’s getting harder every day to be an individual and
stand out, the influencer of the future inspired us,” he says. “While
influencers are in real life today, our team sat back and thought about
how they are going to influence in the future, and how technology and
data will evolve their role, particularly in the metaverse.”
Hardware costs may be a barrier to mass take-up but the metaverse is a
tempting option for those brands that want to stay ahead of the curve.