Marketers invade the metaverse

Future. Metaverse worlds may not have that many people (yet), but marketers are already lining up to make sure that brands are well-represented. Marketers are offering up virtual land for rent to host activations and help facilitate the sales of NFTs to create new revenue streams. While sipping a digital beer at Miller Lite’s virtual bar may seem strange, clever experiences such as that could be far more sticky than a passive ad on a website.

Brand stans
Companies as diverse as JPMorgan Chase, Sotheby’s, Samsung, Miller Lite, and Gucci are all getting into building activations in the metaverse.

So marketers are already building spaces for them.

• TerraZero Technologies Inc. rented out its land in Decentraland to Molson Coors Beverage Co. to open a virtual tavern for Miller Lite called the “Meta Lite Bar.”
  • Yes, users could pour themselves a virtual beer.
• Metaverse Group (a subsidiary of Tokens.com) purchased 313,000 square feet of land in Decentraland, which it rented out to be the location for Metaverse Fashion Week.
  • Tommy Hilfiger is slated for involvement.
• Gucci directly bought a plot of land in The Sandbox, which it plans on using to open up a retail store based on its Gucci Vault concept.
  • The move is to help the fashion house capture a Gen Z clientele.

Prime real estate
While Decentraland and The Sandbox have become the top two destinations for brands (where’s the love for Minecraft?), both offer different benefits.

• Decentraland is already an open, permissionless platform, meaning anyone can jump right in and start building an experience. It has also proven that its servers can handle a crowd.
• The Sandbox is technically still in beta (it’s opening to the public in phases this year), but it has already attracted several celebrities (Snoop Dogg is a supporter), which could attract more high-profile brands.

But if brands really want to capture as many eyeballs as possible in the metaverse, maybe they should just hit the casinos.