“Omnireality” is the New Business Strategy in the Metaverse
The simplest way to understand the Metaverse is to look at it, as many experts agree, as the next evolution of the Internet that is spatial in nature, connecting places, people, and things together in physical and virtual realities. In there, various experiences and content categories will persist across platforms and time, and will be exchanged in new market structures. This will take place in Augmented Reality (AR), in Virtual Reality (VR), and across a host of common (and yet to come) gaming and socializing 3D platforms. It will be enjoyed directly by participants, or indirectly by their avatars.
It is this diversity of realities and identities that poses a foundational anchor in my opinion to how businesses should pivot from thinking of the Metaverse as just another “channel” in the traditional “Omnichannel” mix, to seeing it a whole new ecosystem on its own right. Something I have been calling “Omnireality” strategy.
The traditional Omnichannel is a multifaceted approach that focuses on providing seamless customer experience across different touchpoints: desktop web, mobile apps, smartwatches, AI assistants, brick-and-mortar stores, etc. In a similar fashion, the Metaverse spans across many physical and digital spaces, delivers speculative or immersive content, and is consumed by either “me”, or my “digital me”. However, it is not a single touchpoint with predefined specifications that could be plugged into a mix. It is a continuum of opportunities for businesses and brands that extends outside their traditional marketing channels, and even beyond the realities they operate in or the personas they paint altogether.
Let me explain this in more details by taking the most recent Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as an example.
Coachellaverse
The organizers of Coachella made community and immersive experiences at venue and home core this year to drive new ways of engagement and excitement after the long pause caused by the pandemic.
They introduced location-based AR scavenger hunt for NFT art pieces (Non Fungible Token). Lucky owners would enjoy exclusive in-person perks like dedicated entry lines, onsite meetups, and even lifetime passes to the festival.
Viewers at home were treated with similar AR content through special effects of a Godzilla-sized parrot hovering over the stage, seen only on the live stream to enrich their remote viewing experience.
The sounds and fashion of Coachella were brought as well to the virtual worlds of Fortnite where featured artists were aired on its Icon Radio for the full duration of the festival. Players could also purchase Coachealla-themed items for their avatars from the Items Store.
This Coachellaverse, as the organizers call it, gives us a glimpse of the sort of Omnireality strategies we will see in the near future where places, things and people intersect between the virtual and physical. Although the activations above are not necessarily integrated to deliver a continuous narrative between different realities and identities, it is a vivid demonstration of the diverse continuum of possibilities that the Metaverse would operate within. And it is an inspiration of how we could make that continuity a feature by design.
A Continuum of Experiences Across Realities
In Omnireality, the type of experiences we can create range vastly between the simply interactive to the fully sensorial. The possible content revolves around passive consumption from the outside, to immersive engagement from the inside. I could be my true self there, or assume new digital identity(s). And the pallet of realities to deliver on spans across the physical world and that of the multitude of virtual platforms available out there.
AR experiences for example, allow participants to enjoy personal and intimate Metaverse moments directly on them like this fantastical concept for a virtual try-on of luxury jewelry activated when you walk past the store, powered by Snap filters. They can also marvel the real world and engage in AR games with digital layers augmented around them and with others at scale, similar to what Niantic (the powerhouse behind Pokémon Go) has demonstrated recently with their new Lightship ARDK.
Participants in the Metaverse can also step into high-fidelity interactive 3D virtual worlds on desktop via emerging cloud-rendering solutions from start-ups like Odyssey Systems and AnamXR. They can indulge in immersive theatrical performances that touch all senses through VR headsets as in All Kinds of Limbo which Accenture partnered to deliver with The National Theatre in the UK.
The Metaverse allows for more than just consuming content and attending virtual events. It gives participants the opportunity to co-create with brands and actively take part. Music game Splash on Roblox, for instance, gives players the opportunity to become the star and perform live, through their avatars, on a virtual stage in front of a distributed fan community. The game’s host avatar, Kai, is their inspiration and idol who has a 16 year old girl behind it. And by the way, she managed to raise $20m to grow Splash… yes, you read it right. 16 years old, 20 million dollars!
Finally, NFTs are used to certify ownership of virtual land and digital assets on the Metaverse, and also to allow for exclusive access to and co-ownership of, for instance, luxury real-life holiday islands in the Bahamas! Other NFTs empower their owners to take part in virtual game shows, as in The Internet Game, where they can compete and control the plot, and earn stake of the lucrative physical and virtual prizes.
From the above, we can agree that the recipe for experiences in the Metaverse is not, and will never be, one. Some businesses may find refuge in creating presence in multiple fantastical virtual worlds. Others in creating new lines of virtual products. Whilst some may bring virtual influencers to occupy the physical world. The combination of those reality and identity ingredients is crucial to create true Metaverse strategies. It will be driven by an all-encompassing new mindset with an Omnireality approach that considers the above spectrum of places, people and things.
A Mindset Shift from Mere Channel, to Wholistic Reality
For many like myself, the older generation, the Metaverse is a new territory and sometime a shocking culture! For the younger generation, who has been vested in their virtual personas and 3D worlds whilst we were locked in flat video calls during the pandemic, it is native and the expectation. There are many moving parts to finely tune, many of which will require a shift in our thinking and to relearn some of the “basics” from this savvy young generation.
I will leave you with the following list of “basics” to ponder upon as you start marveling into the Omnireality world of the Metaverse. These are familiar concepts that are being redefined to address the new spatial, persistent, immersive and diverse characteristics of the Metaverse.
- Target audience: the usual metrics of gender, age, location etc, are topped with new ones in the Metaverse: community affiliation, NFTs in digital wallet, virtual spaces visited, digital skins worn, style of avatars befriended, etc. It is a comprehensive spatial and social identity of digital communities across realities, not just cookie drops anymore. Content was once the king, then succeeded by experience. Now, community is king!
- Users: people in the Metaverse are not users. They are creators, owners, players, girlfriends, consumers, ambassadors, visitors, etc. In short, they are “participants” in experiences and relationships, and businesses should focus on connecting with them not just transacting. A new collaborative marketing dynamic is being born.
- Experience design: participants in the Metaverse move around, walk into others, experience intimacy. Things afar attract attention. Spatial audio gives bearings. We are entering the new domain of what i call Perception Design where our human senses and behavioral biases are at the driver seat. We need to design for them impactfully and respectfully.
- Content: media through history has been consumed predominantly in 2D. Now in the Metaverse, we step into content in 3D not just browse it. Its quality ranges from the cartoony to the photorealistic, from the boxy to the curvy, the interactive to the immersive.
- Canvas: the old-fashioned rectangular frame is not the only surface to deliver Metaverse creativity on. We have limitless 3D virtual worlds and even the real physical world to augment. They are enabled via bespoke platforms that give full control over content and revenue, or through existing ones with established consumer base and mechanics.
- Value: the Metaverse can deliver new types of value that are more tangible, like privileged access, fame and reward from co-creation, satisfaction of active belonging to community, etc. The real benefit from the Metaverse is still forming, but for now it will remain a vitamin not a pain killer.
Continuous Journey Towards Omnireality Metaverse
The Metaverse is a very wide continuum that cannot be treated in my opinion as just another channel. It is a whole new ecosystem with new categories of value and realities driving it.
When defining your business strategy in the Metaverse ensure you look at its diverse spectrum holistically through an Omnireality lens. Consider how your brand messaging or brand experience will traverse across the different virtual worlds and back to the physical reality. Target people and their avatars equally in your segmentation. Go beyond this universe in your imagination of immersive content, do not let the laws of physics impede your march.
Start small and scale fast with the right industry partner(s) who thinks strategically, applies creativity, understands the technology, and operates efficiently. Most importantly, do not dwarf the Metaverse onto one channel. It will be much bigger than the Internet of today, and it will bring with it opportunities we cannot phantom yet.
Opinions are mine and not reflecting the views of my employer
