Makers of The Metaverse: Kent Lewis Of Anvil/Deksia On The Future Of The VR, AR & Mixed Reality Industries

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

… To have a highly successful in VR, AR & MR, I recommend following the same process: learn (read and watch the experts share their knowledge, attend classes, etc.), share (digest your learnings and share them via blog, social and other channels to build awareness and credibility as an enthusiast) and apply (start building virtual worlds on your own, for friends and family, pro bono/in-kind projects or if you’re lucky a paying client). Rinse and repeat. That is how I got into the world of search marketing in 1996 and most recently, the metaverse.

The Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality Industries are so exciting. What is coming around the corner? How will these improve our lives? What are the concerns we should keep an eye out for? Aside from entertainment, how can VR or AR help work or other parts of life? To address this, we had the pleasure of interviewing Kent Lewis.

Lewis is currently Chief Marketing Officer for Anvil/Deksia. With a background in integrated marketing, he left a public relations agency in 1996 to start his career in search engine marketing. Since then, he’s helped grow businesses by connecting his clients with their constituents via the Internet. In 2000, Lewis founded Anvil Media, Inc., a measurable marketing agency specializing in search engine and social media marketing. Under his leadership, Anvil has received recognition from Portland Business Journal and Inc. Magazine as a Fastest Growing and Most Philanthropic Company. In March 2022, Anvil merged with Deksia, a Midwest-based agency specializing in strategy-driven creative.

In 2008, Lewis created Formic Media, a sister agency to Anvil, providing a similar set of digital marketing services to small businesses and strategic partners. He’s co-founder of a variety of organizations, including career community pdxMindShare, emailROI (now Thesis) and SEMpdx, a Portland-area SEM professional trade association. As a long-time entrepreneur, Lewis is an investor and advisor to a host of emerging Portland-based companies, including CareSpace, ShoeBio, Syndical, Tixie and ToneCommand. Lewis speaks regularly at industry events and has been published in books and publications including Business2Community, Online Marketing Institute and Portland Business Journal and SmartBrief.

Since 2000, he’s been an adjunct professor at Portland State University, where he’s taught an SEM Workshop, and tours nationwide as a regular speaker at the Digital Summit conference series. Active in his community, Lewis has been involved in non-profit charity and professional trade organizations including early literacy program SMART Reading, The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE). Industry recognition and awards include Portland Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, Top 25 Most Influential Pay-per-Click Experts and Marketer of the Year by American Marketing Association Oregon Chapter. Lewis was also named a Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers by BuzzSumo.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?

I grew up in Seattle and went to college in Bellingham, WA before starting my career in marketing. I transitioned from a public relations into digital in 1996, as it seemed like a new and interesting profession. After getting recruited to multiple agencies, I elected to do my own thing in 2000, and have been running Anvil ever since.

Is there a particular book, film, or podcast that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

All Seth Godin books have had a tremendous impact on me. So much so, I reached out to Seth to invite him to speak at a local conference in 2007 and it led to a discussion about promoting him as a presenter and author. That brief conversation resulted in a blog post. After that experience, I was fortunate to have lunch with Seth in midtown Manhattan a year later. I have his book, This is Marketing, on my desk.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the X Reality industry? We’d love to hear it.

My original inspiration, as outlined in my first article about the metaverse, was a client asking for help building a presence in Second Life in the 2007 timeframe. I was not impressed initially with the platform, but I saw the potential. Now it’s a major focus for myself and our team at Anvil/Deksia in 2022 and beyond.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

My best story about the metaverse relates to NFTs, in that our first foray into the blockchain world was an April Fool’s press release regarding our new capabilities (building virtual shoe boxes for the sneaker drops that were popular early last year). It led to actual client work and inspired this year’s April Fool’s press release.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I/we don’t make mistakes, but I’m happy to say the “fake” press release could have been considered a mistake by many, but it led to business and exposure we couldn’t have otherwise imagined.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My boss in 1997, Ryan, made a lasting impact on me. He helped me understand how agencies operate (and make money) and inspired me to think differently about music (the math behind the notes) and technology (his first PC was a K-Pro). He later recruited me to cofound an agency in 1999 and that forever changed my trajectory. Sadly, he passed away too early (at 42 years young) after we had a falling out and my biggest regret is not reconnecting with him before he passed to say thank you.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

My primary focus is helping clients understand the Metaverse and support NFT drops. I enjoy educating people and brands and hope to help them navigate the new virtual world as I did nearly 15 years ago with Second Life.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?

I believe AR (augmented reality) and XR (extended reality) have the greatest potential for brands in the future. I’m not a huge fan of VR, despite speaking extensively about the metaverse (primarily giving warnings and outlining concerns. Everyone has a smart phone and bandwidth and lives in the real world. VR provides an opportunity for brands to engage and add value on the most popular personal appliance in history. Helping visualize a sofa in your living room or trying on shoes or clothing from the comfort of your own home is true problem solving.

What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?

The major concerns I have with VR in particular are: hardware limitations (cost of headsets), human limitations (comfort and use of headsets over time) and interoperability (being able to move seamlessly between virtual worlds with avatars and crypto currency). While you can make headsets more affordable, I don’t believe you can solve the human desire to be in the real world and not get motion sickness. Interoperability is a standards-based solution but will take time.

I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?

While VR has been touted as a powerful remote collaboration tool, I don’t believe people will want to spend hours wearing a headset. Conversely, it has real value in terms of product design collaboration where hands-on is key for a distributed workforce. AR and MR have similar opportunities in terms of improving workflow and collaboration, but I’m still a fan of face-to-face interactions when possible.

Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?

While VR can create immersive experiences (especially from an entertainment and education perspective), I’m more of a fan of AR in terms of being light, intuitive and more aligned with the future (making us more of a hybrid like Terminator in terms of additional information a screen can provide to a camera view of the world). MR is too similar to VR in terms of issues around headset use (human and hardware issues).

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about working in your industry? Can you explain what you mean?

The biggest myth about VR is that it’s here today and it’s a game changer. VR hasn’t evolved significantly in 20 years, despite improvements in resolution, computing power and internet speeds. I believe we’re 3–5 years away from useful metaverse interactions and commerce. In the meantime, I believe AR is here and ready for greater development and adoption.

What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The VR, AR or MR Industries?”

To have a highly successful in VR, AR & MR, I recommend following the same process: learn (read and watch the experts share their knowledge, attend classes, etc.), share (digest your learnings and share them via blog, social and other channels to build awareness and credibility as an enthusiast) and apply (start building virtual worlds on your own, for friends and family, pro bono/in-kind projects or if you’re lucky a paying client). Rinse and repeat. That is how I got into the world of search marketing in 1996 and most recently, the metaverse.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

While I’m a big believe in the Black Lives Matter movement, I’m most passionate about representing indigenous people of the United States (if not the World) as the original landowners. In September of 2022, I created the NFT Mural project in Portland to honor Portland’s BIPOC community. I’d like to further refine my focus to help local tribes create sustainable careers in the world of digital marketing to get them out of abject poverty and marginalization.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

Ryan Reynolds has probably figured out by now that I’m a huge fan. While I respect him as an actor and producer, I’m in awe of his entrepreneurial and marketing talents. He revolutionized the advertising industry with ‘fastvertising,’ for example.

Thank you so much for these excellent stories and insights. We wish you continued success on your great work!