Challenges for marketing in the Metaverse: Learning new technological capabilities
First, let’s do a reading on the history of digital marketing.
On October 27, 1994, 29 years ago, a brand new and paradigm shift marketing action, which was defined as digital marketing, but which many saw only as the transfer of marketing to the computer world and did not accept it as a new type of marketing, created great excitement. AT&T, the largest telecom company in the USA, started to publish a banner (i.e. an online billboard) on a site on behalf of Hotwired.com, and this banner had a 44% clickthrough rate. (The Guardian, 2013)
Waiting for 2025 misses the train
Why do some fail
At first, due to the limited number of internet users, digital marketing actions were not adopted much and were described as a temporary trend. For example, Kodak was once the world’s leading photography company, but has refused to adapt to the digital age. The company’s executives believed that digital photography would never replace film and continued to invest heavily in traditional marketing channels. As a result, Kodak was slow to embrace digital marketing and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2012 (Harvard Business Review 79, no. 2 (2001). Of course, uninvested digital marketing wasn’t the only reason, but that’s the summary of what interests us.
What is Metaverse? The Facebook of the future and the successor to Microsoft Teams
Some see adaptation as strategic
On the other hand, according to the research I did with Google Bard and companies that adapted to digital marketing early, I reached the following results:
- Microsoft launched its first website in 1994 and started using email marketing in 1995.
- IBM launched its first website in 1995 and started using search engine optimization (SEO) in 1996.
- Coca-Cola launched its first website in 1996 and started using social media marketing in 2005.
The points these companies have come to now are a testament to how they have adapted to new technologies. Here again, it should be noted that digital marketing initiatives are not the only reason why these companies are so successful. Their adaptation and adaptation to new trends clearly shows.
This chart shows advertising revenue as a percentage of US GDP, growth in digital advertising compared to print media since 1995 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_marketing). Based on this chart, we can clearly see how print marketing has a declining performance against digital marketing.
Extended Reality: A New Era in Technology
Adapting to new technologies but how
The seeds planted in this area with a limited number of potential customers in the early 90s began to bear fruit thanks to the widespread use of the internet, the increase in the use and adoption of mobile phones, the increase in internet speeds, the spread of social media channels, the increase in people’s demand for being online, and the increasing investments of companies in mobility. In the chart below, we can see how internet usage has increased since the 90s.
This chart actually shows not only internet usage, but also potentially good data for digital marketing. We can see every internet user as a potential lead. In this sense, although digital marketing has become an investment channel on its own, we can say that it will continue to increase its presence for the next decades. It is a criticism to say how inadequate their foresight is for those who could not make the decision to adapt to new technologies in the 90s, or who took it late, in this period when Web3 (an article will follow on this subject) is now being implemented after Web1, Web2. can be counted as.
Is the story of Metaverse similar to digital marketing?
In the digital marketing story, it can be thought of as the digitalization of marketing information, built on the experience of marketing. Although it was a brand new technology in terms of application, organically, people did not need to make an extra effort to learn their mobile phone and internet usage. It started to occur with time and necessity. For example, the same cannot be said for Metaverse, at least not yet, just as mobile phones have become a necessity for opening a bank account today.
Initially, the resistance to digital marketing was quickly overcome with a horizontal transition due to environmental imperatives and users’ demands. Websites were visited instead of buying newspapers, while waiting for a broadcast on television, content that is called on-demand, that is, accessible at the time of demand, is now available, all transactions can be made from mobile phones instead of waiting in line at the bank. In this case, it potentially caused new customers to enter the system. At this point, the most important thing for digital marketing companies to do was to develop new strategies to capture their customers in digital channels.
The Future of the Internet: Metaverse, NFT and Web3
At this point, the story of Metaverse may not be similar to digital marketing, but learning new technological skills has reached a point where results can be obtained much faster than in the past, due to the fact that a much more conscious society has been reached in adapting to new technologies compared to the 90s.
There is so much to learn and buy to enter the Metaverse
Let’s come to the topic in the title of the article: to the point of learning new technological capabilities, which is the subject of this article in the series of articles where we discuss what challenges there are for marketing in the Metaverse.
Yes, you had to have what you needed for digital marketing, not for digital marketing, but to adapt to the developing-changing age and society. So you already had a computer to do your work and you already had a cell phone to call your friends. At this point, it was not necessary to bear an extra effort and cost to be exposed to digital marketing. But when it comes to the Metaverse, things aren’t quite like that yet.
Topics such as decentralization, Web3, and blockchain include a series of articles to be written in their own right. At this point, we will only focus on Metaverse and marketing.
Introduction to the Metaverse is a job in itself
Today, there are different definitions for Metaverse. But no consensus has yet been reached. However, what will be considered as the Metaverse still remains a mystery. For example, in our country, there are companies that do business with government and public institutions that describe themselves as Metaverse. However, as defined in any academic article on Metaverse, it would not be correct to call such platforms Metaverse.
However, it is also used as a minimum requirement for Metaverse, as it should include augmented reality, virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. The question arises: Can we speak of a Metaverse without any of these technologies?
Again, when I had Google Bard question the academic promotion of Metaverse, I got the following result.
Metaverse does not have a precise academic definition, but is generally understood as a hypothetical iteration of the internet as a single, universal and immersive virtual world facilitated by the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality. AR) headphones. The term “metaverse” originated in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash as a combination of “meta” and “universe”.
According to this definition, I think I can at least mention the following common features, which we can say is a Metaverse:
- Being single and universal: Since it would be very limited to create an application or platform and define it as logging in to Metaverse for people to log into it via an avatar, to define Metaverse it is a virtual world where all applications and platforms are connected and everyone can access universally. we can explain.
- Allows the use of physical products such as VR, AR and XR
- Allows you to create an avatar
- Ability to interact with materials in the metaverse
- Allows interaction between users
There is no Metaverse yet that can provide all of these features, most importantly the first item. This could be the subject of much more extensive research. In order to continue with this aspect of the article, I will exemplify the platforms that meet the remaining four items.
How to login to Metaverse
Today, there are some minimum requirements to log in to some of the platforms that we define as Metaverse. These needs may be all or some of the following, it varies by platform.
- high speed internet
- A computer (a high-tech video card, a fast processor, etc.)
- Web3 wallet (Metamask etc.)
- Minimal knowledge of blockchain logic for introduction to Metaverse platforms, knowledge of Web3 logic and minimal knowledge of fraud protection in Web3
- virtual reality glasses
- Mobile phone (2021 and later recommended)
Different requirements can be added to the above list in line with developing technologies.
Even looking at these needs, it is clear that new technology capabilities are needed to enter a Metaverse. These capabilities come to the fore especially in Metaverse platforms that will be accessed with Web3 technology.
A Web3 wallet is not required to access some mobile applications that are mentioned in the previous parts of the article and that are launched as Metaverse in our country but are not Metaverse.
When it comes to the conclusion
Brands that want to market on the Metaverse can at least overcome this difficulty by starting their business by educating their potential customers about the learning barrier of these new technologies. At this point, traditional and digital marketing activities to increase the number of users of Metaverse platforms will be a good investment for the future.
Because ensuring the adoption of Metaverse usage will allow them to create new sources of profit for companies that trade with the marketing of the cake at some point.
For example, brands that have logged into Metaverse platforms;
Nestle Metaclub
StructureCredit
Workbase and Business Art
Nkolay and Aktif Bank
References
- Smith, Douglas K., and Robert Alexander. The Kodak Moment: The Story of a Company and an Image. New York: Crown Business, 2009.
- Quelch, John A., and Edward J. Hoffer. “Kodak’s Digital Photography Failure.” Harvard Business Review 79, no. 2 (2001): 91–98.
- Levy, Steven. “The Death of Kodak.” Wired 17, no. 11 (2009): 100–109.
- Marsden, Paul. The Digital Marketing Revolution: How Technology is Changing the Way We Do Business. London: Kogan Page, 2013.
