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How brands are joining the metaverse with VR experiences

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How brands are joining the metaverse with VR experiences

“This is still very early stages,” said Mehta Mehta, global executive creative director for Hogarth Worldwide, the specialist creative agency for WPP. Big clients, from a list that includes Pizza Hut, Duracell and Bombay Sapphire, are asking Mehta how to get their brands involved in VR experiences and launch activations on what’s been recently referred to as the metaverse.

“They’re asking, how do we jump the curve and move forward in this new world?” Mehta said.

The Metaverse Foundry. To meet marketers’ needs in developing immersive VR experiences and activations, Hogarth announced the opening of The Metaverse Foundry as a resource to all WPP clients. It pulls together over 700 creative content specialists, producers, visual artists, developers and technologists.

“Brands are all at different stages, either advanced or they just want to get into it,” said Mehta. “How do you get mass adoption? We consult on the ways to get people on.”


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Key pillars to The Metaverse Foundry’s approach are building a creative experience for visitors to hook into and being open to culture of the virtual community where the brand is appearing.

“The whole point of the metaverse is to build community,” said Mehta. “Brands can’t go there with an agenda. They need to solve for how to make payments in this environment, how to access an experience or product and change the model for access.”

Mehta added that to adapt in these early stages in the evolution of VR experiences and environments, marketers have to keep in mind that the appeal for “The Metaverse” is that it is decentralized. That’s why the new project is called a “foundry.”

Decentraland. Decentraland is a virtual community where users can create their own environments and artworks using the Builder tool, and marketers can host events and launch contests and games with other SKD tools.

In December, Hogarth WW client Under Armour partnered with NBA star Stephen Curry and Decentraland for an NFT-activation that features digital replicas of sneakers, celebrating Curry’s achievement in becoming the league’s all-time three-point basket leader.

Read next: Marketers: the metaverse is coming.

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Decentraland also is a destination for virtual assets, allowing users to trade and buy land in the virtual environment, as well as wearables for the avatars that users take on. For a basketball fan that has an avatar in Decentraland, they might like to show off a replica of the sneakers that Curry wore when he broke the all-time record for three point shots, per the Under Armour partnership.

Acura Integration. Today, Acura announced that they will become the first automaker to open a digital showroom in the metaverse, also on Decentraland. The showroom will be called Acura of Decentraland, and will be accessible to users starting on March 22.

Acura will be debuting their 2023 Integra, and serious car buyers who reserve the new model (the first 500) will have the opportunity to claim a limited-edition NFT designed by 3D artist Andreas Wannerstedt. First, the customer gets a base NFT with the reservation. Upon delivery of their new car, they will then upgrade to a unique Integra NFT that they can flex in the metaverse.

In the Acura virtual showroom, visitors will be able to explore the 3D environment and see key features of the vehicle. They can also play an exclusive racing game, “Beat That,” and browse a collection of avatar wearables also designed by Wannerstedt.

The metaverse activation is linked to an integrated campaign timed with March Madness hoops, and MullenLowe Los Angeles provided agency services for the effort.

Skechers activation. LIfestyle brand Skechers is also dipping their toe in the metaverse on Decentraland. They signed a “lease” in the platform’s “Fashion District.” 

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According to a company release, they filed trademark applications to sell virtual goods, including footwear and apparel, with more announcements to come on what their virtual shop will look like and what products users can browse when they visit.

Why we care. Brands are at different stages, and are offering different levels of commitment to at least one virtual outpost of the metaverse. Note that Decentraland isn’t a property of Facebook’s parent company Meta.

When speaking with Hogarth’s global executive creative director, Mehta Mehta, the advertising veteran shared what he’s heard from clients time and again – brands are looking for new customers and where to reach them. 

New environments equal new customers, but marketers should also look hard at who their customers are and see if there is crossover appeal for VR users, gamers and other digital explorers. Knowing this, marketers can assess what platform to engage and how involved they want to get.


About The Author

datafuelX launches predictive analytics solutions to improve linear TV and
Chris Wood draws on over 15 years of reporting experience as a B2B editor and journalist. At DMN, he served as associate editor, offering original analysis on the evolving marketing tech landscape. He has interviewed leaders in tech and policy, from Canva CEO Melanie Perkins, to former Cisco CEO John Chambers, and Vivek Kundra, appointed by Barack Obama as the country’s first federal CIO. He is especially interested in how new technologies, including voice and blockchain, are disrupting the marketing world as we know it. In 2019, he moderated a panel on “innovation theater” at Fintech Inn, in Vilnius. In addition to his marketing-focused reporting in industry trades like Robotics Trends, Modern Brewery Age and AdNation News, Wood has also written for KIRKUS, and contributes fiction, criticism and poetry to several leading book blogs. He studied English at Fairfield University, and was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He lives in New York.


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MARKETING

Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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More promotions and more layoffs

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More promotions and more layoffs

For martech professionals salaries are good and promotions are coming faster, unfortunately, layoffs are coming faster, too. That’s according to the just-released 2024 Martech Salary and Career Survey. Another very unfortunate finding: The median salary of women below the C-suite level is 35% less than what men earn.

The last year saw many different economic trends, some at odds with each other. Although unemployment remained very low overall and the economy grew, some businesses — especially those in technology and media — cut both jobs and spending. Reasons cited for the cuts include during the early years of the pandemic, higher interest rates and corporate greed.

Dig deeper: How to overcome marketing budget cuts and hiring freezes

Be that as it may, for the employed it remains a good time to be a martech professional. Salaries remain lucrative compared to many other professions, with an overall median salary of $128,643. 

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Here are the median salaries by role:

  • Senior management $199,653
  • Director $157,776
  • Manager $99,510
  • Staff $89,126

Senior managers make more than twice what staff make. Directors and up had a $163,395 median salary compared to manager/staff roles, where the median was $94,818.

One-third of those surveyed said they were promoted in the last 12 months, a finding that was nearly equal among director+ (32%) and managers and staff (30%). 

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Extend the time frame to two years, and nearly three-quarters of director+ respondents say they received a promotion, while the same can be said for two-thirds of manager and staff respondents.

Dig deeper: Skills-based hiring for modern marketing teams

Employee turnover 

In 2023, we asked survey respondents if they noticed an increase in employee churn and whether they would classify that churn as a “moderate” or “significant” increase. For 2024, given the attention on cost reductions and layoffs, we asked if the churn they witnessed was “voluntary” (e.g., people leaving for another role) or “involuntary” (e.g., a layoff or dismissal). More than half of the marketing technology professionals said churn increased in the last year. Nearly one-third classified most of the churn as “involuntary.”

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Men and Women

Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540Screenshot 2024 03 21 124540

This year, instead of using average salary figures, we used the median figures to lessen the impact of outliers in the salary data. As a result, the gap between salaries for men and women is even more glaring than it was previously.

In last year’s report, men earned an average of 24% more than women. This year the median salary of men is 35% more than the median salary of women. That is until you get to the upper echelons. Women at director and up earned 5% more than men.

Methodology

The 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey is a joint project of MarTech.org and chiefmartec.com. We surveyed 305 marketers between December 2023 and February 2024; 297 of those provided salary information. Nearly 63% (191) of respondents live in North America; 16% (50) live in Western Europe. The conclusions in this report are limited to responses from those individuals only. Other regions were excluded due to the limited number of respondents. 

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Download your copy of the 2024 MarTech Salary and Career Survey here. No registration is required.

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