Why we care about metaverse activations

Half of marketers in a new MarTech flash survey say they are considering a metaverse activation either this year or some time in the next five years. This survey was conducted in March and included 209 respondents, primarily marketers in the U.S.

Responses from marketers were divided evenly into four main quadrants. One quarter is considering a metaverse activation this year, while another quarter is considering doing this some time in the next one to five years. A quarter of respondents said they’d never consider using the metaverse. And the final quarter would be considering breaking into it more than five years down the road.

Survey results. Respondents to the MarTech flash survey were asked: “When will your company consider a commercial use of the metaverse?”

The results by percentage and number of responses are as follows.

• Within one year: 25.4% (53)
• In 1-5 years: 28.7% (60)
• In 6-10 years: 7.7% (16)
• In 11-20 years: 7.7% (16)
• Not for at least 20 years: 4.8% (20)
• Never: 25.8% (54)

VR becoming a reality. A number of big brands have recently rolled out metaverse presences, and Hogarth Worldwide has spearheaded The Metaverse Foundry to provide services to help get metaverse activations up and running.

These developments we’ve been covering add some shape to a broad emerging channel that is still largely undefined. But as brands set up more outposts in VR environments, some of the confusion among consumers will dissipate.

Read next: What does the metaverse mean to consumers and marketers?

For instance, a Gartner study from February found that 60% of consumers had no opinion about the metaverse, and 38% had heard of it but weren’t sure what it meant. That’s understandable as marketers break ground in this new frontier.

With a full quarter of marketers in our survey considering a commercial use for the metaverse in 2022, expect at least some of these questions to be answered for consumers in the months ahead.

About The Author

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.