How can Brands Develop Metaverse Experiences on Their Own Platforms?

“When brands come to us, they’re looking to create experiences that emotionally reconnect people – especially after being disconnected during the pandemic. They look for this wow effect, and for an experience that can be accessible on all devices.”

-Ida Kymmer
Strategic Business Development Manager
Journee

Last year metaverse companies raised $10.4 billion! NFT sales alone amounted to $24.9 billion in 2021, compared to just $94.9 million the year before.

So, it’s only natural that brands and metaverse companies are all rushing in to leverage this newfound audience attention with new crop of 3D stories.

But how do they do it?

They turn to 2 familiar marketing tactics:

Brand Partnerships

Brands can either host their metaverse experiences on the high-trafficked 4 gaming platforms: Decentraland, Sandbox, Roblox or Epic Games (home of Fortnite).

For example, Sony Music concerts on Roblox, Lego partnering with Epic Games, Fashion Week’s debut on Decentraland or Hong Kong–based bank HSBC buying digital land on Sandbox.

In simple terms, think of an Apple renting space for their store in a busy shopping mall.

Or

Self-Hosted Experiences

Brands can host their metaverse experience on their own Website, app or theme park in Disney’s case – to have stronger control. Here you’ll find Burberry B Surf game, Disney’s patented virtual world simulator, or Vogue Business that hosted The Metaverse Experience event last month.

Yep! You got it!, You could think of Lego creating their own Legoland theme park on a land they own.

I was quite curious about the second tactic and its storytelling implications in the metaverse, which I find is often less covered.

It’s also a fascinating evolution of brands intercepting foot traffic (brick & mortar stores), eyeballs (online) and avatar traffic (metaverse).

To help me unpack this exciting topic, last week I enjoyed chatting with Ida Kymmer.

She is the Strategic Business Development Manager with Journee – a Berlin-based Metaverse Company. They are the team that developed the recent metaverse experience for Vogue Business, among others such as for BMW, Adidas, Siemens and more.

It’s all in the latest episode of the Visual Storytelling Today podcast.

Watch the full video recording of this interview:

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You can also listen to the audio podcast of this episode. Subscribe to the Visual Storytelling Today podcast on iTunes, Google Podcasts, and all other podcast networks.

While watching or tuning-in, ask yourself: “Would a metaverse experience work for my brand? My audience?”

If you answered yes to both, then think about what experiment can you do? For what purpose? What stories could you tell? And above all, what tangible value your audience could gain?

Have fun experimenting and discovering what immersive stories could work for your brand!