'Every industry expected to be disrupted by digital era will be impacted by metaverse too’

Among the many discussions and talks that made up the e4m Techmanch, held last week at Mumbai, ‘Marketing in the Metaverse: How Brands are Engaging in Virtual Worlds’ was quite possibly the highlight, with each panelist appearing as an avatar of themselves on the screens. The session was held on PartyNite Metaverse by Gamitronics and the exclusive space was created on the metaverse for this particular panel.

The one-of-its-kind session was chaired by Niraj Ruparel- Head of Mobile & Emerging Tech, GroupM, and featured Bhawna Sikka, Digestive Health Business Lead, Haleon; Amit Jain, Head of Marketing & PR, Volvo Car India; Shankar Iyer- Associate Director (Marketing), Perfetti Van Melle India; Dave Dolan- Chief Product Officer Veative Labs; and Anjali Krishnan, Consumer Experience Lead, Mondelez India & Bangladesh.

Each of these marketing and creative heads are among those leading the charge in the adoption of the metaverse across brands, products, and services and their discussion was as forward looking as it was present-focused.

“Welcome to India’s first panel discussion on exchange4media’s own metaverse as we discuss what is possibly the most buzzing word in the planet: the metaverse,” said Ruparel, setting the tone of the topic. 

Explaining how the metaverse included an ever-growing number of virtual worlds, wherein people could play games, make new friends and meet old ones, go for real time virtual concerts, and so much more Ruparel also succinctly remarked that often people on these platforms can represent themselves with versions far more authentic to themselves, than they possibly can in the real world.

Highlighting the importance of these avatars, Ruparel quoted a recent report, “One of every five kids on Roblox changes their avatar every day, which shows the value of the platform. The novelty value of NFTs is fading, which means their true value is emerging: as a means of ownership and collaboration.”

Dismissing the notion that they are just fads, Ruparel identified them as tech tools and platforms whose use would drive power and success across industries for years to come, noting, “Every industry expected to be disrupted by the digital era will also be impacted by the metaverse, and that explains why everyone from banks to ad agencies are eager to form the right partnerships and create own in-house metaverse games to bring more people into these shared spaces.”

Volvo’s Jain, who recently did a news interview in his meta-human avatar and noted he had become really comfortable in the metaverse, said, “Even in the Volvo-verse initiative, we played a lot of games and did other activities. I told my team I didn’t want to come out. And I’m very happy with the avatar and experience you have created here.”

Agreeing with Ruparel that a common myth around accessing the metaverse required complicated hardware, Jain said that the first question consumers had asked when Volvo were creating a metaverse experience was what device they would need. “We had to reassure them that you can use your own phone and you don’t need anything additional to enjoy the seamless experience that the Volvo-verse offered.”

Perfetti Van Melle India’ Iyer joked that having to choose his panel’s outfit with a team of colleagues was quite a first. As one of the few companies to have worked with Decentraland, a 3D virtual world browser-based platform, Iyer said the flagship Alpenliebe brand had always been associated with kids and having fun and the sweetness of the brand.

“For us it was about how we bring that consumer experience to the metaverse. And Wavemaker, along with Nickelodeon, did a fabulous job of this, and we partnered together to create India’s first ever awards held in the metaverse. And it was really fun and the kids could create their own avatars and do other activities. We were also rebranding our Alpenliebe Éclairs at this time and this was a good way to create a buzz around the brand,” he said.

Referring to Ruparel’s example of the recent movie Rocketry being an inspiration for the kids who watched it to reach for the moon by actually showing how it was there, Veative Lab’s Dolan said that it was a good microcosm of how the metaverse could help kids imagine where they want to be and be a boon to edu-tech.

“It’s what we’re exploring in education right now. It’s possible to explore future careers and activities that you absolutely cannot do in real life. I can feel what it’s like to be in the Google office, or how it is inside an operation theatre,” he said, adding, “I can actually experience it, and what’s more, have meaningful interactions and learnings from something or someone, and that is what sticks with you. It’s a great leveller in that way.”

Addressing the utility of the metaverse, Sikka said the platform was something that Haleon was looking at with keen strategic interest, as evidenced with its own experience, Enoland, which hosted India’s first stand-up comedy show.  

“Eno is a unique consumer healthcare brand that allows it to be quirky and funny. And if we are going to take that route, then we want it to be a tactile, humorous experience, whether it’s hosting stand-up shows or getting our proud Eno consumers together and sharing laughs and experiences of being different kinds of foodies. It allows us to invite our users in and allows us a level of engagement that wasn’t possible before, and we are very going to go ahead very strongly,” said Sikka.

Reacting to Ruparel identifying Mondelez as a factory of innovation, Krishnan said that was actually encoded into the brand. "At Mondelez, we have two core principles that we stick to. One is creating manifold experiences to engage with our customers and the other is to test and learn. Metaverse is a very promising opportunity for us to build these different immersive experiences while experimenting with the technology.”

“we recently had two very successful campaigns: one for Dairy Milk Silk on Valentine’s Day, which was targeted towards teenagers and young couples and allowed for a first dinner date online on the metaverse,” she said, adding, “We entered the NFT space with Jems Junior NFT, which had a very unique proposition. We’ve converted children’s submitted drawings into NFTs and displayed them onto digital galleries, which can be bought with a fiat currency, and all the proceeds will go to an NGO we’ve partnered with. And it is always perpetuating, so you can keep buying and trading.”

The panel discussed various other aspects of the metaverse and its many many uses, with the discussion finally concluding with Ruparel (in real life) coming on the stage and discussing the minutiae of setting up the metaverse as well as the ease of using the platform.

“We created this in just a few days with a very limited budget as an example. Imagine what we could do in a couple of months with some serious funds. The metaverse is going to be paradis for creative agencies, and at WPP, we have some really exciting work coming out to show you guys soon,” concluded Ruparel.