In the realm of experiential marketing, there are countless things that one needs to keep in mind when it comes to thinking of new ways for products and people to be brought together in a seamless manner. With the need to dazzle audiences with more spectacular events, activations, and branding, there is always a craving for something new. Enter the Metaverse and it gives a plethora of options to everyone and something new and shiny to look at, with many brands adopting this new technology into their marketing. Let's dive deeper into what all of that means.

Web3 has marked one of the most transformative shifts in recent history, generating incredible opportunities in experiential marketing. New spaces offer the freedom to create new communities of people online. Though the sector is in its infancy, the community-focused ethos is rewriting the rules of engagement and interaction, thus, creating a new frontier for online experiences that are truly transformative. The world of the Metaverse is undoubtedly one of the most engaging ones which people can access, offering the ability to interact with purely imagined spaces. As a result, we open the door to a new way of ‘living’ experiences.

The inception of the Web3 space has been explosive, with the integration of new ways to interact with one another and the development of new technology that bolsters how we interact with the internet. Furthermore, with the proliferation and widespread adoption of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality devices, technological advancements have been a huge boon to the experiential industry, adding new layers of intractability to anything that can be created. As for the social aspect, the various platforms of the Metaverse are proving to serve new functions every day, with building community engagement at their core.

The Metaverse is still being defined, both literally and figuratively. Yet its potential to unleash the next wave of digital disruption is increasing, with real-life benefits already emerging from early-adopting users and companies. While it's still early days for Web3, this is not the first time the evolution of the internet will drive new opportunities, behaviors and economies. So there lies a huge opportunity ahead, and with that comes even greater responsibility. 

There is an incredible scope of opportunity, but global brands have been taking advantage of it already and to a tremendous degree. Using platforms like Decentraland, Spatial, Roblox, Fortnite, and a half dozen others, there are experiences today that no one of us could have imagined 20 years ago. Given the enabling factors that technology has offered us today, mobile devices in our pockets are powerful enough to sustain and be a part of an entire universe that no one would have ever thought existed. This, coupled with advancements in internet speed, makes this new world accessible to everyone sitting anywhere and sets a fantastic precedent for brands to create one-of-a-kind experiences for customers, particularly in industries such as fashion, automobiles, and, of course, FMCG.

Many brands have picked up the Metaverse space to create their experiences, like Rexona's Marathon Run, Close-Up worked on a City of Love in Decentraland, Magnum Ice Cream made an entire museum. In addition, brands like Mountain Dew, Sour Patch Kids, and Doritos are also creating incredibly unique Metaverse experiences for their user bases to come together, interact, and form communities in cyberspace. 

Using this as an example, there are a couple of key things that not just FMCG brands but all brands, in general, need to keep in mind when using the Metaverse. The first is to keep things unique and fresh; the Metaverse is boundless in terms of innovation and lacks the physical restrictions that we have in the real world. Secondly, there is a huge scope for telling stories with the Metaverse in a way that 'content' can't do in the physical world. Finally, it's a brand new creative format, and it's one that anyone can work with as long as they've got a phone or laptop and an internet connection. 

The best thing to do right now, from a brand perspective, when it comes to the Metaverse is to give it a try. There are endless possibilities for using new technology to tell stories, just as social media revolutionized communications in the past. With new features being added across platforms, the development of new forms of gamification, and integration with 3D engines like Unreal Engine, Unity 3D, Voxel, and Roblox, the scope for creating a magical experience is unsurmountable.