29/11/2022 In the metaverse and NFT 2.0, marketers should focus on utility and community

AR glasses with a sense of technology and the concept of the metaverse
Image Credit: Getty Images

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As we move into the NFT 2.0 technology space, we see a more innovative and accessible approach to creating a user-centric experience where participants can benefit from utility.Web3marketers are also delving into how brands can position themselves to continue generating profit from NFT ventures while adding value to their products. However, forNFTsto thrive in the Web3 ecosystem, consumers need storytelling and value proposition, especially in an environment where technology is constantly evolving.

Web3 marketing agencies have been carefully implementing brands into themetaverseto build awareness and actual utility for consumers they engage with. However, for a brand to be true to its fan base, its digital assets must incorporate audience and community engagement to create a worthwhile experience and keep consumers coming back.

How top brands use the metaverse to create a utility-centric experience

The metaverse provides brands a landscape to reinvent themselves. What they deliver in the real world doesn’t have to be exactly what they deliver in the metaverse. That being said, brands that have entered the metaverse successfully are respecting their core business while finding ways to express it a little differently. For example, Under Armour’s Curry brand was able to launch a metaverse campaign of exclusive,digital shoesthat went beyond simply buying virtual shoes. The digital assets were continuously released over the course of the 2022 NBA playoffs and contingent upon Steph Curry’s performance. It gave fans a new way to engage with each NBA game they watched and allowed Under Armour to reach a new audience while building out its digital footprint in tandem.

A campaign like that exemplifies the work that needs to be done behind the scenes by the brand, creative agencies and marketing agencies to develop a meaningful activation. When creating an NFT or metaverse campaign, a brand must look past profit and towards community as the focal point. The metaverse now is in a raw state, but will be shaped in the future by what brands are doing at this moment. There is no status quo, no norms for consumers’ expectations, and as more businesses offer digital assets with utility for their customers, they’ll have a much deeper competitive advantage as this new market consolidates.

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Building a seamless NFT 2.0 ecosystem with value creation

NFTs have been much discussed over the past year, but NFT 2.0 has the opportunity to create much more potential for a wider audience by embedding more utility into existing infrastructure. These assets can include digital artwork, in-game items that can be used across different games, music and other collectibles. On a small scale, an artist could develop a shirt design for a virtual avatar, sell it as an NFT for individual users, and use the blockchain to track the sales. Scaling this idea up, a large brand could move a similar artwork concept forward with their brand’s logo and track thousands of unique NFT purchases.

When you look at successful NFT/Web3 communities, a lot of their success comes down to one thing: They provided opportunities for their holders/users. Much of that opportunity has been financial gains for the users as they cash in on market fluctuations, but the successful communities provide for those who are looking at the project from a long-term perspective too, likepurchasing a digital property in the metaverse. Another example of a long-term opportunity is when community members interact and create content for other members, or even create exclusive channels, like a Discord community, for networking and partnership opportunities.

Brands can’t force people to engage with their digital efforts, but getting a small group of consumers on board, individuals who see the long-term value in a project, creates potential to build a community that will stay loyal. So when building an NFT community, everyone should be asking themselves what opportunities and utility they can give holders besides a quick financial gain.

The future of brand positioning in Web3 and the metaverse

The bear market that NFTs and crypto have been in throughout 2022 is a hurdle for brands wanting to show initiative in this space. On the other hand, there are still plenty of brands launching activations, despite market value, which indicates how much potential brands will see once the market picks up. As brands are developing their next marketing plans, they should include an NFT ormetaverseactivation that creates value and interoperability. Examples might be a cool design that can apply to different games; branded artwork to display across social media platforms; or even inspiring small artists or musicians to create something as part of a brand competition for a prize. Generating engagement, promoting interoperability and creating value will be three main components for future brand positioning.

There’s also recently been a significant surge in the creation of Mint passes, which provide utility to holders over an extended period of time. This is likely because people are starting to be less interested in profile-picture projects that don’t deliver utility until a later time. This indicates that brands trying to get into the NFT space should be willing to tap into their resources and real-world products to translate them directly to the Web3 community, in a fast and equitable way.

The potential for brands in the metaverse and NFT activations is limitless, but as this market continues developing, their efforts must be done correctly, with community-building as a main component. It’s exciting to see how much growth there has been in the past year and this is expected to continue in the near future.

Jack Cameron is cofounder and COO ofInsomnia Labs.

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Arts

https://venturebeat.com/virtual/in-the-metaverse-and-nft-2-0-marketers-should-focus-on-utility-and-community/

Interesting NFTs
The Scion
A young figure caught in a moment of distraction, aware only ephemerally of his unconscious being, as it engages in psychological and psychedelic layer spaces. His right arm casually cradles a moray eel; the figure is comfortable but not truly aware of the potentials for danger in such negligence. His shirt reads “Bello” in Pokemon style font, harkening back to a childhood straddling the millennial threshold. To his right side, out of the unconscious deep, shrouded alien heads propagate as a fractal totem, each new iteration a more sophisticated rendering of emotional masking over the cold mystery of the greys. As the scion of the Budgie-Sattva, the young man, in his distraction, is also simultaneously aware of higher levels of self discovery. To his left a psychological topology sets beneath the oracle side of an 8 ball ,hovering; its message a purest concept of acceptance. The “Scion” lettering is in 80’s HeMan style bold declaration. The lower right side of the painting is like a hybrid of melon, feathers, and seeds. The crystals in the background bring light; conducted, refracted, reflected, and dispersed, to balance the dark shadow of the figure’s physical body. The aura of the scion succeeds in layers to point, with a finger, and the crown chakra, toward a center of a mandala existing as nigh pure application of strokes, in essence painterly abstraction, but also revealing hints of the Aura of migraine, and the bi-hemispherical nature of the brain–noting concerns of the possibility of inherited mental disease. Yet the flourish of chakra as it sets against that center is robust, active, coherent, and reveling against all fear. Fundamentally, the piece speaks to the activation of one’s potential to begin to “Know Thyself”, and find greater awareness out of the enigmas of the mind–as an inculcated seed given to the rich soil of one’s own birthright.
Tales from the Crypto
An abstract piece by Mojoko exploring the relationship between ancient Chinese paper cuts and western comic book culture. 4K animation 30 second loop with sound.
OriginalplanÂŽ - Series 1 - Raw Cut Diamond Be@rbrick
The Be@rbrick series is a project around creating unique Be@rbrick designs. Originally it started as a daily project so each design was created on a daily basis. The concept and idea is based on the subcultural phenomenon of collectibles and designer toys. Raw Cut Be@rbrick is made of several hundreds of diamonds and is only availabe as a 1/1 limited edition collectible. Format : 3D Render. File: JPG * size: 5120 × 2880px After purchase a hand signed Glichē print will be sent to the address of your choosing. Limited to: 1/1 digital pieces.
Clock
one thousand four hundred forty one
Fuku-Shiva
The term “Fuku” refers to fortune or good luck. “Shiva” refers to the Hindu deity who represents strongly polar qualities, both severe and delicate. On a beach inspired by adventures on Phi Phi island in Thailand, three youths cavort. Two are representational figures and the third is psychologically rendered. A dynamic relationship ensues between the triad; a reciprocity of active and passive states. The boy on the right engages in maneuvers of evasion, defense, and is dressed in a speedo which reiterates the colors and symbolism of the caution tape on the left and upper right frame of the composition. In concurrent reaction the psychedelic figure shoots out a rocket powered paper airplane. The nude boy seated in the froth and sand approaches in passive repose, and is met with active attention but equal physical reserve by the psychedelic being. Perhaps the most naked figure is also the least representational. Looming large, dynamic, and active, it engages its companions playfully. Various symbols interject into the otherwise naturalistic scene, most notably a beach ball and two contaminated barrels nested in the sand. The upright barrel reads “FukuShima” in Kanji. The barrel laying down reads “Dharma”. To the left the scene is bounded by caution tape, reiterating the danger of the nuclear waste while also hosting alien archetypes, whose presence, as is the nature of these entities, runs up and just behind the consciousness of the psychedelic figure’s eggshell-like skull.