An Article From Asst. Prof. Dr. İpek Sucu About Advertising Practices in Metaverse

Sucu stated the following about Metaverese advertising practices: “One of the most dynamic areas of today's world and one of the fastest affected by technological developments is digital marketing. Therefore, being the first to use updates and innovations can be said to be one of the indispensable elements that will make marketers and brands stand out. Therefore, we can say that the metaverse is an area that brands, marketers, and advertisers should get involved in as soon as possible. Metaverse is the combination of augmented reality, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT), all accessible through a single interface. Think of it as Google Earth meets Second Life meets Tinder. The Metaverse will transform how brands communicate with consumers, how marketers find new customers, how companies optimize marketing spend, and how advertising campaigns are created and executed across all channels.

We know how important it is for brands to understand consumers' expectations and personalize their experiences. At this point, it is obvious that the metaverse will have an important area in terms of personalization and providing better experiences. Metaverse refers to a virtual world that we are very familiar with from games and movies. Metaverse, also called the new generation of the Internet, appears as a technology with which we can be whoever we want outside of our universe, travel the world without leaving our home, and even make a virtual time travel.

They love creating, and the metaverse can be used to cater to these interests. We can say that the best example of this is the Gucci Garden experience provided by Roblox, in which Gucci celebrates its 100th anniversary under the creative directorship of Alessandro Michele. Here, an experience called the collector's room was offered, which allowed users to purchase a limited number of products in the virtual space. Moreover, the bag is not an NFT, meaning it is a digital asset that exists only in the Roblox universe. It has no value, usability, or transfer outside of the Roblox universe. Selling products to avatars will be a great business for brands. Many brands are already taking action for such collaborations. Gucci is one of them. Recently, at the Gucci Garden event in Roblox, an online game very suitable for the Metaverse universe, Gucci sold Gucci-branded products to players that they could use in the game. Similarly, the sneaker app Aglet has created the “sneakerverse,” a Metaverse that combines sneakers, gaming, and shopping. Interestingly, the platform's virtual sneaker, the Aglet 1, has proven so popular among gamers that the company is now about to put it into production in real life.

Brands such as Warner Bros., Hyundai, and Gucci have created their virtual worlds; Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, and Crockpot are dipping their toes into the Metaverse by selling their NFTs. Sephora, Nike, and HBO offer a futuristic experience to their users using Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies. Marketing automation is the use of software and data to create personalized marketing campaigns across all channels. Marketing automation is used to create customer personas, analyze customer data, and then deliver personalized content across all customer touchpoints. Marketing automation is a marketing tool.

Metaverse advertisements, which see the new generation as the target audience, especially Generation Z, have begun to influence many sectors including health, entertainment, sports, and technology. The advertising industry also started to get its share without being affected by this. Metaverse, a digital and virtual universe, has the potential to explode the advertising industry. While brands that are not interested in Metaverse ads will disappear in the dizzying journey of technology, many new advertising areas will be resurrected thanks to Metaverse. Metaverse, which is defined as a digital universe where almost everything in the real world takes place and has become the most popular technology of recent times, has become more prevalent in daily life, and many brands have started to move their advertisements and experiential marketing efforts to this area. It is possible to say that Metaverse ads will become more widespread in the future and will be among the indispensable trends of brands in the marketing and advertising world.”