The marketing and tech hype-cycle circus moves quickly.

When Facebook changed its name to Meta two years ago, the concept of ‘the metaverse’ was thrust into the limelight and has been much discussed by marketeers. Since that moment ‘the metaverse’ has been on a classic hype-cycle rollercoaster ride. From the initial trigger of excitement, it rode the curve up to the peak of inflated expectations before a crash down to the trough of disillusionment much to the pleasure of the onlooking Twitter trolls.

The climax of schadenfreude arrived when a legless avatar of Mark Zuckerberg demo’d his new Horizon Worlds platform with graphics that looked more befitting of a straight-to-DVD CGI cartoon movie from the late 90s.

“The Metaverse is dead,” proclaimed Fast Company. The pile-on was instant and devastating.

However, these obituaries might have been penned a little prematurely. After all, ‘the metaverse’ is not just Meta. In fact, platforms like Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft have a combined Monthly Active User base of over 450 million people. To put that into perspective, that’s almost double the number of monthly subscribers that Netflix has worldwide. With such a large and growing audience – predominantly made up of younger demographics – marketeers ignore ‘the metaverse’ at their peril.

I recently attended The Economist’s Metaverse Summit in LA where I spoke to brands who are building experiences and products in the space and I found it to be very much alive, kicking, and ripe for marketing teams. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Get flexible with how you show up

Much of the excitement around creating bespoke virtual experiences is the creativity they enable companies to have when bringing their brand to life in ways never seen before. Brands are no longer restricted by the limitations of 2D video and imagery as a way to communicate with their audiences. By creating 3D branded environments, audiences can fully immerse themselves in a brand’s world rather than passively consuming content.

Brands also have more flexibility with how they show up in these worlds. Charles Campisi, Director of Innovation at NHL, noted how the most popular items among visitors to their Virtual World on Roblox weren’t NHL team jerseys, but instead abstract and fantastical items that brought the brand to life in a unique way. As such, the creative freedom offered by 3D environments has allowed NHL to grow their fan base to include those who might not have been traditionally drawn to a New York Rangers jersey.

Avoid activating in silos: the convergence of Virtual & IRL 

Brands have shifted their perspective, moving away from viewing virtual worlds as siloed experiences. Instead, they are now exploring strategies to integrate these worlds into their broader content and commercial ecosystems.

For NHL, that meant bringing the data from their IRL matches into their Roblox experience, where fans were able to re-live their favourite moments from the Stanley Cup via avatars that they could skate alongside. i.e., Real World to Virtual World.

It can also work the other way, where elements from virtual experiences are crossing over into the real world, particularly with fashion brands. Christina Wootton, Chief Partnerships Officer at Roblox, cited research that 70% of Gen-Z claim that their digital style is affecting what they purchase in the real world. This is why we’re seeing brands like Ralph Lauren creating real world products based on the items that they created virtually first for their Fortnite audience. i.e., Virtual World to Real World.

With Roblox recently announcing that audiences will soon be able to purchase real world goods from their virtual environments, this convergence of Virtual to Physical is only likely to increase.

Less PR, more ROI

With budgets ever-more scrutinised and macroeconomic conditions becoming tougher, brands are demanding to see true ROI from their metaverse experiences. Gone are the days when brands would launch a pop-up in Decentraland in order to earn the accompanying PR fanfare, regardless of the fact that only a few hundred people showed up. Metaverse investments need to match up against other spend opportunities that marketing teams have at their disposal.

Brands are increasingly measuring their performance in virtual worlds and stacking the metrics up against the benchmarks of other digital channels to see if it is delivering ROI. What they’re increasingly finding is that it can be more cost effective to reach and engage audiences on platforms like Roblox vs traditional social media.

The proliferation of data-led evaluation for virtual experiences can only help marketers when asked to prove the effectiveness of these experiences and should help when they’re next asked to make a business case for the investment.

“The metaverse is dead. Long live Spatial Computing?”

Considering that this was The Economist’s Metaverse Summit, it struck me as quite surprising that virtually everyone I spoke with wanted to kill the term ‘metaverse’. The general consensus was that it is a nebulous, catch-all term that encapsulates everything from gaming to VR to AR to blockchain. Its lack of specificity makes it unhelpful as a descriptor. It also has widespread negative connotations among the broader population as a result of people confusing ‘the metaverse’ with ‘Meta’ the company.

Most importantly though, it’s not how users of these platforms describe their experience. No-one on Roblox, Minecraft, Pokemon Go or Fortnite describe themselves as metaverse users. Much in the same way that no-one ordering an Uber would describe this process as ‘calling an internet taxi’.

‘Spatial Computing’ was most commonly volunteered as an alternative – maybe as this is the term Apple is leaning into – but really perhaps no label is needed at all.

What there was total consensus on was that our primary focus should be on building excellent consumer experiences, rather than getting caught up in the latest hype cycle buzzwords that we can shout about on LinkedIn.

• Max Proctor, is MD of Doppelgänger, a strategic consultancy helping brands navigate the worlds of gaming and Web3.