Chances are the first place you heard about the metaverse came hand-in-hand with Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement: Facebook is now called Meta.

Except, what is it exactly?

WHAT is the Metaverse?

Our head of strategy, Edmund Lou, shares “being in the metaverse is essentially you in the digital world; portrayed by a virtual or digital you, an avatar¹. A you-niverse that allows you to experience everything you want in that space.”

This digital rendition of everyday life, Lou notes, “is essentially [shared] virtual space[s] for people to gather”² and do what they do in physical reality.

WHY is the Metaverse happening now?

You might wonder, why is the metaverse only happening now? In fact, elements of metaverse have been “happening” for some time. This is evident in the self-contained virtual realities and what passes as “everyday” to the gaming community.³

So why is this reaching the rest of us now? First, you likely heard it from Zuckerberg. Second and more importantly, this was digital’s natural next step. It just needed an impetus.

Prior to the pandemic, consumers already lived their lives online. The allure of whatever-you-need-at-your-fingertips, from food to entertainment, meant few things were truly experienced physically. The onset of at-home mandates, spurred by a contagion, only took this up a notch.

The last two years were a flurry of digital-first services meeting consumer demand. Businesses took advantage of existing infrastructure and innovation to pivot online, cementing the existence of today’s digital-physical reality.

WHO & HOW will this affect them?

1. Consumer experiences will be increasingly personalised

Consumers
Expect even more consumer-focused experiences because whether it’s through hyper-personalised content or persuasive tech, the goal is to keep users scrolling. Consumers will be further incentivised to join and stay on certain platforms.

A notable example is Facebook’s feed algorithm.⁴ Briefly, the social network takes inventory of posts available in a user’s network and scores them according to predetermined ranking signals. Taking information from the user’s past engagement, Facebook demotes content and scores posts to show you a personalised feed tailored to your behaviour.

Brands
As tech giants work to keep users on their platforms, attention as a commodity will only become scarcer. Your best bet against attention scarcity? Take your cue from the giants and focus on the customer. Dig into personalisation, customer data, and targeting.

The value in understanding your audience will only go upwards as competition rises and consumer attention wanes.

Gucci Garden on Roblox via TechCrunch

2. Consumer needs & expectations will evolve

Consumers
A. Expect changing consumer-brand interaction

Consumer behaviour changed alongside the rise of digital spaces and social networks. More than likely, they’ll also keep up with the integration of the metaverse and its elements.

We look back to the impacts of social networks. Social media enabled users a never-before-seen way to communicate with brands and vice versa. This offers brands more personability, but it also meant brands had to deal with issues in a faster and more humanised manner.

The advent of the metaverse offers even more connective, engaging ways to interact with the consumer. Gone is the clear line between branded and humanised content when it comes to dealing with an online community. In its place is an expectation of organic interaction.

B. Consumer values (digitally) are going to evolve

As people, the things we own have value to us. Up till now, these things primarily consisted of tangible items. The stuff you can grasp in your hands. Oftentimes, the reason we valued our belongings so much were because we invested time, energy, and money into gaining these things.

That extra skin involved in owning the item matters. This does not change even if the item is digital, and gamers know this — collectables, avatar skins, and limited-edition digital items have value and are worth collecting to them. Soon, that’s going to translate beyond the gaming community.

In fact, some mainstream consumers have already made this shift. Think of mobile games that incentivise users to spend money on digital items with zero physical value. Not convinced? Covet Fashion, a gaming app that teams up with fashion brands, sees around USD10 to USD15 spent in-app per session.⁵ While not quite on the same level as shelling out USD 4115 for a Roblox-exclusive, digital-only Gucci bag, it still centres around the same concept; online product value is still considered value.⁶

Brands
As consumer expectations shift, brands can increase their focus on community experiences.⁷ This draws a rough guide of what to expect: a new level of immersive and interactive experiences.

For brands seeking to⁸:

• Make press headlines with first or early-move media innovations,
• Test and learn as the metaverse evolves toward its vision,
• Reach a subset of Gen Z-ers and young Millennial audiences,

The metaverse is ripe for experimentation. The key is:

• To work with existing creators, influencers, and communities that are most primed for the metaverse.⁷ Learn from the innovators and early adopters who are most familiar with this sphere.
• To keep your expectations low and your imaginations high. Though a revenue-based ROI from metaverse custom media buys⁸ aren’t in the books yet, there are plenty of options to enhance consumer experience and brand awareness.

As Pringle eloquently puts it, “… the metaverse is a place where creativity and curiosity can flourish like never before.”¹

Above all, the key is to lead with creativity. In the metaverse, because marketing expectations have not yet been set, there are virtually zero limits. Nick Pringle, R/GA London’s SVO Executive Creative Director, invites brands to consider “virtual first” products and services.¹

How might the next generation discover and perceive your brand virtually, and what positive values can be transferred to the offline sphere? From D2A (direct to avatar) goods like Nike’s virtual Jordans, to an energy drink brand supplying rocket packs, anything goes.¹

Nike’s D2A virtual Jordans via The Industry.Fashion

In this leap forward, brands and marketers now can create multi-channel products, incorporating several platforms with varying executions, all leading to a more organic and interactive experience.¹

This is the best reason for brands to “increase [their] marketing dollar and expand [their] digital ideas to include more than one platform,” emphasises Lou, our head of strategy.

He highlights, “after all, this strengthens brand relationships with consumers, and isn’t that the goal?”

Conclusion

In short, the metaverse is here to stay. Brands need to get ready, get set, and ride this technological evolution. “Remember Nokia, Blackberry, and Kodak? They didn’t evolve.” Lou adds.

Need inspiration? See how Coca-cola, Nike, and even Louis Vuitton made their move.⁹

Get in touch to see how we can help you.

References:

• ¹ Why the ‘metaverse’ will prove to be more than a buzzword
• ² The future of an immersive Metaverse | Artur Sychov | TEDxUNYP
• ³ The Metaverse: How it will end the Internet
• ⁴ How the Facebook Algorithm Works in 2021 and How to Make it Work for You
• ⁵ This mobile game lets you “buy” clothes the instant they hit the runway
• ⁶ A Digital-Only Gucci Bag Sold for $4,115 on Roblox, as Brands Continue to Look to Gaming to Reach Gen-Z
• ⁷ What the metaverse means for brand experiences
• ⁸ Consumers Aren’t Ready For The Metaverse Yet
• ⁹ 7 Consumer Brands Reinventing Marketing in the Metaverse

Your ad campaigns are underperforming; you’re not getting the click-throughs or conversions you’re expecting.

Ad-blindness might be one reason, but it’s a commonly cited frustration without a clear next step to guide improvement.  Here, we’ve compiled 5 other not-so-obvious reasons why your target audience could be ignoring your ads.

Table of Contents

1. You’re not personalising enough (or at all)
2. You’re not aligning your ads to the channel
3. You’re not on the channels your audience is on
4. You’re not making use of creative and copywriting
5. You’re fusing branding with lead generation ads

1. You’re not personalising enough (or at all)

If your content isn’t resonating with your consumer, you risk losing them. Your messaging, key visuals, call-to-action, language, and so on, each need to be tailored to your consumers’ needs and demands.

Statistics¹ show:

• 66% of consumers expect brands to understand their individual needs
• 42% of customers are frustrated by impersonalised content
• 72% of customers will only engage with personalised messaging

In short, deeply understanding your consumer and personalising the ad experience is key to standing out in a cluttered ad space.

2. You’re not aligning your ads to the channel

Consumers have varying expectations depending on the platform and are primed to respond differently.

A user would engage with videos differently on TikTok compared to YouTube. Likewise, someone on Google search is going to seek information and an experience that is different compared to Facebook.

To better align ads to the channel:

• Fit your visual storytelling to the platform for the best possible user experience. 
  Eg. Someone who is willing to sit through a 2 minute ad on YouTube will not do the same on Instagram.
• Adapt your elements to the platform.
  A call-to-action on Instagram Stories should take advantage of native features while a CTA on Twitter should be optimised for skimming.
• Adjust sizing to the platform.
  Instagram’s users respond best to images in portrait mode because they tend to scroll vertically when on mobile.

These platforms  have done the necessary research to hook their audience and keep them interested. Don’t reinvent the wheel, take advantage of it.

3. You’re not on the channels your audience is on

Sound obvious? It’s less so in practice. By assuming your audience is not on a platform, you’re missing out on a group of potential customers.

In fact, your ad could be exactly what they need; there is simply no way to be certain of it without testing it out on that specific platform and gathering information from their responses.

4. You’re not making use of creative & copywriting

Copywriting is essential. Without it, customer data can’t be translated into emotionally-triggering language and you’ll find your consumer captured by a different ad.

But how do you know it’s the right copy? You test it with multiple ad variations. By changing specific elements of your ads — your visuals, design, and copywriting — you get to find out just what makes your customer tick.

5. You’re fusing branding with lead generation ads

One ad does not fit all. Lead generation and branding campaigns fundamentally do different things. Even if they’re targeting the same audience. While the former is about selling products or services, the latter is all about creating lasting impressions and retaining mindshare.²

Rather than aim to have one ad do everything, it is ideal to segment them according to your audience. A fresh potential customer needs to know why they should buy from you, versus a ready-to-buy consumer who you could tempt with promotions or discount codes.

By recognising what consumers are seeking at their stage of the buying journey, you’re better able to personalise their experience.

Conclusion

Paid ads come in all shapes and sizes. The key to making your ads really work is to understand your consumer, tailor your ad assets to their needs, and finally test it out. By leveraging personalisation tools to help you test your ads, you’ll gain better insights and be able to optimise your campaign for improved performance.

Get in touch to personalise your next ad campaign.

References:

• ¹ Startup Bonsai: Personalization Statistics
• ² Hubspot: Branding or Lead Generation

Attention scarcity is at an all-time high. If you have just 7 seconds, how do you capture your consumer? How do you ensure they go from hooked to purchase? The facts¹ show that:

• Users ignore over 80% of digital ads.
• Fully engaged customers represent a 23% higher share in profitability, revenue, and relationship growth.
• 54% of customers think companies need to transform how they engage.
• 64% of customers expect tailored engagement that is based on past interaction.

The solution to this lies in a combination of hyper-personalised messaging and engaging, digital features. In other words, interactive marketing.

Table of Contents

• What is interactive marketing?
• How do interactive features drive marketing campaigns?
• Interactive marketing examples
• Case studies

What is interactive marketing?

Interactive marketing is about catching consumers’ attention and triggering a direct response from them through innovative means.

It is a method that takes into account a target audience’s preferences² and engages them through interactive features that range from simple Instagram polls to complex, immersive video.

How do interactive features drive marketing campaigns?

Image via our campaign for Nutox

Interactive features are adept at garnering consumer interest and engagement.

Why? For these simple reasons:

1. Interactivity makes users feel involved

Interactive features help consumers see themselves in the brand’s experience.³ Whether it is time spent joining a brand’s product development process, or effort used to play a gamified campaign for a discount, these investments give users some skin in the game.

2. Interactive features support the Awareness stage within the marketing funnel

During the Awareness stage, these features differentiate a brand from its competitors and delivers impact during that critical first impression. This first discovery experience leads a customer to further engagement down the road.⁴

In fact, 75% of marketers agree that offering customers a “sample” of the brand through free, interactive content resulted in a higher degree of lead nurturing.⁴

3. Interactive content streamlines the purchasing process

Demand Gen Report⁵ found that interactive content led to 2X more conversions than passive content. This is likely through showcasing the product in an engaging manner and by providing social proof to ease the fear of buyer’s remorse.

Used this way, interactive features become a tool that reduce friction at buyer touchpoints and supports conversion.

Interactive marketing examples

There are numerous types of interactive features marketers and brands can incorporate into their strategy. These features are flexible enough to suit a short-term campaign or become a mainstay of their content marketing strategy. Below is a non-exhaustive list of features brands can incorporate into their marketing.

Simple interactive features

Image via piktochart

1. Animation

Animation in marketing ranges from website features to short videos. It can convey simple messages or break down a complex concept in a visually appealing way.⁶

2. Infographics

Dynamic infographics take educative content to the next level. Layering an element of engagement with informational content combines expertise with memorability. Users are more likely to remember the brand associated with impactful, valuable content.

Advanced interactive features

Image via Braze

1. Gamified elements

Gamification is a well-known interactive marketing tool that engages users. It is easy to customise to a brand’s needs, be it simple or complex. Popular features range from calculator-like tools to trivia and lottery-style games. AR too is another form of interaction and it’s extremely flexible, used in custom IG and Facebook filters to full-fledged games like PokemonGo.

Though gamification requires some time and effort, it yields great results both for product exposure and increasing user engagement.

Adact⁷, a gamification company trusted by leading global brands, shows gamification offers:

• A 16% bounce rate compared to the industry average — between 25.2% and 62.8%
• Engagement time ranges from 9 minutes to 60 minutes
• A completion rate of 98%

2. Video

Personalised, otherwise known as dynamic video, turns “just” a video into a piece of content users resonate with. It makes the audience feel like the video is speaking to them and addressing their needs.⁸

Interactive video

Interactive video is where participants navigate a video through the choices they make. This could be the short surveys YouTube shares before a video loads, toggling left and right within a video, or entering a storyline and making choices like a character.

Compared to other types of video content, 43% of consumers prefer interactive video content because they’re able to decide what information they’re in control of and what they’re viewing.⁹

Immersive video

Immersive video, otherwise known as 360° Video, records video in all directions at the same time.

These sorts of videos are memorable and impactful. They’re great for creating an ultra-immersive user experience while also allowing the user to frame themselves within the video environment.

Case studies

Here are two examples of how interactive marketing supports different stages of the marketing funnel and can be tailored to a campaign.

1. Shiseido X Watsons: #MyJapaneseBeauty Asia Campaign

Image via our campaign for Shiseido

Shiseido sought to pivot online in the middle of a pandemic to spotlight their brands and products.

To digitally recreate the sensorial experience consumers get at physical events, we designed an interactive microsite to meet Shiseido’s multiple markets and corresponding languages.

Interactive features included:

• Parallax animation and asymmetrical layouts that pushed the boundaries of traditional web design.
• Engaging website navigation that led consumers to discover the 6 pillars of Japanese Beauty philosophy and the persona of Shiseido’s brands.
• Integrated gamification elements that highlighted each brand’s USP, product, and essence.

This direction, supported by our digital strategy, strengthened top of mind awareness for Shiseido and its sub-brands. Results-wise, we gained 25K+ unique page views and drove 18k traffic to Shiseido’s e-commerce partner, Watsons.

2. KSK: YOO8 serviced by Kempinski Interactive Campaign

Image via our campaign for KSK Land

KSK Land sought to promote their upcoming YOO8 branded residences under 8 Conlay.

Due to MCO (Malaysia’s national quarantine measures) constraints upon physical sales galleries, we offered an alternative method to engage with consumers: an interactive digital experience that showed customers “the art of living” with Kempinski at YOO8.

This digital alternative:

• Took the consumer through YOO8’s hospitality in first-person perspective within a mini movie. As the main character, consumers could make choices to navigate the storyline.
• Personalised the consumer experience. We offered viewers 6 possible endings to uncover, thus increasing playability and encouraging further discovery.
• Hosted the mini-movie on a mobile-first microsite with interactive elements to improve user experience.

This campaign was the first of its kind among Malaysian property companies. The campaign raked in 2.8 million social media impressions and close to 28K site visitors.

Conclusion

Staying top of mind is crucial and a strategic interactive campaign could be the tipping point that captures the consumer’s attention amidst the noisy ad landscape.

Interactive marketing has near-endless possibilities and is proven to work. Its highly personalised messaging and impactful, engaging features are the antidote to ad fatigue today.

Want to include interactive marketing in your next campaign? Talk to us today!

References:

• ¹ Outgrow: 31 Marketing Stats That’ll Help You Drive Your Marketing Strategy in 2021
• ² Campaign Monitor: Interactive Elements That Can Increase User Engagement
• ³ Content Marketing Institute: Interactive Content Quizzes
• ⁴ Hubspot: 21 Interactive Content Stats That Marketers Need to Know in 2020
• ⁵ Demand Gen Report: 2019 State of Interactive Content Marketing
• ⁶ Raka Creative: Eye-Catching Uses for Animation in Your Marketing Plan
• ⁷ Adact: Are you using Gamification in Your marketing?
• ⁸ Idea Rocket: What Is Dynamic Video Content Or Personalized Videos?
• ⁹ Marketing Charts: Top Online Video Qualities Aiding Consumers Decision Making