Influencer Marketing and Metaverse

How Metaverse is changing the dynamics of Influencer Marketing

Metaverse, Galaxy, Planet, Universe

"Metaverse" is no longer confined to the world of Science Fiction but a reality that is gradually permeating our lives. The word metaverse needs to depict what it will become clearer. Technology is dynamic and ever-evolving. If vaguely put, Metaverse uses real-time tech to manipulate the perceivable reality. It has been used for Virtual concerts, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital avatars, Virtual Reality headsets, and much more.

The echoes of Metaverse's effects can be heard from afar. The remarkable growth rate of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technology will change how we interact and transform the marketing dynamics of brands. Throughout the years of the rise of the Internet, brands have been creative in adapting to the hot new tech in the market to attract and engage their audience in a more personalized and interactive manner.

At its crux, influencer marketing is getting a presence among the influencers' followers. Brands have started to carefully select influencers whose target audience roughly overlaps with their target audience. The marketing dynamics of influencers and brands encompass a variety of creative ways in which they interact with the audience.

Influencer marketing is one of the tactics brands have used to boost engagement with the audience. The dynamics among the brands, influencers, and audience will take a new shape in the foreseeable future. As Metaverse keeps on growing rapidly, some of its prospective on Influencer marketing are discussed below:

Novel Revenue Models for Content creators

While brand promotions, Advertisement, or sale of the product happens to be the prime sources of wealth influx for content creators, there may be other lucrative options soon. Audience and influencer engagement can reach new heights with the already-used technology of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In addition, the ownership of an NFT provides a sense of exclusivity and being a part of a special group of people.

The entrepreneur and creator Gary Vee has already been implementing this idea of Metaverse to elevate his influence among his followers. He shares his collectibles, VeeFriends, a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). The same token is also used as a gateway for Gary Vee's Web3 conference, which is held annually. This instills an emotion of exclusivity among the NFT owners and hence, plays a huge role in increasing his influence over his audience.

Immersive technology gives huge control to creators' hands and gets creative with their content creation. This allows a captivating hold of the creators on the audience and promotes the brand smoothly.

Brands can collaborate with the Creators closer than ever before

Metaverse, Virtual Reality, Man, Virtual

Conventional collaboration between brands and influencers involves using the promoted product(s) in social media posts, integrating it into internet videos, etc. Metaverse enables much closer contact between the brand and the influencer. While conventional approaches only aim to familiarize the creator with the brand, metaverse can take it to the next level. With real-time 3-D Video Processing, involving the audience with the product and providing an immersive experience boosts the scope of sale conversion and click-through rate.

An example of such collaborative influencer marketing is a fashion company hosting a 3-D party where people can flaunt their attires and experience the clothing design for themselves. Another example can be a shoe brand. The influencer can share a virtual gym session in the metaverse. Such personal experiences can skyrocket the efficiency of marketing and brand recognition. As such events and collaborations can filter out the most dedicated and suitable section of the audience, it becomes quite easy for the brands to market their products.

The rise of Virtual Influencers

The usual notion of an influencer is that they need to be human. They need to be relatable, and other humans, i.e., the audience, need to be able to connect with the influencer. This attribute has been hailed to be exclusive to humans.

The tech of Metaverse has cut through all such noise and proved an excellent influencer. The digital avatar Lil Miquela has been an active Instagram influencer since 2016. Miquela is a computer-generated avatar and has human-like features. With the perfect mixture of humanistic features and minimal scope of ‘human errors’ –virtual influencers have huge scope for building influence among people and disrupting the influencer marketing industry.

The luxury fashion company Prada boasts a virtual influencer, Candy, who has been marketing their fragrances since 2021. The computer-generated influencer Candy can be found on all popular social media platforms with active usage and engagement with the audience. Imma is the Japanese people’s face on Instagram.

It has amassed over 350 thousand followers on the Meta-owned social media platform. The number of brands she has worked with is a testament to her strength and capabilities of Imma. Nike, Puma, Amazon, and most companies have worked with Imma concerning brand promotion. The humanistic features of Imma became more obvious when she appeared at Tokyo ’20 Paralympic games closing ceremony.

The Reel is Becoming More Real

Free Metaverse Virtual vector and picture

The big tech giant Apple has brought in the provision to allow app-tracking only with the consent of the users. This is a big blow in the face of conventional advertising strategies where the usage of the person using the app is tracked, and the algorithm shows the relevant adverts.

So, the metaverse will disrupt the already changing advertising environment. This would demand the market pundits to catch up and strategize for the changing times. The traces of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) technology can be experienced now, the blurring of Real with the Artificial is destined to blur, while it may bestow more power in the hands of the influencer to govern the consumer and marketing trends. At the same time, the response of humanity to such a magnanimous nexus of technology is yet to be known.

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