Last month we released a list of tech trends that can help brands take their digital transformation to the next level in 2023. One of them was Metaverse! Companies are spending more on technology this year but this time the stakes are higher. Flying blind? Not an option.
A wide range of use cases, an increase in creators, consumer-led branding campaigns, tech advances, and investments make the Metaverse a strategy that is here to stay. One common dilemma for brands when it comes to targeting audiences by demographics and preferences with a relevant digital experience is the scope of the navigation on the platform. With the ability to serve and entertain every user profile, technology can be a dance in the moonlight for everybody. Brands will need to create Metaverse experiences that cater to every generation. Customers new to technology or the brand sometimes prefer traditional methods and experiences because they are familiar and comfortable with the problem-solving methods and find navigating digital platforms overwhelming and difficult. The brand can see more engagement by addressing this issue with smooth, safe, and easy user navigation with the Metaverse strategy. Here’s how!
1. Personalized support: Personalizing content for the user is mandatory today. But no amount of stressing on the fact that personalizing support for your customers is enough. There should be banners and hoardings flashing light on the importance of ‘personalized support’ for a change in the dynamics of today’s businesses. It has often been seen that brands create target profiles for the content but not for support.
A customer that is not well adept with digital mediums or new to the platform needs more help at every click of the button. From filling in the login information to typing and calling the support staff or a bot for help. In the Metaverse, the navigational uncertainty can be addressed by deploying a virtual avatar as a digital assistant. This humanized bot not only has an accurate answer to every unique question but also appears at the right place and time so that the user does not even have to look for help in times of need. The AI-powered digital assistant can identify a cry for help with scenarios like the user hovering over a text or an object for a long time, the user not moving onto the next page and is stuck, or if the user has missed some important information that is needed for the next activity and gone onto the next interface.
The DaveAI avatars sense confusion and inactivity and nudge customers with appropriate information at the right time and place. Automation does not have to be repeated and boring messages to the customer. Today, automated conversations can be smart and empathetic just like real-world interactions.
2. Visual presentation: The placement of content and colours play an important role in branding. A spectacular vision helps create FOMO and attracts people of every generation into the originality of the Metaverse experience. The user should have a search bar to type in a query on every page along with a digital assistant lurking in every corner for an in-depth analysis of the query if needed. The search bar should throw the common questions for the user to just pick and search for an answer. This helps make product discovery quick and saves time. From registration to logout, Metaverse experiences should have brand-specific colours dominating the landscape to avoid confusion among users and to create the same brand image amongst everyone. Colours influence brand recognition by around 81%. A number that cannot be ignored.
3. Reward engagement: The Metaverse is a whole new adventure on its own and along with the provision of brand product and service offerings, gamification can make the users wait for a long time on the platform. Now, who doesn’t want to have fun? If you want your customers or new users to take interest in your products or services, making them do a certain activity and rewarding them with points, tokens, and avatar accessories will convert these people into activated users. Your Metaverse experience needs to be entertaining to be user-friendly. Also rewarding users that you see more engagement from can make them recommend you to people every time the niche of your business pops up in conversations. Referrals lead to around 40% of engagement online.
“The halo effect” has since then come into existence and is making brands rely on the policy – First impression matters.
If the first experience a customer has with a particular brand is positive, a heavenly halo is created over the company’s other services and products in the mind of the customer. This effect creates a haze of loyalty where the customer is under the impression that if the brand is good with one product or service, the brand would be good at everything they do. Using the Metaverse strategy to see the halo effect over the brand? Creating a Metaverse experience that balances storytelling and story living leads to a greater immersion from customers. Encouraging customer participation in activities and empowering self-expression will help see assured success.
India In Metaverse: The New Playground For Brands!
By introducing Nexaverse, Maruti Suzuki has recreated their real-world store landscape in the virtual world to give customers a tour of models and specifications from anywhere in the world. Maruti Suzuki, in partnership with DaveAI, conceptualized the idea of Nexaverse- a standalone Metaverse platform that saw the launch of Grand Vitara on initiation.
What works:
The Nexaverse comes with features like a showcase of models, a tour through a photo-realistic Nexaverse showroom, in-depth 3D visualization of interiors and exteriors, hassle-free e-registration process, customer avatar selection, and a digital assistant deployed as a salesperson to not only guide customers to navigate the platform but also make a right decision. Within a month of its launch, Nexaverse had more than 30,000 users on its platform. Maintaining the image of the brand even in the online world with the right environment and visuals, and encouraging user participation through avatar selection and customized assistance works in the brand’s favour as Maruti Suzuki plans on launching all the cars in the Metaverse.
By introducing Festemverse, Wow! Momo Foods; a QSR chain from India has ventured into the Metaverse domain. Currently, only android users can experience Festemverse but it will soon be available for IOS devices as well. This platform allows users to create virtual avatars, trade through the stores on this platform, and use the NFTs they earn as rewards to redeem them in the physical outlets for their offerings.
What works:
Just like Maruti Suzuki, this brand is also taking its well-established real-world business online and is inviting customers to experience the brick-and-mortar store landscape in the virtual world. Engagement can help users earn rewards in form of NFTs that they can redeem through real-world offerings. When it comes to cosmetics, automobile, or even clothing, virtually visualizing items is easier and less complicated as compared to food items on a menu. The stand-out point for this experience is moving beyond the traditional palette of experiences and digitally serving people the essence of the cuisine with a beautiful and well-organized interface where the stalls of all brands can be seen placed next to each other. Launched in October 2022, Festemverse today has 1T+ downloads and glowing reviews.
By Introducing Hersheyverse, Hershey India is now leveraging the popular Metaverse strategy to enhance engagement. No chocolates and sweets on holidays, festivities, and celebrations? This can only be fiction. Curated around the notion that the universal theme of holidays is chocolates, Hersheyverse plans to offer a lip-smacking experience to its consumers.
What works:
Hersheyverse will be a marketplace for all Hershey products and the platform will get customers into dreamy environments with a storyline for interesting interactions and offers in the form of wearables and discounts. Non-player characters will take center stage and will be avatars that guide customers on the platform. This experience will also reward users based on a particular activity they complete. Personalized support, reward engagement and a distinctive visual presentation- all 3 factors work well for a successful Metaverse strategy.
By introducing Altyug, WizTales; a virtual event platform is inviting people to live in the virtual world by creating experiences like shopping, gaming, and conversing through venues that are realistic in the Metaverse. The user can visit the available stores and can explore clothes on a model to know more about the product features in the Metaverse.
What works:
With Altyug, the creators want to build a virtual space where people get to shop, converse, play, work and interact with each other based on real-world activities and environments. Brands can then leverage these utilities to enhance presence and build stronger relationships with clients by deploying unified experiences for customers to attend events, play games, shop, and talk to people. With real-time insights, brands can build customer profiles and also receive instant enquiries for their products and services. The visual presentation of realistic landscapes and entertaining experiences that not just bring people closer to the brand products but also have something for customers that is altruistic and not binding to the brand promotions is a winning move. Speak of taking the user experience, marinating it with intelligent and entertaining navigation that alludes to the customer psychology, and handing it back to the user.
Pondering On That Thought!
With DaveAI in talks with more than 30 brands and enterprises from India today, one thing every business is interested in is the idea of a brand-specific, standalone Metaverse platform that allows the creative freedom of being involved in the user interface design and development process that will click with their customer base. This allows brands full control over the data as well as what the customer perceives and curating a personalized, user-friendly experience becomes possible.
With this being the highlight of today’s scenario, what is the next phase for the Metaverse to iterate into? A creator ecosystem. There are different kinds of creative people in the world. Identifying who the customer is as a creative personality would help give rise to creators that take the Metaverse platform to the next phase. Binding the user experience to the creative streak every person has will help put the Metaverse strategy on the map, not just with numbers but also with emotions.
You have queries. We have answers! Write to us at: content@iamdave.ai
