How big global brands are cashing in on the metaverse

Samsung 837X is a virtual building that resembles Samsung’s NYC experience centre.

Heineken’s new beer – Heineken Silver – debuted this year. Except this beer isn't made with hops harvested in fields; the virtual Heineken Silver is brewed with Binary Coded Hops grown by NPC (non-player character) farmers. Quite a departure for a brand that’s been passionate about natural ingredients; this one’s all about 100 percent computer-generated ingredients.

Web 3.0 is here

Welcome to the metaverse, the new playground of big global brands that are still figuring out the ropes of Web 3.0 as they get creative. Marketers have realised that the metaverse goes beyond wearing a VR headset. What makes the Web 3.0 interesting is that the real and virtual can actually meet, opening up a whole new marketing frontier. You could be in a brick and mortar apparel store but still interact with people in a virtual environment.

The Heineken beer you can’t actually taste

Heineken’s first virtual beer was launched within the digital platform – Decentraland, at a product launch event at Heineken’s virtual brewery. Heineken collaborated with Spanish street artist J. Demksy to help design some elements of the virtual home of Heineken Silver. Invitees learnt about the art of beer-making but had to settle for pixelated lobster and caviar while interacting with Heineken ambassadors like Thierry Henry. Heineken decided to poke fun at its own product with a subtle reminder that beer is best enjoyed outside the metaverse in the real world. But not all brands are taking the parody route on the metaverse.

FOMO? Big brands are jumping in

The Metaverse Foundry is the latest initiative from Hogarth, WPP’s global creative content production company. This 700-member global team of content and tech experts will help brands create immersive consumer experiences in the metaverse.

From Under Armour to Pizza Hut and Bombay Sapphire, quite a few brands are already working with WPP agencies on metaverse projects. Under Armour partnered with NBA star Stephen Curry and Decentraland for an NFT-activation that features digital replicas of sneakers.

Also read: Metaverse no longer a buzzword. Retail, shopping, gaming adapting very quickly: Infosys’ Ravi Kumar S

Virtual retail and dining experiences

Samsung was another brand that used Decentraland, a cryptocurrency-focused virtual world that users can create, explore and trade in. The Galaxy S22 flagship series launch event also had a metaverse component. Users could access this platform via a desktop browser and create an avatar that allowed them to navigate the blockchain-powered virtual world with a mouse and keypad and then enter Samsung 837X, a virtual building that resembles Samsung’s NYC experience centre.

McDonald’s has made its move too. The global fast food chain has filed multiple trademark applications with the US Patent and Trademark office, covering McDonald’s and McCafé. One of these is for a virtual restaurant that will deliver food online and in person. The future restaurant has trademarks that will allow it to sell both virtual and real-world food.

Tech Mahindra's Meta Village.

Luxe brands have arrived at the party

Gucci was a metaverse pioneer of sorts. The Italian luxury brand partnered with gaming platform Roblox in the first half of 2021. Gucci Garden was envisioned as an art installation that would appeal to younger, ‘digital first’ consumers. Visitors were virtually transported to Florence in an installation that allowed Gucci to tell its century-old brand story through an engaging, new platform. Visitors could view, try and purchase digital Gucci products to fit out their blank genderless avatars.

While Gucci used the metaverse to coincide with its centenary Louis Vuitton celebrated its second centenary with an adventure game featuring Vivienne who has to travel through six worlds collecting 200 candles to commemorate this special birthday.  In a clever execution that seeks inspiration from PlayStation-style role-playing games (RPG), visitors run around and collect items even as they dress up their character in Louis Vuitton fashion wear. Louis Vuitton added another element – 30 NFTs (non-fungible tokens) crafted by artist Beeple that were placed around the game for players to find.

 Also read: Storyboard18 | Marketers are arriving in the metaverse. Now what?

Learning and development on Web 3.0

Closer home, Makers Lab, the R&D arm of Tech Mahindra, has just announced a Meta Village, a digital twin of Pargaon in Maharashtra to gamify learning on the Roblox platform. The Meta Village will enable the students to play on Roblox to learn the basics of computers and coding in Bharat MarkUp Language (BHAML), a platform built by Makers Lab that enables anyone to code in their native language. Makers Lab offers a blended model that allows students to access classrooms in Meta Village for live as well as offline sessions.

Accenture recently launched the Accenture Metaverse Continuum business group. And then there’s the Nth floor, Accenture’s own metaverse, that has been deployed for new employee orientation and immersive learning or to meet and socialise as teams.

Soon, the concept of the first day at work could change altogether for some. The company expects that 150,000 or more new hires will work in the metaverse campus - One Accenture Park - on their first day. The metaverse is all but here, it’s time you put your best foot forward and get your best avatar on.

Louis Vuitton celebrated its second centenary with an adventure game.