Metaverse, the golden buzzword of marketing that dominated the Indian marketing space not too long ago, is slowing down. The possible culprit could be the new kid on the block, ChatGPT, an artificial-intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, or DALL-E, the AI art generator that creates images according to the queries. Generative AI, it seems, has completely sidelined last season’s darlings – metaverse and NFTs
Simply put, the metaverse is an immersive virtual world in which people are supposed to interact with each other using their specialized online avatars, often using specialized glasses and virtual-reality headsets. Though tech giants have moved on to sexier projects, such as AI-backed chatbots, there is also mounting pressure on companies of an impending recession and thereby the challenge of cutting costs at every possible opportunity. The budgets are being sliced thin for anything that doesn’t come with an assured return on investment.
While globally, the metaverse was a much bigger trend in 2021, with luxury brand Gucci launching its first Gucci Garden experience on the online gaming platform Roblox and Balenciaga dressing video game Fortnite characters in its new Fall 2021 collection. Many more international brands have successfully dipped their toes into this virtual business. However, Indian brands have caught up with the trend only in 2022.
Shradha Agarwal, CEO, and co-founder of Grapes, says that there has been a 95 percent drop in the request for Metaverse and NFT-related marketing activities. “The consumer pull and the buzz around Metaverse and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) have died down, similar to what happened to crypto markets where early adopters did make money and others didn’t. These things gained traction when there was uncertainty over how much the digital world will overpower our lives,” she explains.
Part of the issue is linked to a limited understanding of concepts like metaverse and NFTs. Gautam Reghunath, co-founder of Talented, believes that a lot of people casually misplaced the term ‘metaverse’ to just mean this massive virtual 3D world where folks would hang out in their avatars. “From that perspective, yes, it feels like there’s certainly a pause here and an accelerated diversion of focus and funding to AI,” he notes.
Brand Campaigns
Vivek Kumar Anand, chief business officer (CBO) at DViO Digital, notes that there are various use cases for Metaverse, ranging from consumer service experiences, product experiences, enterprise Metaverse (extended reality, virtual workplaces), digital asset economies (e.g., non-fungible tokens), and digital twin.
People casually misplaced the term ‘metaverse’ to just mean this massive virtual 3D world where folks would hang out in their avatars.
“What is gaining momentum is the Metaverse for product experiences. It is the easiest and most meaningful way to go about it and add value; for example, virtual try-ons have become increasingly popular among Gen Z due to their fun and social elements interactions,” he shares.
An extension of Metaverse is also non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for user engagement and to offer exclusive experiences to customers, especially millennials, but it has also lost its steam after the initial enthusiasm. Furthermore, experts added that a slump in the cryptocurrency market has also impacted sales in the NFT space.
In India, most Metaverse campaigns executed in 2022 were experience-led. For instance, Coca-Cola, ITC’s Fabelle, and Matrimonial.com hosted the first-ever metaverse wedding. The wedding took place on Yug Metaverse (the Indian Metaverse platform). Mondelez India created an opportunity for a couple to experience a 3D dinner date on the moon for its Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk’s Valentine’s Day campaign.
Jewelry brand Tanishq held a metaverse-based virtual launch of its new bridal collection ‘Romance of Polki.’ Guests were able to interact with each other in the ‘Rivaahverse’ and could try on products virtually via a QR code.
Tea brand Tata Tea Premium and McDowell’s No.1 Soda hosted virtual Holi parties on Metaverse.
In the NFT space, brands were active too last year. CEAT Limited opened CEAT Shoppe that’s integrated into its e-commerce platform. Customers who bought tires in the Meta world can get their tires delivered by the company executives or collect them in physical stores.
Mahindra also did NFT but for a noble cause. The auto brand dropped its first sets of Thar-themed NFTs with the bidding on the first day of the auction hitting close to Rs 16 lakhs. All proceeds of the auction went to an NGO focused on girl child education, Nanhi Kali.
We didn’t give the Metaverse ecosystem a chance to let itself take shape before we all wanted to jump in and create our own.
MakeMyTrip sold 500 NFTs on a first-come-first-serve basis. The artworks sold depicted the beauty of some popular and unexplored places in India. In 2022, multiple IPL teams such as Gujarat Titans and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) leveraged Metaverse for fan engagement and logo launches.
Cut to 2023, there are no big Metaverse campaigns.
However, Disney Star, the official Indian Premier League TV broadcaster, has launched a dedicated Metaverse platform called Starverse, which will host all kinds of activities not restricted to IPL only.
“Most of the branded ‘Metaverse’ projects we saw were mostly just repurposed 3D spaces that we’ve seen for decades at architect 3D walkthrough presentations. We didn’t give the Metaverse ecosystem a chance to let itself take shape before we all wanted to jump in and create our own,” says Reghunath.
Metaverse future or past?
Metaverse had a rollercoaster ride these past couple of years. Tech and social-media tycoon Mark Zuckerberg swore by it, and went as far as to name Facebook’s parent company Meta, to signal its ambitions in developing these technologies. Billions of dollars and man-hours were invested. In 2021 and 2022, Reality Labs, the division housing metaverse projects, recorded a cumulative loss of nearly $24 billion, including $13.7 billion just last year. Now Zuckerberg has buried the metaverse.
While Zuckerberg is no longer metaverse’s leading evangelist and there may be a slowdown in metaverse marketing in India, experts believe the concept holds promise in the longer run.
What is gaining momentum is the Metaverse for product experiences. It is the easiest and most meaningful way to go about it and add value.
Growing consumer and business interest in the metaverse as a creator economy and tool to enhance day-to-day tasks is expected to fuel a $1 trillion commerce opportunity by the end of 2025, according to the findings of a report by Accenture.
Reghunath says that there is serious investment from Meta and Apple on AR/VR/Mixed Reality hardware. According to him, the short and medium-term use cases will be more niche like gaming, communication, med-tech, etc., instead of the ‘Ready Player One’ type scenario we all presumed.
The right way for brands to play a part continues to be to join existing metaverse projects like Sandbox and Decentraland. Build experiences on these platforms that already command its early users, just like brands build experiences with publishers. Even then, especially in India, outside of niche communities like gaming, the users who go to these virtual platforms simply didn’t exist then and don’t exist yet in volume now either.
Mitesh Kothari, co-founder and chief creative officer, White Rivers Media, notes that there have been massive spends in this area globally, and in fact, India currently ranks fifth on the list of top countries that are drivers of the metaverse market.
“What may seem like a slowdown may actually be just a preparatory phase where companies are trying to better understand and explore their position and align themselves with the evolving tech,” he concludes.
It seems Metaverse is still on the radar and it’s not completely buried yet. As to what the future holds for the metaverse, we could ask ChatGPT.