How to create successful, heavily trafficked destinations without the legacy of real-world locations, in a landscape spinning at the speed of pop culture? Astute brands are cultivating community, belonging and repeat visits via permanent but ever-evolving spaces (think flagship-meets-festival), including offering collaborators virtual tenancies. Non-fungible-token-led (NFT) notification tools flagging new ‘happenings’ and inclusive spaces are also key.

Tiered concepts will power placemaking – 20% of metaverse participants would buy products to access the community around them (GWI, 2021). Strategies include token-gating – issuing NFTs and other tokens with ‘special utilities’ to unlock products, avatar traits, VIP spaces or experiences; and Proof of Attendance Protocol – digital badges logging where an individual’s been, capturing the meta-hype for posterity.

With interest in the metaverse growing, it’s vital to look beyond youth-skewing gaming-backed concepts. White-label solutions are emerging, which, while potentially pricier than partnering with existing games, deliver more compelling (high-fidelity) visual environments, and the capacity to integrate brand data, transactions and consumer relationship management systems. Meta-lite ‘brandiverses’ are easing companies and gaming-apathetic consumers into virtual engagement too.

With banks, including JPMorgan and HSBC, moving metaverse-side to supplement or supersede physical branches (onto browser-based blockchain platforms Decentraland and The Sandbox, respectively), and new possibilities for data integration emerging, service design is under scrutiny. We identify new tools for staffing virtual spaces, and powering up customer service and peer connections (aka Squad Shopping – see Digital Commerce: Trends, 22/23).

Embracing the metaverse isn’t only about leaping online, but into real-meets-virtual world intersections, evolving omnichannel brand engagement. Strategies nurturing these new phygital frontiers range from virtual actions with real-world rewards/results (or vice versa), using physical spaces as metaverse interfaces (via augmented/extended reality), and even placing oneself live in-game.

The so-called confines of digital environments may actually unlock more intense and specialised sensory experiences than is possible IRL – helping brands craft elevated, bespoke remote experiences and define the languages of the metaverse itself. From food to fashion – like eliciting taste sensations via sonic frequencies or attaching sentiment to objects – it’s an area rife with innovation.