The transformative potential of the Metaverse on marketing

“What people really desire are not products but satisfying experiences.” Lawrence Abbot, an Economist

The Metaverse can transform marketing theory and practice across various fields, but we must balance innovation and regulation.

Why it matters

?The Metaverse presents a revolutionary marketing landscape with immersive experiences, community building, and hyper-personalisation opportunities. However, it also raises concerns about privacy, potential data exploitation, and risks of manipulative marketing. To balance its transformative potential with ethical considerations, thoughtful regulation is crucial to protect users’ cognitive liberty and personal freedoms.

Overview

From this article, you will learn:

• What is the impact of virtual reality (VR) and the Metaverse on marketing.
• The potential these technologies offer across various industries and marketing fields.
• How to design effective immersive experiences.
• What are the implications of the Metaverse for the future of marketing.
• What are the potential risks, and how can they be addressed through regulation.

Introduction

In the era of rapid technological advancement, marketers grapple with the potential of the Metaverse and virtual reality (VR). These transformative technologies offer fertile ground for innovation, enabling brands to create immersive experiences and access new markets. This article will delve into the profound implications of the Metaverse for diverse industries, such as travel, automotive, retail, electronics, and food, examining the opportunities and challenges ahead.

We will explore key questions surrounding using the Metaverse for marketing purposes, including how brands can build communities, enhance customer experiences, and reinforce brand values in this nascent digital landscape. How can companies navigate the uncertainties related to user-generated content and the rapid pace of technological development? What role will blockchain, gamification, tokenisation, and virtualisation play in revolutionising traditional marketing models?

In a world where interactivity and attention are paramount for success, we will examine the implications of brand management, new product development, and sales opportunities within the Metaverse. We will explore pertinent questions. For example, how can brands leverage the wealth of customer data available to create precision marketing and hyper-segmented strategies? What are the limitations of the Metaverse in replicating real-world sensory and emotional experiences, and how can companies address privacy concerns and potential data exploitation to build trust and foster customer loyalty?

As we delve into the multifaceted nature of the Metaverse, we will investigate the dimensions of immersiveness, sociability, and environmental fidelity that are essential for designing consumer experiences. Further, we will explore how marketers can harness the power of hyperdata availability, virtualisation, hyper-gathering, and hyperconnectedness to generate valuable insights and enhance their strategies.

Lastly, we will address the ethical concerns in this new environment, particularly the risks of Metaverse-based mind control and the potential for invasive profiling and unethical manipulation. Finally, the article will underscore the importance of thoughtful regulation and implementing “Immersive Rights” to protect users, uphold cognitive liberty, and preserve personal freedoms.

The impact of virtual reality (VR) and the Metaverse on marketing

VR’s transformative role in Marketing

“Metaverse platforms can actually be classified as a modern VR marketing trend. VR and metaverse platforms are not as new as they sound, but it has been aligned with the rise in technology, creating advanced and more real experiences.” Marielisa Gonzalez, Metaverse Marketing researcher [1, p.4]

VR offers impactful experiences for viewers, creating lasting memories through emotional and behavioural integration [1]. By adopting a metaverse avatar, users can engage with others in an authentic, unrestrained environment. However, the concept of the Metaverse remains poorly defined, causing confusion among the general public. Still, the term frequently appears in the media, with the recent rebranding of Facebook to Meta being a notable example.

This change has been linked to VR and future XR technologies, but adopting a name reflecting capabilities not yet available may negatively impact public trust. Notably, Facebook’s total user base has declined for the first time in years, with half a million daily users lost in the last quarter of 2021 [2]. The reasons for this drop are unclear, but it could be due to competition from similar apps, difficulty separating social media from the Metaverse, or confusion about the rebrand.

This is not surprising since the concept of the Metaverse is still relatively unknown among the general population. Taking Norway as an example, only 20% of the population has tried VR, and 0.6% use it more than once a week [3]. However, in Italy, 65% of people have used or expressed interest in using VR for shopping. However, only 25% of Italians claim to understand the Metaverse, with 62% expressing interest in learning more [1].

Metaverse platforms, often seen as the initiation of Web3, allow for a significant transformation of marketing as a discipline. By enabling brands to create immersive environments, they can create new revenue streams and a more interactive multimedia marketing future [4]. The Metaverse has the potential to revolutionise various industries, prompting marketers to adapt traditional models to fit new scenarios. For instance, they can include blockchain, gamification, tokenisation, and virtualisation into the four Ps of the marketing mix [5].?

Consequently, companies increasingly focus on customer experience, aiming to provide value through loyalty, satisfaction, and engagement. This is driving the marketing industry to evolve its corporate models, embracing the potential of the Metaverse as an upgraded powerful tool [6]. This is not surprising since the Metaverse offers opportunities for enhanced customer experiences and access to new markets [5].

Additionally, various industries are exploring the Metaverse to provide unique experiences and new monetisation opportunities. For example, 11% of Italy’s cultural institutions use VR tools to enhance visitor experiences [1]. Moreover, Retailers like Vans [7] and Ralph Lauren [8] are launching virtual stores with panoramic views and gaming possibilities as a branding feature. Additionally, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) allow users to own digital assets, such as art, music, or virtual real estate [9]. Essentially, companies are capitalising on this opportunity, seeking high returns through selling digital appearances and outfits for virtual worlds [10].

In parallel, Metaverse platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, and Decentraland allow marketers to innovate and create engaging experiences, offering users new ways to express themselves. This directly contributes to the bottom line since research shows that positive experiences increase customer loyalty by 5% [11] and influence purchase intention when related to experiences rather than physical products [12]. Similarly, memorable experiences also stimulate recall and recognition, positively impacting product/service commitment and the spread of positive word-of-mouth [13].

Therefore, although creating Metaverse experiences can be costly and time-consuming, the growing user base makes it attractive for brands. For example, Roblox attracts 42 million daily users [14], presenting an opportunity for companies to extend their customer base and reach people beyond geographical boundaries. Consequently, the term ‘virtual customer experience’ is suggested as a new approach to address the transition towards a more technologically-driven, immersion-inclined consumer society [1].

Marketing in the Metaverse

VR presents a thriving landscape for marketing and consumer influence, allowing real-life brands to capitalise on its extensive reach [15]. Therefore, companies across various industries have entered the Metaverse:

• In the travel industry, companies such as Marriott Hotels, Qatar Airlines, and Airbaltic are exploring ways to enhance customer experiences and services [1]. For example, the Spanish airline Vueling pioneered a conjoint economy where flight tickets sold in the Metaverse can be used in real life. The aim was to leverage technology and virtual environments to offer customers richer, simpler, and more personalised experiences when planning trips [16].
• The automotive sector has also ventured into the Metaverse, with Hyundai’s Mobility Adventure on Roblox featuring popular vehicles and future mobility solutions. In this instance, Hyundai’s goal was to establish long-lasting relationships with fans and target younger customer segments [17]. Other automotive brands exploring metaverse opportunities include BMW, Toyota, and Nissan [1].
• Retail brands such as Gucci, Nike, and Forever 21 have invested in NFTs and virtual worlds. At the same time, Pacsun launched PACWORLD, a digital space for customers to create and interact in a highly immersive manner [1].
• Electronics giant Samsung has offered a digital version of its New York pop-up store, aiming to amplify its core values of connectivity, customisation, and sustainability [18].
• In the food industry, Wendy’s launched Wendyverse, a branded virtual reality experience on Meta’s Horizon Worlds platform to foster engagement, community, and social interaction. Other companies investing in virtual worlds and NFTs include McDonald’s and Panera Bread Company [1].

Despite the diverse range of industries exploring extended reality (XR) technologies and platforms, a common goal for managers is to create richer and better customer experiences. This objective extends digital marketing efforts and involves developing, communicating, delivering, and exchanging valuable offerings for stakeholders and society.

These examples demonstrate that the Metaverse can be utilised as a novel approach to customer service serving multiple purposes, including [1]:

• building communities
• enhancing customer experience (CX)
• meeting customers where they spend time
• reinforcing brand image and values
• raising awareness
• improving the customer journey.

Evidently, the Metaverse allows brands to make lasting impressions at every touchpoint. Despite this, defining the full potential of platforms is challenging due to their nascent stage and rapid technological development [19]. Companies face the dilemma of allocating time, logistics, investment, and expertise to transition from old systems to new ones while market demands and emerging technologies constantly evolve [1]. Moreover, the Metaverse’s partial reliance on user-generated content makes it difficult to predict its long-term impact. But despite these uncertainties, the Metaverse is likely to affect various marketing areas [1], [20]:

Brand management

In recent years, marketing communications have shifted towards the Metaverse to drive purchase behaviour and increase brand salience [1]. Adopting new technologies has become essential for marketers to maintain a competitive advantage and stay relevant to consumers. The Metaverse and virtual worlds have experienced exponential growth, with global institutions like PwC estimating revenues could hit $1.5 trillion by 2030 [21]. Additionally, Vice Media Group and Razorfish agency research shows that Gen Z gamers spend twice as much time in the Metaverse than in real life, averaging 12.2 hours per week [22].

Importantly, brands’ presence in virtual worlds can generate viral awareness, foster trust, create associations, and strengthen brand equity [1]. Interactivity and capturing attention are essential for success in this regard. For example, Nike partnered with Roblox to create Nikeland, a virtual space offering interactive sports experiences, generating 32 million visits worldwide [23]. In addition, brands like Gucci have also launched virtual collections of NFTs in metaverse spaces, driving sales and engagement [24].

Companies entering the Metaverse aim to initiate processes that translate into sales, targeting new customer segments and making statements about core values or product categories [1]. Essentially, a good virtual experience evoking sentiment, interaction, and positive feelings may contribute to higher customer retention and loyalty. Therefore, brands such as Warner Music and Universal Music Group, in collaboration with the decentralised virtual world platform The Sandbox [25], have combined real-life experiences with metaverse ones to cater to different generational preferences [26].

Impactful experiences can create links with consumers, translating into positive word-of-mouth (WOM), but are mediated by variables like brand love and credibility [1]. More specifically, studies show that 92% of companies that improved customer experience saw an increase in loyalty, and impressively 73% of consumers confirmed this finding. Moreover, using VR and the Metaverses not only contributes to the implementation of an omnichannel communication plan but also aids in the compilation of crucial data. This allows for analysing customer sentiment and feedback at a scale, precision, and speed previously unattainable by humans [27]. Therefore, the Metaverse provides a robust avenue for improving brand management practices.

New product development

The Metaverse offers a vast and nearly infinite amount of customer data that can be collected, mined, and acted upon almost immediately. While there is no official method or process for effectively analysing data from Metaverse platforms, technologies related to artificial intelligence (AI) and business intelligence (BI) could help. Companies typically track online views, user numbers, dwell time, sold NFTs, social media shares, and user behaviour. Comparing revenues before and after launching virtual spaces can also help attribute a percentage of ROI to the new channel [1].

“Avatar journey analytics” can be used to understand customer needs and expectations, as each avatar is controlled by a real person who may have multiple virtual identities [1]. By examining factors like age, gender, occupation, and preferences, marketers can drive precision marketing, identify new trends, and create profiles for targeted or hyper-segmented marketing. This approach will likely be more persuasive for modern consumers and adds significant value to companies, providing a competitive advantage in innovation and popularity [6].

Such data, however, can also aid product development. For example, industries can create and preview products online, allowing users to test and tweak items before production [1]. To demonstrate, companies like Dolce & Gabbana and Balenciaga have launched digital collections, using pre-orders for manufacturing items based on user preferences. This approach meets customer expectations for exclusivity while promoting sustainable behaviour by reducing overproduction and waste [28].

Additionally, brands can use the Metaverse to understand customer preferences better and adjust their physical offerings accordingly. VR platforms can be used for live demos, where buyers can customise products, as exemplified by Mercedes’ 3D configurator for the G-Wagon model. This co-creation principle, where customers participate in the design and development process, creates a mutually valued outcome for both the consumer and the company. Companies such as IKEA already utilise this principle in their business model, and the Metaverse offers a novel way to expand on this approach, providing valuable outcomes for all stakeholders [1].

Sales

The Metaverse also presents many sales opportunities. This could potentially revolutionise marketers’ approach to the customer journey at various stages, including attraction, consideration, engagement, and acquisition.

Real-time segmentation and hyper-personalisation within metaverse platforms provide marketers with the tools to create individualised experiences that capture and retain customer attention [1]. By utilising analytics, segmentation, and engagement, marketers can adapt to rapidly changing customer behaviours and preferences, ensuring they remain one step ahead. Understanding customer interests and trends allows for content creation, storytelling, and designing customer experiences that increase brand awareness.

The consideration phase, when the target audience evaluates a company’s products as a solution to their problems, is critical for brands marketing their products and services in the Metaverse. Older Gen Z consumers, who are familiar with virtual worlds and spend more time online, are more likely to see and consider brands within the Metaverse [1]. Therefore, strategic product placement can lead to increased product interest, enhanced purchase intention, and higher conversion rates. As we know, exposure and repetition are essential for successful marketing practices [29].

Engagement has become increasingly consumer-led, as evidenced by the 50% increase in influencer marketing on social platforms like Instagram and YouTube over the past five years [30]. Much creative and engaging content may come from user avatars in the Metaverse, enabling more profound connections with brands.

Altogether, omnichannel commerce is commonplace in the Metaverse. If cryptocurrency continues to rise and platforms adopt crypto wallets, purchasing goods and services will become even more accessible. A prominent example is the Gucci Garden experience in Roblox, which generated $286 million from in-game sales and attracted 20 million visits during its two-week run [1]. Overall, the Metaverse is a promising platform for businesses to innovate their approach and grow sales.

Customer experiences

Over the past three decades, academics and researchers have extensively studied customer experience, but its multifaceted nature escapes a definition. While early theorists focused on the hedonic aspects of consumer experiences, later scholars expanded the concept to include cognitive, emotional, and sensory components [20]. More recently, customer experience has been defined as a series of interactions between a customer and a product or company and evaluated based on comparing the customer’s expectations and the stimuli received at different stages of the journey [31]. With this understanding, let us explore its relevance in the Metaverse.

The Metaverse promises to revolutionise VR experiences. However, critics argue that it cannot replicate real-world experiences due to human engagement’s inherent biological and physical limitations in virtual environments. For instance, a snowball fight’s sensory and emotional aspects cannot be fully replicated in the Metaverse. Despite these limitations, incorporating the Metaverse into omnichannel customer engagement strategies can enhance the overall experience and foster increased loyalty. Therefore, a brand’s presence in the Metaverse can also create a distinct identity in customer perception, underlining its potential value in shaping customer experiences.

Customer trust

Relationship marketing focuses on establishing and maintaining long-term customer connections, increasing a company’s competitive advantage [20]. This customer-firm bond can be influenced by factors such as product or service, staff performance, brand name, and overall business performance. However, customer trust remains a vital component in fostering customer loyalty. Factors such as service quality, value perception, customer satisfaction, and pricing also impact loyalty. In the Metaverse era, addressing customer trust is crucial due to privacy concerns and potential data exploitation [32].

Additionally, trust plays a critical role in individuals’ relationships with organisations and can directly affect a customer’s decision to engage or disengage with a company [33]. But building customer trust involves addressing three key components: competence, predictability, and goodwill. Competence trust pertains to a brand’s skills, knowledge, and operational capabilities; predictability trust is based on consistent behaviour rooted in familiarity, and goodwill trust reflects a company’s sincerity and generosity, stemming from empathy [34].

However, there is growing scepticism regarding how companies handle and share private customer data. Users often place undue trust in large brands based on reputation alone, which can be problematic in today’s data-driven market [4]. However, despite claiming to uphold strict privacy standards, numerous instances reveal that organisations grant third parties access to users’ data [20]. This is particularly concerning in the Metaverse, where humanlike interactions are prevalent, and misuse by third parties could significantly erode customer trust.

The widespread use of cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital assets in the Metaverse presents a technological and trust-related challenge for users who lack crypto proficiency. Therefore, companies must address these issues to ensure customer loyalty and maintain a competitive edge in the evolving Metaverse landscape.

Customer engagement

In the age of abundant information, retaining and recruiting customers using traditional tactics has become increasingly challenging [35]. Customer engagement, the process of fostering relationships with existing customers to enhance loyalty and brand awareness, has evolved due to dynamic, non-linear customer journeys and the use of multiple platforms [36]. Hence, providing personalised experiences on the right channel at the right time is crucial for achieving human-centric engagement. In the Metaverse, the value of online customer engagement hinges on the cognitive processing of signals from various actors in the ecosystem.

Researchers are in the initial stages of exploring customer engagement within the Metaverse, but early success stories offer valuable insights. The Metaverse presents significant opportunities for brands, similar to creating genuine and engaging experiences in the real world. By leveraging the Metaverse’s ability to bridge physical and virtual commerce, marketers can enhance customers’ purchasing experiences.

Despite public scepticism surrounding new concepts like the Metaverse, customers may be more receptive to it or a hybridised version, given the long-standing presence of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) and their associated virtual worlds and ecosystems. Overall, the Metaverse offers a novel avenue for customer engagement with the potential for significant rewards.

Advertising in the Metaverse

Advertising in the Metaverse presents a financially rewarding opportunity, attracting attention from both corporations and academics. However, questions remain about advertising in this space and whether it is similar to the real world. Nonetheless, brands must remember that truth-in-advertising laws still apply in the Metaverse, as they do on social media. Additionally, businesses can create three-dimensional advertisements with the same objectives as traditional advertising: inform, persuade, or remind [20].

As companies explore advertising possibilities in the Metaverse, they must assess their ads’ sensory and performance promises, ensuring that claims are truthful and supported by appropriate evidence. While it is unlikely that entirely new rules and regulations will need to be developed for Metaverse advertising, applying existing regulations in this novel context remains a priority [20]. Overall, advertising in the Metaverse offers exciting opportunities for brands, but they must proceed cautiously, adhering to established advertising standards.

Now that we have considered the potential of the Metaverse across various marketing domains, we will explore some key design principles and implications for marketing.?

Designing experiences and marketing implications

Metaverse experiences best practices

Designing consumer experiences in the Metaverse should focus on three key dimensions: immersiveness, sociability, and environmental fidelity [37]. These dimensions are essential to create, market, and sell new products, goods, and services.

“The Metaverse aims to … create a tactile, sensorially immersive experience that delivers the feeling of being present without requiring physical presence. In effect, we will not just be on the internet. We will be in it.” Deepak Tiwari, Head of Digital & Emerging Technology, Ernst & Young [37]

• Immersiveness is determined by the level of immersion that the Metaverse system provides, which is typically based on the underlying technology [38]. Moreover, interactions in the Metaverse utilise new interactive media technologies, such as extended reality, which can create various levels of immersion through telepresence [39]. Additionally, media characteristics like vividness and interactivity can lead users to experience telepresence and feel immersed in the virtual environment [40]. Furthermore, VR worlds offer a variety of accessibility options, including PC (e.g. Decentraland [41]), PC or mobile (e.g. The Sandbox [25]), or full immersion with a VR headset (e.g. Somnium Space [42]). In marketing, immersion has positively affected consumers’ perceived value, attitudes, and behavioural intentions [43]. Therefore, immersiveness appears as a top priority for successful metaverse experience design.
• Sociability focuses on the Metaverse environment’s ability to facilitate social interaction [44]. Social presence in extended reality environments can stimulate consumers’ perceived benefits, positively influencing their attitudes and intentions [45]. Enhanced sociability can increase brand engagement, advocacy, and user-user engagement in AR experiences [46]. Sociability can also influence sharing, collaboration, and co-creation within the Metaverse [47]. Consequently, firms should consider sociability essential when designing Metaverse experiences.
• Environmental fidelity refers to the extent to which the Metaverse environment physically and functionally emulates the real world [48]. Consumers may have various goals when engaging in Metaverse-like environments, such as exploration, self-expression, socialisation, escapism, and entertainment [37]. Additionally, hedonic factors, like escapism and entertainment, can positively affect users’ intentions [49]. Environmental fidelity also influences users’ self-representation and identity within the Metaverse [50]. Therefore, marketers should consider environmental fidelity when designing goal-driven Metaverse experiences.

In conclusion, the dimensions of immersiveness, sociability, and environmental fidelity can be represented as three axes along which marketers can design consumer experiences in the Metaverse. By employing different levels of these dimensions, marketers can create consumer experiences that cater to user preferences and goals [37].

Now, let us see what this could all mean for marketing.

Marketing implications

The Metaverse-induced changes and opportunities we discussed contribute to novel implications for marketing practice. By examining each change with its rationale, examples, and implications, we can gain a deeper understanding of the marketing landscape in the Metaverse [37]:

• Hyper data availability: The Metaverse provides vast amounts of data from its diverse user base, connected devices, and real-time data capturing. This low-risk environment allows for market testing, generating valuable insights from virtual entities, such as avatars and interface devices. Consequently, marketers would face new opportunities and challenges in generating, disseminating, and responding to marketing intelligence. To capitalise on these opportunities, they must develop strategies to process, analyse, and utilise this wealth of data effectively.
• Virtualisation and hyper-gathering: Virtualization is a core aspect of the Metaverse, enabling users to interact in a digital space with realistic 3D representations of objects and spaces. This environment supports real-time updates, high responsiveness to consumer reactions, and participatory user involvement. Marketing professionals can leverage this virtual space for need identification, idea generation, and market launch, fostering innovation as users create, collaborate, and co-create.
• Hyperconnectedness: The Metaverse connects users, devices, and platforms in a hyperconnected network. This accelerates information dissemination and the virtualisation of brand-related elements. Marketers can employ interactive marketing content, such as ‘gamevertising’, and engage consumers through avatar representations. By embracing new channels for generating and disseminating brand-related communications, marketing professionals can expand their reach and enhance their strategies.
• Virtual/Physical blending: The Metaverse facilitates simulated, augmented, and multidimensional experiences. These realistic and immersive experiences, coupled with enhanced interface devices, offer novel ways to provide consumers with hedonic, utilitarian, and social values. Marketers must explore and leverage these immersive experiences to deliver unique value propositions, capturing consumers’ attention and fostering brand loyalty.
• Identity reembodiment: In the Metaverse, consumers can reembody themselves in avatars and consume virtual goods. Marketing professionals must understand the relationships between virtual assets and consumers and the connections between consumers and their avatars. Direct-to-avatar business models may emerge, requiring marketers to adapt their strategies to cater to varying consumer identities, self-expression, and motivations.
• New ownership, privacy, and societal challenges: The Metaverse presents unique economic, social, and legal challenges. These include potential user anonymity, a globally diversified user base, and algorithmic biases. The hypercollection of private data, such as biometrics, raises privacy concerns that marketers must address. Therefore, new policies may be required to ensure the Metaverse remains an inclusive, equitable, and fair space for all users.

In conclusion, the Metaverse offers novel marketing opportunities and challenges, requiring marketers to adapt their strategies and embrace change. By understanding the nature and implications of these changes, they can develop innovative strategies to thrive in the metaverse environment. The key to success lies in their ability to effectively navigate and leverage these changes, delivering value to consumers and fostering strong brand relationships.

With this robust understanding of the potential, best practices, and implications of the Metaverse for the marketing discipline, it is time to explore some potential risks.

Metaverse marketing = mind control?

One of the more outspoken Metaverse marketing voices, Louis Rosenberg, PhD, highlights the risk of the Metaverse becoming a tool for mind control [51]. For a start, the Metaverse could become the most dangerous tool of persuasion ever invented [52]. This is amplified by the power of immersive experiences and the fact that trusting our senses makes us vulnerable to fabricated experiences [53]. So from the onset, we have a highly believable environment that could make influence tools more powerful.

“Unless regulated, the Metaverse could become the most dangerous tool of persuasion ever created.” Louis Rosenberg, an American engineer, researcher, inventor, and entrepreneur [51]

Metaverse control systems

Moreover, insights from control theory [54] suggest that the essential elements needed for designing an effective control system in the Metaverse are present. So let us explore these elements using control theory terminology. For example, the data collected by Metaverse interaction devices, such as real-time tracking of physical motions, gaze, vital signs, and detection of subconscious expressions and emotions, could be seen as ‘sensors’. Further, AI technology, inferring personal information from sensor data and real-time emotion detection from various sources, can modify real-time interactive experiences, making them powerful ‘controllers’. Finally, AI-controlled environment modification and gamification tactics can create real-time adaptive ‘feedback loops’ that optimise persuasion, potentially crossing the line from marketing to manipulation. And you guessed it! The system being controlled is Metaverse users.

All this emphasises the need for thoughtful regulation. Therefore, it is crucial to establish regulations protecting users from metaverse-based mind control to prevent violations of cognitive liberty and maintain personal freedoms.

?Additionally, the immersiveness the Metaverse enables supports the proliferation of techniques such as Virtual Product Placements (VPPs) and Virtual Spokespeople (VSPs) [55].

Virtual Product Placements (VPPs)

?“VPPs are simulated products, services, or activities injected into an immersive world (virtual or augmented) on behalf of a paying sponsor such that it appears to the user as a naturally integrated element of the ambient environment.” Louis Rosenberg, an American engineer, researcher, inventor, and entrepreneur [55]

?VPPs can take various forms, from static objects to interactive encounters, and their seamless incorporation into virtual or augmented worlds can make them highly influential and engaging. However, if not regulated, VPPs could be abused by advertisers, leading to predatory practices and manipulation of users’ perceptions. VPPs in the Metaverse can distort individuals’ mental models of their communities, as targeted promotions could be mistaken for authentic experiences or widely held beliefs [56]. This is similar to the impact of curated newsfeeds on social media platforms, which can segregate and polarise populations, creating information bubbles and echo chambers that threaten social cohesion [57].

In the Metaverse, these issues could be exacerbated, with users segregated into “custom realities” where fringe views may be mistaken for widespread opinions [58]. Therefore, it is crucial to protect consumers from predatory VPPs. For example, one solution is requiring all VPPs to be visually and audibly distinct from non-targeted, non-promotional experiences [59]. This would enable users to differentiate between authentic encounters and targeted promotions, fostering trust in the metaverse environment. Implementing such regulations would protect consumers and benefit the industry, as user trust is essential for the success of the Metaverse.

By ensuring clear distinctions between authentic experiences and VPPs, consumers and businesses can navigate the Metaverse with confidence and transparency, avoiding the pitfalls of deceptive advertising and manipulation.

Virtual Spokespeople (VSPs)

“VSPs are simulated humans or other characters injected into an immersive world (virtual or augmented) that verbally convey promotional content on behalf of a paying sponsor, often engaging the target user in interactive promotional.” Louis Rosenberg, an American engineer, researcher, inventor, and entrepreneur [55]

?The Metaverse could introduce VSPs as a new advertising medium, utilising AI-driven avatars for promotional purposes. With recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs), VSPs could engage users in realistic conversations about products or services, possibly without users recognising their promotional intent [60]. Two primary modalities of VSP interaction are anticipated [55]: (i) passive observation, where users overhear scripted conversations between virtual characters, and (ii) direct engagement, where VSPs converse with users directly.

These AI-driven agents may have access to users’ profile data, interests, and previous promotional interactions, as well as real-time emotional data through facial expressions, vocal inflexions, and vital signs [60]. This information enables VSPs to tailor their conversations for optimal persuasion. Furthermore, AI algorithms may customise VSPs’ appearance, such as gender, clothing, and mannerisms, to maximise their influence on target users.

This potential for predatory advertising in the Metaverse raises concerns, highlighting the need for thoughtful regulation [61]. At a minimum, regulators should consider requiring VSPs to be visually and audibly distinct from authentic users to prevent consumers from mistaking targeted promotions as genuine interactions [60]. Policymakers should also consider that consumers find it hard to distinguish between images of real people and AI-generated people created using generative adversarial networks (GANs). Surprisingly, virtual people were perceived as “more trustworthy” than real people [62]. This supports the notion that advertisers may eventually prefer AI-driven VSPs over human spokespeople for immersive marketing.

In summary, the advent of VSPs in the Metaverse presents opportunities and challenges. While they offer a novel approach to advertising, their potential for exploitation necessitates careful regulation to protect consumers from predatory tactics and to maintain transparency in immersive environments.

?Now that we understand the risks and the need for user protection let us explore the case for developing a new type of rights.

The case for Metaverse rights

The growing prevalence of immersive technologies, such as the Metaverse, raises significant concerns regarding user privacy and the potential for manipulative advertising and propaganda [63]. In response to these challenges, policymakers should consider implementing regulations that guarantee essential “Immersive Rights” for citizens, including the right to experiential authenticity, emotional privacy, and behavioural privacy [60].

• Experiential authenticity is crucial to protect users from deceptive promotional content that blurs the line between authentic encounters and targeted advertisements. To uphold this right, regulations may mandate visual and audible differentiation for promotional artefacts and virtual spokespeople, allowing users to recognise and contextualise advertising content appropriately.
• Emotional privacy is vital as emerging technologies enable AI systems to detect and analyse emotions using cues imperceptible to humans, such as vital signs and micro-expressions [64]. This level of emotional assessment can lead to invasive profiling and sophisticated manipulation techniques. To safeguard emotional privacy, regulators should consider banning emotional profiling or requiring explicit consent for each application. Additionally, real-time emotional analysis and long-term emotional profiling for persuasive purposes, particularly those involving the detection of subtle cues not usually perceived by humans, should be strictly regulated.
• Behavioural privacy is essential as immersive technologies rely on extensive behavioural data to create realistic virtual or augmented experiences. While this data is necessary for real-time simulation, its long-term storage is questionable. However, stored behavioural data can be used to create invasive personal profiles, enabling AI systems to predict users’ actions and manipulate their behaviour. Thus, policymakers should consider prohibiting platforms from storing behavioural data over time and restricting the correlation of emotional and behavioural data to prevent the creation of manipulative, promotionally altered experiences.

Ultimately, these measures will help mitigate the risks of invasive profiling, targeted propaganda, and unethical manipulation in the rapidly evolving Metaverse landscape.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Metaverse and virtual reality (VR) herald a new era in marketing, offering brands opportunities to create immersive experiences and access untapped markets. As various industries explore the Metaverse, they capitalise on its potential to build communities, enhance customer experiences, and reinforce brand image and values. However, the nascent stage of the Metaverse, rapid technological development, and uncertainties surrounding user-generated content pose significant challenges.

To navigate this new terrain, marketers must adapt traditional models to embrace emerging technologies. Blockchain, gamification, tokenisation, and virtualisation, while prioritising interactivity and attention, could help. The Metaverse’s data-rich environment facilitates new product development, precision marketing, and hyper-segmented strategies. By incorporating the Metaverse into omnichannel strategies, brands can foster customer loyalty and cultivate a unique identity.

Trust is paramount for customer loyalty, and brands must address privacy concerns and potential data exploitation by demonstrating competence, predictability, and goodwill. This is particularly important given the challenges arising from the widespread use of cryptocurrencies and digital assets in the Metaverse. Blending virtual and physical worlds offers marketers opportunities to deliver unique value propositions through immersive experiences, capturing consumer attention and fostering brand loyalty.

While the Metaverse holds great potential, it also poses risks of becoming a tool for mind control, with immersive experiences amplifying the power of persuasion. Control theory insights and the use of Virtual Product Placements (VPPs) and Virtual Spokespeople (VSPs) contribute to the risks of predatory advertising and manipulation. Consequently, thoughtful regulation is necessary to protect users from Metaverse-based mind control and uphold cognitive liberty and personal freedoms.

Ultimately, policymakers should consider implementing “Immersive Rights” for users, encompassing experiential authenticity, emotional privacy, and behavioural privacy, to mitigate the risks of invasive profiling and unethical manipulation. By striking a balance between innovation and regulation, the Metaverse can serve as a powerful tool for brands to revolutionise marketing, drive engagement, and forge meaningful connections with consumers.

Summary:

• The Metaverse and virtual reality (VR) offer transformative marketing opportunities, enabling brands to create immersive experiences and access new markets.
• Companies across diverse industries are exploring the Metaverse to provide unique experiences and monetisation opportunities, including travel, automotive, retail, electronics, and food sectors.
• Key benefits of the Metaverse for marketing include building communities, enhancing customer experience, reinforcing brand image and values, raising awareness, and improving the customer journey.
• Challenges include the nascent stage of the Metaverse, rapid technological development, and uncertainties related to user-generated content.
• The Metaverse is poised to revolutionise marketing, prompting brands to adapt traditional models to fit new scenarios, such as incorporating blockchain, gamification, tokenisation, and virtualisation.
• Brand management in the Metaverse helps generate viral awareness, foster trust, create associations, and strengthen brand equity. Interactivity and attention are crucial for success.
• New product development in the Metaverse is facilitated by the wealth of customer data available, allowing for precision marketing, identification of new trends, and hyper-segmented marketing strategies.
• Sales opportunities in the Metaverse include real-time segmentation and hyper-personalisation, enabling marketers to create individualised experiences that capture and retain customer attention.
• The Metaverse offers a new platform for enhancing customer experiences, despite inherent limitations in replicating real-world sensory and emotional aspects. Incorporating the Metaverse into omnichannel strategies can foster customer loyalty and create a unique brand identity.
• Trust is essential for customer loyalty, so addressing privacy concerns and potential data exploitation is crucial in the Metaverse. Companies must focus on competence, predictability, and goodwill to build trust while addressing challenges posed by the widespread use of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.
• The Metaverse provides opportunities for brands to create genuine, engaging experiences similar to real-world interactions. Leveraging the Metaverse’s ability to bridge physical and virtual commerce can enhance customer purchasing experiences, potentially offering significant rewards.
• The Metaverse presents a financially rewarding advertising opportunity, but questions remain about advertising in this new environment. Brands must adhere to truth-in-advertising laws, ensuring that claims are truthful and supported by evidence, while applying existing regulations in this novel context.
• Immersiveness, sociability, and environmental fidelity are essential dimensions for designing consumer experiences in the Metaverse, impacting marketing strategies and user engagement.
• The Metaverse provides hyperdata availability, enabling marketers to generate valuable insights and adapt strategies through effective data analysis.
• Virtualisation and hyper-gathering support innovation, fostering user-driven creation, collaboration, and co-creation within the Metaverse.
• Hyperconnectedness in the Metaverse allows marketers to embrace new channels for generating and disseminating brand-related communications, expanding reach and enhancing strategies.
• Virtual/physical blending offers marketers opportunities to deliver unique value propositions through immersive experiences, capturing consumer attention and fostering brand loyalty.
• Identity reembodiment necessitates understanding the connections between consumers, their avatars, and virtual assets, adapting marketing strategies to cater to varying consumer identities and motivations.
• The Metaverse poses risks of becoming a tool for mind control, with its immersive experiences amplifying the power of persuasion.
• Control theory insights highlight essential elements for designing effective control systems within the Metaverse, potentially enabling marketing manipulation.
• Virtual Product Placements (VPPs) and Virtual Spokespeople (VSPs) contribute to the risks of predatory advertising and manipulation.
• Thoughtful regulation is necessary to protect users from metaverse-based mind control and to uphold cognitive liberty and personal freedoms.
• Policymakers should consider implementing “Immersive Rights” for users, including experiential authenticity, emotional privacy, and behavioural privacy, to mitigate risks of invasive profiling and unethical manipulation.

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