Opinion: Role of Influencer Marketing in Metaverse 

Pranav Panpalia, OpraahFx explains how two important marketing concepts of the time - Influencer Marketing and Metaverse Marketing - can be combined for a new age marketing approach.

Rapidly evolving as a go-to future-ready destination by consumers, the evolution and acceptance of Metaverse Marketing have already started to take a giant shape. Many luxury and fashion brands now have metaverse taking some pie in their ‘marketing mix’. Blurring the lines between the real and virtual world, the metaverse is providing real-world experiences virtually. This has enabled people and brands to create virtual clones/twins to interact in the digital world. 

Until last year, Influencer Marketing was one of the most talked-about subjects and concepts, and now it is metaverse marketing. This signifies that the pandemic has truly accelerated the digital mediums for promotions and marketing. However, I believe the best thing happens when two leading mediums meet. Similarly, Influencers getting on to metaverse will enable them and the brands to create unimagined experiences and content that they couldn’t in the real world. 

Let is us what role would Influencer Marketing, influencers, and content creators would play in the metaverse: 

Community Building

Metaverse is an extremely new concept and medium for people to flock on. In order to utilize the maximum out of this, the platform will need a larger active community to sustain and survive. Community is the power of Influencers and they are extremely good at building that fast. Therefore, the very first campaign that many established influencers would do is to build their loyal and active community on metaverse. ‘Follow me on metaverse’ will be one of the first things they may do. Over time, like Instagram and YouTube influencers, we may also witness a new range of influencers titled – ‘metaverse influencers’. 

Also Read: Opinion: Fundamentals of using Finfluencers in a high-risk industry such as BFSI

Introducing – Virtual Influencers 

Metaverse being a highly virtual space, it would provide an opportunity for developers to create and enable the concept of ‘Virtual Influencers’. Virtual Influencers have been a core part of Instagram’s creator community, and metaverse will further boom this segment of creators and influencers. Virtual Influencers are CGI creators/influencers developed by brands and developers.

Budget-friendly 

Providing everyone with an opportunity to see and live in a different part of the world virtually while sitting in the comfort of our living rooms, metaverse will foster collaborations between creators and brands that were not possible in the real world. Being a gamified version of the real world, metaverse will have no boundaries in terms of ideas and budgets. Paris Fashion Week could invite every single luxury and fashion influencer in the world without having to worry about the logistics. Real-world interactions that involved a high level of coordination and cost, will now be possible to execute in the metaverse. 

Seamless Collaboration

Creators will have an opportunity to create immersive content by collaborating with fellow creators. Travel influencers can collaborate and trek together, food creators can cook together, and fashion influencers could create looks together. All while being in the comfort of their homes. Great influencer collaborations and meets will be a common thing on metaverse. 

Finding Niche

As many leading brands have already opened their metaverse outlets and launched metaverse products, they have become the pioneers. They are already creating interesting content independently and thereby have a loyal fanbase. Hence, creators in the metaverse will face some competition from such brands who are creating exciting content to keep their audiences engaged. It will be essential for creators to find their niche and create regular immersive content for their audiences. Challenging, yet would be exciting to watch how this meta world shapes. 

The article is penned by Pranav Panpalia, founder, OpraahFx.