Social Throwback 2022: Metaverse campaigns that married commerce with creativity

This year, Indian brands experimented with Virtual Reality and Metaverse for campaigns and marketing, deep-diving into Web3 to connect with the new-age consumer.

Who would have thought a science fiction novel published in 1992 that coined the term ‘metaverse’, would be a reality? The term was first introduced in a book called Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Today this virtual immersive experience allows users to traverse through themed rooms and actually buy products. The brand-Metaverse combination has the potential of creating an $800 billion market by 2024.

Also Read: Social Throwback 2022: The LinkedIn transition from a B2B platform to a creator hub

Last year, Gucci launched its first Gucci Garden experience on Roblox, Balenciaga dressed Fortnite characters in its new Fall 2021 collection. Many more international brands have successfully dipped their toes into this virtual business. 

Indian brands have slowly turned towards the Metaverse to reach the new generation of consumers. Here’s a deeper look at the metaverse campaigns of 2022.

Celebrating Love

If there's anything that catches people’s attention, it's romance. Coca-Cola, ITC’s Fabelle, and Matrimonial.com grabbed the opportunity to join in on the first-ever metaverse wedding. The wedding took place on Yug Metaverse (the Indian Metaverse platform). 

Mondelez India brought a dinner date opportunity to a young couple with its Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk’s Valentine’s Day campaign. The campaign titled ‘How Far Will You Go To Make Them Blush?’ let them experience a 3D dinner date on the moon.

Jewellery brand Tanishq announced that its brand Rivaah 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.

Celebrating Festivals 

Tea brand Tata Tea Premium hosted its first Holi party where consumers could don avatars of their choice and enjoy various games. Likewise, McDowells No.1 Soda hosted a virtual celebration of Holi where consumers could attend concerts, have food, play in a pool, and more as part of the virtual experience. 

Hershey's India launched ‘Hersheyverse’ to build a memorable holiday experience. Guests could interact with each other, participate in quests, and make use of discounts and exclusive wearables. 

Merging commerce with NFTs

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. 

Automobile company, Mahindra dropped its first sets of Thar-themed Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with the bidding on the first day of the auction hitting close to INR 16 lakhs. All proceeds of the auction went to Nanhi Kali, an NGO working on educating girl children.

In a bid to promote sustainable tourism, 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. 

Yashoda Hospitals acquired space on Decentraland (metaverse platform) to build its virtual consultation clinic. It plans to unveil the clinic next year where patients can seek expert consultations from doctors. Along with this, One Plus India in association with Amazon Specials unboxed its One Plus 10 series on Decentraland. 

Food & Beverage Brands

Allied Blenders & Distillers launched its new whisky ‘ICONiQ White’ in ABD Meta Bar ahead of the whisky’s release in physical stores. Farzi Cafe, along with OneRare (Food Metaverse game), joined the virtual world as well. Users can play virtual games, collect ingredients to make a dish, and receive tokens to exchange in physical restaurants. 

Entertainment Brands 

Alt Balaji partnered with Owens NFT to give gaming enthusiasts a chance to play and win prize money in its game based on the reality show, Lock Upp. MTV hosted the Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Roblox with brands like Wendy’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Forever 21 participating in creating the metaverse experience. Various musicians performed on stage including BTS, Travis Scott, and more.

Now you can experience the atyaachaari khel; yourself! Lock Upp Metaverse is now live.

Play the world's first fantasy metaverse game based on a reality show - https://t.co/mFsKQYneKT

Get ready to Play Real, Win Real. pic.twitter.com/Y3oCsuuFLP

— ALTBalaji (@altbalaji) March 29, 2022

Whether these campaigns have been done successfully or not, the year 2022 has been an important milestone for shaping up the Metaverse. As per management consultancy McKinsey and Company the metaverse economy could in aggregate, "generate up to $5 trillion in impact by 2030 -- equivalent to the size of the third-largest economy today, Japan."

Social Throwback is Social Samosa’s marquee editorial property that recaps the important happenings of the industry from the year that went by. You can catch up with 2022 here.