Marketers have been so obsessed with the incorporeal promises of what the metaverse could be, they’re missing what’s available today says futurist Phil Rowley.
As Omnicom Media Group releases a report debunking misconceptions about the sector, its head of futures, Phil Rowley, tells The Drum: “We wanted to correct the feverish overreaction of some brands and business and clients”.
Having spent a year studying the market, he has identified many false ideas of what the metaverse is. He puts them in three buckets.
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1. Constricted: Often the metaverse is tied to a single piece of tech, usually by the business selling said tech. This is a constricted definition. Meta is the most obvious example, positioning it as a VR haven. We don’t really know how it will form.
Rowley explains: ”We’ve seen a lot of commentaries that confuse or conflate the metaverse with VR, and also conflate the metaverse with just a series of gaming titles that just happen to be popular: Roblox and Minecraft.”
2. Convoluted: While some pinpoint a specific piece of tech others get bogged down in some of science fiction writer and futurist Neal Stephenson’s ideas. For example, it may be too much to ask competing web giants to create an interoperable web3. Surely that alone doesn’t mean we'll never form a metaverse?
“Some definitions go way too much into the engineering technicalities. They’re obsessed with the fact that it is synchronous and pervasive. But are there any definitions that we find useful to brands right now?”
These technicalities don’t matter to audiences.
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3. Quixotic: Another thing that's made the exuberant boom of metaverse thinking hard to criticize is that many descriptions are “implausible, romanticized and idealistic”.
Rowley says: “There are many people in this field who will wax lyrical about how we’re all going to be living in the metaverse Ready Player One-style by the end of next week. It is totally, utterly unhelpful.”
A dose of reality is needed, he explains. Helpfully, he’s out to deliver it.
So what is the metaverse?
Rowley found it easier to say what it isn't than what it is. As a proper futurist, he’s not into predictions, he’s more about charting the direction of travel rather than the destination. His definition is created for brands curious about the metaverse, and it's worth remembering that it is coming from one of the world's biggest media agencies, so with that lens caveated here’s what he says.
“It’s a conflagration of two technologies, one is the internet which brought this idea of connectivity or digital connectedness and network knowledge. And secondly, gaming, dimensionalized media.”
Rowley has carefully brought us to online gaming, which today is the closest we have to any supposed metaverse. But he’s not saying it is the metaverse, he’s excited by the tech underpinning worlds like Fortnite, Minecraft and more.
He points out that gaming introduced a Z-axis to media, a 3D perspective, albeit through a 2D interface (a screen). Those on the Nintendo 64 or PlayStation 1 generation will remember how revolutionary that was when it was introduced to gaming. OMG’s metaverse model is preparing brands for a faster, more powerful 3D internet. Long-time users may scoff, but Gen-Z may well take to it more naturally, that’s what’s being planned for.
Rowley then goes into the four ways that brands can activate towards, if not in, the metaverse, like an on-ramp of options where reach decreases as complexity increases.
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1. Situate: As a futurist at a media agency, it’s no surprise he’s urging us to start with media that exists. But while it exists, brands may not be aware that they can talk to the supposed metaverse audiences today. They often mean gaming audiences, which globally is now technically between one billion and three billion people, depending on your definition. However, even now, that label still carries a stigma – despite the average UK gamer being 35, the gender split is fairly even. Over 60 gamers clock in more than 20 hours a week. “Gaming is as wide as any other medium now.”
Brands don’t need to be ‘in’ games to get gamers. YouTube Gaming had 1.13bn hours of viewing, viewing in the last quarter on gaming content. Twitch streamed 1tn minutes in 2022, and that’ll continue (if it doesn’t continue to upset creators). They are reachable with banner ads, pre-rolls and more through gaming-adjacent content.
It’s a way to start taking to what will most likely be the key metaverse demographic. And he chucked in that brands can do that using existing assets. While agencies go on about authenticity in gaming, it’s not so important at this stage, he believes. It’s best to turn up and start making those connections. The brands advertising around Coronation Street (a beloved UK soap) don’t have to make their ads themed around the show. Gaming isn’t different.
2. Incorporate: This is the stage where things start coming closer to the metaverse experience many have touted. Many call this opportunity in-game advertising or virtual out-of-home.
It’s about taking real-world ads, be it outdoor or radio, for example, and incorporating it into an existing world or video game. Huge progress has been made in this space and brands can now prove ad viewability in 3D spaces.
It’s going to be a staple of any media plan in a few years. To many, it will be the metaverse fully realized.
3. Integrate: Now this is a younger opportunity and it’s about overlapping the digital and physical. Rowley is excited by the “forgotten half of the metaverse”, augmented reality (AR).
Rather than talking the real into virtual worlds, what if the real potential was in taking the virtual into the real world? It’s something that Pokemon Go raised awareness of half a decade ago. Filters and experiences in social apps like Snap and TikTok or now managing to bring it into the mainstream. Brands struggle to understand the value these bring to the media plan, but it’s clear the potential is huge. Rowley says: “The metaverse technically exists in the real world too. There are plenty of opportunities that brands have used already used.”
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4. Create: And here is the final tier of metaverse activation and it’s the one that most people fixate on, erroneously, according to Rowley. It’s also the hardest part.
This is the “quickest route to that ‘Regretaverse’... a virtual zone of disappointment led by people who really, you know, had perhaps overestimated their ambitions or misunderstood the size of the entire territory.”
He points to the EU’s botched rave party costing €387,000 and attracting six visitors, dubbed by the body as ‘digital garbage’.
I’m here at the “gala” concert in the EU foreign aid dept’s €387k metaverse (designed to attract non politically engaged 18-35 year olds — see story below). After initial bemused chats with the roughly five other humans who showed up, I am alone. https://t.co/ChIHeXasQP pic.twitter.com/kZWIVlKmhL
— Vince Chadwick (@vchadw) November 29, 2022
Building a scalable experience or game is hard. It’s something most video game companies fail to do. It’s highly improbable a brand can build its own platform and hit any respectable KPIs at this stage. It’s why they prefer to piggyback existing platforms, be it games or social apps, to launch experiences.
So where does that leave the metaverse?
So there’s the balance between the opportunities that exist and are easily accessible with existing ad creative and the first-mover advantage and PR lift of being seen to be innovating spaces that resemble what some call the metaverse.
When picking where to land a campaign, Rowley asks clients to consider what they would do if TV were to be invented yesterday. Clients would approach him and say something along the lines of: ‘We really need to start using TV in our media plan.’
Would the client be happy building a TV studio, channel infrastructure and running that on the air, rather than finding the media opportunities inherent in TV? “If you think ‘build it and they will come’, the road tends to lead to disappointment,” Rowley says.
And that has been exhibited in the user numbers of some of the branded experiences that have been launched over the last few years.
Citing the Gartner Hype Cycle, he says: “We’re about to go down into the trough of disillusionment and the peak of inflated expectations. Over time, it will find its level back into the plateau of productivity.”
Brands that are just chasing the hype should look elsewhere. The metaverse needs to be built, which will require years of testing and learning.
If The Drum readers think of the metaverse as a poorly rendered virtual store, he’ll have “failed” in his mission. Few brands will ever pull off an experience like that, Lego in partnership with Epic perhaps. But, Greggs the bakery, he says for example, probably not. Most will be running a “deserted virtual mall.”
If clients are dead-set on going down the ‘Create’ route, they should build an experience people would actually seek out, before stocking up the virtual shelves.
But as it is, such activities are “dragging the center of gravity” away from the easy media opportunities in gaming, It won’t “win you a Cannes Lion” but it will build a relationship with a digitally-savvy crowd. And that’s the first step to acceptance in the metaverse, whatever form that and the next version of the internet looks like.
You can download the full report here. Let us know your thoughts by tagging @The Drum and Rowley on LinkedIn. And don’t forget to sign up to the Media Agency Briefing for a weekly update on the biggest questions facing the industry.
When 77% of UK consumers are concerned about the state of their online privacy, how can marketers keep on top of the latest privacy-preserving technology? In this handy explainer, we break down the challenges, strategies and solutions to help.
In today’s constantly evolving privacy landscape, it can be hard for marketing leaders to keep up with the privacy-preserving tools and technologies at their disposal. But when digital media performance is so dependent on protecting people’s privacy first and foremost, marketers will have to upgrade their marketing toolkit to build, measure and activate data responsibly in order to grow their businesses.
It’s no secret that people are increasingly concerned about how their data is collected and used online. In turn, regulators are strengthening protections for the collection, usage and transfer of personal data - particularly for advertising. The knock-on effect of that is that technology platforms, including browser and mobile operating systems, are updating their practices to limit the way user data is generated, shared and measured.
Marketing leaders are in a unique position to prepare their organization for sustainable growth - but they also need technology solutions that can help balance the need to deliver on customers’ expectations, and meet their marketing and business goals.
“To meet and exceed rising consumer expectations, products, programs and partnerships must be approached with a long-term privacy lens that focuses on adapting to a changing, complex macro-environment,” says Darragh Daunt, head of data and measurement solutions, large customer sales (LCS) platforms UK at Google. “On average, we’ve seen organizations getting benefits worth 1.8x* their privacy investment by forming a strategy built on responsibly gathered first-party data and AI-powered solutions to optimize the performance of their digital campaigns.”
Read on to explore what to look for when it comes to privacy-preserving solutions in your tech stack to address the consumer and market shifts shaping the future of advertising.
1. Build more meaningful customer relationships: earn people’s trust to unlock more first-party data
The insight: what's happening?
People are concerned about how their personal information is collected and used online; a recent Google study* showing that 77% of UK consumers are concerned about the current state of their online privacy. They want increased control over how their data is used.
The strategy: how should marketers respond?
A first-party data strategy built with privacy in mind and customers at the forefront can help realize the full value of marketing. By putting customers first and respecting their expectations for privacy, it is possible to build direct relationships with them while boosting marketing effectiveness. Key to this is strengthening your foundation of responsibly gathered first-party data through clear communication about your data practices to build trust with the right value exchange.
The solution: what tools should marketers be looking for?
To future-proof measurement, marketers should explore next-generation analytics which collect event-based data over session-based data from both websites and apps to better understand the customer journey. This includes privacy controls such as cookieless measurement, behavioral and conversion modeling. The predictive capabilities of Google Analytics 4 - which will replace Universal Analytics in July - offer guidance without complex models and can be directly integrated to media platforms to help drive action.
For a more advanced option, bring your business and marketing data together for a holistic view of marketing’s performance and business impact. Google Cloud, for example, offers seamless connectors to key data sources, connecting first-party data like CRM, sales, product, customer service, social and more, for a holistic view of marketing analytics in a connected platform; from which it’s easy to build AI models from consolidated data.
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2. Measure customer interactions accurately: understand customers and get actionable insights to help improve ROI
The insight: what’s happening?
Tech platforms are evolving techniques - such as device IDs and third-party cookies - that advertisers have relied on for decades to reach audiences and measure results. But when people are interacting with products and services via multiple touchpoints, connecting all the dots across channels continues to present challenges.
The strategy: how should marketers respond?
A strong measurement foundation can help provide an accurate view of performance across channels - allowing marketers to generate insights and adjust their marketing strategy for better business results. Enabling first-party data can give a more accurate view of how users convert. Use machine learning to make sense of available signals to get accurate measurement insights from your first-party data across online and offline touchpoints.
The solution: what tools should marketers be looking for?
It’s important to have the tools in place - and permission where required - to generate insightful and actionable first-party data when direct interactions take place. Investing in a strong measurement foundation through sitewide tagging is a key step toward building a privacy-safe strategy. Building a strong foundation of first-party data across multiple products will require a solution that can automatically interpret available signals and provide the best reporting possible.
Look for features that can improve the accuracy of conversion measurement and unlock more powerful bidding. Google’s Enhanced Conversions, for example, supplements existing conversion tags by sending hashed first-party conversion data between websites and Google in a privacy-safe way. When selecting an attribution model for conversion actions, shifting the focus to data-driven attribution gives credit for conversions based on how people engage and interact with various ads before deciding to become a customer.
Modeled conversions use data that doesn’t identify individual users to estimate conversions that can’t be observed by Google directly, for example. Giving a more complete report of conversions, this provides high-quality measurement to accurately understand the impact of marketing to prevent underbidding or overbidding.
To unlock more accurate conversion measurement with modeling in light of consent changes, tools like Consent Mode allow marketers to adjust how Google tags behave based on what consent users have given and enables Google to model for gaps in conversions. The tags dynamically adapt, utilizing cookies for specified purposes when consent has been given.
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3. Activate insights to drive growth: connect with the right people at scale and drive meaningful business results
The insight: what’s happening?
People are turning to brands that can anticipate their needs and deliver helpful, relevant experiences. A Google/Ipsos study* found that providing a positive privacy experience can increase share of brand preference by 43%, while 39% would switch brand loyalties to a second choice brand in response to a negative privacy experience with their preferred brand.
The strategy: how should marketers respond?
With a robust first-party data strategy and privacy-preserving measurement in place, automated solutions can help to activate audience insights. Ensure a comprehensive and consolidated view of audiences, by simplifying audience management and optimization. Multiply customer connections at scale using insights from first-party data and drive performance and ROI with automated tools aligned to the marketing objectives.
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The solution: what tools should marketers be looking for?
Look for a solution that utilizes online and offline data to reach and re-engage with customers across search, shopping, email, video and display. Using information that customers have shared, tools like Customer Match do all of this heavy lifting, allowing brands to target ads to those customers and other customers like them.
Time saving and performance improvements can be achieved with automated bid strategies and smart bidding, that use machine learning to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction. It means that advertisers can make more accurate predictions that factor in a wider range of parameters that impact performance than a single person or team could compute. A value-based bidding strategy can help optimize for total value rather than volume.
“Alongside leaning into first-party data and AI-powered solutions, experimenting with new privacy-preserving technologies can help you grow your business,” says Daunt. “But as an advertiser, you don’t need to implement these new technologies directly yourself. There is an ecosystem of certified partners who can add strategic guidance and implementation know-how to help clients future-proof faster.”
You can also keep up to date with the progress of the Privacy Sandbox initiative for latest technologies that both protect people’s online privacy and give companies and developers the tools they need to build thriving digital businesses.
*Source: Robert Waitman, “Privacy Becomes Mission Critical,” Cisco Blog, January 26, 2022.
*Source: Google/Ipsos, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, UK, Privacy by design: the benefits of putting people in control, n=10,001 online participants aged 18-70, July 2022.
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Google is committed to helping businesses thrive in a privacy-first world. The technology giant works with thousands of businesses and agencies to help them prepare for a future without third party cookies. Using privacy-preserving technologies, built on machine learning and automation, it can fill reporting gaps and understand people’s needs in a privacy-centric way.
Clickon’s Eric Soloway makes the case for a simplified understanding of efficiency in the modern production environment – what he calls ‘efficiency 2.0’ or, simply, capital-E-efficiency.
For brands and marketers, the efficiency drum is always beating: faster,, cheaper; and better. Most of the obstacles standing in the way of this perpetual improvement come from us.
Not long ago, when a producer was presented with an underfunded project and an impossible deadline they would say, ‘Fast, cheap, good: pick two’. Usually, it worked. It staved off the insanity – for a little while. Eventually, though, unyielding clients and competition broke the paradigm. Hard work (really hard work) and better technology made the impossible possible. And now there’s no putting the genie of progress back in the bottle.
Sometimes, speed kills. Something inevitably goes wrong on these fast, cheap and good endeavors. Something expensive. Maybe a legality gets overlooked and delays ensue, or stakeholders aren’t aligned, or a frame rate blunder leads to post overages, or the wrong version gets shipped. These are the things that keep a producer up at night (assuming they got a chance to sleep). Whatever it is will usually get fixed – there’s no other option. The production must go on. Hence the saying, ‘they have no money to make it, but plenty to fix it'. These productions sometimes leave a bitter taste and a jolt of PTSD. We all have our war stories.
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Fortunately, there’s a better way. Efficiency, with a capital E. Efficiency from the get-go; Efficiency through-and-through; Efficiency baked into the process, from RFP to delivery, measurement and learnings. ‘Fast, cheap, good 2.0’ can be shortened to, simply, ‘Efficiency’. Efficiency done right is eternal, self-renewing and making the most of time, cost and quality.
The Efficiency mantra can be summed up by another well-worn saying, ‘measure twice, cut once’. It never ceases to amaze me how often it’s not only ignored but defied. Spinning wheels get you nowhere. Spinning other people’s wheels gets you nowhere faster.
So how do we put Efficiency into action?
First, here’s how not to be efficient: calling big meetings to advance half-baked ideas; bidding jobs five different ways from a concept that’s not clearly defined; saying ‘we’ll figure it out in post’; awarding a job without a list of final deliverables. The list goes on. Fortunately, the things you should do can be boiled down to a much shorter list.
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1. Communication
Clear, level-headed, thorough, communication among all stakeholders throughout the process is vital for efficiency to thrive.
When a ‘point of no return’ decision needs to be made, be clear about the implications of that decision and get all the right people to sign off on it. Put it in writing, distribute it accordingly, and don’t look back. If it takes slightly longer than planned to gather alignment, wait… but urgently. Efficiency doesn’t always have to mean faster at the moment.
Remember, the tortoise won the race. Keep that turtle on a healthy diet and you’ll always come in on time and on budget. Good communication is the key to saving time.
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2. Process
Churning out innovative, revolutionizing ideas isn’t easy, but it’s easier if we can stick to a process with a clear order of operations and defined roles and responsibilities. This takes patience and discipline.
Here’s another metaphor: to make a great cake, follow the recipe. That doesn’t mean you can’t swap out ingredients (good health tip: substitute olive oil for butter) but the icing comes last. Swapping the order of things and ignoring the space-time continuum compromises the process, and ultimately sabotages it. Strategy, creative development, production, delivery, and measurement are phases that rely on each other, successively.
Retrofitting the strategy to suit the creative, or selling in overlength scripts and indulging all sorts of short-sighted demands for inpatient execs instead of enrolling them, will only disrupt the process and ultimately drive costs (and frustrations) up.
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3. Craft
We’ve covered speed and cost. Now comes the quality, aka craft. Whether it’s a TikTok or a Super Bowl spot, the craft can never be compromised. With good communication and adherence to process, it won’t be. If the strategy is sound and signed off by all stakeholders, and the process allows enough time (because communication early on was good) then the creatives can do their job to come up with stellar, ground-breaking ideas that can be vetted by production and presented to the client responsibly with any necessary caveats.
I’m all for upselling as long as it’s communicated clearly. And because the client will have been thoroughly kept in the loop the whole time, expectations will be met (hopefully exceeded) and everyone can move forward instead of in circles.
I know patience isn’t always easy these days. And everyone is feeling the pressure. But if we can hold each other (and ourselves) accountable, communicate clearly, and help each other through the process, we’ll work more efficiently and love what we create together.
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