Online Potemkin villages

The metaverse is conceptually flawed and marketers should ignore it for now.

Andrew Carrier

Dec 04, 2022

Read on to learn why:

① There is no evidence that anyone wants to interact with you in the metaverse.

② AR will eclipse VR in usefulness and importance to your marketing.

③ Successful brands are guided by what truly differentiates them.

④ It’s dangerous to confuse bitcoin with blockchain.

⑤ Content marketing should be the bedrock of your 2023 marketing plan.

⑥ Firms ignore the appeal of remote working at their peril.

⑦ Finance is harder than it might look from the outside.

What's new

The European Union spent €347,000 on a party in the metaverse. Six people showed up. One was underwhelmed - and lonely - journalist, Vince Chadwick.

“The European Union reportedly built a nearly $400,000 digital metaverse, and only six people showed up to the gala celebrating it. On Tuesday night, journalist Vincent Chadwick went to the party and found his virtual avatar almost entirely alone.”
“The Global Gateway’s metaverse launched in mid-October with the intent of becoming a ‘shared digital space’ where people disguised as lanky, anthropomorphic balloon animals can meet and ‘reflect on global issues to make a difference for our shared future,’ according to the EU.”
“Some within the department reportedly weren’t happy about the decision. ‘Depressing and embarrassing,’ one foreign aid employee reportedly told Chadwick. The Devex journalist wrote that another described it as ‘digital garbage’.”

Why it matters

The EU’s faux pas numérique is just the latest example of a costly and time-consuming escapade in the metaverse that literally nobody asked for.

Jeff Goldblum as Dr Ian Malcolm. Source: Empire, 26 April 2017

My reaction to every marketing initiative I see in the metaverse is to borrow from Dr Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park: “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

① Beyond the - admittedly significant - worlds of gaming and entertainment, there is no evidence that anyone wants to hang out in the metaverse. Why would they? What problem is the metaverse trying to solve? Most people - particularly after years of lockdown and what is now a customary work day of video calls and otherwise staring at screens - are keen to get out into the real world, whether to enjoy nature or connect with other human beings face to face.

This hasn't dissuaded financial services firms from piling in though. We’ve seen virtual bank branches opening up (at a time when, lest we forget, no one wants them in the real world, let alone a fake one.) Not even the sleepy enclave of transaction banking is safe. At this year’s Sibos, some of the banks proudly declared they were exhibiting both in Amsterdam and the metaverse. I dread to think of the ROI on those stunts.

What's causing this madness? I suspect a combination of FOMO, exuberant CMOs who like playing with the latest tech, and the odd board member who’s read one Wired article too many.

What to do about it

Take action

Much like it’s worth getting your marketing team to register your brand’s account name with Post or Mastadon just in case Twitter implodes, of course you should keep an eye on developments in the so-called metaverse. But I implore you, don’t waste time or money on it at the moment.

If your board asks you what your metaverse strategy is, offer to host their next meeting there. They won’t ask again.

② For what it’s worth though, my prediction is that AR (the real world overlaid with valuable digital information and enhancements) is going to be huge and ubiquitous once the hardware can be worn unobtrusively. VR (a fake world that approximates human interaction) will always be niche and used for shorter stints. If you really want to take action now, start thinking about your AR marketing tactics.

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Top stories

The other articles that are worthy of your time.

FINANCE

UBS chair rules out more US acquisitions after aborted Wealthfront deal

③ Successful brands are guided by what truly differentiates them and have the confidence to walk away from opportunities that don’t play to those strengths.

Source: The Financial Times, 30 November 2022

“UBS chair Colm Kelleher has ruled out further acquisitions in the US after walking away from a $1.4bn deal two months ago, saying that shareholders need a clear picture of how the Swiss bank will grow in a market it has earmarked as a top priority.”
“‘What makes UBS different from Morgan Stanley or Bank of America is that we appeal to the ultra-wealthy. The message in the states is organic growth, no optionality, no distractions, no M&A,’ Kelleher said. ‘We have a clear strategy in the states. Why are we complicating it for our investors?’”
“‘Where we bring value is high net worth and ultra-high net worth. I don’t think we particularly bring alpha in mass-affluent, which is why we walked away mutually from the Wealthfront deal . . . it didn’t make sense,’ added Kelleher.”

TECHNOLOGY

Financial firms quietly use blockchain to solve real-life problems

④ It’s dangerous to confuse bitcoin with blockchain. The former is a gamble, the latter could well be the future of finance.

“Some amazing things happen when the technology that was used to create cryptocurrencies is applied to actual business challenges.”
“Some of the earliest success in asset digitisation came in bonds, which for a variety of reasons proved quite conducive to tokenisation. Looking forward, industry players see big potential in real estate, funds, collateral and OTC derivatives. In these and other asset classes, the opportunity set for DLT is enormous, because it involves not just the simple act of tokenisation, but also the digitisation of the entire life cycle of an asset.”
“While the potential cost savings from those efficiencies has attracted the attention and resources of banks, dealers and the rest of the sell side, the buy side has been slower to sign on. That’s understandable. Sell-side firms see opportunities to realise immediate benefits from DLT applications in internal operations and functions, or from applications involving only a counterparty or two. For the buy side, the biggest benefits of new technology platforms usually materialise only when the systems begin to attract enough users to produce network effects.”

MEDIA & MARKETING

The future of digital marketing: Predictions for 2023

⑤ Content marketing should be the bedrock of your 2023 marketing plan.

Source: Marketing Insider Group, 29 November 2022

“The first big trend is the resurgence of content marketing as the first thing businesses are doing in marketing. Before the pandemic, startup founders and B2B SaaS marketers would first consider buying social media ads in order to grow their business. Now, they are doubling down on content marketing. Why? Because Google told us content marketing is the best way to rank for buyer search. Research from the Content Marketing Institute states that 50% of marketers will increase their content marketing budgets in 2023, with 1 in 5 increased by double digits.
“Another big trend is employee activation. Our best storytellers are our existing employees from across the business. Every company needs a strategy to activate these employees as both creators and as the most effective distribution channel to share that content.”
“You may think social media is already pervasive, but it still has room to grow. Social media currently makes up 33% of all digital ad spending and is projected to increase in 2023. While the future of social media might come in the form of something, well, more social, the growth of these platforms is not likely to subside any time soon.”

WILDCARD

Finance staff ignoring mandatory office attendance demands

⑥ Firms ignore the appeal of remote working at their peril.

Source: The Financial Times, 28 November 2022

“Workers in financial services are often ignoring company rules on the number of days they should be in the office, according to a report by non-profit group Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF) and the London School of Economics. It found staff wanted more flexible working as they rejected presenteeism in favour of productivity.”
“The report said a move to ‘remote-first’ working, in which homeworking is the primary option for most staff, had either no impact or a positive impact on productivity.”
“The researchers interviewed workers of various levels of seniority at companies such as Bank of America, BlackRock, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, NatWest, Schroders and UBS. Grace Lordan, director of the Inclusion Initiative at LSE and an author of the report, said ‘firms that demand their employees are in the office for no reason will lose out on diverse talent pools’.”

Off cuts

The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.

The last word

⑦ William Cohan on Elon Musk’s plans to turn Twitter into a payments network:

William Cohan. Source: LinkedIn, 3 December 2022

“Making money from money is not nearly as simple and riskless as people like to think it is. In fact, Wall Street has always been a very dangerous place.”

Don’t settle for marketing.

Strive for InMarketing: innovate, interact, influence.

Wishing you a productive week,

P.S. A friend who works in the art world described William Kentridge’s work to me recently as “dark and heavy”. I found the RA’s Kentridge exhibition quite the opposite and recommend it to you. But hurry, it closes next Sunday.