Brands ramp up activities in the metaverse ahead of the holiday and FIFA World Cup season

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Despite concerns around the bet placed by Meta on the virtual worlds, metaverse continues to thrive with many of the leading brands across industry verticals ramping up activities in the sector. Notably, brands such as Visa, PepsiCo, Victoria’s Secret & Co., Maybelline, and PacSun, among others, are seeking to engage with consumers through a host of innovative metaverse integrations and activations during the 2022 holiday and FIFA World Cup season. For instance,

• Visa, one of the leading payment services providers as well as the exclusive payment partner for FIFA, developed a hybrid experience for the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup event in Qatar. Notably, the hybrid experience includes a pre-event digital auction that will be followed by an immersive activation for fans present on-site at the FIFA World Cup event. The goal of the initiative is to showcase some of the new ways in which Visa is enabling money movement across the world.
• The 2022 FIFA World Cup has also driven Frito-Lay to launch its first-ever Web3 campaign. Notably, the firm entered into a strategic collaboration with the parent company PepsiCo and Vatom, a metaverse platform, to launch the Web3 campaign. The event, which is expected to run through December 17, will allow fans across the United States to purchase any Frito-Lay product having a special marking of FIFA World Cup 2022. Notably, consumers will be able to scan the QR code for joining the Pass the Ball Challenge.
• In October 2022, Maybelline, one of the leading beauty-focused brands around the world, also entered into the virtual world through the launch of a non-shoppable virtual space, Maybelline Virtual Loft. Notably, the firm entered into a strategic alliance with Obsess for launching the virtual space, where consumers can explore new products, play games, and join various events hosted by Maybelline. Since the space is more focused on product discovery and having fun, Maybelline has not integrated shopping features. However, the products are linked, thereby allowing visitors to buy the products from its retail partners.
• In November 2022, PacSun, the United States-based retail clothing brand, announced that it is expanding its metaverse presence for the holidays. Notably, the firm launched a virtual mall on Roblox in 2022, with the aim to narrow the gap between the digital and physical channels. Dubbed as PacVerse, the firm is expanding the interactive destination built with Roblox to include virtual holiday gift shops that will display products from its latest collection. Notably, the digital shops will allow consumers to try on clothing products through an existing partnership with DressX, the digital fashion store.
• The new apparel and accessories brand focused on tweens, happy nation, launched by Victoria’s Secret and Co., also launched an immersive gaming integration on Roblox. Developed in strategic collaboration with SuperAwesome, allows players to create their own digital T-shirts and mini games, among other things. Notably, the integration received approximately 2 million entries within four days of the launch.
• In October 2022, TCL Electronics, another leading consumer-focused brand, announced its first metaverse activation in partnership with Roblox. Notably, the firm launched a Halloween campaign on the Roblox platform, thereby allowing users to create and develop their own immersive experiences.

The growing interest from these leading brands, across industries, in the metaverse sector, shows that the world of digital reality is thriving, even though, Meta continues to lose billions of dollars in the development of metaverse infrastructure. TechInsight360 expects the trend to continue further from the short to medium-term perspective, as more and more brands turn to the metaverse to better engage with their customers during the upcoming holiday season and beyond.

While the sector is still in its early stages of development, the growing metaverse interest among some of the leading and global brands will continue to drive investment in the space, thereby driving innovation over the next three to four years.