The role of AI and meta technologies in marketing

04 May 2023 / Andy Wright

New technologies and trends are evolving from AI avatars, metahumans, and of course the metaverse. Giving brands and marketers a huge opportunity to capitalise on.

Metaverse

It’s early days, and big brands are playing with it, but it’s like the internet was in the 90s – we were all aware of it but had no idea how much it would change every aspect of our lives. The metaverse, put simply is the internet in 3D and by 2030 it is predicted to be worth $13 trillion. Sports giant Nike has created the virtual world Nikeland on Roblox, allowing users to dress up their avatars in Nike-branded sneakers. Gucci has launched the Gucci Garden on Roblox, and skateboarding retailer Vans launched an interactive skatepark “Vans World.” Building their brand awareness across the Gen Z audience. Celebrities are also creating content for the Metaverse, with the rapper Snoop Dogg creating “Snoopverse” in The Sandbox and releasing his first music video that takes place within the Metaverse.

How can brands use the Metaverse:
• Immersive team meetings
• Host virtual events to network with other businesses and market products
• Sell digital assets – build a virtual store and sell virtual products / merchandise
• Create your own branded virtual world.

What are the benefits:
• Connect more personally with customers in a highly immersive platform
• Generate more data which you can customise the experience further and inform your marketing strategy going forwards
• Explore and better understand your customer
• Reach a global audience, targeting customers in any country.

How to transition into the metaverse:
• Start to use augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) in your brand to expand your digital world.

AI avatars

Brands are starting to deploy the AI avatar, creating their own and working with virtual influencers to expand their marketing. Miquela for example is one of TIME Magazine’s ’25 Most influential people on the internet, she is a robot. Best-known brands such as Prada, Samsung, and Calvin Klein are using virtual influencers to promote their products. Brands are also creating their own computer-generated influencers to market their own products. IBM has multiple digital avatars, one of which is Sam developed to create a human connection to the worldwide problem of marine litter and Sarah the workplace AI assistant.

https://www.ibm.com/blog/unep-ai-marine-pollution-sam-virtual-human-citizen-science/

Visual Assets have recently worked with the global technology business VIAVI. Tasked to create a unified brand promise, United in Possibility, and then rolled out a brand campaign incorporating an AI avatar within the video launch content.

What are the key benefits:
• Creates an engaging experience
• It’s quick to create
• Localisation is easy, just let the AI do it for you
• It’s accessible to all marketing budgets
• Enables inclusivity and diversity
• Great scope for future iterations.

The corporate video created for the launch of the brand promise, United in Possibility, has been the most watched video ever for VIAVI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ-H2Dt57zU

Metahumans

The potential is huge, technology that was previously limited to game developers and film producers is now accessible to brands and marketers. A metahuman is a photo-realistic 3D human character enabling brand campaigns to become more immersive and deliver greater personalisation. They could star in AR billboards, become digital guides in museums or even be the digital avatars we use to portray ourselves online.

How can we use a metahuman in B2B marketing:
• Onboarding customers
• A virtual spokesperson
• Engaging in virtual events
• Position a metahuman in a desired environment
• Interactive applications

Metahumans deliver a higher engagement in brand advertising as it is new and something people haven’t seen before. Technology is enabling brands to create memorable and unique experiences, an exciting area of marketers to explore. Meet Sarah from IBM the AI virtual assistant combining AI human + AI intelligence.

https://www.ibm.com/blogs/internet-of-things/meet-sarah-the-new-ai-assistant/