5G will transform metaverse experience for marketeers: Panel

At the MARTECH India conference 2022 on October 14, the panellists Shankar Iyer, Associate Director, Marketing, Perfection Van Melle India Pvt. Ltd; Saumya Rathod, Associate Director, Marketing, Pepsi Cola; Gazal Bajaj, Head, Media Management, Nestlé; Niraj Ruparel and Head Of Mobile and Emerging Tech, GroupM discussed Marketing in Metaverse.

The panel discussion started on a surreal note with the introduction of metahuman, an avatar of Ruparel. The metahuman explained what the metaverse actually is, in brief. This was followed by the introduction of Metababy Kalpana, a digital person created by Soul machines in partnership with WPP, that can have one-on-one live conversations with the audience. She can be empathetic and even smile back at people. This was a surreal experience. She explained how the metaverse can be used for more personalised experiences for the users.

Ruparel led the discussion with each panellist sharing the use case of metaverse for their products.

Shankar Iyer shared how Perfetti’s Happydent brought alive the power of AR. They simply created AR filters and went social. They also created filters in association with The Hindu and Indian Express. They got users to activate this filter by using their sparkling smile which led to users a free subscription to these newspapers. The overall campaign was about activating filters with sparkling smiles and donating to children’s education in need. On the 7th of October, they hit 32000 smiles.

He spoke about the Treasure Island Campaign for Chupa Chups: “We created QR codes on brand packs and got people to scan them, go on to the website then get into immersive gaming. In the future, people will actually be gaming in the metaverse and experiencing brand payoff. Treasure Island was a great example of that, where we got the product at the centre of this gaming.”

A lot of experimentation is happening in terms of metaverse in music, entertainment, sports and gaming. Ruparel pointed out: “WPP did a concert in Bastille where fans could actually get into the space and could high-five lead artists. This evolution is soon to be introduced in India. People will witness high-quality output in the new 5G era.”

Rathod said, “Pepsi is the culture curator and for us really important to be in sync with what Gen Zs are constantly engaging with. Pepsi is following an iterative model in the case of Metaverse and NFTs.” She told that Pepsi is soon going to launch NFTs in India. Pepsi Mic Drop NFT was very popular globally. “The great learning we had in the journey of metaverse and NFTs is that we have to find the right partners who can deliver the vision that we have on the brand.”

NFT coupled with generative AI has a lot of scope in future which can be used for various purposes to generate funds.

Sport is the promising category for the metaverse. Bajaj discussed the Nestlé Munch campaign-Meet and greet top IPL players. In this campaign, consumers scan the pack and are linked to some AR, and VR games. Eventually, it will lead to a meeting with their favourite IPL player through the metaverse. The experience of the winners was very special and surreal.

5G is going to help marketers to create absolute experiences for the consumer. It is going to enhance the average time spent in the metaverse. This will turn into more engagement with the brand and more engagement with the payoff, panellists concluded.

For more updates, be socially connected with us on
Instagram,
LinkedIn,
Twitter,
Facebook
&
Youtube