In last month’s 4 Important MarTech Trends for 2022 blog post, I had briefly touched upon how the Metaverse is going to be the next big trend for the digital world. This article delves more into this universe and why a Customer Data Platform (CDP) will play a crucial role in it.
What is the Metaverse?
Let’s explore the concept of a metaverse with an example. You had applied for a home loan with your bank. The bank had requested you to come for a meeting with the manager. However, your company has sent you to another city to close a client deal. As a result, you cannot make it to the in-person meeting with the bank manager. You then call the bank and request an authenticated metaverse meeting. The bank agrees and you meet the bank’s manager in a virtual world that mimics the actual bank in the physical world. You have a fruitful conversation with the manager who requests you to submit some documents. You thank him and leave the meeting just as you would do so in the real world.
What just happened in the above scenario? You are far away in another city and you are still able to have an important meeting with the manager of your bank. The difference is that it’s all virtual. You are wearing a virtual reality headset in the comfort of your hotel room and at the click of a button, you enter a fascinating universe that is an exact representation of the real world.
Customer Data Platform in the Metaverse
If a user enters the metaverse, he/she has the option to do ‘N’ number of things. They can buy stuff, attend events, conduct transactions, etc. For marketers, it becomes necessary for them to track this metaverse behavior. It’s always important to assess the digital footprints of users and tailor your products and services accordingly. Currently, the only innovative tool that enables you to do it is the Customer Data Platform (CDP).
As companies hop on to the metaverse bandwagon, it would make sense if its bedrock is a CDP. A CDP can crunch user data from multiple disparate sources and unify it under each individual user. A user’s journey in the metaverse can be therefore tracked from the first time he/she enters the metaverse to the latest action performed by him/her. Based on the journey, marketers can measure user behavior, the kind of content that they are engaging with, and quickly iterate and optimize the user experience in the metaverse.
Enriching the Metaverse Experience with a CDP
Looking back at the example in the beginning, the bank has built a metaverse for its customers and prospects. Any user that enters its metaverse can be tracked and analyzed using a CDP. Which banking products are they interested in? What kind of behavior did they exhibit in the metaverse? What exactly were they looking for?
The same applies to other industry verticals such as insurance or financial services or retail or telecom or travel & hospitality. Consider a retail metaverse of Walmart. A user enters it virtually and sees the exact same store that is there in the physical world. The Walmart staff have their own virtual versions as well as AI-driven avatars who are there to help and guide you along the way. You then proceed to buy a shirt. There are thousands of designs available.
You filter them according to your requirements and then try out a few shirts virtually. You chose to pay for them virtually and the very next day the physical versions of the shirts are delivered to your home! You did all of this just from a room in your house. Fascinating isn’t it?
For Walmart, if they implement a CDP in their metaverse, it becomes easy to deeply understand their consumers and deliver a hyper-personalized experience that resonates well with them.
Summing Up
A recent survey by Statista revealed that 74% of people would consider joining the metaverse. The reasons given were primarily to escape their current surroundings, become a different person, experience things they can’t in the physical world, etc. It is going to change how we view social media. In fact, it’s being touted as the next iteration that we are so accustomed to at present.
In the future, you will be able to attend a virtual concert, conduct a business meeting with folks attending from all over the world, take part in virtual games and build your own fantasy world in the metaverse. Marketers need to gear themselves now by implementing tools like CDP and prepare for the metaverse future. When it launches, they need to be ready and deliver the right personalized metaverse experience at the right time.
By Bijoy K.B | Senior Marketing Manager at Lemnisk
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