Influencer Marketing In The Metaverse: Much Hype About Nothing?

The development of the Metaverse should open up completely new possibilities for influencers in the future. Most of this is pure speculation though – for now.

It should become the future of the internet, create huge virtual spaces, revolutionize our digital interactions and also represent a huge economic factor: the Metaverse. At least since Mark Zuckerberg renamed his group Facebook to Meta over a year ago, speculation has been rampant, superlatives have outbid each other and, above all, the dreams of an endlessly networked digital world that is also interwoven with reality. 

A first investor has already paid the unbelievable sum of 3.8 million euros for a virtual property in Decentraland. Many people are in a gold-rush mood: those who are not yet thinking about the impact the Metaverse has on their industry and are among the pioneers may be sleeping through the big development, that is the thought of many. This also applies to influencers, who often recognize trends and have to adapt quickly to new circumstances.

Influencer marketing is always based on authenticity

Authenticity: This is the big core issue of influencer marketing. The opinion makers present themselves on an equal footing with their followers, they are both a surface for identification and projection, they give customers the feeling that they are not being addressed by an impersonal performance, but by a normal person who can be trusted. Which in reality is nothing short of performance. That doesn’t detract from the effect. 

How this feeling of closeness and authenticity can be implemented and perhaps even strengthened in the metaverse is the big task that influencers are now facing. As always in the industry, maximum creative handling of the possibilities of the medium is required, although a medium – and this is precisely the crux of the matter – that does not yet exist at all. 

Metaverse offers completely new forms of staging

“The Metaverse is definitely the future, not only for branding, but also for influencers. Being able to get creative with the 3D world can pave the way for exceptional user experiences and improve how customers engage with both the brand itself and influencer campaigns,” 

The big innovations in the Metaverse: interaction and payment systems

The crucial new element in the Metaverse will be the direct interaction between influencers and their followers. Certainly, the sense of closeness and authenticity that defines influencers can be further enhanced through direct avatar representation and the VR experience. There should be a big emotional difference between clicking on a person’s profile and being able to meet their avatar on the street, so to speak, and say hello. 

This new dimension of presentation should produce completely new forms of staging. In addition, the use of cryptocurrency makes a direct payment system possible, which was previously missing on platforms like Instagram.

Influencer advertising can therefore lead directly to a purchase. Would you like to walk through the hotel you are planning to visit on holiday virtually in advance? Maybe led by well-known travel influencers? Get the new Adidas collection presented in virtual reality or with augmented elements and shop right away? Anything is possible. 

Metaverse: Maybe much hype about nothing?

But that’s exactly where the problem of the Metaverse lies. Everything is conceivable and nothing is concrete. So far, there have been a few sandbox and open-world games like the aforementioned Decentraland and Horizon Worlds, which mainly look like nice gimmicks, but are very childish in their presentation and graphically – to put it mildly – unattractive. Especially when you consider what is already technically possible in online games.

In addition, some may still remember the year 2003, when the game Second Life triggered a similar hype as the Metaverse now. Although the platform is still profitable according to the operator , the virtual revolution that was conjured up definitely did not materialize. Unfortunately, there are no exact figures on how many people, pushed by media superlatives, invested money senselessly and made a few rich in the process. In addition, there are reservations about the – also very expensive – VR technology, which has so far prevented the great success of the medium despite good opportunities. 

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