I am still vibing this one hard. What a night! I think that was the most intense panel we've had - such a broad and emerging topic, so many awesome questions, so many of them unable to be answered effectively until we know more about how the Metaverse/s are more mature.
And wasn't Hayley incredible?! You guys really did grill her!
I guess she's used to the heat of the Bonfire as their Head of Marketing and really just took it all in her stride to share with us her knowledge on a tricky topic that she's passionate about.
The audience ranged from people with a good understanding of the Metaverse, NFTs, and Web 3.0 to those of us (me included) who have a basic idea what it's about, to those with no real knowledge but a thirst to know more.
Great to see a real mix of students, grads, senior marketers and everyone in between. So nice to see our regulars, and the first-timers we hope will become regular attendees too.
Metaverse Wrap
My takeaways - the Metaverse is already here and isn't new. We've had virtual worlds for ages in the gaming realm and they're incredibly popular.
The idea of decentralisation means there's no way (at the moment at least) for the worlds to come together.
The whole thing is underpinned by the Blockchain.
NFTs are a thing - and they are being driven by creatives, fashion and music, and at the moment a good way to test the waters for brands seems to be hosting a virtual event.
There's no difference in using any new emerging tech/platform when applied to marketing - it's all about what your goals are and who your audience is and whether it makes sense. As marketers that's something that we're used to. Make an account and play with it as a user so you can understand what it feels like (marketing is mostly empathy, right?) you don't need any money or a headset to have a walk around Decentraland.
And finally that we can learn a lot from the big budget brands, who will be early to test marketing activity in the space - giving us learnings from what they get right and even more from what they don't.
Links Etc.
I'm going to link some of Hayley's resources and articles about brand activations and campaigns using the Metaverse here so you can go through them in your own time and keep up on this emerging space.
Podcasts
We'll need to re-visit this topic again next year, as no doubt so much will have changed so rapidly, and as curious button-pushers we need to know how this is going to affect the future of our industry and our clients needs.
More
Thanks to all of you who came and asked awesome questions, and supported the sharing of knowledge during the week between Easter and ANZAC Day long weekend's, amidst school holidays and only just off-peak COVID. That's a rockstar effort to everyone who made it a priority to come and tickle their curiosity bone!
We couldn't do it without you.
Love to see you all next month at our second ever Toast The Marketer event, this time in collaboration with AGDA (Australian Graphic Design Association) who host a monthly AGDA Social, headed up by the one and only Chris Plunkett, the State Chair.
For those who don't know, Toast is like the networking part of the Grill events. 100% free and full of marketing bants and opps to meet your next collab partner, boss, intern or marketing mates.
We'll see you in the beer garden of venue sponsor, Henry Summer on the 19th of May. Register here and join the legends who've already put their name on the list for this one.
The next Grill event is June 16 and we'll be hosting the amazing Kelly Townson, Marketing Manager of Crown Perth who's going to answer your questions about Customer Experience Marketing.
What's that? Well, every customer touchpoint is telling your customer something about your brand. Down to the quality of hand towels you put in the bathrooms and way the pile height of the carpet affects your perception of luxury underfoot - to the way the online booking system works. Many of these will be completely unconscious, and some will be completely obvious, but they are all opportunities to impress and gain a client for life, or fail to impress and have people see your brand in a negative light.
There's already a bunch of tickets been sold and we cap numbers at 60 so do not snooze on this one and get yours now.
Special thanks so much to Peter Dancewicz for snapping our pics (we'll share those when we get them), our tireless mic-man Keith, MC Jacqueline, and Gabe for making sure we got our pizza order in.
Shoutout to our venue sponsor Henry Summer, and the AMI (Australian Marketing Institute) for being our event partner.
Until next time!
Market on.