Avatars and virtual branches in Web 3.0: Is this a dream of the future or something for Swiss companies after all? A survey at the gfm event shows: The department stores' Jelmoli already has concrete plans. Manor wants to remain open. The SBB is still somewhat sceptical.
"There are practically no limits to the staging in the metaverse, the brand experience will be intensive and run through the entire customer journey," emphasised President Dominique von Matt in his opening speech at the 31st Trend Conference of the Swiss Marketing Association. The event, which was sold out with 170 participants at the Kraftwerk in Zurich, was held last week under the motto "New Marketing - Moving into a New Era".
Jelmoli moves into the Metaverse
"Jelmoli will enter the Metaverse with two avatars in the middle of this year. This is the result of a collaboration with the Swiss Textile College, where a collection for our department stores was developed together with students. The two avatars in the Metaverse will then be equipped with a part of this collection. The Metaverse is interesting for Jelmoli because we want to reinvent the department stores'. This includes the shop space, but that is not enough - today you have to focus on omnichannel. And above all, it is important to experiment with new things. What will ultimately become of our entry into the Metaverse, we will see. But we don't want to watch how other brands do it, we want to make our own experiences in this digital space. Who knows, maybe in a few years we will open a Jelmoli branch in the Metaverse. But that is currently pie in the sky.
SBB remains hesitant
"Dominique von Matt's presentation was inspiring. However, I find it difficult to classify what the metaverse will bring in concrete terms and what significance it will experience. The numbers are impressive, of course, but the idea of moving as an avatar in a virtual world seems somewhat grotesque. It reminds me spontaneously of "Second Life", of which much was also hoped for a long time. Today, however, nobody talks about it any more. The question now is: Will the Metaverse suffer the same fate or will it really take off? I find it exciting to follow its development. For the SBB, however, I don't see any application for the metaverse at the moment. But we will certainly watch where it goes.
Manor is tense
"I still believe in the importance of physical contact, the real world in marketing. But the metaverse is a very exciting trend that is likely to become increasingly important. Manor is not planning a branch in the metaverse in the short term, but we have to play a part in it in some form in the future. We also have to take on this topic and try things out. We must not be afraid of it. For Manor, it is above all the community idea that is attractive: "Our aim is to make a visit to our department stores an experience for our customers. The Metaverse would make this possible every day, everywhere and around the clock.
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"The metaverse is first and foremost a great opportunity because it makes it possible to own digital goods. This in turn only works thanks to blockchain technology. By generating digital scarcity, goods can no longer be infinitely duplicated, which ultimately creates value. However, there is a different understanding of what the metaverse even is. From a crypto perspective, one can say: it is a collection of platforms, communities, that are based on blockchain. From a marketing perspective, the metaverse is interesting because it allows us to address customers in new ways and through new channels. But we are still at the very beginning. It will be a long time before there are valid use cases that make the metaverse interesting for many companies on a large scale. From a marketing point of view, however, I would advise experimenting with the Metaverse, gathering experience."
Source: Personal
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