Why Every Company Needs a Metaverse Strategist

The metaverse is coming (some iteration of it is already here) and it’s going to encompass society as we know it.

In 2019, Marshmello’s virtual concert on Fortnite saw 10.7 million attendees tune in. In 2020, Travis Scott’s virtual performances on Fortnite saw more than 45 million viewers across 5 shows. In just the last handful of weeks, a collection of Bored Apes sold at Sotheby’s for more than $24 million, Budweiser purchased the web3 domain beer.eth for almost $100,000, and Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka and her sister Mari Osaka dropped a six-piece collection of NFTs that sold for nearly $600,000.

With the explosion of NFTs, virtual worlds, and immersive technologies in 2021, some of the largest companies in the world, the most famous athletes in the world, and the most popular musicians in the world have already started to enter the metaverse.

A company that is truly tapped into technology needs to have a strategist to help them navigate the nascent landscape of the metaverse.

Brand Strategy and the Metaverse

If you’re a company looking to enter the metaverse, you’ll need to know the best way to do it for it to make sense for your brand.

Should your brand design a unique collection of digital clothing with RTFKT or DressX, should your brand advertise on virtual billboards on Decentraland or Cryptovoxels, or should you invest in a CryptoPunk like Visa did?

The metaverse allows people from all over the world to come together to interact in wildly imaginative places, but it also allows brands to creatively connect with their audiences in truly groundbreaking ways.

A metaverse strategist or consultant will likely be one of the most in-demand metaverse jobs of the next decade. They can help your company navigate best practices on how to engage with your customers who may only be identifiable with pseudo avatars. They’ll be someone who has a clear understanding of Web3 technologies (decentralized internet, cryptocurrencies, AR/VR, etc.), potentially some gaming experience, and deep knowledge of fast-moving internet culture.

Remember when every company was scrambling to hire a social media manager in the late 2000s? This is that, but bigger. Even Mark Zuckerberg famously said that he hopes to turn Facebook from a social media company to a “metaverse company.”

In 2011, legendary investor Marc Andreessen famously said “software is eating the world” – perhaps now the metaverse is beginning to eat the world.