Over the past couple of years, Covid-19 has changed the world and how we operate to the absolute extreme. Jobs that were once on-site are now seen as not as necessary anymore (in some cases) because the work can be done digitally. Since Covid-19 has given people the chance to be remote, many people see no need to go back into the office full time. Mark Zuckerburg took note of this and has recently come up with a plan to create “3D spaces in the Metaverse that will let you socialize, learn, collaborate and play in ways that go beyond what we can imagine”. This type of technology could be game-changing and affect how we plan to operate going forward in life. The “Metaverse” is a virtual reality concept where people bring things such as pictures, media, music, movies, books, etc. from the physical world into the Metaverse. The number one thing that Zuckerburg is focused on is Privacy and safety meaning that in the Metaverse, you can restrict people from joining your world or space and be in a private space of your own without any interference. One of the private spaces that he is working on is named “Horizon Home”. Horizon Home would act as the home screen of the Metaverse as it will be the first thing that you will see when you put on the VR “Quest 2”. Some other areas are horizon world and Horizon workrooms.

Although the Metaverse has many more features, I want to focus on how the Metaverse can help businesses market and advertise to their users. The Metaverse and the impact it already has brought into the digital world is breathtaking. It is rapidly growing and soon will open up numerous opportunities for advertising and marketing within these digital worlds. There are many reasons as to why the Metaverse is the next big thing for marketing, but the biggest reason seems to be to keep up with the younger generations such as Millenials and Gen X. Since the pandemic, technology and how it’s used has drastically changed so the Metaverse isn’t being looked at as just being a virtual reality game but much more like a potentially new way of life. That is what has society’s attention and that is why it is grabbing the attention of marketers. What makes the Metaverse and the potential ways of advertising or marketing interesting are the different ways you can go about promoting a product or service. For example, major clothing brands could put a new collection into the Metaverse for people to purchase for their avatar or just run an ad on Instagram or Facebook inside the Metaverse. New cars can be presented in the Metaverse and allow real-life users to sit inside and see all the features virtually. That kind of flexibility could be detrimental to the advancement of marketing as it could reach an entirely new audience without them leaving the comfort of their home. Some find it hard to change from traditional ways, but over time we may find this kind of technology to be beneficial in more ways than we could have imagined.