The more time we spend online, the more we are living our lives through our ‘digital selves’ as well as our physical selves. The practice of creating distinct digital identities which we use as an extension of ourselves to navigate through and interact with other people in virtual environments is only going to grow in 2022 and beyond.
Interest in the metaverse has peaked in 2021 — the number of searches for the word increased more than tenfold from 2020 to 2021. The virtual domain has become an all-encompassing space where commerce, education, entertainment, community-building, wellness, work and more can be accessed. As more people spend time online, digital third spaces are becoming the new hangouts, making this a thriving environment for brands and influencers.
Fashion & luxury, for once, it seems, have embraced digital fashion and metaverse activities more than other sectors. From Balenciaga partnering with Fortnite to create digital skins for the game, to Adidas and Prada launching the first crowd-sourced NFT and Nike acquiring virtual goods startup RTFKT, there isn’t a single way to join the metaverse.
To understand more about the space, some keys dos and don’ts and how to hire for this new space, we spoke to Charles Hambro, co-founder of GEEIQ, a startup that helps brands develop metaverse strategies.
James Burden & Charles Hambro, Co-Founders of GEEIQ
For those of our readers who haven’t heard of GEEIQ, can you tell us more about you and what the company does (eg. the two different divisions)?
Absolutely. GEEIQ aims to be the place for brands to enter & optimise their involvement in the gaming and future Metaverse industry. There are two components to GEEIQ, the first being our marketing data & analytics platform, and the second being our consultancy. On the platform side, it’s a case of providing analytics and insights. It covers the entire gaming and esports industry, providing clients with all the data necessary to launch an educated campaign or collaboration across games, teams, tournaments and influencers. Most importantly, it shows other branded activations so our customers are able to effectively benchmark themselves. On the consultancy side, it’s more about taking that data and sitting the client down with our team of in-house experts to formulate a strategy and execute it from start to finish.
What inspired you to start GEEIQ? What’s the company’s vision for the future?
Firstly both the other Co-founders and I are gamers ourselves, which is hugely important as it means we already had an understanding of the industry in great detail. Witnessing all the industry developments over the years, whilst also being the type of customer our clients wanted to reach, allowed us to create both a platform and consultancy that delivers results.
I think in terms of the future, we can only assume what the industry is going to have in store for us, but I do believe we are on the front lines - if there’s a development in the Metaverse, we evolve with these industry changes so that we can continue to provide our clients with the most effective service possible.
When we talk about the metaverse, there have been a lot of different definitions recently… how do you define it? What can “entering the metaverse” mean for brands?
The Metaverse is essentially a digital parallel universe. Like our own, it is governed by people, populated by people and therefore subject to many of the same laws, such as supply and demand, except in a place where anything is possible. The metaverse literally has no limits except to that of the creators within the space, which these days is just incredible. You have virtual worlds with virtual land & virtual megayachts, clothing and accessories that defy typical physical boundaries, and NFTs which are currently most known for their art but have much wider use cases that haven’t been fully explored yet.
Balenciaga x Fortnite
What was the perception around gaming and branded virtual environments when you started vs now? How have brands changed the way they see the space?
It’s not just a case of ‘what’ or ‘how’, but ‘why’. I think most people have been into some form of gaming at some stage in their life, however, I feel there was a point where your family, career, or just general life took over, and those that persisted were considered geeks or nerds. Comparing that ‘era’, which for some was only maybe four or five years ago to now, it’s just incredible. Influencers came about creating a whole new way of generating income. There was an overlap with the likes of fashion and music, with influencers promoting products and songs, celebrities doing virtual concerts and also being the faces for fashion houses. At the same time, we saw a boom in cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and NFTs, producing similar opportunities and laying the foundations for the metaverse. Covid happened, where working from home became a thing - changing the way we live, giving us more time to focus on our own self-development and independence. You simultaneously combine all these driving trends and you have this ‘new age digital ecosystem’ and though we have a long way to go, Facebook rebranding itself to ‘Meta’ shows a glimpse of what this could be, and how seriously to take it.
The entire gaming industry is of course already a part of that, and brands are noticing that the best way to get involved now is to define their long-term Metaverse strategy with actionable partnerships now so they can educate themselves and upskill before it becomes too competitive.
Can you give us good examples of brands entering the metaverse successfully? What was their challenge / objective, how did you approach it, what happened next, what were the results?
I want to avoid speaking about the activations that we've done with our own clients at the risk of coming off as incredibly arrogant, and of course to protect their interests. Some of the branded activations that I feel really understood the culture were: Wendy’s in Fortnite and Burger King in Fifa. Both required a clear understanding of the game's mechanics and resulted in viral activations which connected with the community in a meaningful, and most importantly, entertaining way.
Are companies jumping on the trend now just because of PR?
Absolutely, yes, and I would not encourage it. Every brand should have a long-term strategy and should look at the Metaverse as a full marketing category with multiple objectives. PR can be one objective but should never be the only one. It’s also important to approach each project following this strategy - if we think our client is about to spend a lot of money on something that isn’t right for them, we will tell them.
Karl Lagerfeld launched a collection of NFTs
For brands and agencies that are unsure about how to approach this new space - can you tell us what type of capabilities or team you need to make it happen?
It’s difficult because marketing in gaming and esports is a niche where you almost have to understand each opportunity in great detail to understand how you can align your brand best with their community. Then you look at the Metaverse which at such an early stage in its maturity, has many people finding it difficult to wrap their head around its complexities and speed in which it’s moving. Being armed with the right data to help navigate it is a great start.
How do you see the space evolving in 2022 and beyond? What are you hoping to see?
I have some ideas, but there are many key players with different views of the end result working hard to bring the future to fruition. We are constantly evolving our business practice to keep up with these developments and trends. I'd like to see more merging between the physical and digital worlds with minimal hindrance, and believe this will be a trend for a lot of companies going forward.
