MetaBeat: Investing in the Metaverse Can’t Wait, Industry Leaders Say

The metaverse is, as many now call it, ‘the future of the Internet’. In that future, mixed reality (XR) – also known as hybrid or extended reality – is expected to change the way all industries do business, especially how they interact with their customers. However, some companies are already trying to create that future. An example is: Atlas Earth – a mobile-first gaming experience provider that allows players to purchase virtual real estate, cash out, and even shop with partners in the metaverse.

At MetaBeat 2022, metaverse opinion leaders and enterprise decision makers gathered to advise on the evolution of technology and its implications for the business.

Sami Khan, co-founder and CEO at Atlas Earth, Ethan Chuang, vice president of loyalty solutions at Mastercard Advisors, and Mike Paley, senior vice president of business development at Atlas Realitydiscussed the possibilities of a metaverse that creates value for brands, customers and end users – even in a recession.

According to Khan, value creation across the board is a virtuous cycle that builds a positive ecosystem as it moves from making a good product to marketing it effectively, attracting more investors and ultimately building an even better product.

This is why companies like Mastercard are excited about new experiences like the one Atlas Earth – a product made by Atlas Reality – offers in the metaverse.

“What marketers and retailers are really looking for is access to consumers through the channels of their choice,” Chuang says.

The metaverse does a good job of “expanding its reach to a segment of the audience that many marketers and retailers praise,” Chuang added.

But how are marketers investing in this new territory?

Experimental Budgets vs Performance Marketing

To understand the principles and considerations that drive marketers’ spending, Khan and Paley offered two perspectives: experimental budgets and performance marketing, respectively.

Khan described the experimental budget as comparable to the 70-20-10 rule.

“For seventy percent of your budget you put in things that you know for sure that they work and you hardly have to check every day. You put 20% into things that you think should work, but you have to monitor it closely and improve it. 10% of the budget, you put in things you’re sure won’t work, but you feel you have to do them because of FOMO (fear of missing out) – and if it works, it could be part of the 80 %, ” he said.

Paley presented a contrasting view that avoids experimental budgeting — and marketing — altogether.

“What I want to do is put my money into channels that are going to deliver a positive return on ad spend,” Paley said.

For platforms like Atlas Earth, where brands can set up shop and let players buy items using the in-app currency, Paley noted that the “experiment” isn’t to test whether the channel will work or not — the real question. is whether it will be “good” or “great”.

In today’s market “where customers want things now,” according to Paley, the metaverse may only become more valuable.

Speaking of how that works, he said, “the metaverse is about bringing disparate parties together for real-time experiences, and when there’s the opportunity to increase the value of the experience of the person who has it in the real world, you’re deliver something special.”

For business decision-makers like Khan, Chuang and Paley, a healthy metaverse ecosystem seems possible. However, they agreed that this will only happen when stakeholders achieve a balance between generating value for users and achieving a good – or even great – ROI on their marketing investments.

In Khan’s words, “Our job is to think together about how we can build a healthy win-win ecosystem as soon as possible … because the technology will certainly evolve and get better, but we can’t wait for it happens.”