MetaBeatthe metaverse event for business decision makers, kicked off the day with a keynote introduction by Sami Khan, CEO and co-founder of Atlas Eartha mobile gaming experience where users can purchase virtual real estate and brand partners offer promotions tied to the company’s in-app currency.
Right away, Khan told the MetaBeat audience that no one can fully explain what the metaverse is, in all its iterations.
“My humble advice is to use the metaverse to improve people’s experience in the real world,” he said. “I don’t want my daughter growing up in a world where the future escapes this world to live in a virtual reality world — that sounds pretty depressing.”
Creating an enhanced real world experience, he explained, is different for every company. For example, Nvidia uses digital twins as a metaverse to teach future self-driving cars in a 3D world.
An improved real-world experience is the goal of Atlas Earth, he added, which is to use people’s mobile devices to buy virtual land where they live, work and play.
“We’re taking local marketing to a national scale,” he said. “It offers innovative brands like Sonic the opportunity to drive a quarter of a million in revenue from Metaverse gamers to their doors.” 7-Eleven subsidiary Speedway is the most successful case study in the “you’ve never heard of” metaverse, with 200 million measurable sales of Atlas Earth to Speedway, he added, “If you do this authentically, people will be there.” enthusiastic about. ”
After Khan’s welcoming comments, he brought up Ethan Chuang, VP of loyalty solutions at Mastercard Advisors and Mike Paley, EVP of business development at Atlas Earth, for a Fireside Chat about activating the metaverse at a time when every dollar counts.
Paley, who was previously with the popular browser extension Honey, which was acquired by PayPal for $4 billion, said his previous role taught him the importance of delivering incremental value to your customers. “Even by using a simple piece of technology, I’ve learned how incredibly transformative that can be for your user community,” he said.
Mastercard, which links Atlas Earth to its loyalty program, is all about helping its corporate customers — merchants, CPGs, financial institutions — grow their businesses, Chuang said.
“What marketers and retailers are looking for is accessing consumers through the channels of their choice,” he explains. “Consumers are moving away from traditional media – what you’re doing in the metaverse, from the standpoint of extending the reach to segments of the audience that many retailers and marketers value, is authentic dialogue. Ultimately, the goal is to bring people to the stores, to e-commerce and to boost sales with a virtual circle.”
Khan stressed that he doesn’t want the metaverse to be a “flash in the pan”. That means building an ecosystem that builds positive value, he said.
“My hope is that everyone today walks away and thinks about how marketers think about the metaverse,” he said. “This ecosystem will continue to thrive as the economy flows through it. It’s so important to understand how they spend money.”
When every dollar counts, he asked the panelists, where does the thought process come from when it comes to spending money in an “experimental” channel like the metaverse?
Paley replied by saying that he doesn’t like the word “experimental channel.” Instead, he said Atlas Earth’s efforts in the metaverse are not experimental, but build on past performance marketing strategies.
“The program is designed to position brands for success from day one, especially as Mastercard gives us on their platform.”
Mastercard’s card pairing strategy with Alpha Earth is an example of providing a frictionless experiment that allows users to easily take advantage of offers.
“You don’t have to show anything at the point of sale, you’re not limited to digital or in-store,” he said, which is important in an era where gamers, and consumers in general, expect an instant feedback loop.
Paley added that we live in a society based on instant gratification.
“Our experience is that 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 get something special. ”
Still, a healthy metaverse – like any financially healthy ecosystem – requires the right balance.
“You have to find a house for marketing to make money to pay the other side,” he explained. “In the middle, I need a virtual cycle and an ecosystem that continues to grow.”
The idea of metaverse is about to be tested, he warned.
“If the markets continue to fall, the free money will dry up and our job is to challenge ourselves to think about how to build a healthy ecosystem as quickly as possible so that we can count on moving forward as technology evolves.” said Paley.
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