10 Immersive Marketing Trends that Will Grow Your grinchy Heart in 2023 //

As I write this article I am listening to Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, sipping matcha, and basking in the glow from my tiny, tinsel-tree lights that reflect off my bay window. This holiday season has so many blessings, and I am grateful that you are reading this.

There are many reasons to be optimistic as the new year approaches. There are many. I am here to help you grow your smiley heart three times today.

In the spirit of the holidays I’ve compiled this list of immersive marketing trends that you can look forward to in 2023. I hope this helps us to enter the new year with humor, gratitude, and not too serious.

Without further delay, here’s the countdown of “Top 10 Reasons Marketers Can Be Optimistic in 2023”, a la David Letterman. (If you don’t remember Letterman’s Top 10 lists, here’s an example from YouTube that will get you up-to-speed with the old folks.

10. B2B marketing is more effective in the metaverse

If you’ve been following my writing, you’ll know that I am passionate about B2B marketing innovation.

I believe 2022 marked the beginning of a new era in B2B Marketing. This era will continue to mature over the next year. Companies will be able to use immersive media to achieve their business goals and solve customer problems. I’m hopeful that more companies will embrace the three use cases described in , my latest article.

• Events.
• Education and learning.
• Networking.

These are all essential for reaching and influencing B2B audiences. Now, we can expand our efforts exponentially through the strategic use of immersive technology.

9. Virtual events are no longer boring and mind-numbingly passive

Speaking of events, I’m excited to see marketers use interactive and immersive platforms for hybrid and virtual events. You’re wrong if your event attendees are expected to sit and watch anything from their home.

Ironically, while walking my dog, I listened in to a webinar that highlighted one of my top trends in 2023: the need to get our audiences to become active participants.

The question that you should ask is “How can I give my attendees a virtual event something to do and ways for them to engage, while giving them more of a choose their own adventure’ approach?”

Extended reality (or XR) is a great solution to this problem. In , you can find out more about XR and how it can be used for your events in 2023.

8. Virtual spaces that are beautiful, but not filled with people.

In 2023, we will see an increase of new platforms that allow artists to create their own worlds. Monaverse, Room, and OnCyber are just a few examples.

These platforms often boast a large community of virtual space dwellers. Upon closer inspection, however, you will see that most of these featured spaces are devoid of any real life.

It is not fun to wander around a stunning, well-constructed virtual space by yourself. Why should you? Connected immersive spaces offer the greatest benefit: the ability to share a space with anyone anywhere in the world.

7. 360-degree streaming video in real-time and user-generated is now possible

The growth of 5G will fuel an increase in immersive video content streaming. You can now watch your grandmother’s 100th Birthday in 360-degree streaming video.

6. To access blockchain-powered virtual worlds, we no longer need to connect to a crypto wallet — hoorah!

Anyone who has tried to explore an Ethereum-powered virtual universe will feel my pain. It is a huge headache to connect your crypto wallet to your virtual account. This creates so much friction that many potential customers leave. We will continue to see headlines such as ” As speculators exit“, as NFT-centered virtual space pivots to try to entice users to stay.

5. Brands are no longer requiring virtual world explorers that they adopt dope avatars shaped as paperclips or weeble wobbles — Double hallelujah!

2023 is likely to be the year marketers realize avatars are very important. They are, of course. They are an expression of our self. Our subconscious is deeply connected to how we express ourselves using avatars. This is why all of our buying decisions are influenced by the famous reptilian brain.

It is not a smart marketing move to force your audience into a poor avatar. What you consider a suitable avatar, even one that is likable, is likely not desirable or suitable for your target audience. Making something cool for kids is the kiss of death.

Better is to take the chance and allow your community to create their avatars via Ready Player Me integration or by providing robust tools that allow them to customize it.

4. There are no more stock images of a person in a head-mounted display — ever

Yes, Joan Crawford is right. This overused, almost never relevant image of someone wearing a VR headset is something I loathe. We won’t be wearing a headset on our heads in the future.

This will allow us to navigate immersive content more easily and comfortably in our everyday lives. This could be eyewear, or something completely new.

3. There are fewer epic metaverse marketing failures (well, maybe a few more)

Sigh. This one really saddens my heart. We all feel the pain of epic failures in the metaverse, and I hope that some of my articles about marketing in the metaverse can help to prevent such mishaps.

Recent examples include the EU’s recent $400K foray into metaverse. Many media outlets deemed it a failure, including a Yahoo Finance article that stated that almost nobody attended the online event. It would have been more cost-effective to do some good in the world than the huge expense of developing the platform on its own. Although I don’t disagree with this view, let me try to find a silver lining.

Journee was responsible for the design of the event space, which is why it came at a high price. It was stunning, simple to use and featured many entertaining features. A few months prior to the EU’s event I had attended another similar event by Journee. It was a great success and well-attended, more so a signpost for future events in virtual spaces.

Despite the fact that they made mistakes, the EU will hopefully be able to learn from their mistakes and create better campaigns in future. My students and I often tell them that we learn more from failures than from successes.

2. We are all too cool to go to school in 2023, according to none of us

This is a great opportunity for me as a lifelong learner. Marketers and communicators who want to create innovative, effective campaigns will have more options for online immersive marketing.

You can see a list of online education resources in my article about becoming a metaverse marketer. New programs, such as this remote program, are being created that focus on immersive communication and strategy. Spoiler alert: This program is my teaching position and I couldn’t be happier!

1. It’s great news: those superficial, vapid and flawless-looking Instagram influencers are not real

That’s right. As brands love the idea that they don’t have to deal with real people’s bad behavior and demands, there will be an increase of virtual influencers by 2023. Companies can now use AI-driven virtual avatars to promote their products. Prada, Diesel and Tommy Hilfiger, as well as Chevrolet, have used completely fictional virtual influencers to promote their products in powerful campaigns.

This year, a fascinating study concluded that consumers’ relationship with virtual media personalities is not significantly different from how they respond to human influencers.

Duh! This is the message I have been preaching for years. It doesn’t matter if your virtual boyfriend is real or fake. They fulfill a real need, and that’s all that matters. This new generation of virtual influencers can help to remove the stigma associated with having a meaningful relationship only through digital technology.

Virtualhumans.org is a platform that tracks activities of virtual influencers around the world and provides more information about this trend.

Trend for 2023: Peace and joy, love

We need more marketers to recognize the importance of creating a digital universe that is sustainable and where technology and nature co-exist, not just survive.

This bonus is my gift to you, my sweet reader, because it’s the holiday season. My greatest wish for 2023 would be for marketers to realize that they are responsiblefor creating a world we all desire.

All of us need to be digital citizens. We must better understand technology and advocate for the safety, freedom, and well-being of all our digital audiences.

To learn more and to join me in this mission, you can read my manifesto and attend my monthly HTMLR for Marketing and Communications Pub crawl. This will resume in January. Happy holidays to everyone, and a happy night to all!

The post Top 10 Immersive Marketing Trends That Will Grow Your grinchy Heart in 2023 appeared originally on MarTech.