How to use the metaverse for experiential PR: A Friday Zone special session

 14th April 2022    Podcasts 
 Paarul Chand

In the lastest Friday Zone, we cover the potential of the metaverse for communicators.

Shubhreet Kaur, director, Innovation + Creative, Hill+Knowlton Strategies India, commented that, "So far, it was the gaming community that had come close to the  Metaverse with digital avatars and virtual headsets. So while the creation of an entire digital landscape is going to take quite some time, it is expected to be a fully functional universe with a lot of user generated content as well."

Kaur added that, "Coming specifically to communications as a whole, the metaverse will be a further extension wherever it fits into the communication objectives. For example, a product launches or virtual press event. The Metaverse will be a part of the communications landscape, then it's that in itself has seen such a transformation."

Special Session: Bipasha Chakrabarti, Director, Corporate Communications, Meta India

During a Friday Zone special session, Bipasha Chakrabarti, Director, Corporate Communications, Meta India, shared how communicators can make use of the metaverse for media engagement, and why events in the metaverse are both more nuanced and immersive.

Chakrabarti explained that, "The 'Metaverse', as we know is not a specific game, not an app, not a social platform. It is going to be a shared virtual space, which is going to see the amalgamation of all of the things that's actually happening today."

She added, "From a communicators point of view. You know, as an industry we've geared up right from the offline days of communication, public relations to leveraging mobile technology to the internet, and then evolving into the social space where we learned how to do things differently adapted to new possibilities, learned different skill set. 

This time as we get on the road to Metaverse communicators will find that the road is not going to be any different. Communicators will think, plan and  develop strategies, which is going to address the several characteristic of the metaverse.

Chakrabarti outlined the three basics of the metaverse on which could be a useful first guide for communicators and brands exploring the immersive medium:

1) The Metaverse is going to be a continuous experience without any delays. And there's going to be unlimited number of users. So when you're talking to a brand, or when or when you're talking to a customer, or when a brand's talking to a consumer, there has to be instant gratification. So that's the expectation which is already built in.

2) The second is brands, communities and individuals would freely engage and generate content. So a lot of content would be generated by users by brands themselves, blurring the line between the virtual world as well as the physical world.

3) And the third key tenet is going to be that it would encompass physical as well as the virtual world with immense amount of interoperability, 

Do watch the full interview below that also covers:

1) The learning curve for communicators on metaverse.

2) What communicators should plan for when brands venture on the metaverse.

3) Universal applications of Metaverse across sectors.

4) Large role for metaverse and experiential e-commerce.

In partnership with Hill+Knowlton Strategies.