In the summer of 2021 we discussed the concept of halal brands taking part in the metaverse, in the article “Is the Metaverse the New Online Frontier for Halal Brands?”. In it, we discussed:
- What the metaverse is and why it is awesome
- How the metaverse and NFTs are manifesting themselves in consumer markets
- What your halal brand needs to know about the metaverse environment
- Articles explaining which aspects of the metaverse are halal
- Muslim presence in the metaverse
Our article today will discuss halal advertising in the world of the metaverse including but not limited to:
- What you need to know as a brand or marketing team
- Ways to advertise on the metaverse
What You Need to Know Before Advertising to Muslims on the Metaverse
Muslim Consumer Interest in the Metaverse is Growing Fast
In an article that was updated on April 2022, Geri Mileva of Influencer Marketing Hub said:
“… consumers seem to be catching on. The keyword ‘metaverse’ yields 677,000 results on Google. Meanwhile, the hashtag #metaverse is widely used on Instagram, with more than 60,000 posts…”
At the time of writing this article – June 2022 – the keyword “metaverse” yields 186,000,000 results on Google and the hashtag #metaverse has 1,963,598 posts.
Meanwhile, the keyword “halal metaverse” yields 2,050,000 results, and “metaverse in Islam” gets you 6,500,000 results.
The Metaverse Mirrors Real Life
“The spatial internet is the culmination of everything that AR and VR are developing today. It’s the idea of taking information about things, locations, or historical events and actually locating that information out there in the world where it’s most relevant.”
Leslie Shannon, Nokia’s Head of Trend Scouting
The metaverse, a shared virtual space where your audiences use virtual avatars to represent themselves, is not child’s play. Real-life events happen including transactions, investments, entertainment, art shows, and more.
An example of this is when someone bought a video clip of Lebron James dunking a basketball for $208,000 through a virtual auction system. Kristi Waterworth of Nasdaq on real estate investment through the metaverse:
“Will NFTs (non-fungible tokens) be a thing in real estate and real estate investing in 2022? Absolutely, without a doubt, yes…”
These virtual worlds of the metaverse continue to evolve and experience growth based on decisions and interactions made by consumers, mirroring real life in the real world.
Anticipating this growth and where it is heading regarding your halal product and service will give you an unparalleled advantage in the market.
Metaverse Characteristics that Matter for Brands and Marketers
In 2020, Mathew Ball wrote an article about the characteristics of the metaverse. We outlined characteristics you may need to understand if you are going to advertise your halal brand on the metaverse.
Persistent: The metaverse does not reset, pause, or end, it just continues indefinitely.
Synchronous and live: Although pre-planned events will take place, the metaverse, like real life, will be a living experience that is constant for everyone and always available.
Offers agency: It provides each participant with an individual sense of “presence”. In the metaverse, everyone can participate in a specific activity together, simultaneously, and with individual agency.
Fully functioning economy: Halal consumers and businesses can create, own, invest, sell, and be rewarded for an incredibly wide range of “work” that produces “value” that is recognized by others.
Parallel to reality: It contains experiential worlds that combine digital and physical reality, private and public networks and experiences, as well as open and closed platforms.
Unprecedented data interoperability: The same digital items/assets, content, and so on can be used and reused across different channels and experiences.
Everyone creates content: The metaverse is populated with “content” and “experiences” created and operated by many contributors; some of whom are independent individuals, while others are informally organized groups or commercially-focused enterprises.
Halal Marketing and Advertising on the Metaverse
Now that you are armed with this valuable information, let’s look at how to advertise your halal business on the metaverse.
Parallel marketing: since the metaverse experience is parallel to reality, it’s logical to create marketing experiences that relate to real-world experiences or mimic what real-life marketing entails.
Immersive advertising: Get your ads featured in relevant metaverse worlds. For example, you could have your billboard in one of the virtual cities of real estate metaverse advertising your halal mortgage offering.
Collectible items: Roblox offers branded virtual worlds such as The Collector’s Room in the Gucci Garden experience. Users can collect limited-edition Gucci items in this virtual world. As a result of selling the collectible items, Gucci collected 286,000,000 Robux (Roblox’s virtual [not crypto] currency). Do you think you can emulate that with your modest fashion business?
Metaverse metrics: AdAge reports that by applying connected TV’s concept to metaverse advertising we can determine what metric to use based on real-time buying occurring in virtual auctions. An example of a metric related to metaverse advertising is the cost per completed view or the video completion rate.
Metaverse events: While Fortnite and Roblox have led the way in reaching large-scale audiences with entertainment events, Muslim metaverse worlds with event-hosting capabilities like Metakawn have started to pop up.
Metaverse eCommerce: A major trend in the metaverse is direct-to-avatar (D2A). By 2025, in-game purchases are expected to surpass 74.4 billion U.S. dollars. More than a decade ago in Second Life, Muslim women had avatars wearing the e-hijabs.
There is a lot of talk about what constitutes permissible metaverse activities and those that are not permissible. You should educate yourself on those first before engaging in metaverse marketing for your halal business.
There is no doubt however that our consumer lives are moving into the next version of the web: web 3.0, including the dynamic world of the metaverse. Muslim consumers are not being left behind and if you target potential Muslim customers, you need to start researching the halal marketing opportunities that adhere to the Islamic Advertising Principles in the metaverse.
Meanwhile, do not hesitate to contact Muslim Ad Network for all your halal advertising needs; we will be happy to help you achieve your business goals.
