Last year, Mark Zuckerberg launched the “Metaverse” project. This project is about the creation of a virtual world in which people can live and work digitally. To this end, a technology is to be developed that will make it possible to make the entire Internet “walkable”. With the help of virtual reality, people should be able to enter a digital world in which they can perform all the activities of daily life. can carry out all the activities of daily life.
As a core aspect of the “Metaverse,” the company emphasizes decentralization. All processes in the metaverse are to take place independently of central platforms of large technology companies. Accordingly, the Metaverse does not belong to just any company, but to all of humanity.
An important term when it comes to decentralization is the “Blockchain”. Uniting the metaverse with blockchain technologies (the basis of cryptocurrencies), a real economy could be run in a virtual environment, opening new doors for businesses around the world. Web 3.0 also plays a large and important role in this.
To make this complex topic more tangible and understandable for you, we have defined relevant terms below and used a real-life example to show what marketing could look like in the future.
What are NFT?
Before explaining the term NFT (Non-Fungible Token) in more detail, it is important to understand what a “blockchain” is. In general, a blockchain is a type of database composed of blocks. These in turn are strung together like pearls on a necklace, with each pearl in the necklace knowing its front as well as its backer, so that it is immediately noticeable when a data content of a respective pearl changes. In this way, the data in the blockchain is safer from manipulation than in ordinary databases. This aspect is exploited by the so-called NFTs. The most famous blockchain project is the cryptocurrency “Bitcoin”.
In general, tokens are a type of asset that is exchangeable. One example is a ten-euro bill. It is irrelevant which ten-euro bill or which combination of bills, such as two five-euro bills, is used. The value only has to be the same. However, the situation is different for the NFT (non-fungible token) off: Here the tokens are not interchangeable. For this reason, they are even more secure, making them particularly suitable for assets of which there is only one or rare copies. Examples include digital trading cards, game characters, virtual lands in virtual worlds, or so-called crypto-art. However, ID cards, vaccination cards or other important documents could also be stored and secured via the blockchain.
What is Web 3.0?
After Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, Web 3.0 represents a further evolutionary stage of the World Wide Web. In Web 1.0, it was still clearly defined who was the sender and who was the receiver. Only a few were able to publish content on the web and make it available to readers. This changed with the birth of Web 2.0, also called the social web. As the name suggests, the possibilities were created here for users to publish their own content on the web and to participate with that of others. Via Myspace, Facebook & Co., everyone could create their own profiles, share personal content via them and communicate publicly. This evolution of the Internet opened new avenues for PR and online marketing in the form of word-of-mouth, viral and buzz marketing.
However, the social web also brings negative sides. Publishing content and personal data inevitably floods the web with information and data. It is therefore all the more important that data and information can be identified, categorized, and sorted according to context.
Furthermore, if all the data is in one place, there is only one point where something has to go wrong. Three bugs would be enough for hackers to steal millions of people’s data. Then Facebook automatically becomes a worthwhile target for attacks and manipulations. Because the power to make decisions today lies with the site operators, not the users. If Twitter sees no problem in a racial slur, so be it. If Google decides to pull the plug on Google+, users are powerless.
For this reason, Web 3.0, also known as the Semantic Web, was launched, based on blockchain technology. The goals of the semantic web are:
- Neutrality
- Transparency
- Fairness
- Security
- Decentralized web
- User autonomy
To achieve these goals as much as possible, Deep Learning algorithms could help to interpret and automatically process information on the web. Information about places, people, and things should be able to be related to each other based on content using the semantic web.
Through this understanding, it is subsequently possible to have various processes automatically controlled by computers: self-driving cars, automatic diagnoses in medicine, or drones that independently deliver packages to the correct address become possible by means of Web 3.0 and its protocols, as the information that is available is intelligently analyzed and linked by means of the correct parameters.
How can companies and brands participate?
For companies, Web 3.0 offers many advantages. They can offer their customers even more targeted content that fits their individual behaviors and is related to preferences. Service and support can also be optimized in a user-friendly way. In addition, digital brand building is playing a more important role than ever. Compared to performance marketing, branding has one key advantage above all: it is sustainable. While performance marketing aims for quick and short-term success, branding is about building a strong brand and investing in it for the long term. Below we have listed some of the advantages of branding:
- Stronger customer loyalty
- Stronger trust in a strong brand
- Higher engagement on social media
- Better ranking on search engines (such as Google)
We can be sure that the current digital Marketing ideas will be forgotten in the future as blockchain technologies gain momentum. Although the exact timing is currently still disputed, virtual Platforms, cryptocurrencies, decentralized apps and new content creation. soon to be the new normal include. Web 3.0 not only improves the quality of marketing, but also leads to a significant reduction in development costs. For any profits made, it makes the creator the owner instead of going through a third-party platform. So the content creator does not have to pay others to use their platforms. Therefore it is necessary to bring the marketing in the enterprise with the newest Internet paradigm in agreement to always the competition pressure.
Beispiel: Mercedes Benz
Wir können uns sicher sein, dass die aktuellen digitalen Marketing-Ideen in Zukunft in Vergessenheit geraten werden, sobald die Blockchain-Technologien an Fahrt gewinnen. Obwohl der genaue Zeitpunkt derzeit noch umstritten ist, werden virtuelle Plattformen, Kryptowährungen, dezentrale Apps und die Erstellung von neuen Inhalten bald zur neuen Normalität gehören. Das Web 3.0 verbessert nicht nur die Qualität des Marketings, sondern führt auch zur erheblichen Senkung der Entwicklungskosten. Für alle erzielten Gewinne macht es den Ersteller zum Eigentümer, anstatt über eine Drittanbieterplattform zu gehen. Der Ersteller von Inhalten muss andere also nicht für die Nutzung derer Plattformen bezahlen. Daher ist es erforderlich, das Marketing im Unternehmen mit dem neuesten Internet-Paradigma in Einklang zu bringen, um so stets den Wettbewerbsdruck standzuhalten.
Still have questions and want to enlist the help of experts for your social media strategy? No problem, we TACSYs are at your service!
Author: Tra My Ta
