Metaverse leaders convened (virtually) on March 10 for Ad Age In-Depth: Unlocking the Metaverse, in which they discussed everything from commerce in virtual worlds to brand safety on emerging platforms.

Alongside Ad Age staff, agency execs chatted with NFT experts; brand marketers spoke with directors at top social media apps; and senior technology reporter Garett Sloane even donned an Oculus headset for a conversation in Horizon Workrooms with Nicola Mendelsohn, VP of Meta’s global business group.

A lot was covered during the event, so whether you tuned in and are returning for more, or rather just want a quick summary, here are the top five takeaways, with clips, from Unlocking the Metaverse. (To re-watch the event in full, check it out here.)

New shopping behaviors will inform commerce in the metaverse

Commerce opportunities will underpin the metaverse, said Meta’s Mendelsohn. For marketers, driving sales in this new social environment will rely heavily on shopping behaviors that have gained traction on social media platforms.

From livestreams to frictionless check-outs, to shoppable content, these methods will be blended with AR and VR to onboard consumers who have grown accustomed to a more immediate style of shopping.

In a panel discussing the commerce potential of the metaverse, Danisha Lomax, head of media (West) and paid social for Digitas, spoke on how marketers will be able to take the lessons learned from social commerce on platforms like Snap and apply them to virtual worlds.

NFTs can enrich the dialogue between brands and consumers

NFTs are becoming an increasingly popular method of marketing, but their concrete value can be elusive. Are they vehicles of one-time engagement? Techy accouterments to traditional campaigns?

According to panelists for a discussion on the technology, NFTs are at their best when they bolster the two-way conversation between brands and consumers. This is done by providing utility—exclusive perks—that allows token-holders to continually engage with a brand over time.

Valdé Beauty, for example, baked into its NFT project access to the brand’s real-life inventory of lip shades in order to create value for members, said founder Margarita Arriagada.

The same goes for Anheuser-Busch, which has aimed to create a long-term community through its various brands’ NFT drops, per Spencer Gordon, VP of digital and DraftLine, the brewer’s in-house agency.

Increasing safety will encourage diversity

Despite the novelty that Web3 pledges to introduce, metaverse spaces are already seeing a lack of diverse voices that so thoroughly informs the current iteration of the internet, as well as the real world. Women account for only 16% of NFT sales, according to a report from last November, and people of color are excluded more widely given most investors and developers are white.

Speaking on Meta’s approach to diversity, Mendelsohn emphasized the importance of creating the metaverse with inclusive practices already in place, as opposed to adding them afterward. One way the company is doing this, she said, is by focusing on safety, which will make users more comfortable and, in turn, appeal to a wider audience. 

For example, Meta recently rolled out a "personal boundary" feature that gives users an impenetrable 4-foot bubble around their avatar, preventing the kind of groping attacks that women are especially at risk of experiencing, which has already started to occur in virtual worlds.

Brands need to brace themselves for potential scams

Another area of brand safety that is top of mind for marketers is scamming, which currently runs rampant in the NFT space and could very well infiltrate greater portions of the metaverse.

With so much money, speculation and new users making up these worlds, scams are likely here to stay, at least in the short term, said Laura Mignott, global chief experiential officer, VMLY&R Commerce, in a panel discussing brand safety. Brands should take necessary precautions, such as vetting partners who understand the space.

Mignott outlined the atmosphere for brands by telling a personal story of getting scammed through an NFT project, despite knowing what she was doing and conducting plenty of research.

Metaverse will require agencies to more deeply understand their clients

In the same conversation discussing brand safety, panelists spoke about how brands will need guidance navigating the seemingly infinite metaverse ecosystem, from NFTs to virtual real estate to new projects that have still yet to be developed. Agencies will therefore need to be extra rigorous in identifying the values and interests of their clients.

“You’re going to look at the agency world and media partners, and you’ll really need to double down at understanding [your] client at a greater level of intimacy because of what the metaverse requires,” said Albert Thompson, managing director of digital innovation at Walton Isaacson.

Some agencies are already entering metaverse platforms in order to gauge the best fit for their brands. Mediahub, for example, built an office in Decentraland to train employees and work with clients.