Metaverse advertising is ad tech’s greatest accomplishment, giving consumers a virtual shopping experience like no other. Any brand that demonstrates an interest in user-generated content is making plans to enter the metaverse—if it hasn’t already. Whether a newcomer to virtual consumer worlds such as Walmart or an old-timer such as Coca-Cola, brands are quickly ramping up to enter the new digital advertising frontier. Metaverse advertising is becoming the new channel kid on the block. Ad agencies with clients who have a test budget take note.

Read more: Metaverse glossary for brands

Here’s how an ad agency can advise clients on metaverse advertising right now:

NFTs

NFT stands for non-fungible token. Not something growing in your kid’s science experiment, an NFT is a unique virtual token used in purchasing or trading in a virtual world. Anything can be an NFT, from artwork to tweets. In NBA Top Shot, someone bought a video clip of Lebron James dunking a basketball for $208,000 through a virtual auction system. Kings of Leon released its latest album for sale as an NFT last year on an NFT ticketing platform.

Branded virtual worlds

Video gaming company Roblox contains life-like virtual environments built by brands such as Van’s skatepark and a winter-themed Ralph Lauren mountain. Netflix-based games are also found on the Roblox platform. Brand ambassadors share virtual content with Roblox users. Vodka company Absolut has launched Absolut.Land, where people can use NFTs to purchase virtual fashion accessories and teleport virtually to a music festival. If someone tweets a selfie from Absolut.Land, they are airdropped a wearable.

Virtual billboards

Virtual billboards are just what they sound like—out-of-home advertising in a virtual world. They can be found on platforms such as Twitch or on video gaming platforms including Fornite. As virtual real estate grows, the space for virtual billboards increases.

Meta, Apple, Google and Microsoft are building metaverses where advertising is becoming a full-funnel experience. But don’t cash in your NFTs just yet. Most analysts predict that metaverse advertising won’t be the new channel in our digital advertising lives until 2023. With a budget or partnership in place for creative development, the future state of advertising in the metaverse can look like this for clients:

Virtual Stores

Virtual goods are sold by designers inside a social media-based virtual world and the social media company takes a percentage of those profits. Meta recently opened its beta version of Horizon Worlds. Other social media platforms are developing similar virtual store offerings.

Metaverse advertising metrics

We in digital advertising love coming up with new metrics. In metaverse advertising, we may borrow from connected TV’s concept and look at real-time buying occurring in virtual auctions in the metaverse to determine the appropriate metric. Metaverse advertising might include a cost-per-completed-view metric or a video complete rate metric. Netflix changed the Oscars; we’ll come up with something substantial to measure in the metaverse.   

As the term metaverse continues to gain traction, the interest in metaverse advertising is growing exponentially. The metaverse signals a move beyond traditional advertising toward creating brand experiences that are more engaging and exciting and less invasive than what we experience with digital advertising today. And so, ad agencies must follow suit.

Don’t miss the latest news. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters here.