 Good afternoon everybody. Hope you are all well after the holidays and welcome back to our Marketing Club webinar series We've got a fantastic session for you today on the metaverse with Virginia Bray, Marketing Fusion and Ben Friar from Diverse Interactive Virginia very kindly delivered one of our webinars last year on MetaHumans, which was absolutely fascinating So it's an absolute pleasure to have a back to us again today's session If you watched any of our Marketing Club webinars before then you'll know how this works But for those joining us for the first time today, I'll very quickly give you some info about the session Now you can submit your questions for the Q&A and where to go if you want to watch the session again So I'll be hearing from Virginia and Ben for around 45 minutes We'll then move to a 10 to 15 minute Q&A to answer some of your questions You'll be able to post your questions for the Q&A at any time during the session by clicking on the question mark You'll see on screen If you'd like to share any thoughts about today's webinar on the socials You can use the hashtag CIM events. We'd love to see your comments So we'll pop the hashtag up again after Virginia and Ben have finished their presentations So before we head into the presentation, I'll just quickly explain what the Marketing Club is It was created primarily to help students get the most from the CIM accredited degree and prepare them for a career in marketing Although the Marketing Club is designed for students, CIM members and other marketing practitioners are also welcome to attend the sessions But the uninitiated, the CIM accredited degree program enables students to gain a professional marketing qualification By taking advantage of the exemptions the accredited degree provides So if you're a university student, you can sign up now to receive the Marketing Club newsletter All you'll need to do is take a photo of the QR code on the screen Alternatively, you can hop onto our website and find it within the qualifications drop-down menu Each edition of the newsletter will provide you with content designed to support your studies and actively manage your professional development By keeping you up to date with the latest trends, innovations and concepts in the marketing industry So it really is worth taking a look and signing up We'll pop the QR code up again a little later. So don't worry if you haven't had a chance to catch it yet Okay, so I'd like to introduce our guest speakers on today's session Virginia and Ben If you want to turn your webcams on I'll pass things over to you and the floor is yours when you're ready Thanks so much Phil. That's very kind of you Hi Ben Yeah, so I'm really really thrilled to be here and to have an opportunity to to share some insights and some Some experiences of metaverse and beyond so brief brief background to myself First I come from a probably more of a traditional marketing background. So my business Marketing fusion is a is a content marketing agency and consultancy And we work with b2b tech and SAS clients Ben, did you want to make an introduction to yourself? Yeah, so I run a digital experience agency and We specialize in I guess sort of helping brands and enterprises Using transformative technologies. So a lot of immersive technology AR VR those types of things and really I guess we sort of Lead with building great content and great experiences but built on kind of sound cutting edge Technology and obviously the metaverse is part of that journey for us. So started to talk about it fantastic So briefly just to share with you the agenda Which I'm hoping will come up Um, but let me just click on that again There we go. Um, yeah, just uh, obviously a little bit about introduction to us Um, and then the agenda is really very much. Um, sorry, this is where I get slightly trigger happy myself, um in the first instance wants to put a little bit of a sort of positioning around this so You know for marketers, where do we see the opportunities and the challenges to be honest? So there's a huge amount of things changing at the moment And then we're going to do a deep dive into Ben's massive and considerable insights into What's happening in the metaverse what's happening with meta humans and in a bit of a Q&A So I think it's a a great opportunity to have a real expert in the room to to share his His knowledge and and experiences And then of course we'll move on to the the question and answer sessions with yourselves So just to to start off with we thought it would be really helpful to just do a quick poll. Um, so At least in the background if you could maybe fire that one up We'd just love to understand where people are in their marketing journeys. Um More from the perspective of making sure that we are hopefully addressing Things at the right level for you and you know appreciate that not everybody's you know Can can easily fit into one of these categories, but it just gives us an insight um and one of the other things I wanted to just mention is that During the course of today, you'll see some some great images from Some of the experiences and so on that that we wanted to sort of share with you But it's a little bit difficult to do it too interactively and share video and so on so We do have on some of our slides a qr code that Will take you to a landing page of of ours which will enable us to If you were to go to that page and and sign Sign up to receive information. We can share some of those insights further with you So do please feel free to do that at any point It's on a couple of the slides towards the the end of the session So what are we seeing so we've got quite an interesting mix actually I was kind of assuming it was going to be more towards the the student level, but there's quite a significant Nearly half of you are senior level marketers. So that's that's fascinating So I'm really excited about that that means that we've got an opportunity really to talk about some of the things that are meaningfully happening in the in the marketing world And yeah looking forward to making this hopefully a really useful session for everybody Cool, thanks lace So yeah, just in order to Set the ball Rolling just wanted to sort of I space explain a little bit of how we see The world at the moment And it's you know, this is not going to be news particularly to any people that are in the The marketing profession. So we're under huge amount of pressures at the moment and you know Really the content explosion the things that are happening in In the world, particularly around some of the AI tools that are now coming Becoming available and becoming more widely used It's just going to drive this massive explosion of content. So content is is not It just one of the challenges that we sort of certainly see From that is is the need to create memorable experiences and to to create Ways and means of standing out from that You know that the masses Whether that's through more sort of visual and video content because obviously that's important We're all video consumers these days in our consumer lives in our business world and so on And we're all looking for that more sort of personalized and relevant message You know, we've come to expect it. It's it's it's how we expect to interact, but that's a huge challenge And the other you know common thread around You know, what we're what we're trying to do is deliver authenticity. So not just creating You know a bland for the message or trying to be something inauthentic that we're not being able to enable potential buyers To engage with us in the places and the ways that they want to do that and that means, you know, in the right language in the right cultural sort of tone of voice and so on And the whole sort of You know premise around You know this the seller the brand being in control. I think is is slightly moved on as well So buyers are now very much driving this this journey and this engagement with us At the same time We're seeing a huge volume of changes that are happening both from a sort of technology and trends point of view So whether that's through the advent of sort of real-time virtual production new video technologies Whether it's through AI The advent of virtual influences that we'll maybe go into touch on a little bit later or the metaverse I could add a you know 10 more things to this list cryptocurrency You know, whether it's a sort of web 3 0 or all of the new sort of I suppose Things that are changing are kind of giving us that sort of that crazy sort of, you know, a mixture of You know things that we need to be across and be on top of and opportunities To to create those more meaningful environments And we kind of see this as a bit of a perfect storm really So if you bring together the things that we're expected to do and also the new technologies that are available It's that sort of opportunity to leverage that that new technology and trends In order to meet some of the challenges and and create opportunities So we're looking very much to sort of, you know, showcase some of the ways in which You know, we can all start to do that as marketers and see the opportunities And that's very much Something that Ben's going to help us to to shed some light on So before we dive into Ben's session, I just wanted to Invite you to A next poll really which is just to understand a little bit about everyone's experience of the metaverse So if least if you could put that one up It's a bit of a Bit of a sort of, you know blunt Sort of a way of representing yourself, but yeah, we will just look to get us give us a bit of a gauge as to what everyone's experience is in that instance and Just obviously, you know whilst we're sort of starting to to get that information back I think Ben the metaverse is a term that's been around for for quite some while hasn't it Yeah When you first came across that Yeah, it could be I think a lot of people think it was sort of one meta So it's gotten the bandwagon, but I think um, or it could be at least like 10 years ago I mean, it's sort of originated actually in the sci-fi Novel so, um, you know, it's it's been sort of in the mindset for a while and it sort of comes and goes But I think yeah, it's really just sort of come I think now that we're all having to think about more of that Definitely. Yeah, I think it's uh Yeah, there's some some very early sort of origins weren't there in the in the sort of sci-fi novels and so on So okie dokie, so we've got a lot of people who are At the complete novice end so 73 percent of you saying that and a few doublers and and some experienced people as well So I think that's great. It's an opportunity really to just sort of, you know, maybe sow a few seeds and then Start to sort of share some Examples of where this is starting to to take take shape Cool. Thank you very much Um, so right, I guess the starting point for this Q&A with with ben Um, obviously as I said, ben's got a huge amount of experience and his business is is very much geared around creating these Immersive experiences. So a really Pleasure to have you to to to talk to today about this ben and and uh, quick Share your insights. Um, and I guess to start to sort of, you know, get the ball rolling is so Let's sort of set the scene for this. So what what is the metaverse? What how would you describe it? So I think let's start with a big question because I think this this is probably the one you get asked the most So, um, I mean, I think what what doesn't help this probably probably should start that, you know There isn't actually an agreed definition of the metaverse. So that sort of makes it slightly difficult But um, you know, I like to, you know, sort of go with my sort of definition And I guess that's really sort of come from the space we operate in and what I find is probably the most Useful definition. I guess when you're sort of adopting the metaverse and sort of moving into that space Um, so I don't know sort of maybe sort of people sort of heard the term XR And that's the sort of term we use that kind of encompasses. I guess all immersive technologies AR mixed reality virtual reality Um, and it's really sort of those technologies are sort of coming together with the internet So it's this kind of sort of convergence Of technologies and what that's giving rise to is what we call these sort of persistent virtual realities So, you know virtual reality doesn't necessarily have to be You know used on a VR headset, you know, you will probably sort of familiar with games things like fortnight You know and these these realities is sort of having this connectivity where they sort of exist You sort of end to those realities and start using them Um, and really so there's this sort of thing like is it here? Is it around and I think it certainly is It's just sort of entering our lives like all good tech on this sort of Slow journey, you know how much time that we sort of play, you know Really sort of playing in these sort of games like minecraft and road Blocks and things like that. So it's sort of entering our lives and there's this sort of So it's definitely here and there's the things we can do now to engage with it But there's also this sort of slightly longer journey, you know this What this really is becoming is the spatial internet. So this is like this is like the next generation of the internet. This is um Spatial content and and us being able to consume that and that's where you sort of get this thing around sort of standards And people talking about that and then that sort of you know, is it here and you know That's kind of the end goal really is that this is sort of standardized and just like you sort of deliver Websites at the moment, you know, these virtual realities become the next website in the way So it's not one big thing It's a whole series of things at the moment and then eventually those are all going to come together It's all these technologies coming together to sort of give us the metaverse Yeah, absolutely July. I've got a couple of images that you've asked that you've put together so So the internet, I mean people have talked about the internet in 3d, haven't they? And I think that's a nice way of kind of visualizing it So some of these examples that you're sharing with us are good ones of those maybe to just sort of chat to Yeah, I mean lots of little examples. I mean, you know there's a few on here There's some of the sort of platforms represented that you've got sort of The sort of web-free platforms. I think you probably sort of clarify that one a second But you know things like the central island sandbox And then you sort of got some of the more games ones, you know roadblocks And then the sort of you know enterprise sort of focus ones things like facebook horizon So there's a lot of sort of platforms coming together and and you know, so common one I sort of get asked actually, you know, well, why is the sort of You know, is this tech looks a little bit perhaps behind some of the sort of Games and things at the moment, but actually, you know, we just sort of enter in this this space and that these just every day These platforms are getting better and better looking and you know You know, so I'm sure sort of the gamers and things are sort of familiar with how good games are, you know This sort of realities are getting so good now. And it's just we're on that journey now. So Yeah, really really interesting and what so you you mentioned web threes Just then so what's so what's the difference because it feels like they're sort of tied together but actually Maybe that's yeah, what's web three? Again, it can be quite challenging. There's a lot of sort of tech sort of moving around a lot of components really but um I really sort of I'd like to sort of keep web free sort of separate from the metaverse it, you know web free sort of came out of You know, really sort of blockchain world and this sort of, you know, decentralized movement that that space Um, and that's the way that you know, the term was coined And but the reason it sort of gets combined with the metaverse is it It produces very, you know, it gives us quite useful features, you know in in the metaverse things like ownership You know the decentralized sort of concepts They're very useful when you're in these virtual realities, you know Who needs to own what these types of things, you know, virtual goods all these sort of things that exist in the metaverse So it provides a sort of useful mechanic and I think, you know, we've got to really sort of see You know where that journey takes us at the moment. I think, you know, sort of last year. I think a lot of brands You know a few some sort of went into the metaverse Through that space and I think it can be quite hard. You got to be quite careful, you know It can actually Be a barrier to entry at the moment, you know, this there's a metaverse for me is really about this sort of Exile technology and this it's going to spatially virtual realities You there's no reason to sort of have to sort of, you know, get asked it quite a lot actually, you know Do I need to mint an NFT to And use the metaverse No, yeah, that's it. You don't need to I mean, you know, you just got to really be careful around that application, you know You know, sometimes there's great reasons to mint an NFT. I think really it's sort of Brands that did well in that was, you know, it's really where your markets Someone who understands crypto so sort of luxury brands So, you know, it's types of people, you know, you can make money But I think it is just sort of being careful with that that's sort of how you sort of adopt it at the moment And that that also sort of brings back the the sort of question that you touched on there Which is knowing your brand and knowing your customer and knowing where they're going to be So it does bring it back to basic marketing principles, doesn't it? Yeah, it's very basic because it's one sort of fundamental things and it is it's Very easy to get excited by all that Can't you do it? All the shiny tech and I think it's a big thing sort of marketing, you know, it's all And it but it is you just have to sort of step back a little bit and just, you know, sound each other Is that the right move, you know, work with experts, you know, that kind of thing No, definitely so And, you know, just just also seeing what's happening with some of the gaming platforms in the sheer volumes of audiences that they've got there But obviously that's a particular audience type that some people might want to reach but not necessarily everybody But yeah, definitely Cool. So just sort of moving on Really just to explore a little bit more in terms of What what that looks like So there's obviously a huge a huge amount of hype around Around the metaverse around web three and around all of those sort of associated technologies Um, and in fact, I think, you know, they predicted Isn't it McKinsey predicted it could reach five trillion by 2030, which is the size of japan's economy I think that's one of the stats that gets bandied around in this um in this kind of context So I just wonder what you're thinking is around that in terms of Are we still at the earlier doctor stage? Where do you think we're at in the in the cycle? Sure. I think we sort of almost Touched on it just there, you know, this is all about the hype. I mean actually she's sort of gone to the next next slide and Yeah, so I think this is sort of useful. I don't know sort of how many people has probably seen various versions of this Kind of technology curve and I think it is it's one of those sort of tech stories There's a lot of debate, you know, where are we on this this journey? And I think a lot of people sort of feel like oh, yeah, maybe just last year was that that big sort of Innovation trigger and we've gone up the curve and perhaps we're sort of going down a little bit at the moment and sort of, you know AI I think is this year's big big hype. So um, but You know, I actually like to look at this on perhaps sort of a slightly different time scale I think it was quite interesting. You know, we started And when I started up our agency We came out a sort of creative agency to really sort of specialise in these sort of immersive technologies And I sort of feel, you know, that was sort of eight years ago And we had this sort of innovation trigger back then in a way where, you know, this was sort of virtual reality coming in There were lots of little sort of brands of headsets and and you know And then people sort of trying to work out there's, you know, a lot of people weren't aware of it as well as like How can I use this stuff? You know, what is it? What is VR? Actually, you know, if you sort of shoot forward to today, you know, the The knowledge is a lot better, you know, most people I think sort of understand they are or VR or have sort of some concept But what that means has also been quite a long journey in working out how to use these technologies You know how to build really experience what not to do what to do Um, and I think, you know, you look at the players involved as well, you know You know facebook rebranding of meta that really kind of gone in Yeah, and actually, you know, perhaps we were sort of on that You know, that sort of slope and enlightenment. Actually, perhaps this is our journey now where Yeah It can make a difference. It's valuable. It's entering our lives Um, and I think that's where we sort of start to to see the good in these texts So, you know, perhaps we're, you know, it's one of those fun things, you know, where are we what resolution Are we looking at the hype at the moment? Um, but you know, I think we all know, you know Over the next sort of 10 years, you know, this sort of journey into the spatial internet 3d content becoming I think that's just going to become the norm You know, like the sort of worried websites and videos and things. I think sort of having your products You know, as sort of digital twins making sure you've got that content and you're sort of in the right virtual realities and on the right platforms So, you know, that that's sort of really where we're heading at the moment Sure And there's obviously some big brands that you've represented on this Graphic here who are putting some considerable investment into into this new area. So So that obviously goes with goes to, you know, goes to sort of prove, I suppose that this there's some new stuff coming down track interesting, um And obviously we were also going to share Some examples. So let me just move on to the next slide. I think because I asked you to sort of maybe Who do you think's doing this? Well, so we saw we saw a couple of ones on the on the last slide I don't know if you wanted to add anything to the the context of any of those examples that you've picked Or The next slide, I think a brand that's Actually, I think this night's done really really well over the last year And I think, you know, a lot of brands, you know, that were sort of issues sort of going into some of these sort of web-free focus platforms relying on sort of NFTs and I think Knights actually it does feel like they've sat there and sort of looked at things and actually, you know, before I go and do this Let's let's let's think about this and um We've got a really big presence in roadblocks at the moment called night clan, which I think is a really nice move and what what they've done well is they Was that actually well, where's my customers? What's what's my audience and how do I sort of target them that that sort of thought process? And you know roadblocks is is the sort of younger audience And you know, they put that on their website, you know, they're they're sort of targeting that audience And they've built a really good experience, you know that again, that's another sort of common Place where people go wrong and so I will just try the tech We'll see how it goes and actually you have to be really Careful when you do that, you know, you have to build enough of an experience To kind of make it worthwhile. You know, I've seen so many people over the years So the new technology sort of trying it out. Oh, well, will that work? But you yeah You can almost sort of get burned and actually not realize that potential and I think You know nights built this great experience that they're not sort of sat there trying to force virtual goods Down your throat, which I think is something I've seen some brands doing You know, there's lots of free stuff. They've built great sort of gaming experience There is a shop in it, of course, but you know, it's not sort of too down for it. It's brand awareness. It's, you know You've got all the sort of Roblox users walking around in like Nike trainers now and it's sort of, you know I think as well the numbers are there, you know, this was the other thing they did where they found the audience so I think the time I checked a couple of days ago put a post out on this but um There was um, you know, I think it's 30 million users currently visited this experience Yeah, it's it's really good and and you know I mean and actually you look at the Roblox platform and I think that's got about sort of 40 million daily active users But this is it. It's a big stuff, you know, these platforms are really Really hitting a large number of users now and there's a lot of space for sort of brands to get involved And then I guess sort of on the other side of this visual actually the other thing they did they will think quite smart around as well as this is sort of They're sort of moving to the sort of web-free NFT space and again, I don't know if anyone's Porsche got quite a lot of bad press I think last week around how they approached NFTs and you know, Nike sort of they sort of separated themselves a little bit um They um brought this Brand you sort of already existed in web-free community Qt called artifact they sort of established themselves a bit They understand the tech they were sort of trendy In that space and again, it's sort of it's almost like it's sort of sub-brand approach sort of okay We're doing virtual shoes Now that was something that again they they did do other sort of content But they did have a sort of bit of a thing For sort of obviously there's the connection sort of creating these sort of virtual goods virtual trainers as nfts And I think it was a smart move, you know It sort of they're you know, they did it in a cool way I guess in the in the sort of web-free world and they got that sort of backing from that that kind of community really And you can see here that there's sort of a blend between the offline world and the online world It sounds like they're sort of starting to yeah, I mean that's another thing actually a good point They're sort of mixing this some of their sort of shoes now they're sort of tapping into The both so you can buy a shoe and it's got a sort of virtual digital representation These are the get with the shoes so Who knew and I thought trainers were just to like put on your feet and go walking in but hey, that's that's just me Obviously not in their target demographic. I have to say that's the that's the other thing, isn't it? um Yeah, really interesting. I mean there's there's massive potential here and obviously, um, you know, there's there's definitely sort of um, you know ways in which An audience or a brand like Nike is taking It's audience and mapping on to that So they're actually doing it the right way around and you said that there's some people that are probably doing it just for the sake of You know of it of having some cool tech But obviously the people that are utilizing it in a in a way that gives us kind of some more You know that that meets the moment meets the need of the of the particular target audience It's really interesting. Cool. Okay um, just moving on um Just because it's something that we've touched on and been quite closely involved in and it's something that I know you've gotten interested in as well So digital humans obviously have you know play a part in the in the metaverse Tell us a little bit about that and and you know what they are and how they how they fit in Yeah, sure. So I think you know, I think probably people's are aware of sort of I guess sort of virtual influences you know sort of been around Few years now and I think sort of when you start Bringing that into the metaverse, you know, you get the sort of digital human really and and You know, this is sort of distinction. I don't know if I know Watch the matrix where you've probably heard of the term agent in matrix. That's actually a sort of technical definition So digital humans in the metaverse are agents When we are ourselves in the metaverse we we have advertisers of agents and advertisers and the digital humans are ones that are kind of Controlled by computer algorithms or AI and I think you know, this is just sort of this sort of next generation I guess sort of virtual influence and now and I think we actually put a post down linked in today about You know what you know, the big hype at the moment this sort of chat GPT and and you know, this AI is just giving these sort of digital human such great abilities now, you know to be able to Not only sort of generate nice photos and videos Sort of quality video realistic videos of humans. You can now You know adopt that as a brand and people can talk to that virtual influence of influence or a digital human that can kind of represent your brand and You can sort of create it in a way that people can have Conversations with it and I think you know the big thing here as well as I think it's this sort of Perhaps I think probably some of us older people it is sort of, you know, it does feel like a little bit strange the sort of virtual digital human sort of and people sort of maybe influences and You know, it's sort of like it is becoming really real. It sort of it feels a bit weird to us But actually it's really the norm for the sort of whatever next gen we're on at the moment, you know, like my sort of You know, my kids are sort of spending their all their money on virtual goods already And and and these sort of digital humans and they're part of their lives. They're real, you know, they're they're meeting people for the first time in virtual These characters are so realistic now. They're sort of interacting with them virtually. So yeah, it's sort of that It's a really big part of the sort of metaverse Being ourselves as avatars and these digital humans alongside us There's there's there's that aspect, isn't there? You can you can create a digital Version of yourself your avatar as you say and then You know, you get people like like the bottom right macaela who's got I mean, how many followers on instagram? I kind of remember it's it's millions, isn't it and and The company that actually created these these characters are, you know, I like are basically their agent, you know Agents in the traditional sense of the word as in, you know, they they have a fee They can do a job and they can be hired out to brands and so on Um, and then you've got others that are creating their own brand ambassadors Uh from scratch. I think the technology That's coming out of places like, um, you know, unreal engine epic games, etc at the moment Is enormously powerful And lifelike like the you know, the whole matrix thing was was was really interesting Just to sort of see how that's evolving Um, yeah, and we I mean, you know from marketing point of view We've started to see some of the sort of more practical aspects of that So, you know things like the sythesia platform and so on that we've adopted and it was lost to create So, you know, you talk about some of these things and they feel like they're sort of You know in another universe another, you know Thousands of miles away or costing sort of, you know enormous budgets, but actually Some of the digital human, um, you know aspects that you can translate into real-time videos by by just, you know, adapting, adopting some of the The new technology that's out there and powered by artificial intelligence means that you can have You can basically do text to speech in any language. So You know for us as marketers in in some of the more sort of traditional Environments in b2b and so on that's a massive massive game changer really it's it enables us to give sort of lots of You know, it gives us a lot of flexibility and the ability I think to create content that Breaks new boundaries but to do it in a way that's, you know, practical and accessible and and is kind of here and now um cool, um So, yeah, here's another big question for you Apart from, you know, sitting on a beach somewhere in the Bahamas, where do you think we're going to be? So what do what what about the future for the metaverse and so on? What do you think that's going to look like? Yeah, I mean, I think if you actually gone to the next slide we've got some sort of Visuals, but I think you know, this is it. I think at the moment there's a lot of It got some great technology at the moment and you know, it is in our lives, but I think there's technologies On the way that are just going to bring it Increasingly more and more into our lives and I think you know, you sort of look at the headset form factors of today I'll go back to the big boxes. We were wearing sort of eight years ago You know, it's it's really sort of now sort of becoming sort of Accessible and you know the quest headsets great headset very affordable Great technology in it and and it's it's accelerating. You know, we've got you know Messer's investment at the moment. They've got getting a bit of hard time at the moment But the amount they've done for ar and vr the mixed reality in the last sort of year the amount of Money that they put into that industry and you know, they're not alone They're they're sort of they're the ones sort of getting in the press at the moment But but everyone's pushing, you know, apple are doing things. Maybe you know, they keep quiet about it I think that they're they're just waiting for that apple moment that they're so good Get ready. Do you actually want to wear it? Is it going to make you look cool? And then they come out of it, right? Um, so it's sort of it's it's that journey, but I do feel it's Accelerating it it's it's with us Now and I think, you know, it's exciting, you know, we're going to see some great stuff I mean, I think the you know the smart glasses They're really going to change our lives when they come out. I think that you know the sort of Smartphones not the best device for a lot of the sort of applications We use it for you know walking down the street bumping into things No, don't you don't use it in the car. Um, but you know these sort of things it's You know that once you've got that sort of with you and and those sort of connect to the metaverse So, you know, and also sort of nanotic they're sort of behind things like Pokemon go But they're they're really pushing what they call the real world metaverse And I think in a way that might actually almost enter our lives Absolutely a little bit for that sort of Ready player me sort of end goal metaverse That's the ability to put the glasses on walk down the street and have that sort of mixed reality You know We're seeing some other stuff as well. Is that how you mean? Yeah, I think you know, it's worth sort of probably just that I'll sort of use the term mixed reality there and again, so that's not everyone's aware of that but The mixed reality there's the sort of separation there is You know AR's about sort of overlaying information Mixed reality is not only overlaying that information. It's been able to interact with it and you know the quest again has got this sort of Good for where it's at, you know, sort of you can use your hands you can Touch virtual objects it the headsets are getting this understanding of the world around them So, you know, if you're playing, you know, you're walking down the street you can place you know virtual Goods information So, you know, it's kind of the marketing application Into this real world metaverse is quite a thing to kind of Yeah, no, it sounds really powerful. So when are we all going to be wearing smart glasses? And you reckon couple of years time or are we going to give it a bit longer? It's a difficult one. I I think the I think then headset for the next couple of years I'd say probably the mixed reality. I think that's that's now the new Reason to go out and buy a buy the latest VR headset that they're sort of progressing that technology quite fast I think I've used a lot of the our glasses or sort of out in the Over in America last year sort of trying some sort of new lens technologies And it just feels like there's probably a few years In those yeah, I mean it's interesting some of it, you know, that's I guess if you want the visuals But there is sort of some movement now just cameras and audio where Yeah, it's still sort of adding but I think really that that sort of big tech could be sort of five years off perhaps Interesting. Oh well good good, right, so We've looked at a lot of examples today and I have to say that some of them are sort of quite out there in terms of You know the the Nike stuff and the the gaming examples So can you give us some examples outside of that maybe things in a more sort of business environment? Yeah, sure. I think this is a world where it's sort of Living at the moment so there's a business. So, you know, this is a nice I guess a nice example. I like this example. This was um This is actually for a company to sell they sell the laboratory equipment Um, and they got sort of quite hit by the sort of the pandemic that their sort of sales process Was quite sort of hands-on it was going to see the customer with the product in their app kind of sort of sales process and that got replaced by the sort of The zoom calls and the teams calls it sort of I came on I'm trying to sell I've got brochures and the manuals and from us sort of show you pictures and and and you know lab Fortress who care about things like you know, where's the plug socket in relation to the Run the other thing and and this kind of sort of is quite a sort of hard thing And it got quite messy again sort of every sort of sales rep doing their own thing So we sort of replaced this and this is a great project. We worked very closely With the client sort of over up here sort of developing the solution And sort of ended up, you know, we've got this sort of virtual environment where they can Explore, you know, it's pitch theatre really but they can sort of explore this environment And they can customize that environment as well if they're going to see a particular Customer they can you know, have the right selection of products ready to go before they go there And Yeah, that's the other way they sort of use this So it's a bit of sort of theatre there, but then we've created what we refer to as digital twins and I guess sort of, you know, I quite forget us actually what's the difference between the 3d asset and the digital twin and When we use that term, you know digital twin, I think is really what's happened The test got a point now, you know, even sort of four years ago. It was quite hard to do but you can create such realistic You know representations of products now, especially, you know, gone on the sort of videos and the CG renders images Um, you know now we can create these products really sort of live-flight and so they're very detailed also You know, when you start sort of thinking about simulation, you know, we can and some of this Did products we sort of developed here have that so, you know, you can push a button and a little open Okay These types of things. Yeah, we've got some centrifuges and they can do things and That that kind of sort of simulation deal That's really for me where you sort of get into that digital twin space and it's great You know, they sort of use this they can either go and see the customer with these on a tablet and do on the tablet Or they can do it over a zoom score and you can really sort of entrap the products and move around it zoom into it Highlight different features and in the other sort of party trick we've got with it is um They can also use the qr code. So you can be on the on the sort of the zoom call show a qr code the user can scan that qr code and then have a web ar which is sort of web ars where we can Deliver augmented reality without any app download. So they get this sort of instant Product that they can view life size thing for them It's a like That was what a really common things that when we sort of work with the sales reps on this is actually, you know How big is this product and so you scan that qr code you can see it life-sized See, it's just really nice experience. And then we sort of all these things like all the documents and manuals We just sort of put them They're all still there, but we sort of put those all together and they're just sort of they got almost like a shopping cart So is your source of talking through this great looking experience? Yeah, you like that one right add this manual. Let's not get it on screen. Let's just add it to the cart I'll send it to you after kind of thing and so Yeah, there's a nice application where it's sort of making a difference and you know, we're sort of in For this ratio now this product same. Okay, interesting. So yeah very much the sort of digital Environment of it, you know, it's it's amazing. I think when people have got a practical, you know a real product Let's also just share another example that you mentioned as well, which is more academic This is sort of and again This is actually sort of virtual reality collaboration platforms again You sort of think about the previous example once you you can also start actually having Collaborative experiences with that and I think you know, that's what I think where we'd love to get that platform as well but this is this sort of Application was built born out of a Also relationship actually we've got some good So relations with colleges at the moment as a college called usp college, but we we were so involved with You know, we sort of collaborative sort of built a virtual production studio together, which is sort of part of Kind of it's very useful for us and very useful then but We sort of when we did that we sort of found this almost sort of gap I guess, you know a lot of people sort of now producing immersive content and reason Sort of colleges are so involved at the moment is it is it's you know, everyone knows the meta versus coming in it and sort of You know immersive content production is A really big thing in education now So yeah, but it sort of was born out of the well, how do we use this content? What do we do of it? And so we've actually sort of collaborated now to build this virtual platform Which is sort of it's teaching focus this one, but again, it could be sort of used for different applications But it's allowing, you know, just I think it just demonstrates the value of this You know, even as a student just just bringing a digital twin into a classroom And being able to stand around it as a group, you know, put the sort of wind turbine down there You sort of you know kind of a wind wind turbine in your classrooms They even just sort of bring an asset in, you know, we're not trying to sort of replace Teaching I should have we sort of enhance, you know, let's let's bring the engine into the classroom Let's take the cover off. Let's see inside it. You know, we can do anything with that asset And I think, you know, this is just the power of You know, there's some sort of But where you can kind of use it against a bit enterprise We're doing this sort of similar types of what we have been for the last eight years really, but These are applications where you can sort of experience products and services virtually just so powerful Yeah, and I was just thinking about, you know, the application of this type of thing for maybe events or You know, ways of meeting, you know, getting sort of Yeah, yeah We're always looking for ways of connecting with customers. This could be a way to bring people into an environment Where they can have a cognitive experience Yeah, definitely um That's absolutely fascinating Ben and I guess what I just wanted to sort of wrap up on Is really the advice that you would offer to marketers So obviously we've seen a huge amount of, you know, some really cool things today But, you know, where would you start? How do you get involved in it? What do you do? Yeah, I think we touched on a couple times actually. I think there's a lot there's a lot going on at the moment and it is just I think it's just focus on Is it okay? There's something there, right that I could potentially use for marketing. I think it's just sort of You know, it's looking at that and actually sort of having that little experience sort of can I use it? You know thinking it through is it is it going to suit my audience? How accessible is it? Is a really big thing if you're sort of using one of these? Technologies is it accessible and I think a lot of that understanding actually comes out of, you know, Giving it a go and I think that's the first step for anything really is it really is sort of Dive in give it a go Let's do headsets. You know, they're very affordable It's a great sort of starter headset to go and try out some virtual reality and get a feel for these technologies and it's sort of you need to get a bit of an understanding and then it's sort of Then just thinking about that kind of marketing application What will it do? You know, can I actually reach your you know, although it's really good Can I actually reach your customers? But we don't don't kind of forget the basics really, I think You know from my side, I think, you know, there's a massive Amount of tools and and opportunities now that have you know come out of the gaming world come out of the movie world come out of sort of You know, there's advances in technology that are now much more Accessible to us so we can create You know a digital character that represents our brand completely how we want it to be We could give them a role in the business. We can have them speaking to customers and doing doing kind of real real work But for me it just comes down to also making sure that we're not just doing it for the sake of technology that we're meeting a business need and we're remembering who our audience is and what their Likely response is going to be to some of these initiatives and making sure that, you know, we're connecting with them in the right way So if the audience is in the metaverse or is keen to be in the metaverse, then yeah, it makes a huge amount of sense. And if it doesn't, it's so be it And that's where my doorbell rings. So that's always going to be interesting So I guess from a sort of a wrapping up point of view Yeah, just to sort of I suppose put things sort of in in summary now, you know, we've there's a huge amount of Created tools that we've all got access to and and they're now becoming much more sort of You know open accessible, you know, we can download and play around with Unreal Engine We can, like you say, get a VR headset and start to sort of, you know, dive into it that way And you know the the limitations that we've previously had particularly around, for example creating video, you know If you wanted to set a video in the Sahara desert, you probably have to go to the Sahara desert or or mock it up Now you can kind of just do it from a from a virtual point of view. So that sort of storytelling Gives us, you know, enormous opportunities and the ability to to sort of translate content and have it sort of, you know, using AI to translate it and localize it and so on Is is massive But yeah, we've just obviously looked to try and stay true to our marketing sort of principles and and and kind of Make sure that we're addressing the needs of our audiences Ben, did you want to add anything to that in terms of the sort of summary and where we're at? Yeah, I think it's just I guess work with experts as well. Don't be afraid to ask with these new technology, you know, really sort of go in and sort of, you know, understand them and again, sort of people like myself, you know, on LinkedIn You can sort of follow the content and, you know, I'm always around sort of always happy to love talking about this stuff and sort of answering questions I think it's sort of, you know, engaged with the technology and but don't be afraid sort of ask experts and work with experts as well when you're doing this. Definitely so. And as I did say, we had a limited sort of ability to to share content and examples with you today. We've got some other ones to share. So if people wanted to have a look at those, they can click through on the from the Q S code to link to our website. And there's just a short form and then we'll send you some some more examples by by email to follow up with that and also feel free to connect with I'd highly suggest connecting with Ben, because I think you'll get a lot of information there about what's happening with the metaverse. I try and share content around those things as well, but also to do with, you know, futures of marketing and what's coming down tracks. So do please feel free to to connect with us both. And as I said, that information that we can follow up with this is available if you click through to our landing page. So, so that is where we are. So yes, I don't know, Phil, if you wanted to pick back up again, I think Phil's disappeared Virginia. So I'll step in and we'll see if we can get Phil back back online. We're finished. I'll crack on with some questions. We've had loads of questions come in. So really engage with this and some brilliant questions. So, so I'll just dive straight in. So the first question we have is, what industries do you think will benefit most from AI? Except for going forward, we would love to help clients start integrating the next generation of technology, but we want to ensure that we get it right. I mean, I think, you know, it's very useful, I guess, for sort of content production at the moment, but I think it's been very careful where you use that. I think it is, it's that sort of authenticity, I guess, sort of, you know, if you're using AI at the moment, you know, it's, I think it's been very careful around that. I think it's been very careful around that. And I think, you know, sort of touched on the earlier sort of talking meta versus, you know, it's, we're really sort of looking at these things like digital humans and, you know, how much that's sort of adding to the kind of metaverse experience. And then enabling sort of us to actually talk to our digital humans and have conversations with them. So it's extremely powerful technology, but I think it is sort of proceed again, sort of proceed with caution at the moment. It's sort of, you know, getting an understanding of it. They're very early stage, these, you know, challenges very, very smart, but equally it can get things very wrong. So you have to be sort of quite careful about sort of how you engage it and make sure you're sort of using it correctly. Yeah, and I think from an industry's point of view, you know, we've already seen what an impact it's having, or it can potentially have on pretty much every industry. So anything that can be real can be virtual and, you know, to a certain extent. Like Ben was showing some of the more sort of physical examples of creating digital twins and so on. That's, and there's plenty of examples of that in the manufacturing and auto industries that are sort of showing what a virtual thing can look like before you actually create the real one. So there's lots of examples across lots of industries. Difficult to pick out on those that are going to be most initially impacted, I'd say. I don't know if that answers your question. Yeah. So we'll just, we'll just sort of kind of go through them in sequence. So some of the questions that come in, obviously they're going to refer to the parts that you were talking about in the earlier part of your presentation. So, and one of the questions we have is, I can see how the metaverse might be useful for B2C brands. But what are your thoughts about how the metaverse might work for B2B brands? And are there any examples that you're able to give for that? Yeah, I mean, I think, well, actually, the example sort of at the end of the presentation, it was a good sort of example that this sort of B2B, but I think as well, it's sort of the, you know, the, really, I think a lot of that sort of collaboration, you know, these sort of virtual spaces, the virtual events sort of levelling that up in the metaverse. You know, I think there's a lot sort of around that where, you know, we can sort of find these applications and sort of have those types of conversations. And, you know, yeah, we sort of see the same thing. I think, you know, that collaborative approach, but also just being able to connect with customers in, you know, maybe event type environments and or, you know, we've also seen some really strong examples of digital humans being used in a B2B environment. Deloitte have got a strong sort of offering in that space and training AI and digital, and it is a virtual environment to respond to customer questions, for example, and to be able to provide to direct people. I mean, I personally see that the future of websites is going to be having an interactive experience with a digital human who will ask you where you want to go and guide you in the right direction rather than reading sort of, you know, screened a text. But that's to come down line, but that applies to B2B, B2C, etc. I think it is definitely, you know, the forefront for runners are definitely in the B2C environment. But I think B2B needs to keep our eyes open as well. Okay, brilliant. Lovely. Next question we have here is, is there a chance that there will be oversaturation or metaverse fatigue after staring at a screen for much of the day? Do you think that there's a real chance for digital fatigue and resistance will stop it kind of going into the mainstream? I mean, I think that's the sort of case, I guess, of any digital technology. I think we're all probably using our smartphones a bit too much, but I think as well, I think there is this sort of thing about this sort of balance of the technology. And I mentioned earlier, you know, the AR glasses are coming, things like that. And I think we, what we do do was, you know, we do sort of adjust these technologies. We use them at the right time. Hopefully, you know, it's sort of, if we're using our AR glasses, perhaps that becomes our out and about technology and we can sort of consume it that way. We can take those off at any time. Perhaps we've got our VR headset for when we want to go into virtual reality, but I sort of figure even sort of the end game here will probably still be sort of want to sit on our sofas and watch a screen. You know, so I think it's sort of all these sort of technologies, you know, they come in when they're ready, we adopt them when they're useful. Yeah, I think, you know, like anything, you've got to, there is a sort of, you know, some of us perhaps will struggle, but that's the case for any, you know, people playing to make games, these things. It's just sort of, you know, we've got kind of got to get used to it and sort of manage our lives around it really. Anything from you Virginia on that? No, no, I was fascinated by what Ben was saying really about this kind of, you know, this blended realities and being able to sort of utilize the tools to be able to sort of, you know, you're not completely isolated and away from the real reality. Yeah, bring it back into reality. Yeah, you've got a bit of both going on, which I think is, you know, for people today that sort of, you know, walk along the road staring at their phones and that kind of thing. And I think we've all been guilty of that. It's difficult to do, but actually it looks like the technology is going to help us to be a little bit more integrated, not necessarily just one or the other. Brilliant. Absolutely fascinating stuff. So I think we've got time for one last question as we're getting closer to a clock. So I think we'll make this the final question. Thank you. Do you think it's worth investing in the metaverse of your target audience is 45 to 60? What's your thoughts on that? I mean, a lot of where we saw the application of the training space and, you know, there are very valuable applications in that space. You know, we did recently did a big VR project for, it was actually for truck drivers and I would say actually a lot of the target audience was that sort of older sort of aged group. And it was, you know, it was a training application and there was this sort of, oh God, we're going to put on VR headsets and things like this. But actually, you know, they really love the kind of training solution that we built and it sort of replaced, I guess, traditional sort of training experience. It's actually quite a dull training experience where they sort of had to go to a room and watch PowerPoints and DVDs and things like this. And then we sort of replaced it with a sort of motion simulator in a VR headset and it's almost become a bit sort of gamified with the drivers. It's sort of, oh, you know, I got this score and I did, you know, I did this and I tracking technology units so they can sort of, you know, with the training instructors, they can sort of understand, you know, the technology. I think, you know, I don't think there's any, you know, unfortunately, I'm sorry, you know, I'm happily using all this tech. So, you know, I think it's sort of, yeah, it's just when it's right, you know, when the tech's right, you don't necessarily have to have a good understanding. I think that's the best tech is where you can use it. There's the sort of iPhone thing where you can very easy to use and these headsets are getting that way, you know, things like pass through technology in the Quest headset. That's a great technology. It used to be really sort of trying to put VR headsets on, sort of waving your hands around and sort of going into something you didn't quite feel comfortable with. So the pass through technology allows you to see the real world and you feel that connection and they're becoming far more user friendly. So it's not really just sort of the tech people anymore. Yeah, I think it's fascinating and obviously, you know, it is sources of causes. Maybe you don't say to people, oh, you're going into the metaverse. You just say, look, we're setting this up in a different way. Have this experience and they're going to, you know, you probably find that they would appreciate it. And like you say, people like something, you know, a bit different, don't they? Something that's not just kind of, you know, sitting watching a screen. But yeah, and if anybody wants to continue other questions and so on, you know, happily myself. Well, I would anyway, but yeah, happy to pick up on LinkedIn or whatever if you want to have further discussions. Well, brilliant. Thanks so much, both of you. Absolutely fascinating topic. I'm absolutely enthralled by it. But yeah, so I think I think that's what we've got time for really today. So thank you very much both Virginia and Ben as I say, absolutely fantastic presentation and really insightful and it's an absolutely fantastic topic to really delve into. So we do hope that you've enjoyed the session and found it really interesting and worthwhile. That just leaves me to say a final thank you to both Virginia and Ben as a great presentation. Thank you so much for your time on the webinar today. We really do appreciate it. And thank you to you, the audience for watching today. We do hope that you've enjoyed the session, found it really useful. So we'll say take care of everybody and we look forward to seeing you again soon at our next marketing club webinar. Thanks so much.