Metavertising // Metaverse Marketing

JP runs XR and gaming investments at Hartmann Capital, a frontier tech fund. In this episode, we dive deeper into what makes gaming so hot right now, and why is it going to be the catalyst of immersive technologies. Now, we already know that gaming is probably going to be a big part of the future, for different reasons. But what makes gaming so unique that it will take the spotlight of social interactions? Listen to the conversation and find out!

Hartmut Mueller is a Chief Transformation Officer at ServiceNow, and also led/transformed the IT Technology Organization for Mercedes-Benz Group AG. We talked about he approaches innovation within big corps, and how to create a more human centric approach towards new innovative technology like AI, Blockchain and Web3 in general. By focusing both on hardware and software, it's amazing to understand how a Chief Innovation / Transformation Officer thinks about new tech, how to speed up adoption within these big corps, and so much more.

Kenneth Corrêa is a business owner, AI/Metaverse evangelist with a 15 years track record in generating business growth across LATAM by using marketing, technology and innovation, and is currently an MBA professor at FGV, one of Brazil's leading business school. After closing different projects for global corporations, Kenneth sat down with me to talk about his strategy to close projects for Fortune 500 companies that are leading the way globally with both consumer facing products and business focused products/applications. To follow Kenneth on social, check out his profile @kenny.verse on Instagram.

Erik Londre is the founder and CEO of Karta, a Metaverse studio based out of the UK. Karta has worked with big brands like Amazon Music, top artists like BlackPink, Twice and major football clubs across Fortnite and Roblox. Before founding Karta, in 2021 Erik worked at esports juggernaut Fnatic as Head of Events. In this conversation, Erik shared some of the do's and dont's he learned about Metaverse Branded Experiences throughout the years, and how he sees the space nowadays after doing many successful branded experiences in big platforms. Also we talked about the different types of activations and how should modern marketers approach their metrics and revenue in such experiences.

Leslie Shannon is the global head of innovation at Nokia, and many might wonder what has Nokia to do with the Metaverse? Well, as it turns out, A LOT. Nokia has been behind the infrastructure and building blocks that are ESSENTIAL for the future of AR, VR and XR. In order for us to be able to run amazing experiences on small devices on a daily basis, it's obvious that a huge infrastructure will be required. That's where Nokia and Leslie come in. She walked us through all of the tech that's going to be involved and what is the vision of the future that she (and Nokia) have for the Metaverse.

Nic Hill has been at the center and forefront of the new era of user generated content and social gaming. Having built literally some of the top Roblox experiences for big brands like Alo Yoga and Fenty, and amazing Metaverse experiences for companies like Netflix, there's a lot that he can share about the current state and the future of social gaming, which I personally believe is the next iteration of social media.

Michael is the founder and creative director at Digital Lode Immersive Media, where they created one of the most popular Mixed Reality game titles on the Quest Store: Espire, which is a mix of Metal Gear Solid with VR/MR, a type of gaming that might revolutionize the industry in the next few years. We talked about how the industry is lacking innovation in terms of interactivity with devices and games, shares his vision for the market, and his experience developing what has become one of the most promising games of the Quest Store.

Brent has worked with some of the world's most innovative media and technology startups, including Uber and Facebook. Now his big bet is on Smart Token Technology, as he believes this will be the way web services and applications will integrate and exchange data seamlessly, allowing for better customer experiences, specially in bureaucratic processes. We also talked about what are some of the problems the tech can solve, and some applications they have worked on at Smart Token Labs.

John is a speaker and China tech expert, and in this episode we dive deeper into the ways China is exploring the metaverse, and already using several different solutions in a very interesting way to enhance E-Commerce and other verticals that are bringing businesses with revenue and innovation that pays off. We spoke a lot about Alibaba, TikTok (and its Chinese version Douyin), WeChat, Tencent and more. As John's personal mission is to connect China with the rest of the world and bridge that gap, it was an amazing conversation, definitely worth listening to, that gives us insights about how the future of the metaverse can be.

Diego Borgo has already been in a previous episode of the podcast bringing amazing insights about the Web3 space, and now he's back with even more valuable content to help us understand all the moving pieces of Web3, specially for brands. Since he's been at this since 2021, he helps us understand how brands have been using the same playbook since Nike and Adidas released their first NFT collections, and helps us see the path moving forward as brands need to reinvent the playbook in order to serve newer audiences. Very interesting to realize how some problems remain unsolved!

ShiSh is the Global Lead for Retail with Microsoft for Startups, leveraging his expertise to revolutionize the retail industry with cutting-edge innovations. At Microsoft, one of the things he has been invested into is the Industrial Metaverse and its applications. By working with the retail industry from an innovation perspective, he has been directly in touch with startups that are using the Metaverse to solve old and new problems in large scale manufacturing plants and industries in general. In this conversation, we talk about the Industrial Metaverse, Digital Twins, and examples of applications.

Filippo is a GTM expert with years of experience working with top-notch B2B SaaS companies worldwide and has been onboarding enterprises in Web3, enabling blockchain adoption and taking Web3 products to market. He's also a dear friend with whom I've worked with since 2022, analyzing over 100 brands strategies entering Web3 through our weekly Brands on Web3 live event. In this conversation, we talk about how brands were jumping on Web3 in 2021/2022, the Pyramid Concept created by Filippo, the next level of customer engagement and examples of brands doing it the right way.

Check out his newsletter here: https://web3forenterprise.ghost.io/

Elijah is the founder and CEO of Zesty, a tool that looks to support VR game developers to make money off of their creations in the metaverse. We have talked about some of what he's been seeing lately at Zesty, in terms of advertising and marketing data, the behavior of users, differences between North America and Asia, and much more. We have also discussed some of the current and upcoming devices, and how that is going to affect marketing and advertising in the metaverse.

Alvin Wang Graylin has been the China President of HTC since 2016, leading all aspects of the Vive initiatives and also VR/Smartphone businesses. HTC has been one of the global leaders in the VR devices front for years now, so therefore Alvin has a unique perspective, which he brings to the conversation by leveraging a lot of incredible data generated through research at HTC, regarding the usage of the metaverse for different purposes, but mainly marketing and advertising. We also talked about responsible usage of the metaverse and the differences between the western metaverse and the chinese metaverse.

Adam is a designer serial entrepreneur focused on the innovative consumer products, and in this episode we talked about what has happened so far in 2023 in terms of devices & tech, what to expect out of new devices and especially the new Apple Reality Pro, but also what the future holds for entertainment and media. By leveraging Adam's expertise with building innovative technology and experiences, we are able to have a glimpse of the day-to-day lives of the future consumer.

Michael McDonald has been through some of the most successful gaming studios back when mobile was considered innovative, and was part of many blockbuster / AAA games that you probably know of, in companies like Ubisoft and EA. With his unique creative vision and experience, Michael came in to tell us a little bit more about the emerging tech for gaming and the metaverse in the upcoming years. An amazing and insightful conversation worth listening to! 

Amy Peck is the founder & CEO of EndeavorXR, a leading global XR consulting firm working with Fortune 500 companies on XR, Metaverse and Web 3.0 strategy and deployment. Not only that, but Amy has a lot of experience within the XR world and also working with Web3 companies. Throughout the conversation, we talked about what companies are winning within Web2 by truly living the Web3 ethos, and what is the relation with consumer behavior in the near future. Data also plays an important role in such change of behavior, and big companies should keep an eye out for that.

Jorrit is the co-founder and CTO of YOM, which is the platform aiming to enable amazing experiences in the Metaverse for creators, companies and everything in between. We actually already interviewed another co-founder of YOM, Daniel van der Waals, in a previous episode. Jorrit explains to us the importance of having the right infrastructure in order to scale the Metaverse, and also the mindset that needs to be in place to make all of that happen. This is actually not his first business, so it was really interesting to see his perspective towards the present and future of Web3.

Adam has been a successful musician amassing 7 million plays across platforms, and has decided to dive deep into storytelling on Web3 through the company he co-founded, Zero Gravity Labs, where he, his team and his community are creating what is potentially to become the next Harry Potter or LoTR story, or potentially the Disney of Web3. It was a really exciting conversation where we could see what are the challenges and possibilities of co-creating a story alongside a global community for Adam and his team.

Rebecca Orlov is the founder of Epic Play Date, a creative brand and marketing company bridging brands to Web3. In this insightful conversation looking at Web3 from a Branding / Brand Building perspective with outstanding examples. Having a daughter who's a Gen Alpha that loves Roblox, Rebecca is able to come up with a point of view that the majority of marketers and consumers are unable to see, and that can set your brand apart in this new iteration of the internet.

Justin is the Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer for Wunderman Thompson in APAC, and we've had an extremely insightful conversation about how brands are currently using their marketing spend in order to spread the usage of web3 technology, plus how to do that in a responsible way from the perspective of brands but also from the perspective of users. Not to mention other topics, such as loyalty programs and some predictions regarding the next steps of web3 and what are the big game changers. You should not miss this one!

Chris and I have gathered in this episode to discuss how we truly believe that Disney is about to become the absolute leader in the next generation of storytelling by using Web3 as one of their most powerful tools to engage people into their amazing worlds. We know that The Walt Disney Company has been extremely passionate about storytelling and has created amazing stories over the years that have impacted people worldwide. And now they're moving into web3, looking to leverage their already existing expertise in creating amazing stories and worlds, and combine that with the powerful Web3 tech stack that will enable the next generation of immersive storytelling.

I couldn't be more excited about this episode that we've discussed Metaverse Advertising only, its potential/possibilities and concerns. I had the opportunity of interviewing the legendary Louis Rosenberg, creator of the first fully functional Augmented Reality system of the world in the early 90s. Dr. Louis has been an advocate for the guard rails and potential dangers of Metaverse Advertising, and joined me in this conversation in order to tease the possibilities of this new tool, but also some of the stuff we should watch out for. It was a delightful interview, where we discussed this and more.

If you're anything like me, then you're probably clueless when it comes to legal matters, specially within the web3 realm. It turns out that many projects out there are also not doing the legal aspect of things really properly. That's what Oliver came to break down for us in the podcast today. We've talked about terms and conditions of NFT projects and web3 branded experiences. After all, how covered are we from a legal perspective when we purchase an NFT? That and other questions are addressed in this episode.

Bosco Bellinghausen is one of the leading metaverse experts in Germany. Co-founder and Chief Metaverse Architect of the metaverse called MetaVersus, he's been exploring Unreal Engine since 2019. Before that, Bosco was an IT consultant focused on blockchain, and in this conversation we tried to explore not only privacy and security from a web3 perspective, but also all of the solutions and implications of living in metaverse worlds in the future. His experience really adds up to the discussion, specially given his technical perspective on some of the matters. We discussed a lot of blockchain, wallets, users information and at the end - how marketers will have to reinvent themselves in a world where information will be dealt with in a different way.

Moishe is a very talented individual with an amazing marketing background that is actually very similar to mine. So in this conversation, we dive deep into NFT marketing from the perspective of two marketers that have done a little bit of everything out there when it comes to marketing. We spoke not only about the do's and don'ts but also about a few strategies and tips that can make a complete difference when it comes to running an NFT project. 

Diego has been a digital marketer for 11 years now and was part of some of the most amazing web3 campaigns we've seen so far, like Adidas' "Into The Metaverse" original campaign that was a sold out NFT project that took the internet by storm, and also one of the first brands to explore web3 the right way. We have talked about some of his favorite web3 campaigns, some examples of successful web3 campaigns done by established brands, and some of the do's and don'ts from a marketing perspective that companies should watch out for as they enter the metaverse.

Michael has been a marketer for many years, and is now the CMO of Threedium, a company dedicated to help professionals to create 3D objects and scenes in an easy way. During this conversation, Michael shares his point of view regarding what is the current status of the metaverse and its future, by sharing not only his personal perspective and experience but also what he has seen happening with web3 at Threedium, where he and his team have worked with several global brands in their marketing campaigns. We also talked a little bit about the origin story of the company, but most of all, how 3D is the backbone for metacommerce and the future of the metaverse.

Daniël is a former marketer that has been exploring the metaverse with his group of curious adventurers called "Metaverse Exploring" for a few months now, looking to learn more about different VR metaverses out there and make some sense out of everything most of us only hear about. In this episode, he talks about why it is important to create a metaverse that is accessible for everyone, not just for average people to have a seamless experience but for those with disabilities as well, and as a guy who has been to many VR worlds out there, he shares his wisdom on how to create this accessible metaverse and what it would look like.

Remco and his company Movella have been looking to solve one very important and much needed problem for a seamless interaction in virtual environments: motion print. To have your avatar to move freely and express just like a human being would, it's important that this avatar also moves accordingly, has the body language and all other unconscious signals we send to others during a conversation/interaction. Having worked with big projects like Black Panther, it's really important to see not only how motion print has a big role in the metaverse, but also how it can play a big role in Metaverse Advertising (or as we like to call it - metavertising).

Kenneth has created one of the most aesthetically pleasing metaverses, called RubyRoom, where he likes to explore the interaction between subjects as if they were acting on a play, in a huge theatre. During the conversation, Kenn takes us from the history of entertainment and how it all begun back in the cave age, to plays and shows nowadays and how this entire interaction and ambience relates with the metaverse, marketing and advertising, and why it is important for us to pay attention to these details as well.

Teddy has been listed alongside Neal Stephenson, Matthew Ball, Tim Sweeney, David Baszucki and Cathy Hackl as one of the most influential people of the metaverse, therefore entitled "Mr. Metaverse". He's been helping several companies worldwide to make better decisions when entering the metaverse, to better understand this whole new world, and how to position themselves in it. We talked about the industries of the future in the metaverse, also the future of marketing and business in this new realm, and the human part of the metaverse and why it's important.

Chris is the co-founder of VIRBE, a company created to offer conversational AI for virtual beings with many purposes, one of them being to use those virtual beings for commercial purposes, such as sales and training. During this conversation, we go deeper into what it means to create an own a virtual being and virtual influencer, what should be considered and what are the implications. We approached this matter not only from a commercial point of view, but also from a philosophical and technical perspective, in order to make sure we approached all needed layers of complexity that compose a virtual being.

Krista Kim was simply the first person to sell a digital home in the Metaverse. Called "Mars House", she has had an all time record sale within "SuperRare" platform, selling her digital home for 288ETH. After this amazing feat, she has been focusing a lot on helping companies to build the metaverse, and today we are very excited to have her here to share her perspective about the metaverse and help us understand how can companies really win in this new environment.

Lans is an interdisciplinary artist with a very interesting background on technology and marketing. In this episode, Lans shares some of his projects, allowing us to really understand some of the possibilities within the metaverse and web3, and how artists like him are pushing the boundaries using technology. Being the first human to microchip himself and make it as an NFT in the metaverse, and specially given his background, this was a very interesting conversation, and definitely worth the listen.

The CEO of TechSparq shares a little bit about his e-commerce expertise to paint the picture of how virtual shopping experiences will be on the metaverse, and more. Listen to this episode in order to understand how fashion is going to change with this new chapter of technology, and how companies will completely change their shopping experiences in order to truly earn a place in the hearts of their customers.

As of now, a lot of people are still uncertain about what the metaverse really is, and how we are going to interact with it. Tony is here with us today to help us explore possibilities, share some of his experience of working in metaverse related projects, help us envision the future of events with the metaverse, and a lot more. Connect with us on LinkedIn: Ely Santos & Peter "Anthony" Chiodo.