Event Marketer Spring 2022 - 25

" A lot of the conversations start at the
why-why do you want to do this? What are
you filling the void of? " he says. " You want
to do an NFT, OK, but does your customer
care about that? Is this going to provide a
unique business opportunity for you? "
Cliff Rigano, creative director-culture,
content and experiential marketing
at Mast-Jägermeister U.S., concurs. " Being
cool for cool's sake isn't cool enough, " he says.
" You need to have reason and rationale, so
there's tremendous opportunity to marry
this new emerging technology to business
need. It's just making sure that you have that
marriage and you're not just saying, 'Hey,
new shiny object. We're going to pursue it.' "
BE PURPOSEFUL
There should always be a purpose for
implementing emerging tech, but at the
same time, apprehensive brands should be
open-minded about its possibilities, or risk
paying the price of being left behind.
" Any business should be listening to the
consumer, watching the trends, watching
how they operate and watching where they
feel most comfortable, and then reacting
and having a position within it, " Rigano says.
" If this is where the consumer is headed,
then as marketers across any industry, we
have a responsibility to meet them where
they are. "
Reilly has a similar sentiment. " What
we're seeing more and more of in the event
industry is that we really need to meet people
where they are, " she says. " So, while we've
certainly seen acceleration in terms of technology,
we've also seen that people need to
make choices of when and how they want to
engage in person, versus when and how they
want to engage virtually or in the metaverse. "
BUILD LOYALTY
A lot of marketers have been wondering
what the real value of creating an NFT is
beyond the hype. But according to its report,
Gartner expects the metaverse to have a
virtual economy that runs on crypto and
NFTs, because no single vendor will own the
metaverse. And for event marketers, making
meaningful moves in this space may start
with implementing loyalty and incentive
programs with experiential components.
" There's the NFTs and not only the
digital rights associated in ownership and
how that works, but then also the extension
into the physical world with incentives and
opportunities that ownership brings, " Rigaeventmarketer.com
LAND
OF OPPORTUNITY:
Complex Networks' ComplexLand
2.0 metaverse environment offered
gamification elements, sponsor
integrations and multi-player
functionality.
no says.
For Wright, it goes
back to creating value
for both the brand and
the
consumer.
" I'm
suggesting to brands
that they use NFTs as
a utility to build a new loyalty program, "
he says. " Set on a number, sell your audience
however many NFTs you want it to
be, but then make sure you have a really
solid roadmap to what the perks and what
the communication is for these people. It
could be private events for them. It could
be early releases of product. It could be free
product... If you can get all of those perks
right, and really create something that is
unique and valuable to the customer, when
the NFT does go to the secondary market
and you can sell entry into it, there will be
resale value to it. "
THINK: REINVENTION
Social media has given us a taste of what it's
like to control how we appear to others, but
for many consumers,
the metaverse represents
an opportunity for total self-reinvention.
For brands, presenting consumers
with virtual experiences that allow them to
express who they want to be in the virtual
realm could be an opportunity for engagement
and community-building.
" It's the idea that you can reinvent yourself,
essentially, as the person you feel like
you should be, or you want to be, or are
unable to be, and have similar conversations
with like-minded audiences and people that
feel and express the same things as you, "
Rigano says.
CREATE CONNECTION
No one wants to wander around an empty
virtual landscape alone. It's something
SPRING 2022 EVENT MARKETER
25
http://www.eventmarketer.com
Event Marketer Spring 2022

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