What Will the Metaverse “Experience” (Experiences) Entail?

READ MORE: Why the Metaverse Will Usher in the Experience Era (Mark van Rijmemam)

Author and futurist Mark van Rijmemam, believes that in a physical and digitally-merged world our identity, personality, reputation, and assets “can be used in new ways so that people can create their own unique, magical experiences.”

Here, he outlines how they’ll change training, education, and marketing, all for the better.

Education

For instance, “digital twins” or replicas of factories, can be used to train employees in a safe working environment until they master the skills to go out into the real world.

Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) and founder of the VR training company Strivr, has called education and training the “home run” use case.

“In the metaverse, skills development and training could be revolutionized, drastically reducing the time needed to acquire and develop new skills,” says van Rijmemam.

For example, an AI-enabled digital coach could provide employees professional advice and training assistance. In addition, all objects (like a training manual, machine, or product) could become interactive, providing 3D displays and step-by-step instructions.

That seems reasonable, even inevitable. It must be easier to be able to follow a set of instructions to putting up that new bed with an app that maybe connects to barcodes in each part of the kit you’re about to assemble at home, than a paper instruction booklet written (badly) in multiple languages.

The fact that we have not innovated our teaching methods in the past 100 years is remarkable to me,” writes van Rijmemam, who believes virtual reality can change education as we know it.

“We should embrace the latest technology, from AI coaching to virtual and augmented experiences, to prepare our children for a world that will look fundamentally different by the time they finish school.”

Research has shown that passive teaching methods like mass audience lectures are more ineffective than participatory teaching methods, which “drastically improve memory retention rates.”

“From promoting artistic creativity to community building, we can expect a broad range of marketing innovations in the coming decade as we move from social media marketing to metaverse marketing.”

Mark van Rijmemam

An example might be a history class in VR combined with a discussion with the group after the class has experienced Ancient Rome using virtual reality.

“It would allow students to enter a virtual environment, interact with the teacher and fellow students, pause or play back a scene or session, and notice new things every time they visit or replay a scene,” van Rijmemam imagines.

“We could teach children the world of quantum mechanics by literally stepping into the microscopic world or showing the effects of climate change on any environment. The potential is endless, and it would probably result in a fun learning environment and the best ratings for the teacher and school.

Marketing

Now, what can be done to change education can also be done for marketing. After all, says van Rijmemam, marketing is about educating future customers about your product; the best way to do so is to offer them an experience.

And the best way to do that is to involve the creators, the artists, and the influencers who already have an in-depth understanding of the various virtual or augmented reality applications.

“From promoting artistic creativity to community building, we can expect a broad range of marketing innovations in the coming decade as we move from social media marketing to metaverse marketing.”

Metaverse marketing in the immersive internet requires a different perspective when reaching your target group, he says. Brands need to rethink how to create content, how people can interact with that content, and the capabilities and utility of that content.

He highlights four ways that the metaverse will change marketing.

Brands should create unique virtual experiences with low entry barriers, he argues. “This means enabling a seamless experience for your customers to interact with you in an immersive way.”

Connection with customers is obvious so this means building up a presence in the new virtual worlds ranging from Roblox, Decentraland and The Sandbox to any of the hundreds of new worlds now being created.

Don’t copy physical reality but think out of the box, he prescribes, and create gamified rewards, virtual goods and NFTs “to celebrate your customers” and engender loyalty.

His final point is that irrespective of the objective (education or marketing), user-generated content will play an increasingly important role in the metaverse. Whether this involves designing and creating games, immersive songs, volumetric media, educational environments, or the virtual worlds, “art and avatars that will liven up the metaverse will be a creator economy, and UGC will be everything.

“The result is the Experience Era, where everything that we do can be a unique and immersive experience, which will likely make work, education and connecting with brands a lot more fun.”