At Meta Festival 2021, we came together with experts from the digital marketing, e-commerce and tech scenes, as well as futurists, designers and psychologists, to discuss the emerging metaverse trend and what it means for marketers, consumers and wider society.

This article sums up why the metaverse matters for brands and shares how brands can master the metaverse.

The pandemic rapidly accelerated the shift towards remote and hybrid work, pushed new technologies, and simultaneously shaped novel ways of how we connect to each other in the digital space.

This new normal is here to stay and is influencing not only how we work and live, but also how we consume. There has been a notable shift in business mindsets, with the potential of virtual realities being used far beyond the gaming and entertainment sphere. VR (no, not necessarily a VR headset) is increasingly being seen as the next technology revolution to create, discover, identify, socialise, collaborate and democratise. This shift can be compared to how mobile technology revolutionised our culture, from the very first iPhone release to now; the metaverse is the next iteration of the internet and will revolutionise how humans interact and live their lives.

The future outlook predicts there will be shared virtual worlds (all together as one metaverse), where we will have a new economy, environment, currency and 

. Where game mechanics, massive interactive live events (MILEs), blockchain-enabled digital goods and virtual commerce will all blend together.

 are using first-mover momentum and stepping into the metaverse, maximising its potential by creating virtual fashion, assets, content, communities and experiences. It will be exciting so see which brands will join them and what experiences they will create. One thing is for sure: 

The first step is to analyse the potential of the metaverse in regards to how it can serve your business needs and the needs of your target audience best. How to master the metaverse as a brand is strongly connected to the problems you want to solve:

You need to reconnect with your target audience

In that case, creating high quality, engaging and sophisticated virtual spaces is the right choice, because it enables you to connect with your target audience in a way that hasn't been possible before. Possible options include creating your own virtual experience world or using a presence on platforms like Decentraland.

You need to optimise or transform the way you learn and interact with colleagues

Then why not create your own company-only virtual environment, which is not open to the public but to your employees only?

In this case, creating a virtual showroom is a great solution, and will enable you to showcase your products regardless of time and place. This grants all your relevant markets and target audiences access to your product or service range.

Then the right path to take is creating a virtual store, which is an upgrade of the virtual showroom, since it is showcasing the assortment but with the added option to instantly buy. The novel term which has been coined in this context is ‘Direct-to-avatar’ instead of ‘Direct-to-consumer’. Drivers for interest and growth for B2C include limited availability items, or offering collectable goods that are secured as NFTs.

Do you want to enter the metaverse? Or would you just like to exchange thoughts with us about the topic? Feel free to reach out to us - we're passionate about the metaverse and happy to find like-minded partners to explore with!

Why the metaverse matters for brands & how to act on it

The word ‘metaverse’ is electrifying the digital industry more than ever, but it stands for much more than VR goggles and virtual gaming worlds. At Meta Festival 2021, Dan Moller, Creative Strategist at Meta, showed us the enriching world of virtual reality and explained why we should continue building up the metaverse to meet genuine human needs.

Who would have thought that in the early 21st century, many jobs could be easily completed from home? Clearly, the pandemic has been a major accelerator of this change, but even prior to this, technology was paving the way for a more digitised world.

While we enjoy new opportunities and revolutionary changes, some people say that these technologies deprive us of experiencing the real world. But are we missing out on something if we engage with it in virtual reality? The trick is to not just see digitisation as something that enables us to ‘get on with things’ in times like these. We should recognise and appreciate virtual reality as an additive to the real world, since it holds so much more potential than we can imagine.

Driving business by seizing economic opportunities

We need to think about the characteristics of an embodied and interoperable network of experiences and how they enable us to work out where real value lies for people. When we are considering why we should build for the metaverse, it is because we can satisfy a lot of real, genuine human needs.

The fact that we can work from anywhere these days is significant. Remote work has made every city a global city, as people are no longer forced to move to where work is. Nevertheless, we often get the feeling of having reached our limits when it comes to working from home. The challenge is to move beyond platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Hangouts, and add beauty to it by creating digital spaces to support and accelerate work productivity. The metaverse helps people to grow and sustain meaningful relationships that transcend barriers like disability or physical distance. Deeper connections help brands to keep both customers and employees close, by creating more touch points and increasing the level of identification; efforts that will lead to stronger brand loyalty.

Raising entertainment to an interactive and sophisticated level

Could a virtual visit to a theatre eventually replace the physical experience? We might think that there would be certain features missing in the metaverse, but this is not true. Technology makes it possible to replicate and even enhance experiences into the virtual world. Take the example of being called up on stage during a play, which could also happen to our virtual avatar on the metaverse. But the metaverse also opens up various special features that we could not make use of in an offline world. A digital presence allows us to go beyond boundaries by being able to choose wherever we want to sit to get the best view of the show, or even float around in the virtual space. We can interact with other spectators without disturbing the play or the rest of the audience.

The example of a theatre performance in the metaverse is just the tip of the iceberg. Brands and artists can take advantage of opportunities by transferring concerts, festivals, exhibitions, show rooms and many more into the metaverse. And who says that everything has to stay online? We should capture digital experiences as an additive to the real world, rather than poor facsimiles. That is what virtual reality is about. Being able to live and experience our physical existence even more creatively, beautifully and across borders.

The metaverse gives us the opportunity to transform global learning models that have not changed since the Industrial Revolution. How can we brag about living in a modern digitised age when the vast majority of students are still taught by a person giving instructions and drawings on a chalkboard from the front of a room?

Transforming these learning models by integrating virtual reality allows a much deeper understanding, as we can interact with subjects and find out more about historical backgrounds, special features, production processes, environmental aspects, or personal insights. These examples can be transferred to any brand context, such as fashion, automotive, healthcare, or any kind of consultancy, to name a few industries. 

, for example, transformed and enhanced its radiography training by using virtual reality and 

 has built up a virtual pavilion, complete with audience, to help develop their employees’ presentation skills. These use cases illustrate how virtual reality can transform learning experiences and support employees to live meaningful, rewarding and productive lives. 

Let’s get rid of the boundaries between the physical and virtual world in our thoughts!

Promoting virtual reality does not mean neglecting the real word. The focus should be on retaining the best of our physical reality, while enhancing and extending it by the means of technology. What we have to learn in the future is that when we talk about spaces and environments, this includes both the virtual and the physical world. The buzzword that comes to mind when imagining this kind of world is “hybrid”. Providing access to and interactions between physical and digital spaces creates many more touch points and at the same time lowers barriers, which makes the metaverse a democratising platform for everyone. Thus, we are entering a metaverse that allows us to connect more deeply and experience our real world more intensively.

We are here to help you enter the metaverse to build deeper connections with customers and employees, and to create virtual spaces that further intensify your service and product experience.

How virtual reality is intensifying real world experiences

The brand essentials for driving sales across younger target groups

In the second panel of Meta Festival 2021, we talked with Dr. Teo Pham, Diana zur Löwen, Artjem Weissbeck, Tarek Müller and Torge Schwand about the emerging trends in e-commerce and how brands can benefit from leveraging them. Here are the top three takeaways that will help brands master the metaverse shopping world.

Live shopping is the new influencer marketing

Although many of us still think of Gen Z as young people, or perhaps even "kids" in the eyes of some, this target group actually already has a lot of purchasing power, which will only increase in the upcoming years. Since people of this generation are considered as digital natives 2.0, we can no longer lure them with outdated marketing strategies. Search-based e-commerce via Google and Amazon is old news. Even the second wave, using brand and influencer posts via Instagram, is outdated.

Today, e-commerce 3.0 is dominated by TikTok videos and live streaming, which help users discover brands instead of searching for them specifically. But still, in this new digital world, people seem to want to share their shopping experience live with others, instead of scrolling lonely through online stores. Live shopping makes it possible and is no longer a newcomer when it comes to advanced sales channels. The thrill of this trend is the combination of advice on fashion, shopping and entertainment at the same time. Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, since brands vary in their concepts and consumers have individual needs and interests. Companies can choose whether to stream a one-to-many live shopping session for a broad customer base, or go for a one-to-one or one-to-group streaming if the shopping experience should have a more personal and exclusive character.

China has recognized the incredible sales volume, where almost 20% of all e-commerce purchasing now takes place via live shopping channels. The trend is already spilling over to Europe. Amazon has been experimenting with the concept for years, startups like Popshop are rising in popularity, and at TikTok these types of sales are now commonplace. Long-established brands like Douglas and Gucci are also amongst the first movers of this new trend. These brands offer in-store live streams, which provide consumers with a virtual shopping experience in the comfort of their own home.

It is time to take business to the next level and drive E-Commerce through live shopping events!

Next gen e-commerce goes hand in hand with the shift from “direct to consumer” to “direct to community”. Customers are no longer individual consumers, but belong to a social community which is appealed by content on social platforms, which evolves into a consumer base. By now, a large proportion of customers are recruited from social followers and the trend is rising. In the future, almost 100 percent of customers will be generated through social media. If brands want to grow these days, they have to be active on social media to create awareness.

The trick is to use all kinds of social channels as commerce platforms. Anyone who thought that WhatsApp and Discord were only used for internal communication is wrong. The key feature of creating sales is to contact people where they already spend a lot of their time every day and interact with their community.

Gen Z is no longer interested in browsing for hot content and must-haves. They want it the easy way and are used to being inspired by social media. The phenomenal trend, “TikTok made me buy it”, shows how the platform's algorithm regularly creates viral trends which lead to a boom in certain goods. The challenge for brands is to stand out with their social strategy since users are flooded with offers.

The secret lies in the concept of social commerce, which combines e-commerce with entertainment. In the first place, people open their social media apps for entertainment. Never forget this when creating new commerce content for these platforms.

Being present in the metaverse is starting to get a higher priority than in real life. Virtual products are experiencing huge hype and open the doors to new possibilities. Can it be that in the future we will spend more money on virtual fashion than on physical clothing? The pandemic has led brands to display their products in virtual showrooms and engage customers with virtual events. Creating digital shopping experiences in the metaverse has brought e-commerce to a level we could not have imagined years ago.

Now that the time has come, we can see how much digital natives in particular are enthusiastic about this trend. To realise their full potential, brands should definitely explore all possibilities for transforming their products into virtual ones.

No matter if you are a newcomer or an established brand: passion is the most important factor to drive the next generation of e-commerce and we are here to help you along the way. Feel free to reach out to us to discuss your challenges!

How digital and virtual reality is driving a new generation of e-commerce strategy

Smart watches have introduced us to a world where we can count calories burned or monitor heart rate variability. Biohacking, which is becoming a big trend right now, goes much further to give us a deeper insight into our bodies. Its future potential is incredible, considering that we will know much better how our body works and what its individual needs are. But how much can we change our body and mind with these techniques? The approach, introduced by Martin Kremmer at Meta Festival 2021, is far more sustainable than the one we learn from doctors. Here are the seven key takeaways from his talk.

It is time to stop outsourcing our health completely to the public health care system and start caring for ourselves. Even though doctors are indispensable and perform an important service for society, prescribing pills should not be the common method to cope with all kinds of pain or sleeping disorders. This may be the most efficient solution for hospitals and medical practice, but our bodies and immune systems need a different kind of care in the long run. Many types of pain that we suppress with medication are actually a sign to slow down or change our diet. But we systematically kill off all these signals that are early indicators of unhealthy imbalances in our bodies. Just as we understand the necessity to treat our planet sustainably to protect the environment, we have to protect and treat ourselves sustainably.

By analysing our genetic blueprint, biohacking allows us to understand our unique needs and take better care of our bodies. But despite the many possibilities and advantages, biohacking is controversial. The 

 and ethics of biohacking has been brought into question by some, due to the lack of regulation, but many people have put trust in apps to adopt the approach. These apps use data and technology to calibrate our body to a more resilient state, the most natural and healthy state a body can be in. But besides the use of apps to improve our wellbeing, we also have to change our mindset. Let’s see how:

DNA testing can provide us with a genuine insight into our body and helps us to understand, interpret and optimise our genetic blueprint. It is not only nice to know what kind of gene mutations we live with and which genetic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or diabetes, we may face a higher risk of; with this knowledge comes a lot of empowerment, since we can inform ourselves about risks and take preventive measures. So, keep in mind that we are not doomed by inheriting “bad” genes.

Have you ever followed the instructions of a health or diet coach almost blindly? At some point, you have probably unconsciously done something to your body that has not contributed favourably to your health. Being interested in diverse health trends, we have to figure out if this is even relevant for us and if yes, how we can customise it to our individual needs. There is no one-size-fits-all and we are all unique.

Have you ever caught yourself claiming that something is normal, where you actually meant that it is the average. We live in a world where we give and are given advice based on averages and at the same time unsettling others when they deviate from this path. But our body is not average in every respect and therefore needs optimal treatment according to its genetic blueprint.

If we already live in a world where we can fly through the metaverse with digital avatars, we should assume that it is also possible to no longer depend on the limited appointments with the doctor for blood tests. Thankfully, this is the case nowadays and blood tests on-demand are becoming a thing. Data-driven, self-diagnostic digital services take our health testing beyond the averages and help us to detect imbalances much earlier. This can save us a lot of suffering and time by not implementing effective countermeasures too late.

The term stress is associated with many negative aspects. But we cannot live entirely without stress either. Besides some other factors, we have to admit that it is often the engine that drives us. By inducing mild forms of stress – physically as well as mentally - we can train our tolerance to stressors we face in our modern lives.

Since ancient times, humans have used nature and the elements to recover and enhance life in general. We do not always have to fall back on drugs. A short shower or bath in cold water increases 

, which equals a lower physiological stress-level. This method, as well as things like a plant-based diet, can help us to regulate and balance our immune system.

Besides biohacking and tracking our physical signals, we must not forget our mental health. When it comes to living a long and healthy life, love and social connection are absolutely crucial. We need physical interaction to produce oxytocin, the so-called love hormone. 

 has shown that oxytocin decreases our stress and anxiety levels and helps us to build an overall psychological stability. Even though human connections on the metaverse are not physical ones, they represent an important add-on to our social connections in the real world, especially in times when they are the only possibility to interact due to physical distances or other barriers. In this way, our virtual connections can also contribute partly to the secret of longevity.

Biohacking, the art and science of living an optimal life

In the third panel of Meta Festival 2021, Maria Spilka, Oliver Lange, Thomas Chabin and Dr. Tim Wiegels shared their ideas about rental concepts and talked about the effectiveness of new technologies for sustainable fashion production. Here are the top three learnings from the discussion.

Whoever thought that sharing is a new trend, thought wrong. Washing in launderettes, book lending and living in shared apartments have been practised for years. Why shouldn’t we expand sharing to new areas such as fashion? Movements like Fridays for Future inspire people to question their consumption and look for alternatives. Second-hand, sharing and rental models offer solutions to act more sustainably. Companies and campaigns like Mädchenflohmarkt and H&Mbeyond are already leading the way and proving that these concepts are not only compatible with our conscience, but are also economically successful.

As more people want to try out a certain look for a number of days, weeks or months, the need to own clothes will weaken. This is where sharing comes into play. And the best part is that nowadays, we are no longer limited by our immediate environment. Global digitisation allows a perfect match between supply and demand, as we can search for items and opportunities beyond our geographical boundaries.

But still, even though secondhand or sharing offer greater variety than in the past, and are largely cheaper than buying new, only a small percentage of people are utilising these options in the fashion world. The problem is that there aren’t yet enough options available. Offering sustainable clothing is one thing but convincing consumers to make sustainable purchasing decisions is another. Here, the main task of the companies is to make the offer more accessible. The more brands that provide secondhand, rental and other concepts, the more popular and attractive the concept becomes.

The Meta Festival panellists clearly agreed on one thing: in order to make sustainability accessible to everyone, it should not be a luxury but must be democratised.

There must be a change of thinking in the fashion industry to make resources traded more sustainably. This way, fashion can once again become a pleasure instead of constantly fighting our bad conscience. Circular thinking is essential when planning future fashion production since the lifecycle of clothes is becoming shorter and shorter.

Instead of throwing outdated clothing away, it should be reintroduced into the cycle. Oliver Lange, Head of H&Mbeyond, believes that in the next 10 years, at least 20% of customers will use clothing in the form of circular initiatives, which include secondhand, sharing and rental. Of course, the production of new clothing won’t be overtaken completely, as fashion is constantly being reinvented as new trends develop. But to be able to ensure sustainable production, technologies must be further developed. This will allow brands to manufacture high-quality fashion by reusing materials.

The art will lie in designing the product from scratch, in a completely different way, to still have added value for the owner at the end of the cycle. Technology will be a game-changer, but not just in the production sector. Technical solutions can also help us to determine what and how much is needed. It is questionable how much must be produced in advance at all. Can we escape mass production by switching to producing, even partly, on-demand? In the future, we will be able to assess the needs of customers more accurately and adapt manufacturing to the actual demand.

The already growing digital presence in the metaverse could also reduce unnecessary ordering of clothes. Avatars in our exact shape and size already exist, making it possible to try on clothes virtually. The concept of on-demand fashion can also be used for customised and more creative fashion lines. At the same time, companies will reduce their carbon footprint. But if we want to achieve the goal of decarbonisation, all levers - from production over materials to sales and consumption - must be pulled.

In the next few years, we will see increased innovation in the production sector.

After all this talk about future plans, we must not forget that now is the time to act. We should not only think of the ideal that will come in a few years since this ideal can already be lived now. Everyone knows how difficult it is to change one's behaviour from one day to the next, but let's think in small steps and not overtax ourselves from the beginning, as with small steps we can also reach our goal.

A consumption mix from different sources is already possible today and in this way, each of us can slowly approach and determine the balance of new and secondhand purchases, sharing and rental. The latter two possibilities are of particular novelty in the fashion world and can bring huge big change with them. But, could this change also mean that ownership is outdated? Is it possible that we will live in a world where we hardly possess anything?

Imagining this, we could ask: how can we still express ourselves? Are possessions and property necessary to do so? Our expert panel is of the opinion that sharing allows much greater opportunities than ownership. Depending on our current mood, feelings and desires, we can easily dress in different ways and try out new styles without investing a lot of money.

Even though it is desirable that fashion brands increasingly adopt sharing and rental concepts, it can’t be said that ownership will be completely irrelevant in the future. The desire to own certain items as status symbols, heirlooms, or just for fun will still be there and depends on the needs of consumers. The buzzword companies need to concentrate on is user centricity. Brands must focus on meeting the demands of their customers in the best possible way. And since needs are very individual, it will probably always be a mix.


Clearly, there are many possibilities to act more sustainably when it comes to fashion while exploring numerous new styles. We are definitely looking forward to what the fashion industry has in store in terms of innovation.

And by the way, how cool is it that we can share clothes with EVERYONE? Ever thought that this piece might have been worn by your favourite idol a few weeks ago? Wow!

Is ownership outdated? How new concepts are paving the way for more sustainable fashion

Increasingly personalized and virtual experiences, the extended self in the digital universe, AR and all-powerful tech giants – what will our future and new reality look like?

Raphael Gielgen

Trendscout Future of Work, Life and Learn

Trendscout Future of Work, Life and Learn at Vitra

Dan Moller

Creative Strategist

AR Specialist

Creative Strategist at Facebook

Nicole Büttner

Founder

Digital Leader for Europe WEF

Founder at Merantix Labs

Adam De Cata

Head of Partnerships

Head of Partnerships at Decentraland 

Taskin Denis Göc

Hybrid Fashion Designer

Hybrid Fashion Designer at Maison Taskin 

The metaverse and new realities

How will consumption and buying behavior look like in the future and how will (e-)commerce have to adapt? How is the creator economy shaping next gen marketing? And what business concepts and methods differentiate winners from losers?

Diana zur Löwen

Content Creator & Founder of Melationship & Rawr Ventures

Dr. Teo Pham

Digital expert, Keynote Speaker, Strategy advisor

Founder at Delta School 

Tarek Müller

Co-Founder & Co-CEO

Co-Founder & Co-CEO at ABOUT YOU

Torge Schwandt

NFT expert

Founder at nōted

Artjem Weissbeck

Founder & Co-CEO

Founder & Co-CEO at Charles 

Aya Jaff

Programmer, Tech Entrepreneur, Founder

Author of the Spiegel Bestseller "MONEYMAKERS"

Programmer, Tech Entrepreneur, Founder at 1088+

Driving next gen e-commerce

What does the future of payment look like - and do we all have to buy NFTs now?! We examine the different facets of NFTs and why they are not only a hype, but will become more and more relevant in the future.

Breakout: NFTs

Leasing, renting, sharing – new business models make us rethink our buying behavior and resign from possessions. Which solutions do industries like fashion, mobility and music have to offer?

Oliver Lange

Head of H&Mbeyond

Head of H&Mbeyond at H&M

Maria Spilka

Co-Founder

Co-Founder at Mädchenflohmarkt

Thomas Chabin

Country Manager Germany

Country Manager Germany at Deezer

Dr. Tim Wiegels

Vice President Data

Vice President Data at FREE NOW

Ownership outdated

How science and understanding our DNA are gradually making us immortal, or at least wrinkle-free.

Martin Kremmer

TEDx Speaker & Biohacker

Co-Founder at Biowatch.me

Self-optimisation

Dating with the help of apps, making love to sex robots, falling in love with an AI partner – does technology destroy our species or are we happier than ever before?

Speakers of 2021

Tarek Müller

Maria Spilka

Diana zur Löwen

Philipp Westermeyer

Oliver Lange

Dr. Tim Wiegels

Insights 2021

Main Stage Recap

12:10 – 13:00panel en
The metaverse and new realities

13:05 – 13:50panel de
Driving next gen e-commerce

13:50 – 14:00expert talk de
Breakout: NFTs

14:05 – 14:55panel de
Ownership outdated

15:00 – 15:20expert talk en
Self-optimisation

15:25 – 16:00panel de
Sex, love & digitalisation

JAEL Live Music Act

See you soon!

Speakers of 2021

Tarek Müller

Maria Spilka

Diana zur Löwen

Philipp Westermeyer

Oliver Lange

Dr. Tim Wiegels

Insights 2021

Main Stage Recap

12:10 – 13:00panel en The metaverse and new realities

13:05 – 13:50panel de Driving next gen e-commerce

13:50 – 14:00expert talk de Breakout: NFTs

14:05 – 14:55panel de Ownership outdated

15:00 – 15:20expert talk en Self-optimisation

15:25 – 16:00panel de Sex, love & digitalisation

JAEL Live Music Act

See you soon!

12:10 – 13:00panel en
The metaverse and new realities

13:05 – 13:50panel de
Driving next gen e-commerce

13:50 – 14:00expert talk de
Breakout: NFTs

14:05 – 14:55panel de
Ownership outdated

15:00 – 15:20expert talk en
Self-optimisation

15:25 – 16:00panel de
Sex, love & digitalisation