Marketing in Metaverse and designing a marketing experience in VRChat

Constantly developing technologies enable new approaches to be created in the field of digital marketing. Digitalization in the field of marketing with the rise of Web 2.0 and internet usage has led to the emergence of new concepts such as social media marketing, content marketing, and influencer marketing. Today, the development of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality technologies are important factors affecting the marketing world. These technologies, which are examined under the term extended reality, influence brand-consumer interaction and enable more interactive brand experiences. The advancement of technologies such as extended reality, blockchain, Web 3.0, and 5G has resulted in the popularization of the concept of metaverse, which is associated with all these technologies. Metaverse refers to a 3D virtual world where users can interact with each other and the environment. The metaverse, which allows users to experience physical and virtual realities in an immersive way, has also begun to influence the world of marketing. Although it is not possible to talk about a fully realized metaverse yet, there are platforms that contain components of a metaverse such as virtual platform, social environment, digital content, and the use of assets. Brands are seen using various marketing methods on platforms such as VRChat, Decentraland, Sandbox, and Fortnite, which are associated with the metaverse because of these features. The goal of this research is to provide a comprehensive definition of metaverse concepts, examine the effects of metaverse on marketing, and develop potential marketing applications that can be built on metaverse. For this purpose, literature and case studies were examined, and with the findings obtained, a brand experience was designed on VRChat, a real-time, online virtual reality chat platform. The fact that VRChat shares features with the metaverse, such as being a social and online platform, being able to be experienced in virtual reality, and allowing avatar and media interactions, guides the brands marketing activities. Within the scope of the thesis, the detailed explanation of metaverse and its related concepts and technologies, such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Web 3.0, Blockchain, NFT, Extended reality, and 5G, has been effective in terms of the clarity and depth of the subject. This thesis is significant for its practical application in marketing as well as its contribution to research in areas such as the metaverse, virtual reality, and augmented reality.