“They are crazy”. This is the response that the Cupra Marketing area received from Wayne Griffiths, the brand’s global CEO, when they proposed putting together a strategy in the metaverse. But for Griffiths, 56, the promotion and marketing strategies for a product as tangible as a car should be designed for the real world, not the virtual one.
Metaverses are environments where humans interact as avatars through software in cyberspace. For Griffiths, these platforms were fine for luxury brands, such as Gucci, Balenciaga or Louis Vuitton, which have recently made a strong commitment to consolidate themselves in the digital world with virtual parades. “When the team made me the proposal, I told them: this is for people who want to spend a lot, but for us it doesn’t add or generate any value,” says Griffiths.
But it wasn’t long before the businessman changed his mind and announced, in front of the international press, that Cupra would launch a new collaborative platform in the metaverse called Metahype .
“Metahype is our interpretation of this new universe. It is a collaborative space where brands, startups and content creators can host a wide variety of events and experiences for people to create and share culture,” Griffiths detailed during the announcement of the brand’s foray into the metaverse, at the end of February.
A ‘U’ turn
Griffiths, who in the 1990s held various positions in the newly created Marketing and Sales division within Audi’s global corporation and who, before assuming his position as CEO of Cupra, was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Seat, agreed to take a tour of ‘U’ when he understood that the metaverse was not a banality.
“For me, at 56, the real world is more important, but I understood that for many of our young clients their virtual world is even more important than the real world,” Griffiths said in a virtual press conference after the announcement of the launch of Meta hype.
Cupra has positioned itself within the Volkswagen Group – owner of Audi, Porsche, Seat, Cupra, Skoda, Lamborghin, Bentley and Bugatti, among others – as the brand that caters to young SUV buyers. While in other of the German group’s brands, the average age of SUV buyers globally is between 55 and 60 years old, the bulk of Cupra’s customers do not exceed 40 years.
Daniel del Palacio, Head of Business Marketing for Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America at Adobe, explains that metaverses are not only spaces for social interaction and fun, but have also become transactional spaces. “There are people who pay thousands, even millions of dollars, for their avatar to have a lifestyle that they may not be able to have in the physical world. For example, having a piece of land next to Snoop Dogg in the physical world would be impossible, but that person’s avatar could have it in the metaverse,” he explains.
A survey conducted by Statista at the end of 2021 of internet users around the world found that 39% of the people consulted said that “overcoming obstacles that prevented them from doing something in real life” was the greatest benefit of the metaverse.
As in real life, people in the digital environment are spending a lot of money on personalization, which is driving retail sales. Naturally, fashion brands are taking advantage of this opportunity. Balenciaga was the first luxury brand to partner with Epic Games to design virtual outfits, accessories and weapons that players of the video game Fortnite can purchase to customize their avatars.
Other consumer companies, such as Heineken, are also creating spaces in the metaverse to give visibility to their brands and generate interactions with consumers. In March, the brewer invited real-life journalists to a virtual press conference at Decentraland, where participants were represented by avatars. There he presented his first virtual product: Heineken Silver.
For a car brand like Cupra, the opportunities offered by the metaverse lie in creating immersive experiences for its customers. “This is a great opportunity to engage with our communities in innovative ways,” said Cathy Hackl, Cupra Chief Metaverse Officer, during the Metahype presentation.
thousands of possibilities
Cupra’s new platform will be developed in partnership with Visyon, an immersive creative company owned by the Mediapro Group. Cupra, which in the physical world has opted for experiential marketing to position itself among young consumers, will seek to generate new intersections between the worlds of music and entertainment within its new platform.
“The metaverse is a huge opportunity, just like the internet was at the time. If a brand has a presence in the real world, it can also have it in the virtual world. All brands could have a space there to interact and offer some experiences”, says Abraham Quintana, Regional Creative Vice President of the Rock agency.
Within Metahype, brands and people will be able to display artistic material via NFT, show products and transmit content. Griffiths announced that Cupra will offer new experiences on its platform through partners such as the Primavera Sound music festival and the Ubeat multichannel ecosystem, which offers entertainment content, eSports and video games.
“Creating products in the virtual world creates value… We’re not talking about ‘mental jackets’. The metaverse is not the future, it is already a reality. There are already people spending on this,” Griffiths concluded.
