Half of chief marketers say unproven ROI is biggest obstacle to metaverse

Most chief marketers are not advertising in the metaverse, according to a new survey by Campaign.

However, while 52% of marketers are not active in the virtual space, 43% said they planned to invest in the metaverse in the next year.

The poll of senior marketers from around the world revealed the majority (52% of respondents) cited the lack of evidence so far on the metaverse's return on investment as being the biggest barrier  to spending.

The full results and commentary will be published exclusively for subscribers in Campaign’s upcoming annual CMO Outlook report.

Speaking to Campaign about the survey findings on the metaverse, Moonpig’s chief marketing officer, Kristof Fahy, said ROI should not necessarily be the goal for brands at this stage.

“If you step into that world now, you are really doing it as a brand test, to see what the reaction from your consumers is. If you put an ROI on it currently, it will never work,” he said.

Last month, Argos teamed up with Ocean Outdoor to launch what the media owner claimed was the world’s first campaign to run simultaneously in the metaverse and on out-of-home media. The Argos ads will appear on both a real-life screen, as well as via an NFT replica of the billboard on virtual reality platform Somnium Space.

Other adland organisations are also trialling using the space, including Hearst UK which is developing a Cosmopolitan metaverse experience, and WPP, which has partnered Epic Games.

The survey forms part of a wider analysis of senior marketers’ priorities in the coming year, including retail media, agency partnerships, talent and marketing strategy. The results also show which areas of the metaverse marketers have been experimenting in.

Just over three-quarters of marketers see digital retail media as an important feature of their marketing agenda, according to the first part of the survey, published last week.

The CMO Outlook survey was conducted in partnership with R3 between May and June, with 21 global marketers spanning the financial, retail, technology, FMCG, pharmaceutical, and electronics sectors taking part.