In our previous discussion about Web3, we discussed how to market to Muslims in this environment effectively. In part one of the two-part blog series, we introduced you to Web3 from a halal marketing perspective. In part two, we discussed how your halal brand could leverage Web3 to target Muslim consumers. In this article, we discuss how Web3 may change Ad Tech and how that may affect the way we serve ads for your halal brand.

To summarize our previous discussions about Web3, the emergence of new web technologies, the most important of which is blockchain, is driving its evolution. Unlike its forerunner, Web3 is decentralized, which means it is not dominated by a small group of megacorporations like Alphabet, Meta, and Twitter. It means that Web3 economics will be more democratic, inclusive, and fair because every user will be able to participate. There will be no large companies harvesting user data for sale; instead, everyone will have control over their personal data and content, as well as the ability to decide how to monetize these digital assets.

For companies like ours, specializing in the advertising industry, we are excited about how Web3 is going to turn the foundation of online advertising on its head.

How Web3 Could Change Advertising to Muslim Consumers

He Who Owns the Data Owns the Pie

Many Muslim brands went into full panic mode when Facebook decided to remove religious targeting on its ad platform. This caused many Muslim brands to look for better alternatives, like Muslim Ad Network. You can see below that even today as we speak one of our most popular pieces of content is the article discussing this very issue. 

The point is, those who control the data have all the power and soon it will not be an elite club made up of large tech companies, like META.

One of the most positive aspects of Web3 is the fact that the tech industry’s goliaths will be unable to collect user data as they do today, and targeted advertising will necessitate negotiating with users about them providing their own data.

Muslims Online Will Have More Power

• Web3 allows buyers to anonymously leave comments on articles and buy stuff without the seller knowing who they are.
• Online users, unlike in Web2’s reality, can download images and content, and have their identity unrelated to any digital transactions.
• Furthermore, Web3 users will be able to choose when they want to watch brand advertisements. Your quality of advertising should be extremely high. Just one questionable advertisement from your halal brand means that they will not consider you for future viewing.
• Web 3.0, which employs blockchain technology, can aid in the restoration of user trust because the data stored on the blockchain is decentralized, secure, and transparent.
• Entrusting data ownership to consumers may disrupt plans by information technology corporations to steal sensitive customer data.
• Internet transactions will be transparent because they will be recorded as blocks of information and kept there in perpetuity with open access to all. As a result, consumers will be able to see the entire supply chain and assess its sustainability, which may have a significant impact on the decisions they make.

The Shape of Online Ads in Web3

Will it be worth paying to target Muslim audiences with ads in Web3? The thing with Web3 is that your halal brand will need to put in more effort to catch the attention of its target audience. Before even thinking about targeting them with ads, you should pounce on the opportunity that Web3 offers to build tighter relationships with Muslim consumers.

Remember that because consumer data will no longer be stored by a small number of elite entities, Muslim Ad Network will connect publishers and advertisers directly to Muslim consumers without the involvement of a third party. High-quality connections such as these will yield better ROAS for your ads.

“With exclusive relationships with the biggest Muslim websites, MAN can access first-party data to figure out the interests and behaviors of those Muslim audiences.”

Source: Advertising to Muslims Online in 2022 After Third-Party Cookies Disappear

Due to the nature of data collection in Web3, there will be an abundance of much more accurate data than what we have now with Web2 and third-party cookies.

Your halal brand will have direct access to actual consumers rather than a vendor’s image of who your consumer is. You’ll need to stop thinking of customers as numbers in a database and start thinking of them as people with whom you can build meaningful relationships.

Accurate data and good relationships with your customers are a killer combination for serving extremely effective online ads.

The goal of Web3 ad tech won’t be to build sizable databases and extract huge profits from the advertising supply data chain. The provided ad tech solutions will be advantageous to users, publishers, and advertisers. It may also help save money that would otherwise be spent paying third parties to act as intermediaries.

Of course, Web3 is still in its infancy, making it difficult to predict when it will begin to have a significant impact on online advertising. But it is a matter of “when” not “if”.

Meanwhile, check out “The Ultimate Guide to Understanding and Marketing to The Muslim Consumer”. It is the only complete Muslim consumer guide in existence. If you are ready to take your advertising to Muslims to the next level, start advertising with Muslim Ad Network today.

The post How Web3 Will Change Advertising to Your Muslim Audience appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

With the Muslim consumer spending power growing exponentially, many brands are starting to target this lucrative market. But, Muslim consumers have unique needs and preferences that must be taken into account. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. AI stands for artificial intelligence. It is the result of applying cognitive science techniques to artificially create something that performs tasks that only humans can perform, like reasoning, natural communication, and problem-solving. AI technology is used in a variety of fields, including healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and retail.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has revolutionized the marketing and advertising industry. By understanding the user’s needs and preferences, AI provides a highly personalized user experience that leads to increased brand loyalty and conversions. In this post, we’ll explore how AI can be used in Muslim marketing and advertising, and how it can help brands better understand and cater to the Muslim market.

A Case for AI in Muslim Advertising

The Muslim market is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. According to reports, the global Islamic economy is expected to reach $3 trillion in 2023. As such, many brands are starting to target this untapped market. However, Muslim consumers have unique needs and preferences that must be taken into account. For example, Muslim consumers are more likely to prefer brands that avoid engaging in stereotypes and biases towards them. They are also more likely to avoid products that contain alcohol or pork. 

This is where artificial intelligence comes in. By understanding the Muslim user’s needs and preferences, AI provides a highly personalized user experience that leads to increased brand loyalty and conversions. For example, let’s say a Muslim consumer is searching for a new beauty product, AI can analyze the user’s past search history and web browsing behavior to understand their needs and preferences. Based on this data, AI can provide the user with a list of halal-certified beauty products that are tailored to their needs.

In addition to providing a personalized user experience, AI can also help your brand better understand the Muslim market. By analyzing Muslim consumer data, AI can help your brand identify trends and understand what Muslim consumers are looking for. It can also help you build more inclusive marketing strategies. By using more AI-driven technology, your brand will be able to create more diverse and representative advertisement campaigns that resonate with Muslim consumers.

Overall, AI offers huge potential for Muslim marketing and advertising. By providing a personalized user experience and helping brands like yours better understand the Muslim market, AI can help your brand build lasting relationships with Muslim consumers.

Better Muslim Customer Experience Through Personalization

The technique of making advertisements more relevant to their intended audience through the use of data or consumer insights is known as advertising personalization. Examples of this include information on demographics, interests, purchasing intentions, or behavioral patterns. This is not a luxury, but a must, if you want to advertise to Muslims, especially given the complexity of the Muslim market.

Making ads more relevant and personalized is quickly becoming a primary focus, with 80% of frequent customers indicating they only do business with brands that tailor their experience. Fifty-six percent of customers expect all interactions with brands or vendors to be personalized, and 47% of B2C customers believe businesses could do a better job of matching engagement activities to their preferences.

Artificial intelligence can assist your brand in meeting these expectations for personalization at scale by increasing the relevance and accuracy of ad targeting. Machine learning (a subset of AI) can analyze past behaviors to identify trends and commonalities in order to predict future behavior. It does this by constantly learning and iterating from experience, meaning it gets smarter over time. This technology is important for the Muslim market where tailoring the advertising message is critical for success.

Building an inclusive marketing strategy has become essential for companies wanting to do business in the Muslim world. The global Muslim community is incredibly diverse, with people of different nationalities, ethnicities, cultures, and languages. It is important for brands to be able to reach out to this diverse group of people in a way that is respectful and considerate of their cultural sensitivities. AI can help you with this by allowing your brand to create more diverse and representative advertisement campaigns that are better able to connect with Muslim consumers. For example, many Muslims are reluctant to engage with brands that feature images of nudity in their advertising. 

Better Return on Investment – A Result of Better Ad Choices

AI is an advertising analytical strategy. AI-powered systems process massive amounts of information and data in order to accurately predict future trends and insights. The wonderful thing about AI is that it, like humans, is always improving. It constantly learns and adjusts in order to continue making wiser decisions.

Advertising professionals have historically had difficulty determining the effectiveness of their efforts. Analytics, on the other hand, help brands determine what works and what doesn’t. Advertisers can use artificial intelligence to take proactive measures that benefit their advertising. According to Deloitte Insights’ “Maintaining an Edge in the Era of Pervasive AI”, 64% of AI adopters believe that AI technologies assist businesses in gaining a competitive advantage, and 73% believe that AI is paramount to the success of their organization today. 

You can reduce the amount of wasted advertising and increase your return on investment by consistently targeting Muslim audiences with the appropriate message. AI-produced advertisements for your Muslim customers will also convert more effectively. 

By being able to examine past trends and performances, AI can develop insights that direct advertising decisions and ensure that cash isn’t spent on ad copy that doesn’t convert. AI achieves this by leveraging data to forecast how well-received creative and messaging will be by customers, going beyond typical A/B testing. In order to generate more high-quality leads and conversions, advertisers should now adopt a proactive approach to creatives rather than a reactive one.

Conclusion

AI is not only beneficial to those who adopt it, but it is also essential for the Muslim market and Muslim consumers. It is necessary for brands to be able to understand and react to the cultural sensitivities of this target audience. AI can help by constantly learning and iterating from experience to create more diverse and representative advertisement campaigns. In addition, AI-produced advertisements will convert more effectively, making it a smart investment for those wanting to do business in the Muslim world.
Learn everything there is to know when it comes to marketing and advertising to Muslims.  Download for free, the only complete Muslim Consumer Guide available.

The post Highly Effective Artificial Intelligence for Powerful Muslim Advertising appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

We recently published an article to help you find the right influencers for your halal marketing. What if you were able to take it a step further and work with a virtual influencer, better known as a meta-influencer in the metaverse? 

“A virtual influencer, at times described as a virtual persona or virtual model, is a computer-generated fictional character that can be used for a variety of marketing-related purposes…” – Wiki

It seems more and more plausible that the metaverse is the next online frontier for halal brands so we encourage you to learn and experiment as much as possible.

Advertising in the metaverse for halal brands is in its early infancy, so creating and working with meta-influencers may sound too far-fetched for Muslim businesses at the moment. However, web3 is moving at the speed of light, and if you blink you get left behind. So, at the very least try to gain knowledge and start experimenting with the elements of web 3.0, like NFTs and the metaverse among other things.

Disclaimer: The Muslim Ad Network blog strives to give you top-notch information to help you market and advertise your business and organization. We urge those of the Muslim faith to investigate the permissibility (halal/haram) of tactics like creating avatars and meta-influencers for marketing purposes.

How Meta-influencers Can Change Your Muslim Marketing Approach

The metaverse – predicted to become an $800 billion industry by 2024 – offers your business or organization the chance to take advantage of consumer trends and investigate fresh ways to engage with customers. This is why influencer marketing in the metaverse is a natural piece of the puzzle. Influencer marketing is already massive on web2, with Insider Intelligence estimating it to be a $15 billion industry in 2022. 

Let’s look at the four elements of meta-influencer marketing that will change your Muslim marketing approach:

1- Collaboration

There are many ways to collaborate with influencers on social media. These include sponsored social media posts, product discount codes, and more. Although these are effective ways to establish your presence, metaverse influencer marketing offers a more captivating collaboration with your brand.

Together with a meta-influencer, you can create a fully immersive 3D experience for the Muslim consumers you are targeting. For example, you can have the meta-influencer try out different modest fashion outfits to showcase your new autumn collection to their most active followers.

2- Monetization

You can monetize your joint ventures with meta-influencers on the metaverse thanks to NFTs or non-fungible tokens. The influencers you work with can grant followers admission to your sponsored events using NFTs. For example, you can offer collectible NFTs that also serve as tickets for your next installment of Halal Expo on web3. 

When used in this way, these special tokens create income for your brand and the meta-influencer. Not only that, but it will boost brand recognition, and give your Muslim customers a sense of exclusivity.

3- Initiation

We mentioned that influencer marketing is a massive industry. It is important to know that a growing part of that belongs to meta-influencers. However, there is a growing trend of brands creating their own meta-influencers. This could be something you could explore if you are confident of its permissibility in Islam. 

Why? Because:

1) After your initial investment, you do not need to be paying large sums of money to meta-verse influencers to feature your products; Lil Miquela – for instance – is reported to get paid $1600 per Instagram post.

2) Although meta-influencers like Serah Reikka have tried to reach out to Muslim audiences, the rest of her content is not palatable to a Muslim audience. This would be the case with all the virtual influencers currently available for collaboration.

4- Diversity

The real-world influencer industry has a diversity problem. A 2020 study by MSL showed that although black, indigenous, and people of color represent a market worth $4.8 trillion in buying power, there is a 35% pay gap between black and caucasian influencers. This is the biggest racial pay gap in any industry.

This is an opportunity for you when using or creating your own meta-influencer to promote those with minority backgrounds, given that they have the relevant Muslim audience for your products of course.

Conclusion

In this short blog post, we highlighted the current situation with brands collaborating with meta-influencers. We also discussed how your brand may use these influencers to engage Muslim users in the metaverse. We would like to reiterate that at the moment you should at least focus on gaining knowledge and experimenting with web3 elements including the metaverse and meta-influencers.

To start engaging with Muslim consumers more directly through online advertising, feel free to click the “START TARGETING MUSLIM CONSUMERS” button below:

The post Marketing to Muslim Consumers With Meta-influencers appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

1. An Introduction to Web3 from a Halal Marketing Perspective
2. How to Leverage Web3 to Target Muslim Consumers

In the first part of the series, we introduced the concept of Web3 from a halal marketing perspective. Now we will go into the strategies and tactics that you can use to market and advertise to Muslims on Web3.

How Your Business Can Benefit from Web3

Transparency and user/customer focus will be two of the biggest aspects of Web3’s impact on business. Consequently, there will be a change in how firms utilize user data. All web apps will need a blockchain upgrade in order to function in Web3, as blockchain is core to Web3.

Let’s look at more ways your business can benefit from Web3:

Removal of Middlemen: Web1 and Web2 have centralized data as a common denominator. Infinite amounts of personal data are under the authority of high-tech companies like Google and Facebook, making them vulnerable to data breaches and manipulation. Due to the precision and transparency of blockchain technology, Web3 technology solves this problem.

Server Failureproof: Both Web1 and Web2 have experienced server failures that led to platform shutdowns, which caused significant losses for brands and companies. The latest one at the time of writing this article concerned Twitter and happened on the 14th of July. Web3 system supported by a distributed network renders this issue a thing of the past. Even if a single node or network of nodes goes offline, the dispersed network will still be able to support computing.

Reduction of Data Theft: Hackers will find it considerably more difficult to access sensitive data using Web 3.0. There is no single point of failure with blockchain technology because it is dispersed and decentralized, which makes it more difficult to corrupt. Your business won’t have to worry as much about data theft and data breaches thanks to the fact that blockchain data cannot be changed or manipulated.

Improved Customer Relations: Web 3.0 makes businesses directly accountable to their customers by recording every transaction in a decentralized ledger that is visible to all parties. Your businesses can utilize this transparency with their customers to develop relationships of trust and loyalty. Customers may trust that the information is accurate and legitimate because data saved on blockchains cannot be modified.

Better Supply Chain Management: Due to the transparency of blockchain, your business can easily monitor and manage its supply chains on Web 3.0. You can eliminate silos and are better able to manage time and costs while immediately identifying any issues with production and delivery services. You can also communicate vital details with suppliers to facilitate delivery, such as production schedules and contract deadlines.

Web 3.0 Halal Marketing Strategies

Web3 connects content and people with streamlined user interfaces and communication channels, enabling businesses to provide a more specialized experience.

Your Muslim-consumer-targeted business must adapt to Web3 gradually, now that the new internet version is available to ensure open access and transparency. Let’s look at some Web3 trends that can be implemented and integrated into your halal marketing strategy.

Grow Your Web3 Network: A strong network can be essential for a successful  Web3 halal marketing approach, as it is in many other areas of your business. If you’re looking to interact with other businesses in the Web3 world, consider joining a networking group like the Coinbound Entrepreneurs’ Circle (CEC).

Metaverse: Your businesses can utilize the metaverse for events, exhibitions, and conferences to gain a competitive advantage. To properly market in the metaverse you must 1) insert your brand natively within the platform (ex. In-game ads), 2) replicate what you offer in real life in the parallel metaverse, 3) establish your own virtual venue (ex. If you sell cat food create a virtual cat asylum).

Read: Halal Advertising in the Metaverse and Is the Metaverse the New Online Frontier for Halal Brands?

Blockchain Technology: Through the use of cryptocurrencies, you can conduct transactions automatically, giving your users total control over their data. You can employ self-executing smart contracts to streamline commerce between you and your Muslim customers without the need for a mediator. By doing so, expenses from established methods can be reduced without sacrificing their validity and legitimacy.

Non-fungible Tokens (NFT): Create limited edition NFTs! It is a great way to connect with your Muslim customers and community. NFTs can be traded or sold in addition to being collected. You can also use NFTs for VIP access to an event, early product releases, or online content.

You can use them to raise money for a good cause. As a result of their immense popularity, NFTs can generate a lot of buzz and demand, making them a great strategy for attracting attention.

Web3 offers a lot of opportunities but there is still a lot to learn and discover. Visit our main blog post page or contact Muslim Ad Network if you want to know more about Web3 or marketing and advertising to Muslims in general.

The post How to Effectively Market to Muslims in Web3 – Part 2 appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

1. An Introduction to Web3 from a Halal Marketing Perspective
2. How to Leverage Web3 to Target Muslim Consumers

As a result of Web3 or as it’s also known, Web 3.0, marketing professionals may be able to take advantage of many innovative advancements in the decentralized web. We do need to keep in mind that Web3 is still in its infant stages despite becoming the biggest talking point in digital marketing today.

The halal marketing strategies and Muslim advertising tactics that will be in demand as Web 3.0 matures remain to be seen. However, to have an idea of where it is all heading, it is important to know today’s trends that power marketing in the Web3 landscape and the challenges that come with them. We aim to help you understand this in this two-part article about Web 3.0 from a halal marketing perspective.

Defining Web3 to Halal Marketers

What is Web3?

The first era of the internet began in the 1990s giving people access to an abundance of data. However, there was no simple way to sift through all of this information.

The second iteration started in the 2000s with Google, Twitter, and Amazon breaking onto the scene. In the time frame of almost two decades, these entities became the dominant powers of  Web 2.0.

Web 3.0 is based on decentralization and gives control of data back to individual content creators. This will hopefully level the playing field for startups, and small businesses. It may also be the end of consumer data privacy infringement for the most part.

Computer Scientist and Ethereum Co-Creator, Gavin Wood, who coined the term “Web 3.0” explains:

“Essentially, under Web3, we know exactly what’s happening with our data.”

Like many advocates of Web 3.0, Josh Neuroth, Head of Product at Ankr, a Web3 infrastructure company agrees:

“The whole point of Web3 is getting ownership and decision-making away from a small group of people, into the hands of the community. It’s very democratic.” 

How We Got to Web 3.0

The first web server emerged in 1990 leading to the creation of the World Wide Web. At first, the internet was only accessible to government and military researchers and college students.

Web 1.0 is a term used to describe the earliest versions of websites. Back then, users were consuming content, not generating it. Due to dial-up computing, websites could take minutes to load, so pages had to be small and lightweight. Web 1.0 was before smartphones and was only accessible by desktop computers.

The Web 2.0 era took off in the early 2000s. With it came interactivity. A dynamic page was now generated for the user instead of a static one. The pages became larger and more complex as broadband expanded its reach. Users could now enjoy streaming music and video.

Web 2.0 gave rise to user-generated content. Prior to the rise of Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, there were precursors to social media, such as GeoCities. Through blogs, tweets, and social media networks, Web 2.0 has allowed for an increase in user input and engagement.

Web 3.0 is the result of various problems in the Web 2.0 ecosystem, especially in terms of data control and safeguards for user privacy. The centralized storage of user data has created extremely vulnerable spots for malicious agents. 

Web 3.0 will remain fully decentralized, putting content creation in the hands of the creators and not platform owners. It also means scenarios, where you are not able to target certain profiles online due to changes in platform policies, will not be a common thing. If your brand targets Muslim customers on Facebook, you know how difficult that has become due to their policy changes. 

Read: How to Target Muslim Audiences on Facebook – A Quick Solution

Web3 aims to move away from an internet controlled by a handful of powerful people and companies. Open-source, decentralization, transparency, and ubiquity will disrupt the current centralized internet environment.  

A trusted environment enables everyone to take part in Web 3.0 without the need for an intermediary or third party.

Components of Web 3.0

Web 3.0 consists of the following six notable components:

Semantic Web: Through the semantic web, data can be linked from one source to another and understood by computers, enabling them to perform increasingly sophisticated tasks for us. Through AI, it is able to understand what a customer or user may mean or intend, thus improving the experience.

Artificial Intelligence: Sometimes the user’s search intent is not matched by the results delivered by the search engine. The AI of Web3 has a better understanding of what users are searching for and gives more relevant and accurate answers.

Ubiquitous Connectivity: Ubiquitous connectivity describes the ability of devices to create, share, and process data without ever losing connection. With broadband, 5G, and IoT, Web 3.0 applications are characterized by ubiquitous connectivity, allowing access to information across a variety of devices.

3D Graphics and Spatial Web: Advances in technology, including virtual reality, today mean that 3D graphics allow the creation of a more realistic online experience. Brands are already incorporating 3D graphics in the promotion of their products and services. A good example of this is the use of special events and gaming.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: The Web 3.0 era is intrinsically characterized by blockchain and bitcoin technology. Web 3.0 is characterized by decentralization and giving content creators more power. Direct transactions between parties are made possible by the elimination of middlemen and the use of cryptocurrencies. While bitcoin gets rid of middlemen like financial institutions, blockchain helps make Web 3.0 more transparent and safe.

Metaverse: The phrase “metaverse” truly doesn’t relate to any one particular kind of technology, but rather to a broad and frequently hypothetical change in how humans interact with technology. Generally speaking, it is a simulated digital environment that combines elements of social media, blockchain, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) to produce environments for rich user interaction that mirror the real world.

Read: Halal Advertising in the Metaverse and Is the Metaverse the New Online Frontier for Halal Brands?

What is Web3 Marketing? 

Your mission, as a halal brand or mainstream brand targeting Muslims, is to grab their attention and convince them to spend their time and money on your product and service.  

In Web2, your brand or organization invests in sales and marketing, and the vast majority of the value generated accrues only to the platform being used. Web3 however, shares value ownership and allows users to share the value along with the company through digital tokens. 

By using tokens to bring in early users and reward them for their contributions, Web3 creates new networks instead of using the Web2 customer acquisition funnel, where awareness and lead generation are at the top and conversion and customer retention are at the bottom.

In Web3 marketing, there is more to it than just websites and search engine optimization (SEO). Web3 enhances the user experience by providing interactive advertising opportunities. As a marketer, Web3 offers an enormous opportunity to have an extremely efficient Web3 marketing strategy and deliver more targeted ads to Muslim consumers. We will take a look at this in the second part of this series.
Meanwhile, feel free to contact Muslim Ad Network for any questions about advertising to the Muslim audience.

The post How to Effectively Market to Muslims in Web3 – Part 1 appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

In the summer of 2021 we discussed the concept of halal brands taking part in the metaverse, in the article “Is the Metaverse the New Online Frontier for Halal Brands?”. In it, we discussed:

• What the metaverse is and why it is awesome 
• How the metaverse and NFTs are manifesting themselves in consumer markets
• What your halal brand needs to know about the metaverse environment
• Articles explaining which aspects of the metaverse are halal
• Muslim presence in the metaverse

Our article today will discuss halal advertising in the world of the metaverse including but not limited to:

• What you need to know as a brand or marketing team
• Ways to advertise on the metaverse

What You Need to Know Before Advertising to Muslims on the Metaverse

Muslim Consumer Interest in the Metaverse is Growing Fast

In an article that was updated on April 2022, Geri Mileva of Influencer Marketing Hub said:

“… consumers seem to be catching on. The keyword ‘metaverse’ yields 677,000 results on Google. Meanwhile, the hashtag #metaverse is widely used on Instagram, with more than 60,000 posts…”

At the time of writing this article – June 2022 –  the keyword “metaverse” yields 186,000,000 results on Google and the hashtag #metaverse has 1,963,598 posts.

Meanwhile, the keyword “halal metaverse” yields 2,050,000 results, and “metaverse in Islam” gets you 6,500,000 results.

The Metaverse Mirrors Real Life

“The spatial internet is the culmination of everything that AR and VR are developing today. It’s the idea of taking information about things, locations, or historical events and actually locating that information out there in the world where it’s most relevant.” 

Leslie Shannon, Nokia’s Head of Trend Scouting

The metaverse, a shared virtual space where your audiences use virtual avatars to represent themselves, is not child’s play. Real-life events happen including transactions, investments, entertainment, art shows, and more. 

An example of this is when someone bought a video clip of Lebron James dunking a basketball for $208,000 through a virtual auction system. Kristi Waterworth of Nasdaq on real estate investment through the metaverse:

“Will NFTs (non-fungible tokens) be a thing in real estate and real estate investing in 2022? Absolutely, without a doubt, yes…”

These virtual worlds of the metaverse continue to evolve and experience growth based on decisions and interactions made by consumers, mirroring real life in the real world.

Anticipating this growth and where it is heading regarding your halal product and service will give you an unparalleled advantage in the market.

Metaverse Characteristics that Matter for Brands and Marketers

In 2020, Mathew Ball wrote an article about the characteristics of the metaverse. We outlined characteristics you may need to understand if you are going to advertise your halal brand on the metaverse.

Persistent: The metaverse does not reset, pause, or end, it just continues indefinitely.

Synchronous and live: Although pre-planned events will take place, the metaverse, like real life, will be a living experience that is constant for everyone and always available.

Offers agency: It provides each participant with an individual sense of “presence”. In the metaverse, everyone can participate in a specific activity together, simultaneously, and with individual agency.

Fully functioning economy: Halal consumers and businesses can create, own, invest, sell, and be rewarded for an incredibly wide range of “work” that produces “value” that is recognized by others.

Parallel to reality: It contains experiential worlds that combine digital and physical reality, private and public networks and experiences, as well as open and closed platforms.

Unprecedented data interoperability: The same digital items/assets, content, and so on can be used and reused across different channels and experiences.

Everyone creates content: The metaverse is populated with “content” and “experiences” created and operated by many contributors; some of whom are independent individuals, while others are informally organized groups or commercially-focused enterprises.

Halal Marketing and Advertising on the Metaverse

Now that you are armed with this valuable information, let’s look at how to advertise your halal business on the metaverse.

Parallel marketing: since the metaverse experience is parallel to reality, it’s logical to create marketing experiences that relate to real-world experiences or mimic what real-life marketing entails.

Immersive advertising: Get your ads featured in relevant metaverse worlds. For example, you could have your billboard in one of the virtual cities of real estate metaverse advertising your halal mortgage offering.

Collectible items: Roblox offers branded virtual worlds such as The Collector’s Room in the Gucci Garden experience. Users can collect limited-edition Gucci items in this virtual world. As a result of selling the collectible items, Gucci collected 286,000,000 Robux (Roblox’s virtual [not crypto] currency). Do you think you can emulate that with your modest fashion business?

Metaverse metrics: AdAge reports that by applying connected TV’s concept to metaverse advertising we can determine what metric to use based on real-time buying occurring in virtual auctions. An example of a metric related to metaverse advertising is the cost per completed view or the video completion rate.

Metaverse events: While Fortnite and Roblox have led the way in reaching large-scale audiences with entertainment events, Muslim metaverse worlds with event-hosting capabilities like Metakawn have started to pop up.

Metaverse eCommerce: A major trend in the metaverse is direct-to-avatar (D2A). By 2025, in-game purchases are expected to surpass 74.4 billion U.S. dollars. More than a decade ago in Second Life, Muslim women had avatars wearing the e-hijabs.

There is a lot of talk about what constitutes permissible metaverse activities and those that are not permissible. You should educate yourself on those first before engaging in metaverse marketing for your halal business.

There is no doubt however that our consumer lives are moving into the next version of the web: web 3.0, including the dynamic world of the metaverse. Muslim consumers are not being left behind and if you target potential Muslim customers, you need to start researching the halal marketing opportunities that adhere to the Islamic Advertising Principles in the metaverse.
Meanwhile, do not hesitate to contact Muslim Ad Network for all your halal advertising needs; we will be happy to help you achieve your business goals.

The post Halal Advertising in the Metaverse appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

The internet has kept on evolving from the day it came into our lives. We’ve gone from email being the best thing that ever happened. Then we moved on to social media, mobile, virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence.

All these iterations of the internet, however, may not have been as big as the metaverse is expected to be. This has a direct impact on brands including halal ones and those advertising to Muslims online.

With Muslim brands and those brands targeting Muslim audiences already behind in today’s internet world, we wanted to discuss what the next one looks like. We want to give you, the reader, an opportunity to understand where the internet is heading so you can be ready.

What is the Metaverse and Why is it Awesome?

The term “metaverse” has been thrown around for many years in the world of gaming. Today, it is taking on an entirely different presence on the internet.

Let’s take a step back and talk a bit about the internet. When the internet started its existence and became a thing a lot of our lives changed. It created convenience, new business opportunities, new billionaires, and even new economies. 

Metaverse is the new phase that will take the internet to the next level. So far we have had the choice of purchasing products, services, and entertainment either in the real world or in the virtual world.

Metaverse is creating a brand new world where it brings the real physical world and the virtual world together. You can look at it as twofold. We have the physical persona in real life and then we have our digital persona in the digital world – on LinkedIn, Gmail, Instagram, Reddit and many more platforms. What metaverse does is create a convergence between the physical you and the digital you by sucking you into the computer.

Well, not literally, but by taking your two-dimensional online experience and turning it into an augmented three-dimensional experience.

Epyllionco Managing Partner Matthew Ball explains:

The best way to think about it is a quasi successor state to today’s mobile internet in much the same way today’s mobile internet was built off of the internet of the 90s and 2000s. In this instance, however, the iteration is not necessarily going into a smaller computer but into virtual worlds; virtual simulations enabling the purchase of things in the real world through those environments. But also in particular purchasing things that solely exist in virtual environments. Lastly, we think about the augmentation of the world around us, not just the idea of AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) inside of a store but really the connectivity of the real world through the internet of things into virtual simulacra at the same time.

How the Metaverse and NFTs are Manifesting Themselves in Consumer Markets

Lessons from Gaming

This phenomenon is already well advanced in the world of gaming. Think of Roblox and Fortnite who have used it to give players the ability to buy NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) and use them across different games.

So for example, you can buy a character costume on Fortnite and use it on Minecraft. This is another feature of metaverse that is going to break the internet.

You know how Apple and Google apps are not compatible? Imagine your favorite Muslim consumer app being compatible for both without having to create a version for Google Play and another for App Store.

In the world of the metaverse, everyone works together because no one owns it. An awesome example is DC versus Marvel superhero characters who you will never see together on the big screen, in comic books, on TV, or anywhere else. However, in the metaverse world of Fortnite, they are all working together.

Real Events by Real Artists and Real Money

Today, on these gaming platforms, young people hang out together like they would in real life. They spend real money buying virtual products like clothes (avatar skins) so they can look cool during their virtual hangout.

They even attend concerts by real music artists who perform using their own avatars. In fact, in 2020 the rapper Travis Scott performed a virtual concert on Fortnite that drew 12.3 million attendees. This surpassed the prior record of 10.7 million for a virtual show featuring DJ and music producer Marshmello in 2019.

Not Just Child Play

This is how Upland, a virtual real estate company based in the Silicon Valley, United States describes how users can make real money on their NFT metaverse:

Join a new, virtual economy where you have the opportunity to make money in the metaverse. Start out by earning a return on your properties and collecting fees from visitors. Feeling ambitious? Flip some of your properties for profit in our free and open marketplace or generate income by becoming a business owner in Upland.

Upland allows you to purchase the NFTs of the digital versions of properties from the real world. Payment can be made with cryptocurrency or a credit card. Some of these real estate properties go for thousands of dollars and are located all over the world. This is levels higher than kids buying avatar skin on Fortnite.

This is not child play at all, as many of the real-world behaviours are shifting into the world of the metaverse, where people are purchasing virtual products for thousands of dollars, attending political rallies and more.

Emily Chang of Bloomberg Technology, mentions that:

…the market opportunity for the metaverse could be 800 billion dollars by 2024.

Before we move further, make sure you download The Ultimate Guide to Understanding and Marketing to the Muslim Consumer. Your brand’s guide on breaking into one of the fastest-growing untapped consumer markets in the world.

What Your Halal Brand Needs to Know About the Metaverse Environment

What’s the Experience of Brands Currently on the Metaverse?

Brands have found their entry into the metaverse challenging. Most are at the stage of experimenting with relevant ways to create their own environments and display ads for virtual world dwellers.

According to AdAge:

With the real world becoming increasingly challenging, the social network (Facebook) sees the virtual world as its next frontier.

Coca Cola and Campbell Soup Company were the latest big names to start experimenting with the metaverse at the time of writing this article; joining other consumer goods brands like Taco Bell, Gucci, AB InBev, Procter & Gamble, and e.l.f. Cosmetics.

Coca-Cola auctioned off its first NFTs — unique digital assets stored on a blockchain. Meanwhile, Campbell Soup Company commemorated the change of its iconic soup label with its first NFT digital art pieces.

Here is the deal though: brands have to play by certain rules as each platform has its own approach to branded content:

• Roblox, for example, does not allow for just any brands to work with them on experiences.
• When Facebook started allowing ads in its Oculus virtual reality games in June of this year, backlash from players stunted the application. 
• Minecraft applies strict commercial guidelines regulating the use of logos and advertising on its platform. 

Other brands have started creating their own virtual worlds so that they can adhere to regulations and at the same time enable them to collect first-party data.

Immersing your halal brand into metaverse is serious work and will need some investment. Facebook and other brands for instance “are forming metaverse-focused marketing teams, similar to digital or social teams that have evolved over the past decade.”  – Christina Wootton of Roblox, VP of Brand Partnerships

Islamic Jurisprudence Issues and the Metaverse

Disclaimer: Muslim Ad Network is not claiming to have knowledge of Islamic Jurisprudence. We can only tell you about the opportunities in advertising for your brand. We do feel compelled as Muslims to make you aware of the Islamic standpoint(s) on certain methods or platforms you may want to use for your brand. This is because our motivation is to help brands grow awareness online in a halal way. However, we can only tell you the general standpoint(s) on a high level. You may need to consult people of knowledge for better decision making.

If you are a Muslim practitioner, you may need to seek Islamic Jurispundence advice about involving your brand in the metaverse due to the gaming environment (although this is not the only environment) the content in them, and the depiction of animate objects as avatars, etc.

The general understanding is that drawing inanimate objects is permissible: mountains, trees, planes, cars, etc. In the case of Upland, for example, this is buildings. There is nothing wrong with that, according to the scholars.

With regard to animate objects, forbidden kinds of pictures, an exception is made in cases of necessity, such as drawing pictures of criminals to identify and arrest, or pictures for identity cards, licences, passports etc. and other cases of necessity.

…He has explained to you in detail what is forbidden to you, except under compulsion of necessity …

Source: al-An’aam 6:119

Here is an article that will give you some idea on the Islamic stance on NFTs: “NFTs: Shariah Compliant?”

More high-level information on cryptocurrency and tokens in this research article: “The requirements of cryptocurrency for money, an Islamic view”.

Muslim Presence in the Metaverse

The E-Hijab

Back in 2007, the International Journal of Learning and Media published a paper called, “E-hijab: Muslim Women in the Metaverse”. It stated:

Although many religions exist in Second Life, female Muslim women whose avatars wear the e-hijab bear a clear visual manifestation of religious identity. For the most part, these women tend to use this new public space to attend religious events and congregate to discuss religious issues.

Islamic NFT Art

Soon, the First NFT digital Islamic art agency is expected to launch in the Middle East. According to Arab News:

The NFT art market has grown more than 800% in just the first four months of 2021, from $52 million in January to a whopping $490 million by the end of April, according to a Business Insider report.

With this in mind, the Behnoode Foundation – based in Dubai-  is due to launch the first-ever NFT digital Islamic art agency in the Middle East. It aims to modernize Islamic artwork and “sell its unique digital footprints through live auctions to fine art collectors around the world”.

Fintech Shariah Compliant NFTs

Meanwhile, an ethical decentralized finance (DeFi) is planning to launch a blockchain marketplace for Islamic non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

IFNFintech explains:

The marketplace, currently being developed by Marhaba Decentralized Financial Platform (MDFP) and to be built on the Binance Smart Chain, is designed to encourage and promote Islamic arts and contemporary calligraphy. It will be a no-code platform to enable the creation of NFTs, allowing artists to create and upload their artwork to the app, which will then be converted into an NFT using smart contracts.

Palestinian Activism NFT

The presence of Muslim users in the metaverse has always been there and today manifests in all forms.

Recently, Palestinian artist, Khaled Jarrar, created an NFT that represents the take-over of Palestinian land by Israeli settlers. Alexandra Chaves of The National News mentions that:

Jarrar’s NFT is an animated image entitled “If I Don’t Steal Your Home, Someone Else Will Steal it”, which shows a valley in the West Bank overtaken by Israeli settlement homes cascading across the screen. The limited-edition NFT comes with a handful of soil that will be sent from Ramallah to the collector.

Talk about bringing the virtual world and the real world together.

Conclusion

The metaverse is considered to be the next frontier for brands online. Marketers, brands, and even the likes of Mark Zuckerberg have started preparing. So should your halal brand or Muslim-friendly product start doing the same?

The answer is yes, but this does not mean you should go out and start building metaverse marketing teams already? It is a good time to test the waters like Coca-Cola recently did. It is also the right moment to learn more about the metaverse and formulate an interim strategy on how you want to approach it.

For Muslim businesses, halal brands, and anyone trying to advertise to Muslim consumers, there is still a lot of unchartered land in the current online advertising world.

Work with Muslim Ad Network to optimize and maximize your online advertising efforts targeting Muslims today. When the time is right, we will be there to help your organization enter the world of the metaverse.

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