We are not far away from Christmas advertisements showing grandparents taking extraordinary efforts to connect with their grandchildren by learning what's Robux, what's crypto and how to transfer this new shiny form of money to what their munchkins love the most lately!

Kids don't want cash anymore

Kids are asking if the cash gifts, the pocket money can be turned into Robux. “If I were to spend money in real life, I’d have to ask my parents to take me to stores,” Kaylee, a 12 year old who bought a virtual Louis Vuitton bag, said. “I have control over what I buy on Roblox.” A sense of control in an ever spiraling world and unprecedented times - what's not to like. 50% of Roblux's 60 Mn daily active users are under 13. As dismissive as Millennials and older generations maybe this is equivalent to chilling with friends or hanging at the bar, making new friends, except in a new digital world. While adults struggle to find usecases, kids are having regular experiences, spending money and socialising on the new platform. When asked about gifts, kids ask for virtual outfits of their character on 'Fortnite', not a physical toy. "What's the difference if it gives the same joy", asks a 52 year old in the WSJ's article.

Conversations about money are changing

How the most influential members of the family (read kids) are choosing to spend. Children ages 12 to 17 spent an average of $92 a month online, more than double the average from two years earlier, estimates Forrester Research. Most of that was spent on videogames and virtual goods, followed by clothing and accessories. Spending virtual money is natural to kids while piggy banks are archaic and unrelatable. Roblux has priced most items below $10, a top-up, parental approval - consumer behaviour of the sponsors and the spender considered in the pricing strategy. Business of gamification and videos games is taught at top business schools, from NYU Stern to Stanford, from fresh grads to executives. Roblox’s revenue grew 6x over the past three years to $1.9 billion last year—almost all of it from sales of Robux.

Interactive experiences are replacing plastered advertisements

Era of clicks on ads is getting over - how do you interact instantly with your target audiences in creative ways. The most brightest and talented of last decades worked in AdTech. It's time for new form of experiences, augmented if not full transformation just yet. For example, FIFA or related football world cup brands could have had stickers of signature post goal celebratory poses, memes, comparisons with previous years could have been more than text facts, etc. Alas, this world cup is unpredictably different from what we imagined and gaming tokens have had a wild ride. So how much easier it is to deploy new virtual jerseys, change the teams as the group toppers, new rooting tags for the emerging ones? Definitely quicker and simpler in the metaverse than in last mile reshuffle, manufacturing or delivery of jerseys. Reddit's avatars are not exactly metaverse, but they are great for familiarization for their entire set of users, irrespective of age or country. Walmart, Kellogg, Nike, luxury brands, TIME magazine, automotive companies and major consumer brands are building exemplary experiences or learning their path ahead.

Please have informed opinions in 2023

Users and readiness: One may argue that some statistics showcase a certain percentage of Americans and Europeans are not interested in the metaverse. Most of Europe is 'metaverse ready' with broadband, interests and blockchain in financial services are parameters, according to Finbold study. Yes, financial services for the underlying rails, acceptance mechanisms, Web2 and Web3 bridges, maybe not immediately as avatars. Numbers of Internet users has changed drastically in last 10 years. India and China now make for 50% of mobile internet users and India's population alone will comprise 77% GenZ by 2030. The global market is ready and interested in digital products and virtual experiences.

Meta is not metaverse: The biggest disservice done to new tech is by Facebook renaming itself as Meta and failing miserably at it so far. The knee-jerk, shallow journalistic articles calling death of metaverse basis one company's losses is misguiding. Sorry, seekingalpha, your article'why metaverse will fail' about Meta's stock does nothing to compare Nike's $184 Mn NFT revenue nor the various strategies. Probably because you don't compare tech stocks with consumer product companies? One may want to be well informed that metaverse is a group of several technologies that require business decisions, design considerations, pricing strategies, marketing and PR built across a tech stack with many products and services. Comparing organisations in traditional manner skips the new revenue streams.

Financing innovation: Innovation doesn't scale unless it is funded on scale to find the right product-community fit. In 2022, Americans and Asians organisations and VCs have been funding with average deal sizes of $100Mn for metaverse or Web3 - Qualcomm, NGC metaverse ventures, South Korea government, Whampoa Group, and Animoca Brands has funded a whooping $2Bn.

For the curious, open minds: Those who couldn't experience these new technologies, AI advances in design, gaming will explore them irrespective of their age. They may use it differently or find different conveniences. They may find their niche or simply be the spender (parent/grandparent) for the consumer (new generation). Is your brand ready to be relevant with the changing times?