Hospitality and immersive technologies
It’s easy to see how certain sectors will thrive in the web 3.0 age; tech, gaming, education, fashion and luxury brands are “all in” at the moment, it’s an easy adoption for these sectors, some have a clear plan and others have no idea of what they are doing but the FOMO effect is in play, (fear of missing out). So what about less obvious sectors, and specifically, how will hospitality fit into web 3.0?
Hospitality must not be left behind, we need to be in there from the get go, now, while the rules are being written and the foundations are being laid. Why? because if XR technologies do become that mainstream (yes there is always an if) then any sector who has not found their integration will be left behind, in that, their customers won't be shopping where they are selling. It is widely accepted that what we have now in Web 3, is not how it will be in a few years, the technology is finding its feet, it’s breaking point where it sets it’s balance and footing, there already exists many different interpretations of what the metaverse will be but one things for sure, it will be very powerful and capable, we hope it will all stitch itself together as cross platform interoperability will be key.
So what’s currently in the XR workshop that hospitality companies can utilise?
Many large companies are buying land in the metaverse, opening stores either to sell merchandise, virtual to avatar or virtual and real world, or just as a marketing “billboard”. There are still too many risks associated with virtual land purchases for most small to medium sized companies to get into virtual land purchases, plus you currently would need a shop in multiple metaverses and anything people buy in one metaverse can’t generally be taken into another metaverse. So, for most, I would caution against buying land in a metaverse to open a virtual store, for now if a store is what you want, try renting a virtual space or doing a shared revenue deal.
A VR-Kiosk is an additional ordering channel for takeaway and collection orders, where customers can access a VR version of your restaurant or kitchen, which can be a real 360 degree image or 3d rendering of your business or an off the shelf image. A VR version of a fast food style ordering kiosk is overlaid on the image with your menu on it and customers will be able to order in VR and the system will link through api’s to your existing POS / order management systems.
By creating unique VR/AR customer experiences such as demos, behind the scenes content or exclusive content about your brand, your story or your staff, customers or suppliers stories, is a way of engaging your tribe into your brand, make it personal. VR/AR advergames are another way of engaging an audience, simple pick up and play games which fit into your brand, location and products whilst subtly marketing or reinforcing your brand.
Create a digital twin of your outlet, a 3D copy you can walk through and modify, this can be used for marketing, proof of concept, see how a refurb would work, VR training, VR kiosk or as part of a customer experience.
The virtual events & spaces sector is potentially huge, one can create a completely fictitious event space or a 3D digital twin of a real existing space and theme it up to suit the event, clients can host parties, launch events, pretty much any real world event can be replicated and perhaps improved upon in VR at a relatively low cost and without the washing up!
Immersive training using VR headsets has been proved by many different studies to be significantly more effective than regular 2D online training as it's much more engaging and the immersive nature of the environment means that there are no distractions. There will be libraries of standard training in 3D such as food hygiene, COSHE, First aid etc but with a digital twin of your operation, fully immersive training specific to your operations needs can be conducted which can include interactions with virtual customers.
NFT’s and Merch one of the buzz words associated with web 3.0 are non fungible tokens these are simply a way to buy things and secure your purchases in the blockchain, an NFT is just data, but most people associate the term with daft digital “art” and collectables, sure these are NFT’s but the current thinking is that that novelty market has been and gone, now an NFT needs to offer something of value. Where an NFT is “digital art” it maybe that ownership of that token will enable access to special content associated with the token that is not publicly available. Digital merchandise is totally possible, one can create a wearable collection for avatars to wear online (Direct to avatar) or you can sell existing merch in the metaverse to supply in the real world (virtual to physical).
Looking a little into the future we see Virtual food courts as an exciting prospect. Imagine meeting friends from around the world and around the country at a virtual food court where you can all order food for delivery in the real world and virtually eat the digital version together. Each guest would only see food outlets that can be delivered to their geographical location.
Once virtual dinning is established and customers have choice as they would on the highstreet we can create a virtual restaurant/brand and test the market, see if the metaverse dwellers choose to try it, this is Proof of concept. Taking that a little further, established restaurants that run a digital twin of their real world restaurant and test menu changes and even prices. Collecting data in this way is far cheaper than the “build it and they will come” test.
There’s a place for everyone at the metaverse table. My role is to advise small to medium sized hospitality companies on web 3.0 strategy and to build tools to enable them to integrate and evolve their brands in the metaverse. If you want to touch base and have a chat please reach out and we will set up a free no obligation initial call on +44 7393 731707. John Curtis Multiverse Hospitality Ltd.
