The Metaverse seems futuristic for some French companies.
But others have understood the stakes, and know that this new virtual world will emerge faster than most people think.
(Especially since Facebook will become Meta in October 2021).
In this article, we take a look at the 7 French companies that are already adopting a metaverse strategy.
By examining their examples, you can find out whetherinvesting in the Metaverse is right for you.
Without further ado, here's the program:
- What is the purpose of the Metaverse for brands and companies?
- Carrefour Group and Metaverse
- Groupe Casino and Metaverse
- Axa Assurances and Metaverse
- Ubisoft and Metaverse
- Havas Group and Metaverse
- Crédit Agricole and Metaverse
- Luxury brands and the Metaverse
What is the purpose of the Metaverse for brands and companies?
For brands and companies, the Metaverse is a new way of promoting products: a kind of virtual advertising showcase.
Here's what they're looking for when they adopt a Metaverse strategy:
- Be seen as innovative and ahead of the competition
- Duplicate their business in the virtual world
- Offer new products to stand out from the crowd
- Find other growth opportunities
We will now illustrate this with concrete examples fromFrench companies in the metaverse.
Let's start with Carrefour:
1 - Carrefour Metaverse Group
The Carrefour Group has acquired virtual land on the French Metaverse The Sandbox.
This parcel was purchased for 120 ETH, i.e. almost 300,000 euros at the time of purchase.
It covers 36 hectares and is located on site (33,147).
The idea was not to miss the boat on new technologies.
In May 2022, Carrefour developed a virtual campus to enable exchanges with jobseekers.
Group CEO Alexandre Bompard has this to say:
"Conducting a job interview facing the sea in Paris: today I was taking my first steps in the Metavers, under the guise of a funny avatar, with young data analyst or data scientist candidates... Carrefour innovates, learns, surprises!"
The CEO also hosted an online conference accessible only on the Metaverse.
In addition, Carrefour has launched NFBEES, an NFT project with an experiment on The Sandbox.
The aim is to sell pixelated bees and donate the proceeds to the Fondation de France Beefund, an NGO that supports bee protection.
We can think what we like about the Carrefour experiments, but we can't say they didn't experiment.
In the long term, the retail giants could align themselves with Walmart's Metaverse strategy.
The American retail giant recently developed its Metaverse vision.
Consumers would go into the Metaverse, virtual shopping cart in hand, and select the items they need, just like in a video game. Then wait for home delivery.
The result is an enhanced, three-dimensional drive.
An immersive version of e-commerce.
2 - Groupe Casino Metaverse
From the end of 2021, the Casino group has bought plots on the Metaverse The Sandbox as Casino Immobilier general manager Nicolas Joly says:
" We started buying plots at the end of 2021, but we are running several projects whose aim is to offer a customer experience [...] The aim is to create value with these new virtual assets as we do with our real assets."
In concrete terms, Casino has developed a gaming experience for Club Leader Price customers.
As they progress, players will win vouchers or discounts to spend on the Club Leader Price e-commerce site or application.
Here's an overview of the experience:
Through its La Nouvelle Cave brand, Groupe Casino has launched an NFT collection.
If you'd like to explore this further, listen to the podcast featuring Stéphanie Zolesio, Deputy Director of Casino Immobilier, who explains the challenges and potential of Metavers for the Group.
I had the chance to listen to her, and I find Ms. Zolesio brilliant and visionary.
3 - Axa Assurances Metaverse
Axa has also entered the Metaverse The Sandbox.
Their idea is to use the Metaverse for marketing and experimentation. Before it is truly democratized.
To give you an idea, Gartner, the leading tech research and consulting firm, predicts that 25% of the world's population will spend at least 1 hour a day in the Metaverse by 2026.
Here's what Frank Devignes, Axa's Director of Open Innovation, has to say: " First of all, we're going to position our brand in the metaverse. We're also starting to work on topics around innovation and the creation of new types of services".
The aim is to target communities on these platforms.
Axa could then develop different types of services, associated with NFTs for example.
Or blockchain-based services, as the insurer is already doing with Fizzy.
Axa also sees the Metaverse as a way of improving collaboration between teams from all over the world, in a more immersive environment than Zoom or Teams.
4 - Ubisoft Metaverse
Still on The Sandbox, Ubisoft has developed a gaming experience to expand its "Rabbids" universe.
Ubisoft has purchased its own virtual plots , and characters will be made available for players and designers to incorporate into their own experiences.
Here's what Guillaume Mammi, director at Ubisoft, had to say about this new experience:
"We're thrilled to bring Rabbids to The Sandbox community. This will allow players to create their own original experiences by incorporating elements from our game IP. We can't wait to see how they make the world of Rabbids their own. The Sandbox is a fun and obvious new playground to the long list of global Rabbids invasions. It's a great opportunity for Ubisoft to create a metaverse experience for its brands.
5 - Havas Metaverse Group
Havas has already developed a "Havas By Metavers" offer to be launched at the end of 2021.
They launched a virtual village by purchasing a plot on the Metaverse The Sandbox.
They want to offer an immersive, augmented Havas Village experience.
They'll be creating immersive experiences based on the codes of gamification. These include conferences, events, concerts and product launches.
This fits in well with Havas' role of supporting brands in their communications strategy and development.
Says Havas Group CEO Yannick Boloré: "Our new Havas Village will be the Group's 'meta-window', bringing together our engaged communities in an enriched extension of our real-life Villages."
The aim is also to attract creative and innovative profiles in promising fields such as tech and data.
6 - Crédit Agricole Metaverse
Crédit Agricole is one of the first French banks to develop a Metaverse experience in The Sandbox.
The aim was to evangelize their businesses internally.
With Excelsior, we've recreated Crédit Agricole HQ.
And we came up with a game on The Sandbox for employees.
In the form of avirtual avatar, employees log on and follow quests by talking to different collaborators.
They learn to move around their building.
All in a fun way.
If you'd like to set up in the Metaverse, we can help you too.
Please do not hesitate to contact us.
7 - Luxury brands and the Metaverse: Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent
Finally, I'd like to talk about luxury brands.
The principle of luxury is to create rare and expensive objects.
With NFT enabling the creation of rarity in digital objects, France's leading luxury brands have been quick to embrace this new technology.
They did the same with the Metaverse.
In this article, I told you about Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland.
The brands' aim was to reach a younger audience.
Let's illustrate what I've just said with initiatives by Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent:
For example, Louis Vuitton has created the "Louis TheGame" to educate customers in a playful way about key moments in the life of Louis Vuitton.
Yves Saint Laurent Beauté immersed itself in Web3 in June 2022 with the launch of an NFT collection called "Golden Blocks".
These digital assets are intended to accompany experiences such as a partnership with the specialist platform POOLS.
Conclusion: French companies in the Metaverse
Whether it's to propose new offers, reach new customers, recruit or raise awareness among internal staff, we can see that brands are increasingly making the Metaverse their own.
If, as Gartner says, 25% of Internet users will spend more than an hour a day in the Metaverse by 2026, then it seems reasonable to experiment with this new world.
At Excelsior, for example, we can help you create your own virtual HQ, your "meta vitrine" in less than 60 days.
So don't hesitate to contact us.
