Engaging existing customers as well as prospecting globally has seen H&M become the latest fashion brand to launch an immersive metaverse experience on Roblox. And with clothing and accessories creation growing on the platform by 25 per cent year-on-year, there’s no doubt there’s plenty more to come.

CMO has canvassed a wide array of predictions from across the industry and waded through tens of thousands of words to find out what’s on the cards for digital marketing in 2023. Here’s what we discovered.

Consolidation has largely defied the marketing technology ecosystem. For every acquisition and merger over the past 10-15 years, a plethora of fresh-faced players has sprung up, bringing disruption and new must-have martech categories with them.

For a concept no one seems confident to define, the metaverse is proving incredibly costly, with McKinsey estimating in June more than US$177 billion had been sunk into it since 2021.

Building social and metaverse muscle to deliver modern-day marketing and customer obsession have been priorities for The Iconic’s chief customer officer in the first year of the job.

A doubling down on growth in 2023 in the face of tough economic conditions could result in too many marketing leaders trying to rack up quick performance hits at the expense of building brand equity, Forrester warns.

Experimenting from the inside has provided the motivation for Naked Life Beverages to become the first Australian customer hosted in the ANZ Worldline Payment Solution showroom in Decentraland Metaverse, its chief says.

One of the questions that has accompanied the rise of social media influencers has been the authenticity of their recommendations. So perhaps it makes sense to do away with any pretence of reality altogether?

The AFL’s first drop of NFT collectibles from its own minting brand have sold out in 12 hours.

It’s been described as the new age of the Internet. But what does the metaverse mean when it comes to your brand and your customer approach?

Our latest edition of CMO magazine is now available and it’s full of thought provoking content.

Reframing your approach from brand to community will be critical if marketers are to make the most of the opportunities emerging through the metaverse.

Less than half the Australian population are familiar with the metaverse and only 36 per cent express positive feelings about engaging with extended reality in daily life, putting the country well behind globally on interest.

The Australian Football League (AFL) and Reddit are claiming a world first with the introduction of a limited edition set of AFL-themed avatars on the forum site. The news comes just weeks after the AFL struck a multi-year agreement to mint its own NFTs and step firmly towards the metaverse.

Building an exclusive Glenfiddich community and gaining insightful learnings into how to step forward into the metaverse are two big measures of success for the brand’s creative collaboration chief following its first NFT debut.

There’s a new normal in emerging technology every week, driven by rapid convergence of everything from smart devices to the virtual and physical in the metaverse. It’s ushering in the age of Industry 5.0, an exciting and frightening scenario for marketers.

Next-generation telco, Circles.Life, may have just taken its first big step into the metaverse, but “don’t expect us to be a telco metaverse, just expect us to be a telco that really supports our customers and delivers what they are looking for”, its CMO says.

Growing interest in the metaverse and immersive digital experiences has prompted group fitness brand, Les Mills, to debut its first virtual workout in the gaming environment.

Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4Capital enterprise is kicking off a US$150 million fund to invest in early-stage tech players with their sights on the marketing and advertising industries.

Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, have become the latest hot digital item and brands are clamouring to embrace them. From community engagement to creative expression, raising funds for not-for-profits, lead generation, campaign promotion and influencer marketing, brand uses cases of NFTs are already wide in scope.

As we wave goodbye to the year that was 2021, CMO presents our top 21 stories of the year across CMO Australia based on audience engagement.