Ball adds that the speed at which brands wanted to move, without a real plan or understanding of the space, posed problems for their longevity: “There was definitely a lot of, 'We need to do this because everyone else is doing it' and 'We need to do this do it because shareholders expect us to do it.' There were many who overestimated the relevance of their brand in these 3D spaces.”
A turn to AI
Now many of the chief officers who had been installed so quickly were trying to reinvent themselves – or otherwise found themselves out of a job altogether. Coca-Cola's Pratik Thakar quickly pivoted from leading the brand's metaverse content to becoming the company's global generative AI leader in August 2023.
Around the same time, Michael White, who was tasked with leading Disney's metaverse efforts in 2022, left after the brand's dedicated metaverse division closed; the company announced it would launch a new AI task force just days later. Then, in the wake of Triefus's departure from Gucci, the brand promoted a collaboration with Christie's on its first generative AI project.
In case further proof was needed that the metaverse's shift to AI was complete, in the last quarter of 2022, Bloomberg's transcript data recorded just two mentions of the metaverse in earnings calls at S&P 500 companies. In the first quarter of 2023, AI had scored 1,073.
According to Cathy Hackl, formerly Chief Metaverse Officer of consultancy Journey, the large-scale marketing shift from virtual brand experiences to AI was both a smart business decision and a wise business decision. And just another example of technological bandwagon jumping.
Today, Hackl thinks about the metaverse land grab as a phenomenon that quickly spiraled out of control. “There was a rush among PR teams to bring something 'metaverse' to market,” she says. “I think we'll look back on it as a very interesting moment, but maybe we all got a little ahead of our skis.”
Don't mention the “M” word
Even Hackl, who was nicknamed “Godmother of the Metaverse,” has distanced himself from the concept, founding “a spatial computing and AI solutions company” earlier this year, with any mention of metaverse notable for its absence.
The metaverse-focused initiatives that once seemed to be part of every launch are also suspiciously quiet. Bulgari, which launched an NFT jewelry collection on Polygon's blockchain in 2022, confirmed to WIRED that it has no plans for further collections in the future.
UNXD, a curated NFT marketplace, with partners such as Dolce & Gabbana, Jacob & Co. and Valentino, is still promoting a competition for Metaverse Fashion Week 2023, along with a number of 'yet to be announced' collections confirmed for 2022 launch.
The buzz about collections that were initially successful has also all but disappeared: Tiffany NFTiffs are now selling for around $2,300 on NFT marketplace OpenSea, a drop of more than 95 percent from peak sales prices, while activity on Gucci's 'Superplastic' NFT series on OpenSea shows a staggering drop in sales interest from around September 2022, and now virtually nothing.
