MarTech Interview with Leslie Marshall, Chief Marketing Officer at Mesmerise

Leslie Marshall, Chief Marketing Officer at Mesmerise highlights more on the growing benefits of VR and the Metaverse to today’s marketing teams:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat, Leslie, take us through your biggest marketing learnings over the years and tell us more about your role as CMO at Mesmerise…

I’ve been incredibly lucky to spend the last sixteen years with Morningstar. It was a place that allowed me to build teams and be creative, and I’ve learned so much about how to leverage emerging technology and establish new practices in marketing. But in addition to the marketing skills I gained, I also learned how to lead and empower my team to be creative, innovative and self-sufficient, which I’m incredibly proud of. My role as the Head of Experiential Marketing at Morningstar enabled me to take on new challenges, and I was intrigued by the possibilities the metaverse had to offer. I began working with Mesmerise to host the VR portion of Morningstar’s annual Investment Conference as well as create investing games using VR and AR, and I realized the potential the emerging space held.

VR is going to have a massive impact on the way we collaborate and engage with one another, and I’m excited to be at the forefront of that. Now, in my new role at Mesmerise, I’ll be focusing on establishing the company as the trusted guide for the metaverse while building a high-performing and engaged team of innovative marketers who are passionate about creating great experiences for clients.

We’d love to hear your observations surrounding the Metaverse: how do you see this space shaping up in the near term?

The metaverse is a budding industry and quickly emerging as a tool that companies will want to have in their arsenal across a number of industries.

We’ve seen business leaders take an interest whether they’re in manufacturing, finance, healthcare… the list goes on. In the same way that the world wide web shrunk the globe in the 90s, creating new avenues for business forums and platforms for social interaction, the metaverse will do the same. In the midst of several new challenges across the workforce (economic uncertainty, labor shortages, etc.), new technology like VR has the power to ease the impact of these challenges, if used effectively.

Rather than replace in-person gatherings, I see the metaverse and virtual reality being regularly used to enhance our experiences. I think we’ll start to see more and more industries use the technology to reduce CO2 emissions from travel, save capital, and offer immersive experiences for employees to collaborate and gather.

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For marketers especially: what factors should they be paying attention to as they try to capitalize on this channel?

Now’s the time for experimentation in VR, especially for marketers, and in my experience, gaining a comprehensive understanding of VR and the metaverse is the first step to getting your foot in the door. VR became a tool I wanted to use regularly after I was exposed to it running events and conferences in the metaverse with Mesmerise, which was a highly effective (but low-risk) way to dip my toes into the space and watch how others responded to it.

Attending seminars, events, engaging with experts and trying out the technology are incredibly helpful ways to comprehend the capabilities of the technology. Like I mentioned earlier, we’ve seen tremendous benefits in verticals like retail, manufacturing, travel, urban development and more. As more companies look to mix VR into their communications and business strategy over the next few years, it will be increasingly integral for marketers to understand how best to use the medium for reaching their audiences and growing their brands. Whether this be in the form of immersive experiences with customers or virtual worlds, the technology is incredibly exciting, and the conversations around the space will only increase moving forward – understanding how to interact with specific audiences in VR will be crucial.

Take us through some of the most exciting metaverse experiences you’ve been seeing brands pursue today?

Because I’ve worked closely with Mesmerise over the last few years, I’ve been exposed to some really exciting experiences and activations with not just Morningstar, but other companies as well. One of the most important things we’ve seen in the last year is that companies and metaverse thought leaders are paying attention to an inclusive and interoperable metaverse for brands and users. We’ll likely see a lot more attention to this area of focus this year.

Companies are diving into the metaverse and using VR tools for mental health purposes, to sell virtual clothing and property, and even to decrease their negative impact on the environment through virtual meetings – Mesmerise helped Harvard Business School do this just last year through a virtual reunion in the metaverse, which resulted in a 90% reduction in carbon footprints. The advancements in the last 12 months alone have been incredible to watch–with some companies even starting to explore smell and taste in VR–and it’s really only the beginning as new headsets roll out and the technology continues to advance.

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What top of mind predictions do you have for B2B marketing in 2023?  

In the next year, the way in which we think about digital connectivity will likely shift. It’s my view that leaders will need to lean into emerging industries like VR and artificial intelligence to stay on the cutting edge of technology and keep up with competitors. For B2B specifically, as these tools become more advanced and available, marketers have an opportunity to show their products and solutions and create new experiences for their customers in ways that have not been done before. Imagine bringing customers together in virtual reality to gather feedback about a new product in development before the product is in-market or test a marketing campaign, and then make enhancements, or create a new offering altogether.

Co-creation, real-time feedback, and taking your customers on new journeys are all possible with the VR tech available right now. Given the amount of new types of data that will be available about customers,  I also think that marketers will need to carefully consider components of the metaverse including privacy, regulation and policy. Weighing the need for regulation, access equity and so on will be paramount as the technology becomes more widely available. Just as new laws came into effect around influencer advertising or regulating how political messaging is delivered to those on social media platforms, the same will have to happen in the metaverse.