Meta, Orion And The Attention Economy.

Metaverse promises to bring a change. And that change has the potential to shift our relationship with the digital world. But- is it for the better?

Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse project has been trying to position itself as the future of the world. And he can back it up with strides in social technology.

Instagram and Facebook have enabled the sharing of creative ideas across the globe. From memes to artistic expressions, Meta has empowered the common person to spread their ideas to be seen and appreciated.

It is no joke to say Meta has revolutionized our planet. And many are concerned about the ramifications of this revolution. They think about the privacy and ethical drawbacks of these apps.

Look at this stat from Statista—Facebook is the number one platform, followed by YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

Meta has the majority of the market share in social media. Can we say our concerns are reflected in reality? It is not so. The planet is using Meta as its go-to social technology. Now, Mark Zuckerberg wants to take it a step further.

Mr Zuckerberg has brought us another marvel closer to his dream of computational evolution: The Meta Glasses— Orion!

It is promised to be the next evolution of our smart devices. The whole world, right at our eyes and fingertips.

The metaverse is an abstraction brought into the real world through technology.

Facebook’s Takeovers

Let’s take a look at a particular snapshot of tech history.

In a time when Meta was still called Facebook. The company became afraid of the social media platform known as Instagram.

Instagram, the hip and cool new tech was gaining rapid momentum. From their beautiful filters to their sleek design, it was fun to be on. Facebook realized this, and Mark was afraid that the platform would overtake his without needing to become a big business.

The model was that good.

So what did Facebook do? They bought Instagram and integrated them into the conglomerate in 2012. All for a small sum of 1$ billion.

Instagram became the most popular platform for young people (Before TikTok, that is). In the same vein, Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 but for a larger sum of 20$ billion.

And then bought Oculus— now known as Reality Labs— for 2$ billion.

The question in anyone’s mind would be: Why did Meta acquire these technologies? They had the resources to make it from scratch.

We can infer it from these three emails.

The first is from David Ebersman, talking Mergers and Acquisitions. He outlines three possible scenarios for Facebook and why the mergers would be beneficial for them.

And Mark Zuckerberg responded by being interested in two.

What he talks about is the integration of the social dynamics these companies offer and buying time so that they can outperform any competition that crops up.

In the third, he says he is excited about what companies could do together if they built on what they(the acquisitions in question) have invented into more people’s experience.

From what we know of Mark Zuckerberg he has been a visionary and savvy businessman. From Meta’s takeovers, we can assume he has the strategic acumen to understand what people want.

And to identify the technology that can deliver it to them. Meta has been acquiring all technologies to usher the user into a new experience.

In all senses of the idea: An immersive experience.

This immersive experience is being sculpted by Virtual and Augmented reality.

The Metaverse

Facebook’s rebranding into Meta was not just about changing the name. But the entire mission. They serve to bring the metaverse into reality.

The metaverse is a virtual world of creative possibilities in computation and holograms.

It is an abstraction of the fantastical, bought into reality by advanced technology and designs. Meta and extension, its founder believe the metaverse is the future of computation. Mixing audio, visual, and other sensory organs to make the user believe that what they are feeling is, in fact, part of reality.

In Zuckerberg’s terms — “The next platform will be even more immersive— an embodied experience where you are in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.”

Holograms. Virtual Avatars. Augmented Spaces. Everything that can be dreamt of, the metaverse can conjure. Humanity is now Alice, and our technology is the rabbit hole.

Meta draws a beautiful picture of unbound creativity. And apparently, that is the goal. The metaverse is not about Meta but about creators and developers.

In the closing lines of his founder’s letters, Mark says — “I’m dedicating our energy to this [Meta] — more than any other company in the world. If this is the future you want to see, I hope you will join us. The future is going to be beyond anything we can imagine.”

What does this mean for the future? What are the possibilities that leaders should look out for?

Marketing, tech, finance, and the arts. Everything stands to change with Meta.

Meta’s Orion

Sometime in the last decade or so, our work became knowledge work. Computing has taken over every aspect of our jobs. Look at the SaaS market. It would not exist without cloud computing.

And as the trends go, our computational devices are getting smaller and smaller. And more portable.

First, the laptops, then the tablets, and smartphones, and now Meta has unveiled what they hope is the future of computation— the VR glasses they call Orion.

Credits: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/

The Orion has all the things one would expect from tech.

1. AI
2. Games
3. Video Conferencing (But you can see the person, the person can’t see you yet)
4. Marketing Opportunities

Meta’s Orion has been 10 years in development. The device has three components: –

1. The Glasses
2. The EMG wristband
3. And wireless compute puck

Credits: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/introducing-orion-our-first-true-augmented-reality-glasses/

The three create the holographic AR experience. The wireless puck runs the app logic. And helps the glasses stay compact.

The EMG wristband provides and captures feedback from your fingers for scrolling, swiping, playing, and interacting with the glasses. This is a fantastic piece of technology that uses sensors to translate electrical motor nerve signals into instructions for the glasses.

The glasses overlay objects and content onto their screens for an immersive experience. You must have seen people play pong or demonstration of Meta AI’s integration.

The glasses capture what you see, and the AI can elevate your experience by bringing your instructions to life.

In the demos, they asked the AI to create a recipe with all the ingredients users looked at.

The demo was full of basic things. Just a glimpse into what it can do.

But the real magic lies in its possibilities.

A tech with a promise of infinity

Smartphones and laptops opened up a new world. Staying connected every day and every moment became possible. But it is still a passive way of interaction.

Most people are consumers of content. Not interactors of it. What Meta offers, and this is most exciting for creatives (including marketing teams), is interaction.

Imagine, marketers. Imagine when your potential buyer can interact with your content with their sensory organs.

The potential of this tech sounds limitless. You could create an experience that takes them from one point to another. And make them feel in control of the experience, personalizing it to the individual at such a level that is unheard of.

The Orion, again potentially, promises to get the creative ideas you have off the ground with no limits in sight.

The only limitation would be budget, imagination, and talent.

The Limitations

And these are big limitations. To design experiences, marketers need game engines and developers to program these interactions with the glasses.

It would be Meta’s prerogative to create or integrate a programming language for the glasses. It is possible they might use drag-and-drop features to enable the creation of these experiences. Or give developers the option to choose.

These developmental choices would decide how businesses and creators interact with the glasses. And they would have to assign budgets to the development of the experiences.

Again, Meta would be able to control the expenses. Like Facebook Ads, they might create a platform made for the AR/VR experience. (This is conjecture on our part; we have no official news of this.)

The questions marketing teams and creators should consider for Orion and AR/VR should be:

1. How much would it cost to build the experience?
2. Does it have to be interactive, or can it give the illusion of interaction through presentation?
3. What are the tools you would need to execute the experience?
4. Is the creation process possible by your teams, and does your budget support it?
5. And, probably, the core question: Are these glasses true to their promise or just another fad?

Creators and marketing teams should be wary of fads before investing in them. But how do you know if a tech is just a fad? By the number of tech adoptees.

Like all answers in marketing, the market will tell you if this is the next iPhone.

Let’s talk about the attention economy.

Credits: https://markmanson.net/attention-economy

Mark Manson, the infamous author of The subtle art of not giving a f*ck, writes in his blog— the attention economy.

It is an interesting read highlighting the importance of the resource known as attention. The pitfalls of not having attention and the way media weaponizes cheap content to get attention.

And Meta’s social media platforms are part of this ecosystem that demands attention. Some creators choose to create quality content, and some choose not to. Instead, they create sensationalized pieces. But this is not a new technique.

Now imagine the glasses on you all the time. Will we lose more of our attention to the void?

Yes, if we are not careful. Our technology might cause problems down the line. But here, marketing teams can shine bright.

Marketing’s Role in the Attention Economy.

For the general audience and the buyer, especially B2B marketing it is all about problem solving.

The adage of reaching the audience at the right time means solving a problem through content, service, or product when it pops up.

But the metaverse is supposed to mimic our experience of the real world.

Would advertising in the AR/VR world be like OOH? Shown to us at random times. Or would it be the same as a smartphone? Shown to us during a video or a piece. The latter makes more sense.

But there are more opportunities with the glasses. To elevate marketing’s standing.

As a professional and scientific field, marketing— instead of adding junk content, will be able to create content that makes the buyer think or improve their experience of the moment.

For example, if a buyer is solving a knowledge-based problem. Say they are programming with the help of glasses. And they cannot solve the problem. MarTech for AR/VR can detect this, given enough permissions. And you can present your solution.

The question is: How will you do this without invasion (remember, Orion also promises a sensory experience) and better than an AI machine?

More than dopamine hits, what a decision-maker needs is the knowledge to make better decisions. A good brand becomes synonymous with that knowledge.

As we move towards a more always-on type of society. It is necessary to make the buyer feel relaxed, in control, and knowledgeable.

The Orion and its successor may provide this stage.

Social technology will change buyer behavior.

As technology begins permeating our world, marketing will have to change to be more about providing value.

Going beyond the obvious will be the norm. Surface-level content and basic well-known knowledge will be cannibalized by AI. But what is the role of Meta in all of this?

For now, they are leading the charge toward the next stage of computation. Like Steve Jobs before him, Mark Zuckerberg’s social tech is leading the charge towards the next evolution.

The metaverse is a peek in what is the peak of human ingenuity and creativity.

But is it our entry into a revolution or just another empty promise?