PREVIEW: The Metaverse, Marketing and Future of Privacy Webinar

Richard: Welcome to this week's episode of Thinking Caps, where we are going to be talking about a fascinating interview with the Cambridge Analytica, whistleblower, Chris Wylie. On why marketers thinking about the metaverse should tune in. Stay with us.

Tim: Rich, I'm jealous. It was a great interview. I got to watch it. We're actually showing that interview with Chris Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica, whistleblower. The guy who really started a revolution, honestly, in advertising, privacy, Facebook data, et cetera. Great interview. What were the highlights from this thing?

Richard: A fascinating sort of individual. We've been talking about privacy so much because of this fundamental shift in marketing and advertising. That has really resulted from all of the disruption caused by privacy legislation or consumer attitude to privacy. To the ethics of how you use data in the ad tech supply chain. So we've been very myopically focused on that and I thought it was a really interesting opportunity to actually reach out to Chris and to interview him. Being the person that in many ways created this wave of disruption through being the whistleblower at Cambridge Analytica. But to not just stop at looking at the past, but to really talk to him about how's privacy going to change in the future, specifically as the great and the good of big tech now firmly put their cross hairs on investing into the metaverse. So what does it all mean?

Tim: Yeah. What was telling to me is, as you mentioned, so focused in privacy and how we use it today, the metaverse is going to change everything, right. And you and I both have kids, our kids went to the same grade school, our kids and our kids' kids are going to live in this virtual world. I don't know if it's going to be goggles on our faces or whatnot, but it changes everything. So what Chris really gave the lens on was the perspective of like, how is your experience completely changed. Forget advertising, right? Me and you getting an ad for, I'm going to say feminine hygiene products. That's not harmful. Right? So somebody using our data to get us more men driven or more personalized advertising. That's not necessarily harmful. That's not harming my life. But man, he opened my eyes to the potentials of how your own personal data, behavioral, psychographic, anything you give up to these social media forms and other companies can be used to literally argument your reality.

Richard: Yeah. Firstly, let's think about what is going to be the totality of ways with which we will interact with the metaverse. Because that's important to understand why privacy is so important. If you think it's important now, in the metaverse privacy is going to be a very, very much more expanded issue than we have today. And something that certainly marketers, brands, all of the ecosystem that we are engaged with, need to be thinking about and have a position on. As we all collectively have some input into the way the metaverse is actually built on the way that brands, advertisers, the platforms themselves use the data to interact and engage with consumers. And really from a 1, 000 foot view, it's going to impact everything. It's already starting to in many ways, but it's going to be not just gaming. Right. You mentioned our kids being in the same grade school. My kid is already in the metaverse. He's massively into Roblox, which is one of the gaming companies really pioneering the metaverse. But it won't just be that it'll be things that Microsoft are doing for work productivity and how we have meetings and interact day to day in a work. It'll be changing the way that we shop, the way that we network, the way we interact with our friends, the way that we engage with professions. Think about how architecture is going to change in the metaverse and our relationship with architects and designers and building firms. It will impact everything. So in that context, how do we need to think about privacy?

Tim: Yeah. You're totally right. It's truly a virtual world. You'll be able to see your house before it's built and stand in it and feel it and touch it and smell it probably. Smell a vision, hopefully. But one thing, you said a word safety earlier. How safe is this metaverse because that's what also was eyeopening to me is thinking about going into a building. You just take it for granted, the building's safe, right? It's got fire escapes, it's got fire sprinkler systems, all that. You walk into a public building. And Chris has an amazing perspective of some warnings really to, how is the metaverse being built? Are there fire escapes? Are there fire extinguishers? Are there ejection buttons? Is it a safe place for brands and consumers alike? I thought that was fascinating.

Richard: Who should be building the metaverse and setting out the ground rules about how we as citizens, as consumers interact with the platform and each other? There's a reason why Boeing doesn't actually be judge and jury over the rules and regulation and safety features of building airplanes. There's a reason for that because they make the airplanes, right? So you need to have rules and regulations that are independent from the people that profit over the building of anything, whether it be safety regulations for building skyscrapers or planes or cars or whatever it may be. And we do that in all these other industries, but in the metaverse, you got Facebook running off trying to build it on their own. And that sounds pretty dangerous to me.

Tim: Well, no, you're right. And again, you got to tune in to this event with Chris, it's almost an hour long interview with you and Chris. It's February 16th. You should definitely be registering at cheetahdigital. com to go check it out. I don't want to give away too much, but you're exactly right. There is a cause for alarm, when a bunch of engineers are basically architecting a virtual world, where there is no buildings inspector. There is no fire marshal. There is no safety and emotional safety expert they going, oh. In a house you need an electrical outlet, every 12 feet, and that's universal building code in North America. There's no one saying you need an ejection button or you need an emotional out button or something in the metaverse and that's scary.

Richard: Yeah. Let's think about this. What do we talk about a lot? And when it comes to marketing and privacy issues in today's internet. We talk about how there are certain abuses or have been over the past in the way this whole ecosystem was built, because it was built for profit in an advertising format without any regulations or rules around how you respect people's data and privacy. And so you have things like the attention economy and doing absolutely everything to get people hooked and back on the platforms like Facebook, so that those platforms can sell more advertising to you because you're hooked. And they're using all these data collection apparatus on their platforms and across the open web where they did in the past. Before things like GDPR to learn as much as they could about you in order to raise the prices of advertising. So the whole ecosystem was built around the intention economy and profit and advertising. As we move into the metaverse with the promise that it could impact so many areas of our lives. From the way that our kids actually do schooling all the way through to how we interact with our physicians and our healthcare professionals. Do we really want that environment being built around and advertising and profit based ecosystem or framework? That's the question I think that Chris brings up brilliantly in this interview. And what does it mean for marketers?

Tim: Yeah. Oh gosh. It means there's so much that lies ahead. Look, it's a great session. We have about 60 seconds left. What's our call to action for our viewers right now?

Richard: Well, so call to action is come see the session. Metaverse, marketing hurdles and the future of privacy. Many marketers are thinking, particularly in the larger brands are thinking, if they haven't done already, in testing water with experiences in the metaverse. Roblox, which is the metaverse leader in my opinion, from the gaming perspective is already doing lots of brand activations. People are starting to test the waters. There was a great one with one of the games inside Roblox, Jailbreak and Nascar. inaudible are starting to think about this. I think going to this session is a great first step.

Tim: I agree. I agree. February 16th, you can see that at cheetahdigital.com. You can register there. You always follow us Apple Podcast. Subscribe to Thinking Caps. You can see us on the Cheetah Digital LinkedIn page. You can find us on YouTube.

Richard: It's bye from me.

Tim: Bye from me. All right, we'll see you next time on Thinking Caps. Thanks for watching.