👟 Into the Metaverse

The 5 Digital Marketing must-knows this week

1. Nike opens NIKELAND on Roblox. Becoming one of the first big brands to enter the "metaverse". The virtual world is modeled on Nike’s actual headquarters. Users can dress their avatar in Nike products in a digital showroom and play games like tag & dodgeball. At least for now, Nike has made NIKELAND free for users to visit.

2. Facebook launches 'Shops in Groups'. Growing Facebook's social commerce push, a new ‘Shop’ tab enables users to buy products from within the group. 1.8 billion people are using Facebook Groups every month. Facebook hasn’t specified if it will take a percentage of revenue.

3. Yelp redesigns app with an Instagram-style homepage. Users will soon scroll through a vertical feed with visual content from local restaurants. Both users and restaurants can update content including ‘Popular Dishes’.

4. Facebook launches Nextdoor competitor ‘Neighborhoods’ in the US. Neighborhoods enable users to engage with local communities, businesses, and causes. This is much like Nextdoor, who recently claimed to have 1 in 3 US households using the platform.

5. YouTube expands the use of product feeds to more campaign types. Previously product feeds were only available for conversion campaigns. Now awareness and consideration campaigns can include browsable product imagery below the video ads.

Snippets for the road

  • Report: Can you guess the most followed accounts on each social platform?

  • Facebook announced a more customizable news feed test

  • Instagram is testing a ‘take a break’ feature

  • YouTube will hide the public thumbs down button

  • You.com launches privacy-based search engine