#30: Nissan Selling Cars in the Metaverse

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TL;DR

1. Nissan: Tests End-to-End Metaverse Car Buying Experience

2. Indian Railway: Releases Commemorative NFT Train Tickets

3. Coachella: Gamifies Festival Experience with Digital & IRL Quests

4. Crate & Barrel: Updates Virtual Flagship Experience for Spring

5. Valentino: Releases New Pieces for Luxury Bitmoji Collection

Around the Block…

1. Nissan: Tests End-to-End Metaverse Car Buying Experience

• Nissan recently launched ‘NISSAN HYPE LAB’, a virtual store that takes car browsing & buying into the metaverse

• Nissan has communicated this experience as an ‘experiment’ that is available for customers buying in Tokyo until June 30th, 2024

• The experience includes a virtual showroom where shoppers can browse four Nissan models, as well as connectivity to virtual sales staff (which are IRL employees of Nissan Tokyo sales stores)

• Buyers can create their preferred car & see their drive through various scenes; they also can chat with others in a private metaverse room where friends & family can chat & contemplate the purchase

• If a customer wants to purchase or learn more about the car, they can set an appointment with the virtual staff to get any questions answered - they can also purchase a contract through the staff in the metaverse

• Nissan has previously tested the metaverses’ role in car purchasing, hosting their virtual car gallery ‘NISSAN CROSSING’, which launched in November 2021 & filing patents indicating further growth of web3 & metaverse efforts in March 2023

• Sources: NISSAN HYPE LAB / Nissan News / CoinTelegraph

2. Indian Railway: Releases Commemorative NFT Train Tickets

• The Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation announced they would be offering NFT tickets across several of their routes from March 20 - April 2, 2024, in celebration of Holi

• The NFTs, minted as soul-bound tokens on the Polygon blockchain, were available to passengers on two trains between Delhi & Lucknow - claimable through WhatsApp & SMS

• Sources: Twitter (IRCTofficial)

3. Coachella: Gamifies Festival Experience with Digital & IRL Quests

• The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival continues to lean into web3 tech to extend & enhance this year’s experience

• This time, they’ve launched Coachella Quests - a platform that rewards engagers with NFT ‘stamps’ for completing virtual & real-world tasks

  • ‘Stamps’ are in the form of NFTs on the Avalanche blockchain

• Participants can connect their OpenSea account & select their ‘Coachella Canvas Card’, which acts as their passport for the experience

• Fans can participate in various digital actions such as joining the Coachella Discord & watching past event content to claim points

• During the IRL event, participants will also be able to partake in physical scavenger hunts to capture points & ‘stamps’

• By earning points & ‘stamps’, participants will have a chance to earn rewards such as art, VIP tickets, & festival merchandise during four prize drawing periods in April

• Sources: Coachella Canvas / Avalanche 

4. Crate & Barrel: Updates Virtual Flagship Experience for Spring

• Crate & Barrel updated their virtual store experience for Spring

• The store is a virtual replica of their flagship location in NYC’s Flat Iron district, which originally launched in November, 2023 in support of the holiday shopping period

• The experience, powered by Obsess, continues to offer immersive browsing & purchasing opportunities for visitors

• Sources: Crate & Barrel Virtual Flagship 

5. Valentino: Releases New Pieces for Luxury Bitmoji Collection

• Valentino announced the release of new pieces as part of their Bitmoji fashion collection which is accessible on Snapchat

• The pieces are an extension of their initial collection launch in November 2023, originally releasing five pieces from the Maison Valentino Spring 2024 collection

• Snapchatters can unlock digital items by redeeming Snap tokens, which are available for purchase through the app

• Sources: LinkedIn (Valentino) / Valentino

Chain Reactions!

• Bringing Everyday Actions to the Metaverse

  • Nissan is acting boldly with their metaverse car browsing & buying experience. Through the experience, they have shown their willingness to put resources forward & test an unknown space. Although a virtual test drive sounds cool, I think most people would be hesitant to buy a car without test driving in the real world - it will be interesting to see their next moves; will this experience stick around? Or perhaps they take some learnings for where the metaverse fits within customers’ purchase paths

DISCLAIMER: This content does not contain investment, tax, legal, financial or other advice & is not intended to be used in this way. It includes the opinions of the author & is strictly for informational purposes. Please do your own research.