Unilever Joins the the Metaverse Movement with Decentraland (MANA)

Unilever’s top brands, including CloseUp, Magnum ice cream, and Rexona have established a presence in the metaverse through Decentraland (MANA), according to reports on August 4, 2022. Unilever has been actively exploring the potential of blockchain technology and crypto.

Unilever Ventures into the Metaverse 

Unilever, the popular British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in London, has taken a step further in its innovative technologies adoption push, as three of the company’s top brands are now live in the Decentraland (MANA) metaverse.

While some critics have in recent times described distributed ledger technology (DLT) as just a fad with no real utility except for its role as the network powering bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, the Web3 and metaverse movement is fast proving the naysayers wrong.

Per sources close to the latest development, Unilever’s Magnum ice cream recently launched a gallery in the metaverse dubbed the Magnum Pleasure Museum, to exhibit some of its original artwork from its collaborations with various artists. 

The brand also leveraged its existing partnership with Deliveeroo, a British online food delivery platform, to demonstrate that it is possible for just anyone to order real-world items in the metaverse and get them delivered to them wherever they may be in the world.

Federico Russo, Global eCommerce Lead at Magnum said:

Through our Ice Cream No business, we’re bringing people ice crams on-demand. We’ve done it through gaming with great success. This was a unique way to trial it in a new, emerging space and be a source of inspiration to other brands and industries.

Marriage in the Metaverse

While same-sex marriage remains a hugely controversial issue in various parts of the world, CloseUp, the toothpaste brand of Unilever, has launched the CloseUp City Hall of Love in Decentraland, to give all kinds of ‘lovebirds’ a chance to freely tie the knot in the metaverse and mint an NFT marriage certificate as a proof of their union. 

That’s not all, Unilever’s deodorant brand Rexona has also made its presence felt in the Decentrland virtual world by introducing adaptive wearables for Decentraland avatars, as a way of representing people with physical disabilities.

Commenting on Unilever’s latest metaverse adventure, Emily O’Brien, Program Director at the company’s in-house Web3 Collective said:

We’re presently on the cusp of a seismic shift: the biggest change to the digital landscape, and culture, since the dawn of social media in the early 2000s with Web2. We know our consumers are already immersing themselves in these spaces and spending a significant part of their time with virtual experiences that enable them to explore their passions, participate in cultural events, and engage with like-minded communities.

O’Brien also noted that while the metaverse represents a great opportunity for brands to engage more with consumers and expand their reach, “they must endeavor to offer genuine utility to consumers and not just jump on the bandwagon.”

It’s worth noting that other leading brands have also set up shop in the Decentraland metaverse in recent times, including entertainment giant CBS, Jamie Dimon’s JPMorgan Chase bank, Samsung, Coca-Cola, and a host of others.

At the time of writing, Decentraland’s native cryptocurrency, MANA is the 36th-largest digital currency in the world. The price of MANA is hovering around $0.993338, with a market cap of $1,846,099,145.