Report: Marketers Anticipate More Investment in VR, AR, and the Metaverse

Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR), and the metaverse continue to create buzz within the marketing industry. Now, new research indicates that marketers are prepared to start investing in these areas to connect with customers and prospects.

Sprout Social recently published its “US Social Media Trends for 2022 and Beyond” report, and statistics indicated that over the next 12 months, approximately 50% of marketers anticipate VR, AR, or XR to play a role in their interactions with customers. Additionally, 39% of marketers said the same about the metaverse.

With this in mind, the majority of marketers (38%) claim that they anticipate spending between 25% and 50% if their budget on their metaverse, AR, and VR social strategy within the next two years.

“When it comes to emerging technologies, there are two types of crowds: early adopters and those who prefer to wait and see,” wrote the authors of the report. “Marketers are clear early adopters.”

Marketers Still Lacking Influence Over Budget Decisions

While marketers suggest that they intend to dedicate a portion of their budget to these emerging technologies, previous research suggests that many still lack spending power at their organizations.

SJT Marketing and YourMarketer teamed up to conduct the “2022 State of Marketers Survey,” and data suggested that 75% of marketers can make some type of budget decisions in their role, but not all. On a similar note, 90% of marketers claim that they can make some strategy decisions, but they do not have input over all of them.

“If they work to compile the budget and build a strategy but are unable to execute the strategy due to leadership questioning individual budget expenses as they come up, the marketing leader will have a difficult time achieving stated goals,” concluded the researchers behind the report.