In the ever-evolving landscape of digital advertising, brands and retailers are continuously looking for ways to capture new audiences—and Roblox is amping up the advertising game with immersive ads on their platform. With nearly 80 million daily active users, the gaming platform is prime real estate to get more eyeballs. Roblox, a platform known for its user-generated games and social interactions, offers a unique canvas for advertisers seeking to captivate younger, tech-savvy audiences.
Immersive Marketing Capabilities on Roblox
Branded Roblox experiences are revolutionizing the way companies engage with younger generations, and immersive advertising functionality enables them to extend their reach across virtual spaces by directly integrating ads into the experience. Blending seamlessly into the gaming environment, advertisers are able to reach new audiences without disrupting gaming flow and connect new, highly-engaged users to their brand experience.
Roblox’s ad system supports 3 formats:
Video ads – where advertisers can serve up to 30 seconds of video content for users to watch in-experience, videos can be both click-to-play or set to autoplay
Image ads – insert static, non-clickable images within the 3D space; think of a virtual, in-game billboard for Roblox brand experiences
Portal ads – a static, non-clickable image with a door to teleport users into an advertiser’s brand experience, driving discoverability and engagement at scale
Brands and retailers can opt for always-on engagement, creating evergreen content to market an evolving brand world, or campaign focused creatives that entice users to explore themed experiences or events—allowing brands to experiment and find innovative ways to capture their audience’s attention.
Each ad format allows for highly targeted advertising, ensuring that the ads are relevant to the audience and enhancing the chances of engagement. Ad content is dynamic and specific to the user—if a user is ineligible to see ads, ad units will default to display the Roblox logo.
amika on Roblox: Virtual Advertising
Haircare brand, amika, debuted their Roblox brand collaboration with Obsess, a colorful playscape embodying the brand’s commitment to inclusion, responsibility and sustainability. The amikaverse is a community-centric extension of the brand’s purpose filled with custom branded mini-games and exclusive UGCs that empower self-expression. To drive traffic to the experience, amika included immersive ads in Roblox, pushing new users to the amikaverse through the use of portal ads. By teleporting users to their virtual world with portal ads, amika was able to scale their discoverability and maximize their reach on the platform.
Natively placed ads in the immersive environment allows advertisers to strengthen their Roblox brand partnerships by building brand affinity with leaned-in audiences across the platform, connecting new users to their brand experiences and building their brand on Roblox.
To learn more about how Obsess can help you extend your brand on Roblox, email us at contact@obsessvr.com or book a demo.
Those who have been using Copilot in Teams actively on chats and channels, have very likely hit this issue when Copilot doesn’t seem to understand when asked about messages in a specific time frame that was further in history. For example, asking Copilot to summarize key action items from last week worked without issues, but asking that for something that was more than a month ago provided mixed results as it sometimes seemed to work and sometimes didn’t.
In fact, Copilot’s “sense of time” in chats and channels was limited to the last 30 days of data in Copilot in Teams chats and channels.
Before this rollout, when users asked Copilot about a long time period (such as “Summarize the key action items from March”), Copilot was limited to the last 30 days of data.
Check out M365 Admin Center Message center, with message id MC801583 and public roadmap.
Message center states also other improvements Copilot in Teams is getting: Improvements to how Copilot in Teams understands and responds to time-related queries in chat and channels. With this rollout, Copilot will provide more precise and relevant responses to prompts such as “yesterday,” “last week,” and “last month.”
How is this change going to be seen in action when using Copilot in Teams? Looking at Message center’s photos there will be two key changes:
Improved sense of time
Simplified timestamp for indicating the timeframe
This update should roll out during this month (August 2024). Targeted release tenants may already have it or get it soon and general availability will be rolling during mid-August to the end of August. This will only affect people who has Copilot for Microsoft 365 -license. The update will be affecting all clients: Desktop, Mac, New Teams Web version and Teams mobile apps.
I needed to try this one early summer in the demo environment to see the impact of this change. Using Copilot side panel for channel conversation thread in Teams.
The chats and channels Copilot provided an answer that included data from December – January, but it the end date was at the end of May. It was at the end of May, when the thread had the last messages. The answer contained only information during December-January messages, so Copilot understood the timeframe already. The reason for this may be that the conversation thread is not too long and thus can be included easily to the language model. However, the result Copilot provided wasn’t fully complete.
Doing the same mid-August, we can see the timestamp has been simplified. This time the result includes all messages and their key tasks.
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Published by Vesa Nopanen
Vesa “Vesku” Nopanen, Principal Consultant and Microsoft MVP (M365 and AI Platform) working on Future Work at Sulava.
I work, blog and speak about Future Work : AI, Microsoft 365, Copilot, Microsoft Mesh, Metaverse, and other services & platforms in the cloud connecting digital and physical and people together.
I have about 30 years of experience in IT business on multiple industries, domains, and roles.
View all posts by Vesa Nopanen
Gamification can be leveraged to uplevel a brand’s marketing strategy—creating engaging, novelty experiences that captivate the end user. The use of game design elements, in traditionally non-gaming contexts, creates an interactive experience that is unique and memorable. Immersive, gamified experiences have been proven to boost shopper engagement, increase time spent with your brand and deepen consumer relationships with your products and services.
By tapping into the psychological principles of gamification, like competition, achievement and recognition, brands and retailers can captivate shoppers with custom branded experiences. Custom gamification as a marketing strategy enables brands and retailers to retain customer loyalty and increase retention, gain robust consumer insights and increase brand education.
Customer Loyalty and Retention
Brands and retailers can utilize custom mini-games to simultaneously create memorable brand experiences, and encourage customers to return and engage with your brand more often. Using game-like rewards and challenges can incentivize long-term engagement and retention by tapping into consumers’ natural drive for competition, achievement and recognition.
Korean beauty brand, Laneige, incorporated gaming elements into their Virtual World prompting users to discover numerous products, the brand’s scientific background and marketing campaign assets. The featured Scavenger Hunt game encouraged users to explore the experience in order to find hidden icons, leading to a reward upon completion: a 5-piece gift with purchase.
Gain Consumer Insights
Gamification methods, such as product recommendation quizzes, provide rich zero-party data by capturing direct feedback from customers, offering detailed insights into their preferences, needs and behaviors that can fine-tune your marketing and product development strategy.
Obsess brand partner, Olaplex, utilized branded quizzes to gain zero-party data in their Virtual Salon with their Hair Diagnostic questionnaire; the interactive quiz provided users with a curated hair regimen full of the brand’s products, based on their answers. By filling out the questionnaire, consumers are providing the brand with data they otherwise would not have, allowing Olaplex to capture in-depth information on what their audience is looking for.
Immersive gamified experiences also enable brands to capture robust first-party data such as in-scene behavior. Brands are able to access information such as which product displays are the most appealing, and what their most popular offerings are based on how shoppers engage with different products and pages.
Increased Brand Education
Immersing shoppers into your virtual world helps with brand education and recall. Virtual stores and experiences are a unique and memorable forum for you to host educational content around your brand’s story and offerings. Including custom gamification, such as interactive quizzes and games, simplifies complex product details and campaigns, and turns them into engaging experiences that help your customers retain key information about your brand.
For example, in honor of J.Crew’s 40th anniversary the classic American fashion retailer partnered with Obsess to release a Virtual Beach House. The immersive flagship experience showcased the brand’s products in classic J.Crew print-themed rooms, and commemorated the brand’s heritage with exclusive content and custom gamification such as the Catalog Cover Pop Quiz where users were encouraged to test their J.Crew knowledge. The fashion brand later refreshed their Virtual World to celebrate their holiday campaign, aligning with their marketing calendar.
Gamification is a powerful brand marketing tool that brands and retailers can use to uplevel their strategy. Explore gamification in Obsess-powered experiences and learn how innovative brands like yours can deploy gamification tactics into your marketing strategy. To talk to one of our specialists, email us at contact@obsessvr.com or book a demo.
Metaverse land prices have fallen nearly 95% from their peak values, according to a CoinGecko report.
In 2024, the cost of metaverse lands ranged between 0.08 ETH and 1.88 ETH, representing an average 72% drop from their all-time high. Over the years, the price drops compared to their peaks were 34% from 2023 and 55% from 2022.
Among the various metaverse projects, Sandbox has experienced the most notable decline. Its average floor price fell from 2.86 ETH in 2021 to 0.13 ETH in 2024, marking a 95% decrease.
Conversely, NFT Worlds, which rebranded to TOPIA Worlds in 2023 under the larger Hytopia brand, showed relative resilience. Despite a 65% drop from peak to bottom, its floor price decline was less severe compared to others.
Other NFT collections with significant drawdowns are NFT Worlds (-45%), Otherdeed (-85%), and Decentraland (-89%).
The report highlights an “interesting trend” in Somnium Space, an open and social virtual reality (VR) world built on the Ethereum blockchain. Its peak average floor price was observed in 2023 at 0.98 ETH, up from 0.57 ETH in 2022.
This increase coincided with the release of the Somnium VR1, a high-end VR headset, and significant development announcements.
Days of high prices
During the last stretch of the bull market in 2022, NFT Worlds commanded the highest prices, with an average floor price of 3.29 ETH and an all-time high of 13.5 ETH in March 2022.
Otherdeed, from Yuga Labs’ metaverse Otherside, followed with an average price of 1.98 ETH and a peak of 5 ETH in May 2022. Sandbox and Decentraland also saw high valuations, with average floor prices of 1.91 ETH and 1.73 ETH, respectively.
The surge in prices in 2022 corresponded with record-high interest in the metaverse. Google search trends for the term ‘Metaverse’ peaked in January 2022, reflecting a 106% increase from 2021 and mirroring the heightened interest in digital real estate and Web3 technologies during the bull market.
CoinGecko’s methodology involved examining the prices of selected metaverse lands in ETH from Jan. 1, 2021, to June 25. The metaverse lands analyzed included Otherdeeds, Sandbox, Decentraland, Somnium Space, Voxels, Worldwide Webb, NFT Worlds, and Topia Worlds.
The Volumetric Media Interoperability EG seeks to build understanding around volumetric media and draft a charter for a “Volumetric Media Interoperability” Domain Working Group. Opportunities for more immersive services are increasing as volume capturing and rendering devices become more readily available. As a result, more technologies are being developed to address the requirements for compressing, storing, and delivering volumetric media. Multiple SDOs (e.g. 5G-MAG, 3GPP, MPEG, VFA, SVTA, DVB, SBTVD, etc.) have established isolated focus or study groups to solve issues affecting volumetric media services. Because of the wide-spread interest and isolated initiatives, the volumetric media ecosystem is becoming fragmented.
Education and training in the Metaverse are becoming essential for all organizations, whether for internal skill development or external educational offerings. By compiling information from diverse sources, this register will serve to inform stakeholders about the current landscape of Metaverse education and potentially streamline their approaches by collating best practices, challenges, and emerging trends. It is important to note that “education and training in the Metaverse” would refer to both teaching within and about the Metaverse.
After a month-long hiatus, I find myself back in the familiar yet ever-evolving landscape of technology. My time away was a precious opportunity to disconnect, recharge, and spend time with family and close relatives. To my surprise, I spent less time on LinkedIn during my vacation. It’s in these quiet interludes that are needed and we get renewed. And talking about renewals, I am humbled and honored to share with you that I was renewed for a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) year. This is my 6th year in the program, and it has been a great ride. I have met and connected with so many people, that I would not have met without being an MVP. All those people spark and ignite inspiration and there is a massive amount of knowledge, insights and experiences shared! I changed a category a bit this time again, as it has been the era of AI (Artificial Intelligence), I received dual-category MVP award for Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Teams) and AI Platform (Azure AI Services). Check out my MVP profile!
As I reacquaint myself with the bustling world of exciting tech, I am particularly focused to the advancements in Microsoft’s Cloud. The pace of innovation never stops, and it’s clear that Microsoft Copilot, Teams, and Azure AI have not stood still during July. In this post, I’ll be highlighting some selected features in Copilot and Teams (& Mesh) that have caught my attention – I will write about Azure AI later. From intelligent aid to collaborative breakthroughs, these tools are reshaping the way we work and interact.
Don’t miss these events, where I am speaking during autumn!
Let’s start exploring what’s new!
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 Catch up Outlook Word Excel Microsoft Teams Custom emojis Turn on and off channel post notifications Microsoft Designer in Teams New Notification options Microsoft Mesh
Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365
Catch up
I have been waiting for this one to appear. Catch up helps you get up to speed with the help of Copilot regarding documents and meetings. You can find this when you open Copilot and notice Catch up next to “Try these prompts”.
Catch up is a new tab you can just open and see what kind of updates there are. I don’t see this yet in all tenants where I have access to the Copilot so it is still rolling in.
My personal tenant does not have any other collaborators, so catch up will be less useful in that one. But I hope to see this in my work tenant soon. Looking at picture at Microsoft’s material we can see better what this will be when you see it in your Copilot:
The Catch up feature displays personalized cards offering significant updates and actionable recommendations, allowing you to swiftly grasp important points from materials and recorded sessions that you did not attend or might want to review. Additionally, Copilot assists in meeting preparation by recommending associated documents.
Outlook
The side-panel Copilot in Outlook, can initiate now a new draft reply to an email message – using the information in email messages. For example (note: typos don’t matter 😊 )
It creates a new draft message in Outlook, and lets you continue working on the reply from there.
Word
I think the biggest news here is that Copilot’s context has increased. Now Copilot in Word can summarize documents containing (approx) up to 80 000 words – that is about 160 pages. This depends on the language as well. My guess is that Copilot in Word is now internally using GPT-4o model with 128k token context. As tokens are parts of words, it would target 80k words in document ballpark.
Excel
When users request Copilot to modify table data, it outlines the intended changes and presents a button to execute the alterations, giving users better insight to determine whether to go ahead with the alteration. Users can adjust the changes before applying them at their convenience. For example, I have this (very small) sample dataset:
When I ask Copilot to highlight months where sales are larger than opportunities it shows me what it is going to do. It is great how Copilot will be saving time when working with conditional formatting in Excel.
After hitting Apply, it does the highlighting for me.
Currently Copilot in Excel doesn’t have the capability to add a sum cell (like for example Sum of Sales), but it was announced during July that it will be coming soon. When I just tried it out, it is still summing it the old way: adding a pivot table to a new sheet. Fingers crossed it will appear soon!
Microsoft Teams
Now, let’s get to what’s new in Teams. First, I want to highlight something fun:
Custom emojis
Yes, you can add your own images and gifs to Teams message reactions. You can start adding your custom emojis by selecting the emoji+ icon right before the pen-icon to edit your message.
When the pop-out opens, click the rightmost icon on the bottom row.
This is where you can start adding your own gifs and images by clicking + and then selecting the image (or gif) you want to use as emoji. I already have added Copilot and clippy, but there is room for more. When you have added the image, you get a window to see example uses and you need to enter a unique name to your reaction. The name needs to be lowercase and without spaces.
And as the information box on top says: emojis you add will be visible for everyone in your organization. Your identity is also linked to your emoji. Let’s name this emoji mesh.
After clicking Add emoji you can see mesh emoji in custom emojis.
We can use it normally .
We can also add custom emojis to our selected emojis to react messages.
To edit your favorite emojis, select the smiley + pen icon next to search magnification glass on “Find something fun”.
You can also add custom emojis to your messages. Just open the emoji-button and search for it (or navigate to custom emojis and select the one you want to use).
Quite fun, isn’t it? Adding custom emojis is on by default for all users and admins can delete them.
Right clicks the emoji, to open information who added it and optionally delete it, if you have delete permissions.
Now, if you are an admin or business decision maker worried about people putting all kinds of emojis there are controls available.
Turn the feature on/off for the whole tenant via the Messaging Settings page (on by default).
Set which users can create new emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (on for all users by default).
Set which users can delete emojis via the Messaging Policy groups (off for all users except admins by default).
Read more from custom emojis Microsoft Learn article.
Turn on and off channel post notifications
If you want to follow-up conversation in a conversation thread in channels – or you want to mute it just click the … menu in the message to see the option.
Turning off notifications is especially useful, when you add something to the thread but don’t want to be bothered by it anymore.
Microsoft Designer in Teams
What is quite fun (and also useful!), is that Microsoft Designer is now integrated directly into Teams. You can use it in both chats and channels. With Designer you can generate images without leaving Teams at all.
Just at-mention Designer when writing a message and type in your image prompt.
Designer then creates the image directly to the conversation
Just click the image open, you want to use, and copy or download it.
New Notification options
And as the closing feature, check out new notification settings there are for notification sounds.
It is good to have more control when sounds are played with notifications.
Microsoft Mesh
Microsoft Mesh also got news during July. A few key picks of recent ones:
Event templates updatedPrebuilt event templates (Meadow and Oasis) have gotten updates. They automatically now include screenshare object, so these templates can be used in more scenarios without a need to make any kind of customizations. Customization is still available normally, when you want to add images, videos, etc.
Revisit event links Use past links you’ve received when you created your event, or share the link with others, to rejoin old events. Simply select the link to open the Mesh application and rejoin your past events.
More avatar reactionsNew avatar reactions are coming both on Teams and Mesh events.
Avatar personal boundaryThis one will be useful for a plenty of people. Avatars now have a personal boundary to prevent other people from walking through avatars or standing too close. This helps to increase comfort and safety while in immersive spaces. Avatar personal boundary is available in all Mesh experiences.
Updates to network setup requirements, improved audio qualityMicrosoft Mesh is transitioning to use Microsoft Teams’ backend for spatial audio, promising improved audio quality and simpler network setup requirements for users with Mesh app versions 5.2407+. The rollout, starting now, is expected to complete by late July 2024. No admin action is required before the rollout.
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Published by Vesa Nopanen
Vesa “Vesku” Nopanen, Principal Consultant and Microsoft MVP (M365 and AI Platform) working on Future Work at Sulava.
I work, blog and speak about Future Work : AI, Microsoft 365, Copilot, Microsoft Mesh, Metaverse, and other services & platforms in the cloud connecting digital and physical and people together.
I have about 30 years of experience in IT business on multiple industries, domains, and roles.
View all posts by Vesa Nopanen
