The easiest way to raise awareness of the power of deepfake is to build a system in which anyone can insert their face in place of an actor's face in a recorded video. We used such a solution in the Tymbark juice campaign. The user uploaded his or her photo and the system reproduced it in the video. This way, any Internet user could generate a video where they appeared in a clip with a well-known artist.

Achieving this, however, was no mean feat. In the course of analysing the available IT solutions, it became apparent that they require a gigantic amount of computing power, and it takes... several hours to generate an animation with a user's photo.

After many optimisations and the use of innovative characteristic facial point layout caching, we achieved incredible results! We reduced the video clip generation time to just 2.5 seconds.

In an equally experimental project for Netflix, we used face de-aging technology to create a rejuvenated face. The user uploaded a selfie in which the system mapped dozens of points on the eyes, mouth, nose, forehead, or hair and created a mask, which it applied to a video of a teenager. When the user took a wide point call on their smartphone a moment later, a 12-year-old child appeared on the screen, confusingly superimposed onto the adult caller. Thanks to AI, the virtual character was able to actively converse with the user.

Deepfake will continue to work ever faster and more efficiently. We will start to use the technology to create unique entertainment services, but also, for example, in customer service - to generate images of virtual assistants. It will also allow us to create avatars similar to ourselves in the metaverse.

In the wrong hands, however, deepfake can be used to discredit or even blackmail famous people. There have already been cases where someone has replaced the face of porn actors with that of famous people. Major technology companies are trying to find ways of recognising such manipulated footage.

The sooner we familiarise audiences with deepfake technology and show its capabilities, the sooner we will make the public immune to cyber attacks using it.

Deepfakes are videos that have been manipulated using a machine learning technique known as deep learning. They were popularized by a Reddit user going by the name Deepfakes, whose initial forays used machine learning to swap celebrities' faces with porn actors'. The technique was later adopted by others, who also built software to automate the process. The technology has advanced since then, but the basic idea remains simple: There's an algorithm that can analyze the contents of two images—such as two different people's faces—and map one onto the other without too much extra work. That means it's now possible to create convincing fake videos that show people doing and saying things they never did.

Will AI replace Marketing Specialists?

Although AI for the marketing industry has been rapidly developing in recent years, without building unnecessary tension, we can reveal that it is not yet replacing marketers. AI is currently helping marketers in many aspects of their work, but it does not seem likely that it will completely replace them. Artificial intelligence is used for data analysis, content personalization, and task automation, but people and their ability to understand context are still needed to interpret the needs and preferences of customers, create and implement marketing strategies, and make decisions about the direction of the company.

AI cannot replace the creativity and interpersonal skills of marketers, but it can help them in their daily work. On the one hand, the industry is already intensively testing the generative capabilities of artificial intelligence in the field of automatic content (ChatGPT) or image (Mindjourney) creation. On the other hand, internet monitoring tools supported by a solid AI engine, such as Brand24, provide marketers with effective support in understanding the needs of their audience, for example, through sentiment analysis of content or automatic conclusion drawing, which is currently being tested. Therefore, broadly understood automation will improve more and more areas of marketers' work, relieving them of monotonous, time-consuming tasks, but the most interesting and creative part still remains in the hands of humans.

We are living in disruptive times when artificial intelligence is able to replace the graphic designer or copywriter in many cases. In theory. In practice, there is still a long way to go before artificial intelligence masters the craft, but there is no escaping the content revolution that is lurking around the corner. For the moment, we must proceed with great caution and prudence in the use of AI tools in content creation. The lack of clear legal regulations, the discussions and protests by artists regarding copyright infringement by AI engines 'learning' from their work, and the need to consider each case individually, severely limits the use of freely available AI engines for commercial work.

Yes, at the ideation, visualisation and inspiration stages, it is an unrivalled tool, but it will be some time before robots start dreaming of electric sheep for good. Before there is a fully-fledged campaign based on AI, we can watch it develop in the field of art (music videos) or take its first steps in writing dissertations for high school and university students. Due to the fact that the engines "don't understand" what they are creating in many cases we get what I call "beautiful gibberish", i.e. a seemingly impressive image containing many errors and contradictions and conventionalities to fool the eye. Another element is what I call the “macdonaldisation of content”. - that is, the opportunity that AI creates - to create a very large amount of very simple content at a speed that is incomparable to human work. Very many brands on social media are making similar statements - automating these messages seems to be within reach. Where then will the creative human move to? How will it compete with the machine? That's a topic for a completely different statement, perhaps already generated by Ai.

Attention, copywriters! Attention, graphic designers! Your days may be numbered. Artificial intelligence, which has so far performed mathematical operations on data, has just started a career in creation. Is it a threat to your professional positions?

We tested the readiness of artificial intelligence to produce creative content. And while the entire report is the result of original analytical and creative work by our team and invited experts, the description of each trend includes content that was written by... artificial intelligence. In each case, all we had to do was give it a few keywords. The quality of the texts really surprised us. They are so factually correct that we decided to include them in the trend book.

You could also see how AI is doing with image creation in the introduction to this trend. These new properties can now also be used creatively in marketing, engaging audiences in original interactions with brands.

The increasing computing power of computers means that the effectiveness of artificial intelligence is steadily rising. The number of areas of life in which it is used is also growing. AI can thus go from analysing the results of complex medical tests to helping customers select clothes in salons equipped with smart mirrors. Will it take on the production of animations, advertising spots, and films? Probably, although not anytime soon...

Artificial intelligence algorithms are preparing a real revolution for us. And it's very fast. In just 5 days, the ChatGPT algorithm owned by OpenAI gained a million users. This is a historic result looking at growth rate of registration. Better than Netflix, Facebook or iPhone. Why? Because finally AI algorithms got really, really good.

A few weeks ago I started my adventure with AI, using the Midjourney algorithm, in which artificial intelligence turns text descriptions into images. Today I have the impression that I have found something that I have been looking for most of my professional career. A quick and cheap way to translate the images I have in my head into digital versions - visible on the computer screen. From the point of view of a person involved in the advertising industry for over 20 years, I am delighted and inspired. The benefits that AI technology can bring to the creative process in an advertising agency are invaluable today. But I am convinced that the change will be revolutionary.

Legal regulations are a key issue from the point of view of further development of this technology. Today it is not obvious how the law for AI works. Therefore, it will be difficult to recommend agency's clients to use AI to create full-scale communication, but I am convinced that it is only a matter of time.

AI tools can help you get closer to your customers. By improving your understanding of the people behind those customer profiles, you'll be able to create more personalized experiences for them. And by understanding their needs, wants, and desires better than ever before, you'll be able to deliver better products and services that they'll love—and pay for.

Artificial intelligence has become a key digital marketing channel. AI is used for lead generation, customer service, analyzing data and content marketing. With the proliferation of artificial intelligence in the market, companies are finding new ways to use it as a means of creating personalized experiences for their customers. In addition to personalization, companies can also use artificial intelligence to improve the performance of their operations by increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

Augmented reality is a world added on top of the existing world. So you can virtually transform and embellish what actually exists. Change colours and shapes, add effects, and bring still life to life. So, where previously a brand's world was a set of imaginative images glued to a product and encoded in the consumer's memory, now it can be evoked instantly. All it takes is to point the camera installed in every smartphone at the physical product. Though that's not limited to products...

The webAR engine detects a marker, which can be a graphic, text, or colour. It can then replace each of these - freely, according to your choice - with an animation, a 3D object, a regular graphic, a video, or an animation. To run augmented reality, you no longer need an app. webAR runs in a web browser, which is what every smartphone is equipped with today. The barrier to entry into the world of augmented reality has therefore disappeared. However, the smooth operation of AR requires the real-time processing of huge amounts of data. To this end, we have developed one of the world's first webAR engines.

With such systems it becomes possible, for example, to create phygital fashion. These are physically existing garments that provide users with a unique digital experience. It could be a colour-printed T-shirt. When you look at it through your smartphone camera, you will see a static graphic come to life. Phygital fashion strongly engages audiences and helps make a brand or product viral. It also familiarises users with the digital dimension of fashion. Phygital fashion is a step towards digital fashion, created for the metaverse.

It is estimated that more than 1 billion people will use augmented reality in 2022. By 2024, there are expected to be more than 1.7 billion AR users. The popularity of AR is translating into industry growth. See how webAR technology has been used by major brands.

The data shows that 23% of online activity in 2022 in Poland was about Augmented Reality (larger ones are, for example, 53% online games and 76% online TV). Predictions also show that the value of the global mobile AR market is growing relentlessly and in 2022 it was $16.58 billion (1.07 billion users), and will grow to $21.07 billion (and 1.4 billion users) the following year. The European AR/VR market alone is said to quadruple in size over the next three years. There is no doubt that we are in for a boom in AR technology and capabilities, the first harbingers of which we have been seeing for several years now. In 2022, we could see an increase in the importance of mobile - also in e-commerce, and this has resulted in the interest of brands in the context of AR shopping (virtual fitting rooms, product demo/presentation) and hybrid events - these two applications will certainly be the most important in 2023. The development of AR fashion / virtual clothes has also accelerated, which, however, is still limited by the technological possibilities for body tracking. The key use of AR, however, was entertainment - especially in the context of social media, where interesting possibilities for the application of filters have developed (the proliferation of TikTok among a wide age group was a huge contributor to this growth).

webAR is a new technology that combines the interactive features of a web page with the ability to interact with 3D objects and environments. webAR can be used for all types of applications, including marketing, advertising, ecommerce and education. webAR is a new way to engage with customers. It can be used to create a unique experience for customers. webAR can also be used to provide customer support, which increases customer satisfaction and helps you retain them longer. If you are looking for ways to promote products and services, then webAR offers that opportunity as well.

Do you remember the sound of a modem connecting to the Internet via the telephone socket? And the tunes from iconic computer games: Pacman, Nintendo, or The Witcher? The digital world spoke to us early on. But when our system crashed again, a program failed to save changes to a file, or we had to reinstall the software - technology remained deaf to our curses for many years.

Until she appeared. Alexa. Our long-desired goldfish who makes dreams come true. When necessary, she will turn on the music, and check the temperature outside the window or the theatre repertoire. She will point out the capital city of the most exotic country in the world and give you a comprehensive overview of its political system. And when asked, she will dial your friend's telephone number.

Amazing? Someone will say that Google has been providing us with all this information for years. Agreed, but have you ever talked to Google before? Technological development has brought us to a point where devices communicate with us by voice. They don't just speak to us, they listen to us. And, most importantly, they are increasingly fluent in understanding our speech.

Voice recognition has enabled customer service automation at call centres. It is also increasingly bold in changing consumer habits. How much easier it is to dictate a list of products that are missing from the fridge than to write them down on a piece of paper or even on a smartphone. Voice systems quickly search for goods in shops and compare their prices. To make things even easier, industry giants are working on voice-based payment authorisation, e.g. Google is testing the Voice Match tool. Research shows that almost half of US smart speaker users already use them to order their purchases at home. In 2022, this market reached $40 billion in the US and UK alone.

Voice technologies are also changing the way smart devices are managed. Systems installed in homes, offices, or cars are responding to voice. They are making us even more multifunctional. Voice recognition also has enormous potential in entertainment. It is also changing education, for example by increasingly daring to replace language teachers.

Voice recognition is becoming more popular for many reasons. For one thing, voice assistants are accessible to almost everyone. You can use Siri on your phone or Google Assistant on your computer without having to buy a special piece of hardware—just download the app and get started!

Because it's so easy to set up and use, voice recognition is being used more often by both businesses and individuals. For example, one company makes it possible for you to use your voice instead of typing in commands for some tasks using software called Dragon Dictation (which means that if you talk like someone from Boston does).

The future of voice recognition includes many more applications and even more sophisticated systems. A company called Nuance has built a system that allows users to use their voices to control everything from their televisions and home security systems to industrial robots! The possibilities are endless; as long as you have an internet connection (or bluetooth), you'll be able to take advantage of these incredible advances soon enough!

Gaming as the strongest passion point among young people has become a must have in the communication plan of almost all big brands. Thanks to more spending by marketers in the past year, we have seen the slow return of offline events (including those created 100% by brands), and there has also been a lot of love affair with virtual experiences on gaming proto-metaverse platforms. We're also seeing more games on TikTok or Netflix.

What's in store for us? More Discord, which is the leading communicator for gamers and is currently growing faster than the aforementioned TikTok. The trend of using proto-metaverse platforms (such as Roblox or Fortnite) to create branded worlds will continue to grow. Watching the development of AI, we can also expect a lot of automation. Personally, I'm hoping that this will finally be the year of greater inclusivity and appreciation of the likes of Maryam Maher in esports, a foretaste of which was given when the Polish team of NAVI Javelins won the IESF World Esports Championship 2022 in CS:GO!

Gaming is experiencing a renaissance. The coronavirus pandemic, which has locked us indoors and forced us to seek entertainment as a substitute for visits to pubs or tropical travel, has increased the global number of gamers, the time they spend in virtual worlds, and the number of interactions they have there with other users. The result? In 2022, for the first time in history, the global revenue of the video games industry exceeded USD 200 billion. And, experts predict, the following years will grow at a rate of around 10 per cent year-on-year.

Other figures are equally impressive. There are 3.2 billion gamers worldwide - that's almost half of the global population! On average, they are between 16 and 44 years old. And if you look at the gender breakdown, up to half of the active gamers are women. This is why many female brands are already implementing in-game marketing campaigns. We also expect to see more games aimed at ladies in the near future.

And speaking of new titles, there will be more indie games on the market. The first quarter of 2023 will see the release of Kerbal Space Program 2, a space flight simulator, Manor Lords, which is filled with Slavic magic, and the adventure game Pixelshire, among others. What these games have in common is that they have been created by teams of independent programmers and graphic designers, without the support of large publishers. The development of such games is encouraged by the policy of platforms such as Roblox. They allow users to upload their productions and play games created by others.

The popularity of gaming is also helping to popularise e-sports. The number of professional gamers is increasing, which in turn leads to a growing number of spectators. Experts say that this creates revenue potential comparable to the American NBA basketball league or the NHL hockey league. In the future, e-sports competitions, although still virtual, may gain a more real dimension. But that's a story for the metaverse, which we will take up in one of the next sections of our report.

The world of video games is a huge industry, with the potential to reach millions of people. That's why it's no surprise that marketers have realized they can use the medium to reach consumers. From the most popular video games to the most popular social games, there are many ways for marketers to reach consumers. Supercell's Hay Day and Clash of Clans have generated $630 million in revenues so far, and Nintendo has increased its marketing efforts to get women interested in playing Wii U. Marketers are using a variety of tactics to connect with millennials on their terms and in the environments they frequent online.

The popularity of video games among women is another reason why they're such an attractive channel for marketers: 40% of American female gamers are above the age of 50 (compared with 20% of male gamers), so older consumers are also an important target demographic for many brands.

A great illustration of how diverse the approach to hacking in marketing communications can be came from the recent editions of Cannes Lions. We are talking about three campaigns that made a strong presence at the festivals: iTest by Samsung, Stevenage Challenge and ThisAbles. In the first one, DDB New Zealand hacked the iPhone, giving its users the opportunity to test the Android interface. In the second one, DAVID Madrid's agency hacked Fifa... by persuading Burger King to sponsor an unknown team from British League Two. And in the third one, Ikea Israel allowed the users to hack its own products to make them more disability-friendly.

It is worth remembering, however, that the phenomenon of hacking in marketing is nothing new. Brands have been hacking touchpoints or their competitors for a long time. Ambush marketing, which was triumphant a decade ago, is based on this approach. The aforementioned Burger King has been playing marketing ping-pong with McDonald's for years. Several years ago, the Polish branch of Skoda, together with the Change agency, turned a one-sided medium such as traditional TV into an interactive experience by broadcasting two versions of the same spot on TVP1 and TVP2 at the same time. This allowed the user, while switching between channels, to test the new functionality of the remote-controlled car boot opening.

The intensification of this phenomenon in recent years is due, on the one hand, to the availability of more and more new tools (ThisAbles would not have been possible without the spread of 3D printing, and iTest without PWA technology), but, above all, to the demands of the battle for the attention of the consumer living in a nanosecond culture.

Hacking is a risk that can only be taken by strong brands. And marketers with strong nerves! Various technologies are used for hacking, but in this case, they are secondary. What’s at the forefront is irony. Campaigns using hacking wink at the viewer. They represent a kind of more or less intelligent puzzle to be solved. If the audience recognises this intellectual playfulness and correctly reads the brand’s hidden intentions, they will feel satisfaction and build or strengthen their emotional connection with it. Worse, if the audiences fail to decode the joke as the creator intended. This may harm the brand’s image, or even expose it to a communication crisis.

Who is strong enough to face hacking? Netflix, McDonald's, Tinder, and Samsung have all tapped into this trend perfectly, which is why we present their case studies in our trend book.

We decided to use hacking for an important social cause. We created an app that hacked the phone of a volunteer helping refugees from Africa and the Middle East trying to cross the Polish- Belarusian border into the European Union. Of course, she was a fictional character, but her background was based on a true story. Users could view the girl's private records, photos, and chats on their smartphones. This allowed them to find out what she was doing, thinking, and feeling. We used a hacking technique so that, in the media and political news hype about refugees storming the Polish border, audiences could understand the true motivation of the volunteers who, at the risk of attracting the attention of authorities, were prepared to save the lives of migrants from Asia and Africa.

In the world of marketing, hacking is a way to try new things and take risks. It's about testing new ideas that may or may not work, but at least give you insight into what your ideal clients want from you. Hacking might mean trying out a new social media platform or reaching out to influencers in your industry for support. It can be as simple as making some changes to your website design or implementing a new marketing campaign with new tactics that seem like they might work better than what you've been doing before.

What is Twitter without the content created by millions of individual users and media broadcasters, NGOs, and companies? It's a set of functionalities that become useless without the engagement and creativity of Internet users. And perhaps that's what Elon Musk was thinking when he withdrew his initial offer to buy the service with a media blitz. As he argued, its owners had failed to provide him with reliable data on the number of tweets posted by bots.

Did he eventually learn the data? We don't know. What we do know is that Twitter was bought. Shortly after he spent $44 billion on it, he fired half the staff. Other employees started to leave, protesting against the arbitrary behaviour of the new owner. For several weeks, the biggest discussion on Twitter was caused by... Twitter itself

Musk has become the new face of Twitter, although the investment has been made by a wider range of businessmen. They include the creator of PayPal, a well-known cryptocurrency investor, and even one of the Saudi princes. What is this eclectic coalition's plan for the service? Forgive us, in this case, we do not dare to make predictions.

Meanwhile, we can see that each of us is active on at most two social networks. As our attention is increasingly drawn to thematic sites, general platforms such as Facebook and Twitter must be losing out. As a result, social media marketing campaigns are also becoming more specific and creative. Would you imagine that the respectable, elegant, and dignified city of Vienna would use the porn-filled OnlyFans website to promote itself? And yet... Be sure to take a look at the case studies!

The success of TikTok shows that it is short videos that engage users the most, which is why their number on social media will continue to grow. At the same time, there is a growing public awareness of the role of algorithms in the distribution of content on platforms, as well as the participation of bots in discussions on them. For this reason, there is a growing number of people who are consciously opting out of social media.

However, the world abhors a vacuum. So independent social networks are emerging on the horizon. Among the most interesting is Germany's Mastodon, which operates like a federation of servers. You sign up to a select one and can publish “toots”, or tweet-like posts, on its network.

Today, it is a formula that is still quite complicated to use. It is like torrents from the early days of music file sharing. However, if the popularity of such federations continues to grow, a system to simplify the processes may emerge in the future. Just as Spotify was created.

Social media users will continue to increase in number, with more than 3 billion people around the world using social media platforms by 2023. The number of social media platforms and channels will also increase, as brands carve out their own niche on platforms like Instagram Stories or Facebook Marketplace. Meanwhile, new social networks like TikTok are exploding in popularity and proving that there's always room for more options.

Video also works well on social media because it's more engaging than other types of content. According to Facebook, users spend three times more time watching videos compared to reading text stories. Plus, video ads are four times more effective at driving sales than static image ads or text posts with links. With all these reasons for using video in your marketing strategy, you'll want to start experimenting with it as soon as possible!

Big data analytics has been a buzzword for a number of years now. However, the key things are the algorithms for making the right decisions based on data analytics, which still need to be invented and supervised by humans. The oncoming years will make it easier, with machine learning and AI increasingly more common in everyday life. Yet, if everyone attempts to take the same actions based on the same algorithms - then the gain will be smaller. Remember when Garri Kasparov won the game with AI by making a seemingly wrong move? The right balance of qualitative analytics, as well as quantitative application, will remain to be critical - as emotions drive human decisions, and their brains are the most extensive data processors.

Every year we collect more and more data. Sometimes without much of a plan, just like that - maybe they will be useful in the future. When collected, they form a picture of our customers. They define their demographics and psychographics. We recognise that this is the basis of all marketing activities. At the same time, we face the growing challenge of keeping them safe. It is estimated that as many as 14 billion data records have been stolen or taken over by hackers since 2013.

This creates increasing privacy-related concerns among consumers, limiting the amount of information they are willing to share about themselves. These expectations are followed by European Union and United States legislation. It has forced web browser developers to abandon the collection of so-called third-party cookies, which used to be the basis for segmenting Internet users.

In its place, Google, whose Chrome holds almost 70 per cent of the web browser market share, wants to incorporate the Privacy Sandbox. Based on machine learning, it intends to segment users according to information about queries sent to the search engine. The data is to be stored for only two weeks and the Internet user is to have easy access to it.

3rd party cookies were the market standard for objectifying the results of online marketing campaigns. Once they are gone, it will become difficult to reliably compare data on reach, views, or clicks. Not to say that it will become impossible. We are therefore waiting for new proposals from major technology companies.

And maybe this self-restraint will work out for the best. Because, wrapped up in the lust for collecting data about our customers, do we still see them as people? With their emotions, feelings, and dreams, which do not lend themselves to any measurement? With their individuality and uniqueness, which is lost in any statistical analysis? Take a look at this selection of case studies.

Big data has become a big deal. The global big data market is expected to cross $35 billion by2023, with the retail and healthcare industries leading the charge. Big data is no longer just a buzzword. It has become the basis for decision-making in nearly every industry, driving revenue gains and cost savings across companies of all sizes and maturity levels. The technology landscape supporting big data continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with new technologies such as cloud computing and predictive analytics now available to business users. As a result, businesses are able to generate better information than ever before—and they're using it to make smarter decisions faster than ever before too!

"The metaverse is a space in life where the digital world is more valuable to us than the physical world" – Shaan Puri's words evoke reactions ranging from curiosity to shock and even... disagreement.

New and groundbreaking solutions have been associated with extreme reception. Let us recall the public's reaction to the first bicycles and the shock resulting in a new disease called 'bicycle face'. And when a film with an oncoming steam locomotive was first screened, audiences fled the cinema in panic. The metaverse evokes no less excitement.

Translating the metaverse one-to-one into our everyday lives provokes great wonder. Why should I play foosball in a virtual space if I get a lot of pleasure from this activity in real life? Also, holding meetings in the metaverse, as an alternative to Zoom or Microsoft Teams, does not add value. But only seemingly!

Just imagine a uniquely beautiful place where brands can deliver unique experiences. This is already possible with Journee (https://www.journee.live), which creates a unique vision of an artistic world where we can enjoy experiences previously only available in two dimensions, for example in sci-fi movies, books or audiobooks. Journee invites us into a fantasy and reinvented world, immersing our senses in completely new spaces.

And can you imagine mastering the steps of a new dance in a minute? With Kintex (https://www.kinetix.tech), you can rock out to any rhythm and style of your avatar. But first create it - this is where Generative AI helps. It's no longer about mirroring your persona from the real world, but building a new personality in a digital microcosm. All this without coding skills or access to advanced solutions.

More business solutions? There you go! Examples are provided by technology company NVIDIA (https://www.nvidia.com) and its solutions, using advanced graphics, AI and the metaverse. NVIDIA is boldly entering the Industry 4.0 and, in collaboration with large manufacturers such as BMW and Mercedes, is using the metaverse to design new car models or production lines. The metaverse makes it possible to accelerate conceptual work, anticipate development consequences or create environmentally friendly solutions. NVIDIA has exploited this potential by designing urban spaces and anticipating future urban developments. A project like this was carried out in France with BNP Paribas.

When working on innovations in the metaverse, it is worth thinking in terms of creating new value. Do not duplicate reality! It is better to focus on creating new potential that is not available in the real world and using today's known technologies.

From a lot of love to an equally lot of hate - this is perhaps the easiest way to describe the market's sentiment towards the metaverse. With the transformation of Facebook into Meta, marketers set out to populate the spaces of the new virtual world. Trusting in Mark Zukenberg's visionary approach, they were not afraid of the role of the newcomers. In colonising a previously unknown reality, they wanted to get ahead of others to benefit from the annuity of priority.

When during the pandemic we were looking for alternatives to real-world relationships, the metaverse seemed the ideal meeting point for consumers and brands. Dolce&Gabbana, Tommy Hilfinger, Estee Lauder, Karl Lagerferd, and Alexander McQueen - this is just the beginning of a long list of fashion houses that took part in Metaverse Fashion Week in March 2022, organised by Tokens.com, a cryptocurrency investment company.

At the same time, it is the cryptocurrency market's condition that is undermining the marketers' euphoria toward the metaverse and NFTs today. The blow to virtual currencies was dealt by the collapse of the FTX exchange, created by Sam Bankman-Fried. Until recently glorified by the media, today this 30-year-old is accused of having built one of the largest pyramid schemes in history. Investors were alleged to have lost billions of dollars on it.

Why is the cryptocurrency crisis hitting the metaverse? Because the world in which our avatars operate, in which they visit virtual museums and unreal shops, needed new, universal electronic money to settle digital transactions. The weakening of trust in bitcoin and other e-currencies is a blow that will reduce the development pace of the meta world.

But it will not inhibit it. As we showed in a previous trend, people love gaming. They love it to the point where they can forget about the real world. And that's the key to the Metaverse-labelled door. For marketing, this means more and more campaigns that cross the real and virtual worlds. So in the new loyalty programmes, for example, we will be receiving bonuses in the virtual world for purchases made in the real world. This is an opportunity to develop new services and create even more engaging brand worlds.

Metaverse made headlines some time ago and so far it's still more of a testing ground for brands waiting to reach its full potential. As an idea it has been around for a long time in different forms.

Here at 180heartbeats our goal is to be on the forefront of technological solutions and turn them into ideas that solve real world problems. A great example of putting the metaverse into work is our cooperation with Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH). On June 25 (PRIDE MONTH) we organized THE IMPOSSIBLE PARADE - a march in all 32 LGBT-free zones in Poland, through the first AR platform that allows to tie the virtual world to real life locations.

I believe that the metaverse has the potential to become a major platform for commerce, entertainment, and social interaction. In 2023 the concept of metaverse will be tested by global market conditions, since most of the biggest platforms are highly correlated with blockchain technology and self-made cryptocurrencies.

NFTs are non-fungible tokens, which means that each token is unique. They can be used as a form of currency and can be used to buy goods and services in the Metaverse. You can also use NFTs to create a digital avatar that you can use in games or other activities. In this sense, it's similar to creating your avatar on Second Life or another virtual world—except that instead of using an existing character like Superman (who was created by DC Comics), you have complete creative control over what your avatar looks like and how it behaves.

The key advantage of using NFTs for marketing is the personalised nature of the content. NFTs allow for greater interaction between businesses and their audience by giving them the opportunity to collect data about user behaviour through blockchain technology. This information can then be used in future campaigns, allowing brands to tailor their messages appropriately based on what worked well with previous audiences.

I am glad you have made it all the way to this part of our trend book. Especially as it will now be about the power of the collective force that we form together.

The marketing world brings together people who are ready for tomorrow, who set ambitious goals, and who are open to challenges. The last thing that can be said of us is that we are indifferent. We have never and will never say that “it's all the same to us”.

How do I know this? I see it by reviewing hundreds of works from all over the world. We create great marketing campaigns for washing powders, beers, or mobile networks, but that doesn't exclude our involvement in socially responsible projects. In them, we fight for a world of equal opportunities, fairness, and inclusivity. We consistently stigmatise all exclusions, inequalities, and discrimination.

New technologies are helping us a lot to create public awareness of the need for change. The team I work with on a daily basis has technologically supported the implementation of over a dozen social campaigns in recent years. Because we deeply believe in their social significance.

We want to wish you all enough enthusiasm, creativity, and strength for such projects at all times.

A key benefit of technology is to use it to enhance the quality of life. This observation is a driving force and uncovers a tremendous opportunity to both digitize solutions that support our well-being and build a just future, i.e. one in which inclusive technology increases accessibility to services and products regardless of people's physical fitness, age or background. In my opinion, this trend will be supported by the growing synergy of technology and social sciences that shape technological solutions that are in line with human values and needs.