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GUEST ARTICLE: How will metaverse shape the influencer and consumer engagement landscape
Mumbai: The internet is constantly evolving and has become more interactive. Soon, we will be able to experience it as a network of real-time virtual worlds. The metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual environment that allows your digital avatar to live, play, work, and socialise. It is a self-contained digital counterpart to the real world where you are engaged in your surroundings and experience and have access to various places, events, and activities while sitting in your living room.
This next-generation version of the virtual space is a powerful tool. It offers excellent comfort, accessibility, interactions, and brand promotion opportunities, with user-generated content (UGC) playing an essential part in the form of text, images, audio, and videos. It will be a crucial building component for the metaverse in the coming years, providing uniqueness, credibility, and scalability.
Brands and creators have acknowledged the first-mover advantage and are capitalising on consumer interest. As mega brands begin to leverage the metaverse, another trend that can stand to benefit is the realm of influencer marketing.
Metaverse and influencer marketing
Influencer marketing as a social media marketing tool emphasises product endorsements and recommendations from experienced influencers with a substantial social following. These influencers are highly regarded by their audience, and their product recommendations serve as social validation for brands’ prospective customers.
Social media platforms have dramatically boosted the number of niche influencers and viewership in recent years. These creators have begun to engage with their audiences in new ways to widen the influencer-audience engagement time. They are eager to leverage the metaverse as a space to connect with a larger audience and provide a better consumer experience. Numerous opportunities exist for creators to collaborate and create engaging and multi-dimensional content to bond with their audience in the metaverse.
Growth in virtual circles
Social media platforms have significantly increased the number of influencers who interact with their audience. However, these interactions are frequently constrained to certain platform features.
Metaverse can make the experience seamless and convenient for everyone. Creators can host virtual meetups and organise livestream sessions, fan fests, and other activities. Through metaverse, they can connect directly with their audiences’ digital avatars on the platform, garnering better engagement.
Immersive influencer marketing
The innovative use of technologies such as AR and VR expands the possibilities for generating immersive and engaging content while allowing creators to enter into new dimensions like the metaverse. For example, influencers in the music industry can stage virtual performances in the metaverse to attract viewers from all over the world, crossing all geographical boundaries.
Similarly, artists can create and sell 3D art to display in virtual homes; fashion influencers can introduce their digital merchandise that their audience can purchase; and travel influencers can go on virtual world tours with their fans, making the experience more thrilling.
The growing number of influencers has helped brands reach various demographics and engage with existing and potential consumers. Influencers can be present in more than one virtual space in the metaverse, which amplifies their reach. Brands can leverage this benefit to optimise their marketing strategies and interact with larger consumer segments.
The future of influencer marketing
Although celebrity influencers have pioneered influencer campaigns, micro influencers’ growth has expanded and will continue to strengthen business opportunities. Brands can easily connect with their consumers by leveraging a network of smaller influencers rather than investing in one or two big influencers.
In addition, social media has witnessed an increase in AI influencers across sectors. Interestingly, brands have started creating virtual influencers, aka meta-influencers. This strategy enables brands to have ambassadors who can interact with consumers.
In the coming years, AI influencers will coexist with their human counterparts in the metaverse, with brands having the power to control how they communicate their message and narrative.
Way forward
The metaverse is set to bring about profound changes in how we all live. It will alter our interaction with the physical world, from perception to content creation. There is an enormous potential for all creators to harness technology to create outstanding content in the metaverse and thrive in their domains. Content creators will play a critical role in the development of the metaverse, which will be pivotal to their success in the long term.
The author of this article is AnyTag India Lead Shuchi Sethi.
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Why Peaky Blinders is one of television’s biggest hits that still deserves more attention
Six seasons, multiple awards and the release of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man bring the Shelby saga back into the spotlight
In the crowded universe of streaming content, only a handful of shows manage to leave a lasting cultural footprint. Peaky Blinders is overwhelmingly considered one of the biggest global hits of the past decade. Yet many viewers still haven’t fully explored the dark, gripping world of the Shelby family.
Originally produced for the UK’s BBC and later finding a massive global audience through Netflix, the series quietly grew from a British period drama into a worldwide streaming phenomenon.
Created by Steven Knight, the show follows the rise of the Shelby crime family in post-First World War Birmingham. What begins as a gritty street-gang story gradually expands into a sweeping narrative about ambition, politics, power and survival.
At the centre of the saga is Thomas Shelby, portrayed with extraordinary depth by Cillian Murphy. The casting of Murphy is widely regarded as perfect for the role. With piercing eyes, restrained dialogue and an almost hypnotic screen presence, he transforms Shelby into one of the most unforgettable characters in modern screen storytelling.
Murphy’s brilliance lies in his restraint. He rarely shouts or performs theatrically. Instead, a quiet stare, a calculated pause or a subtle shift in expression conveys the emotional storms within the character. Beneath the ruthless gang leader is a war veteran carrying trauma, guilt and loneliness. Murphy captures this complexity with remarkable precision, making Thomas Shelby both terrifying and deeply human.
Beyond its central performance, Peaky Blinders stands out for its unfiltered portrayal of reality. The show does not romanticise crime. Instead, it exposes the harsh social conditions of early 20th-century Britain, from poverty and class struggle to political extremism and the psychological scars left by war.
The series also presents powerful female characters who hold their own within the Shelby empire. Polly Gray, played by Helen McCrory, is the strategic backbone of the family and one of the most formidable figures in the story. Women in the series shape decisions, influence power structures and challenge the rigid social norms of the time.
Across six seasons, the narrative grows dramatically in scale. What begins in the smoky streets of Birmingham evolves into a story involving political conspiracies, fascism and international criminal networks.
The series has also earned significant critical acclaim. It won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2018 and multiple National Television Awards for Best Drama, cementing its reputation as one of Britain’s most celebrated modern shows.
Another defining feature of the series is its iconic music. The show’s opening theme, Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, became instantly recognisable and widely associated with the Shelby universe. Combined with a powerful soundtrack featuring artists such as Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead, the music helped shape the show’s dark, stylish identity and became hugely popular among fans.
And the Shelby story is not over yet.
In fact, its legacy is unfolding right now. The long-awaited feature-length continuation, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, was released on March 6, 2026, bringing the Shelby universe from streaming screens to cinemas and giving fans a new chapter in the saga.
For viewers who have not yet stepped into this world, the timing could not be better.
Six gripping seasons are ready to binge on Netflix. A new film has just arrived in theatres. And at the heart of it all stands one of the most magnetic performances in modern drama by Cillian Murphy.
So if Peaky Blinders has been sitting on your watchlist for years, this weekend is your moment.
So, by order of the Peaky fookin’ Blinders, consider this your cue to finally step into the ruthless world of Thomas Shelby. Pour yourself a drink, clear your schedule and press the play button. Because when the Peaky Blinders give an order, you listen.
