As the level of computing power continues to rapidly advance, MENA consumers now engage with a variety of immersive, digital experiences through their mobile devices and hardware on a daily basis. In 2022, the marketing and advertising world witnessed an explosion of headlines, big predictions and hype on all things AR, VR, Mixed reality and Web3.

In 2023, so far, we have seen the launch of a Metaverse Academy in Riyadh; Majid Al Futtaim launching their Mall of the Metaverse; Bain is forecasting the metaverse could be a $900bn business by 2030…but what now?

IAB MENA has brought together a group of industry thought leaders from our membership to do a ‘Reality Check’, to get their perspectives on the implications of mixed reality on our industry, covering practical considerations such as ‘who should own Web3’ and mixed reality within companies, agencies and marketing functions and if we see any real-world success that we can learn from.

In the first of this 2-part series of Reality Check, read about the state of readiness in MENA today to capitalize on the mixed reality opportunity.