“Icelandverse” : Iceland’s excellent newsjacking
Iceland has reacted brilliantly to Mark Zuckerberg's recent announcements about the metaverse in a parody video campaign to promote tourism, even managing to provoke a reaction from Meta's boss.
Two weeks after the video announcement of Facebook's name change and its new strategy focusing on the metaverse – a digital parallel universe mixing virtual reality and augmented reality – the Icelandic tourism promotion platform Inspired by Iceland invites “the world to enter Icelandverse”. “An immersive open-world experience millions of years in the making, that will allow people to be present with each other in captivating real-life spaces,” the campaign teases.
The delightful parody video sets a mocking tone, promoting the wonders of "real life". “It’s completely immersive, with water that’s wet, with humans to connect with [...]. In the Iceland world, there’s real moss you can look at [...]. Skies you can see with your eyeballs [...]. Volcanic rocks you can caress.” Iceland’s natural attractions, backed up with pictures of waterfalls and the northern lights, are praised by Zack Mossbergsson, an Icelandic Mark Zuckerberg lookalike. This Chief Visionary Officer, played by actor Jörundur Ragnarsson, cleverly copies the style of the Facebook boss in his video announcement. It’s all there - the black sweater, shaved hairstyle, gestures, language and even the moment when the rotating logo is revealed! Irony and a touch of self-mockery to boot.
The strategy has paid off as the video has been viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube. This highly successful promotion campaign for Iceland has even managed to get a Twitter reaction from the boss of Meta himself, saying he was looking forward to making a trip to Icelandverse.
The strategy has paid off as the video has been viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube. This highly successful promotion campaign for Iceland has even managed to get a Twitter reaction from the boss of Meta himself, saying he was looking forward to making a trip to Icelandverse.