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Wunderman Thompson debuted its “metaverse” at CES

Sure, why not?
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Wunderman Thompson

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If you thought you’d be leaving all things metaverse in 2021, think again.

Because a lot of people didn’t really want to go to CES this year, creative agency Wunderman Thompson held its conference activation virtually—in a “bespoke” metaverse-like environment the agency says it can also create for clients.

What’s it look like? Imagine the mechanics of Grand Theft Auto but, like, at a conference. It isn’t a far cry from Facebook’s own meta-meeting space, but you don’t need a VR headset, as the platform works on desktop.

  • The environment was created in partnership with metaverse platform company Odyssey and was planned before omicron scuttled CES for many.

Though still in beta, Emily Safian-Demers, an editor at Wunderman Thompson Intelligence, the company’s “futurist” think tank, told Marketing Brew the tech could be used for the agency’s own internal events, like leadership summits, and be pitched to brands.

“We anticipate clients will be asking for [this] a lot more. Right now, a lot of activations are happening in gaming environments—Roblox, Fortnite. To have a dedicated space for elevated virtual experience, we think is going to be a big ask over the next few years,” said Safian-Demers.

As of Friday afternoon, over 1,000 visitors had toured the space, filled with informational kiosks about the metaverse, a retail room where users could fit avatars in new digs, and a game room to catch virtual butterflies, an opportunity to show off what the agency calls “gamevertising.”

For what it’s worth: Halfway through touring the space, my avatar bumped into another visitor, the CEO of a Spanish artificial intelligence company. Within a minute of introducing myself, he DM’d me his LinkedIn profile.—RB

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