- Brands are turning to ad agencies to make sense of marketing opportunities in the metaverse.
- Agencies are responding by assembling teams of digital, creative, and strategic talent.
- Insider profiled 24 advertising agency executives who are leading Web3 projects for major brands.
As hype continues to build around the various promises of the metaverse, a growing number of brands are dipping their toes in the virtual waters, releasing NFTs and goods to be used in virtual lands.
It's a potential boon for advertising agencies. Some are even launching dedicated Web3 divisions to help their clients get educated and ultimately navigate the metaverse for themselves. The pitch? The arrival of the metaverse and its applications will usher in a virtual world where companies and consumers coexist on a level playing field and can forge deeper connections with one-another than with current media.
Insider profiled 24 advertising agency executives who have led high-profile Web3 projects for major brands. We chose these individuals through our own reporting and by calling for nominations. We considered the types of brands the individuals had worked with and if they were able to demonstrate success with tangible metrics. We considered all applications of Web3 technologies, including use of the metaverse, NFTs, and the blockchain.
A caveat: this is not an exhaustive list, given how quickly the space moves and that we've only started to see marketers' attention turn to the metaverse in the past year. We intend to publish a repeat list in 2023.
Avery Akkineni, president, VaynerNFT
Ex-Googler and former Head of VaynerMedia APAC, Akkineni has spearheaded the company's work on NFT projects with clients such as the US Open and Pepsi.
Akkineni and her team were behind some of the most notable drops in the 2021 NFT gold rush. One notable example was Budweiser's first NFTs, which saw the brand create 1,936 unique digital cans, generated using archived photos, ads and designs from Budweiser's history.
Akkineni believes 2022 will be the year many brands will enter the Web3 world "in a meaningful way," through unique projects developed in collaboration with emerging creators, builders, and strategists.
Nilesh Ashra, founder & CEO, Pragmatic Futurism
Ashra heads Pragmatic Futurism, which focuses on tech-centric innovation for brands.
Pragmatic Futurism counts brands like Nike, Patagonia, Reddit, and Hinge among its client roster. Ashra also consults with Wieden + Kennedy to help accelerate their plans in bringing clients up to speed with all things Web3.
Ashra, who describes himself as a technologist, helps brands develop culture in digital spaces and use tokens to create equity in those communities.
"The best stuff will be where brands are using token-based technology to co-create and involve super fans in product creation," he said. "The 'meh' stuff is where brands are rushing. This wave is real, but I wouldn't rush to create something unless it's a natural extension of the way that your brand already gives, adds value, and creates with its audience."
He also added: "Please, no more 10,000 variants of brand logos as NFTs."
In his previous role at Wieden + Kennedy, Ashra worked on an early augmented reality activation with Nike's Maker Studio in New York City in 2017, where people designed shoes "live" on their bodies – and once they were happy with the design, the shoes were made on the spot and the customer walked out wearing them.
Alex Bennett Grant, founder and CEO, We Are Pi
Luxury fashion often pushes the boundaries of design, and it is no different in the realm of NFTs. Amsterdam consultancy We Are Pi worked with Dutch luxury streetwear retailer WS.NL to release a wearable NFT T-shirt, dubbed "NFT(EE)".
Created in collaboration with artist GabBois, the tee is connected to an AR filter that brings the NFT artwork to life.
It was a smash hit: the collection sold out in a week and was the retailer's most successful campaign to date at driving brand awareness and engagement, according to the agency.
Grant said it's hard to innovate in space that is still in its infancy. Selling a white tee with printed artwork that is only visible virtually is a new concept — and one that can "take a minute for people to wrap their head around," he said.
Laurel Boyd (chief creative media officer), Simeon Edmunds (SVP, creative director), and Lacey Nein (creative technologist), Mediahub
You might know Mediahub as the agency that built an office in Decentraland, or that created a Discord channel to attract top candidates in the war for Web3 talent. These projects are part of the agency's push to become a key player in the metaverse advertising landscape, and Mediahub's "Metaverse trio" has played a key role in that push.
"Mediahub needs to be in that space, living it and breathing it before we could ever offer a client guidance for their brand," said Sean Corcoran, Mediahub's US CEO.
Case in point: the MediaHub metaverse office, built by Edmunds and Nein in Decentraland. Each floor of the office is dedicated to a different theme: one floor features recent agency projects, mission, and recruiting efforts, while another is dedicated to showcasing the utility of various NFT and metaverse activations.
The gallery will also be used to celebrate different artists on a monthly rotation, particularly those from underrepresented communities, said the agency.
Paul Caiozzo, founder & chief creative officer, Supernatural
On the theme of agencies getting meta about the metaverse, Caiozzo and his agency worked with crypto credit card brand Gemini to release ads that can be bought as NFTs. In a meta twist, the ads have become the product being sold, and are also doing the selling.
The campaign, "What's the Best That Could Happen," featured work from NFT artists sold on Nifty Gateway, Gemini's NFT platform, with all proceeds going to charity. As Gemini's card earns its users rewards in crypto, which could appreciate one day, the agency designed ads as NFTs, which could also appreciate one day.
"As an additional bonus, it was great to support artists and to fill the world with art rather than more ads," said Caiozzo.
Asked about learnings from the project, he said, "I've found that if you really follow the community, see how the community acts, walks and talks you can get yourself into good projects."
"Sometimes you are buying into a community, sometimes you are buying into artistic expression, sometimes you are buying into a middle finger against something," he added.
Emma Chiu, global director, Wunderman Thompson Intelligence
Not to be outdone by agencies that open offices in the metaverse, Wunderman Thompson built an entire metaverse for CES 2022 that clients could access, to learn more about the concept.
Partnering with Odyssey, Wunderman Thompson created a world that is accessible to anyone with a browser and internet connection. It used pixel-streaming technology, which enabled the agency to do away with high-end hardware or software. The agency said the project sent a message to clients that one need not be investing millions into this space to see something good come out of it.
The metaverse the agency created is meant to be a "live" representation of the "Into the Metaverse" report Chiu spearheaded for the agency. The report features research and analysis of consumer attitudes towards the metaverse and identifies the implications for brands, establishing that the metaverse is "the new social place, here to stay".
Nick Coronges, EVP global chief technology officer, R/GA
Online multiplayer games like Roblox and Fortnite have already proven that consumers are willing to spend big money on snazzy outfits for their avatars. R/GA London hoped to ride this wave of virtual shopping when it announced its work for Vollebak. The project saw the agency create a virtual store for the extreme clothing brand within Decentraland, the blockchain-based metaverse platform.
The store, which mimics the landscape of Mars, became a place for Vollebak to showcase its new "Mars Jacket." Users were not only able to purchase the jacket for their avatar, but also convert it into a real item of clothing via Vollebak's website.
Coronges views the metaverse as an opportunity to innovate on the direct-to-consumer model, where brands like Vollebak can get as close to their customers as they could if they walked into a store.
But with direct access to consumers also comes the need to prove that it's worth spending time with a brand online, and Coronges sees a big shift in how brands will approach media spend allocation.
"Instead of looking at, where's the giant audience for me to go and move my media spend to, now you have to think about owned channels again, in a way that we had pre-Facebook and all the giant media channels," he said. "They created the audience and then you just were able to spend on that platform to reach that audience."
"The work isn't going to be done for you. You're going to have to create something useful," Coronges added.
Jason DeLand, founding partner, Anomaly
Operating with a "play-to-learn" — rather than "play-to-earn" — philosophy, Anomaly decided to take the road of learning as much as possible about the metaverse and its applications for brands before taking clients along for the ride. While it is the agency of record for Quest, Meta's VR division, for now Anomaly is content with watching from the sidelines while making strategic investments in the space.
"We're in an experimentation phase, not a commercialization phase. I think the commercialization phase will follow," DeLand said. "Anyone who says otherwise, I don't think they've been in it long enough to understand it."
The agency — alongside Animoca Brands, a publisher of blockchain-based games — also invested in Playground, a social platform that helps people discover and develop communities while letting creators monetize their audience.
But that doesn't mean the agency isn't bullish on this new space for the future.
"I think all brands should take 20% of their marketing budget and put it to work in Web3 projects," DeLand said regarding experimentation. "That would be probably the single greatest return ever for marketers."
Luke Eid, chief innovation officer, TBWA\Worldwide
Eid oversees all things innovation at TBWA\Worldwide, and heads \NEXT and 10x, TBWA's innovation platforms that focus on the integration of emerging tech — metaverse & NFTs included — across the agency network.
An example of this innovation work is Juniper Park\TBWA working with Nissan Canada to auction a one-of-a-kind NFT, inspired by the brand's iconic GT-R sports car. In collaboration with Canadian digital artist Alex McLeod, the NFT went further than just offering a virtual good by including the keys to a special edition NISMO GT-R.
Another example is NFT: Illuminated by Fabric\TBWA in Sydney, which showed off Australian artists. The local art was displayed on a structural Christmas "NFTree" in The Galeries, a shopping center in the city, and was also put up for sale on Foundation, an NFT marketplace.
Marc Gowland, head of technology, Deutsch LA
Hot on the heels of digital artist Beeple's landmark $69 million NFT auction sale at Christie's, Deutsch LA helped Taco Bell ride the NFT wave and launch one of the first brand NFTs back in March 2021, dubbed "NFTaco."
Crowdsourcing designs via Slack from across the agency's creative talent, Gowland and his team then put them up for sale on Rarible, an NFT platform. They sold out within 30 minutes and generated 1.4 billion impressions across various social media channels, according to Gowland.
However, while being early in the space helped Deutsch LA secure a big win, Gowland also realizes that consumer expectations around NFTs have shifted since the craze of early 2021.
"When you look at that through the lens of, would you do that today? I think we're getting to a point that it needs to be more than just an NFT, there needs to be more built into it," he said.
Cathy Hackl, CEO and chief metaverse officer, Futures Intelligence
With experience working in metaverse related fields with companies like HTC VIVE, Magic Leap, and Amazon Web Services, Hackl leads Futures Intelligence, an agency working with major brands on metaverse growth strategies, NFTs, gaming, and virtual fashion.
Hackl also serves as vice president at Avatar Dimension, where she helps brands in entertainment, fashion, enterprise, and beyond create holograms. Avatar Dimension helped Dimension Studio in London with some of the work on Balenciaga's futuristic fusion of volumetric capture and video gaming for the launch of their 2021 Fall Collection.
She's also a Limited Partner at the WXR Fund, which invests in female-led early-stage startups focused on the next phase of the internet and AI.
Noah Kim, founder, NewKino Studio
NewKino, alongisde sister company Luna Market and ad agency Berlin Cameron, helped Under Armour launch its first NFT project: the Genesis Curry Flow NFTs, in partnership with NBA star Steph Curry. 2,974 NFTs were minted to commemorate Curry breaking Ray Allen's three-point scoring record. There were five unique versions of the Curry Flow, each of them telling a mini-story about Curry's journey to breaking the record.
The shoes sold out in under 30 minutes, with the almost $1 million in proceeds going to organizations supporting access to sport.
Kim, who led the design of the NFTs and oversaw the production of the in-game wearables, said the success of the project showed people's excitement for interoperability between metaverses. Once purchased, owners could use the shoes across four metaverses: Decentraland, Gala Games, Sandbox, and Rumble Kong League.
"Utility is king. That means one NFT to rule them all," said Kim. "If you purchase an NFT shoe, you should be able to wear it in metaverses such as The Sandbox or Decentraland."
Tamra Knepfer, president, Metabrands
Knepfer and Metabrands' involvement with the metaverse started back in 2019, when the agency was tapped by virtual events company WaveXR to bring in brand partners for a series of virtual concerts, featuring the likes of John Legend, the Weeknd, and Justin Bieber.
The agency's first virtual product arrangement was a collaboration with ASICS and Australian DJ Alison Wonderland, where the artist's avatar wore a virtual version of the brand's platform sneakers while performing.
A similar partnership was also carried out for a show with Dillon Francis, Timex, and Crocs. Knepfer said these partnerships worked well because the artists themselves were fans of the brands, creating a natural fit.
Indeed, she believes the main challenge of bringing bands into the metaverse is authenticity.
"If brands are perceived to be simply 'logo slapping' and fail to be an authentic part of the narrative, the attempt to be relevant in these new technologies can backfire and have a negative impact on the brand," she said.
Max Lederer, creative partner, Jung Von Matt
Responsible for leading the agency's metaverse efforts, Lederer steered his team to create "Joytopia", BMW's first metaverse experience, for the 2021 International Motor Show. Users could create an avatar and attend a virtual Coldplay concert, and the whole experience was used by BMW to show off its sustainability vision. To avoid people getting lost in the virtual world, a fox with the voice of actor Christoph Waltz was on hand to guide the users.
Lederer said he was surprised by the high engagement time that BMW's metaverse activation drew. BMW saw 150,000 users stay in the virtual world for an average of 12 minutes each. The Jung Von Matt team returned to the metaverse with BMW for CES 2022, and this time users could ride a hoverboard and explore a futuristic city.
Being at the forefront of developing a 3D world, Lederer said the agency faced a steep learning curve in creating the experience. "We had to find out how to concept and build experiences in a 3D environment that add value for users while being fun and entertaining at the same time," he said.
Jason Mitchell, cofounder and CEO, Movement Strategy
Is Netflix getting in the art auction game? For marketing purposes, the streaming service certainly seemed to think it couldn't hurt.
Mitchell and his agency, Movement Strategy, were tapped to create an NFT art auction ahead of the release of "This Is a Robbery," which told the story of the biggest heist in art world history. The agency scoured NFT communities on Clubhouse, and was able to get 13 digital artists to reimagine the stolen artworks featured in the series.
The campaign received substantial attention online, with many praising the way it successfully connected a global brand with a commercially skeptical community.
The agency also worked with Warner Bros. to release NFTs for the much-anticipated reboot of "Space Jam." The project's challenge was in creating crowd-pleasing products while keeping in mind the rarity factor inherent in NFTs, according to Mitchell. "There is a real skill required to create something that looks awesome at every level, but also gets increasingly desirable," he said.
Emma Ridderstad, cofounder and CEO, Warpin Media
While Ridderstad and her agency help brands enter the metaverse, they've also developed Xelevate, a VR training platform that has been used by various Swedish government agencies to deliver training to their employees.
Through the agency's work with H&M, using Magic Leap headsets, customers in a Tokyo H&M store were able to design their own Star Wars-themed garments that could then be physically printed and produced on the spot. On top of this Disney project, Warpin also collaborated on a similar event with Italian luxury fashion house Moschino in New York.
When asked about learnings from her work with clients, Ridderstad cautioned against trying to fix real-world problems through technology. "We can't solve societal problems by creating a utopian metaverse, and we are in fact much more likely to bring our real life problems with us into the digital world unless we safeguard against that early on," she said.
Ridderstad also sees the space's bias towards male users as an issue that affects adoption by the wider public. "Almost all headsets produced by mainstream vendors are made for typically male-sized heads," she said. "Women experience a much higher level of 'cyber-sickness' in the metaverse."
Tim Rodgers, founder, Rehab
Most details around Rehab's work with clients on Web3 projects are still confidential, highlighting the early nature of the space.
Back in 2018, Rehab worked with Nike's innovation team on the blockchain work that surrounded the ownership of virtual sneakers – a move that proved fruitful for the brand's NFT drops of 2021.
As well as ongoing projects with Meta and Ripple, most-recently Rodgers and his team are also helping Fox Entertainment develop brands on the blockchain.
"Our approach for Web3 is not to leverage Web3 technology, but leverage Web3 ideologies and not only have two-way communication, but create a two-way value exchange," said Rodgers.
Zoe Scaman, founder, Bodacious
Scaman worked in ad agencies and business consultancies for 18 years before founding Bodacious, where she counts Pepsi, Snapchat, EA Games, and more household names among her clients.
While she has worked on NFT and metaverse-related projects with some of her clients, she sees the advertising industry's current free-for-all approach to the metaverse as a movement fueled by money rather than by an appreciation for the ideologies behind Web3.
"Rather than doing NFTs for PR's sake, it's more of, how do we think about loyalty and community with customers. Or, if we crowdsource ideas and one is successful, how do we reward them with an equity stake," said Scaman.
She sees the current metaverse bubble deflating in the next few months, as people approach the disillusionment stage of the hype cycle.
"Hype cycles bring enthusiasm, which is beneficial for technology adoption, but they can't last because they're overinflated," said Scaman. "In the next few months, there's likely to be disillusionment. But there will actually be investment and innovation behind the scenes."
Lewis Smithingham, director of creative solutions, Media.Monks
S4 Capital's digital creative and production agency Media.Monks is leaning heavily into the metaverse, with Smithingham leading the effort. Media.Monks is even working with Meta on its metaverse marketing material and conducting meetings on Meta's Horizon Workrooms.
In promoting Netflix's first-ever original anime series "Eden," Smithingham worked with Media.Monks' Singapore office to build a VR racing game. Developed as a companion to the series, the game lets players ride through "Eden's" luscious environment to discover key locations and piece together the series' story.
"The benefit of these custom environments is that they are longer-lasting than one-off campaigns," said the agency. "'Eden Unearthed' expands the world of 'Eden' into a living, immersive world for fans to explore as they create their own stories inside.
Smithingham also led the production of an interface for Verizon Digital Collectibles, the company's blockchain-based web experience that holds NFTs from the shows of its content partners. Built for mobile, the interface lets fans browse and unlock digital collectibles in the form of images and GIFs.
Debuting on Halloween with the final season of "The Walking Dead," the NFTs varied in rarity and content, and users could get cast members from their respective shows to digitally autograph them.
Keith Soljacich, head of innovation, Publicis Media
Soljacich helped Macy's release its Thanksgiving Day Parade NFT drop, which resulted in a well-received PR moment for the company in a year of bountiful NFT drops thanks to the $300,000 it raised for the Make a Wish Foundation.
"We leveraged the smart contract to funnel secondary sales directly to the Make a Wish Foundation," said Soljacich. "This innovative approach to charitable giving from a brand resonated with our audience and gave thousands of people a reason to discover and claim NFTs for the first time."
Soljacich also worked with his team to launch Samsung's metaverse campaign for CES 2022, dubbed 837X. The virtual space is modeled on the physical Samsung flagship location in New York City, where guests could embark on quests to earn exclusive NFT badges and unique wearables.
Jared Spiegel and Matthew Gardner, founders, Rumfoords
Adidas approached the duo's agency, Rumfoords, in early 2021 in a bid to develop a buzzworthy entry into the metaverse. The resulting campaign, "Into the Metaverse," featured several marketing components and broke multiple publicity records for Adidas.
The activation itself was the biggest Adidas campaign of 2021, as measured by volume of PR and social media mentions, according to the agency. The accompanying NFTs generated $43 million in primary and secondary sales trading volume in 72 hours, and resulted in more than six times the global media mentions as Adidas's most-recent Beyoncé campaign, said the founders.
The marketing effort also led to Adidas Originals' most engaged tweet ever, and the day after the announcement video dropped, a piece of fan art inspired by the campaign sold for 17 ETH, or approximately $70,000.
When asked about learnings from the campaign, Spiegel said: "We learned that bravery in a client is the most important thing to look for."
"We're also surprised at how many brands and agencies are trying to copy the Adidas 'Into the Metaverse' campaign. Good luck to them!" said Gardner.
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