McCann Worldgroup launches ‘MWVerse’
The agency’s new metaverse-based experience has kicked off with a virtual recreation of Cannes Lions.
McCann Worldgroup has just unveiled a new, branded experience in the metaverse / McCann Worldgroup
The dawning of the metaverse is revealing vast new possibilities for marketers, and some of adworld’s leading companies are beginning to stake their claims in the emerging virtual landscape. Earlier today, McCann Worldgroup – a global network of agencies – unveiled MWVerse, a virtual, web3-based experience that the company developed in partnership with Meta and software development company Journee.
The launch of MWVerse coincides with the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which kicks off today and runs through June 24. The virtual experience is publicly accessible via desktop or mobile device.
Like many branded metaverse activations, MWVerse has been designed with both inclusivity and accessibility in mind. The opening act of the company’s new metaverse activation is a virtual recreation of Cannes Lions, in which those who are unable to attend the famously exclusive IRL event can tune in to view some of the agency’s work that will be on display at this year’s IRL festival.
“The MWVerse experience is designed to change that lack of accessibility and experience, with the first application being this year’s Cannes Lions festival, where a selection of the agency’s top campaigns are explored in virtual, branded rooms and experienced through the eyes of the agency teams that created them and the clients that supported them,” McCann said in a statement.
“While only a select few people will enjoy the privilege of being on the ground in Cannes, the general public is invited to access a multi-dimensional virtual world that immerses them in the full experience of the work screened at Cannes.”
McCann’s virtual space, according to the company, will offer immersive overviews of how some of the displayed campaigns were brought to life, “from inception to execution,” along with behind-the-scenes glimpses and chats with brands and voices from the web3 community. Eva Longoria – or at least, her avatar – will also be in attendance, elaborating on the finer points of a McCann-led L’Oréal campaign of which she was recently a part.
“The goal was to build a creative space in the metaverse for our teams and clients,” says Elav Horwitz, senior vice-president and global innovation director at McCann Worldgroup. “They can experiment with it, host meetings, share content, invite their teams. It can be customized as needed. As of now, we have chosen to showcase our best creative work as part of Cannes, but as time goes on, we will change the content and experiment with new technologies and partners in order to democratize creativity.”
Acknowledging the notion that “the core elements of web3 are collaboration and interoperability” – which has become akin to gospel within a core segment of the web3 world – McCann says that it designed its new virtual experience in partnership with Meta and Journee in an effort to deliver “a symbiotic mix of best-in-class technologies to bear on MWVerse.”
A number of other leading agencies have also recently launched their own activations in the metaverse. Wunderman Thompson, for example, announced this morning that it has designed a new virtual experience called ‘Inspiration Beach’ – which, like the launch of the MWVerse, is intentionally designed to coincide with Cannes Lions.
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