Wunderman Thompson launches metaverse activation in Cannes

Wunderman Thompson has launched the WT Inspiration Beach, an immersive metaverse activation to celebrate the start of Cannes Lions.

The announcement:

Wunderman Thompson has launched the WT Inspiration Beach, an immersive metaverse activation to celebrate the start of advertising’s biggest festival in Cannes. It allows people from all over the world to experience the agency’s unique take on creativity, content, and connectivity.

The WT Inspiration Beach has been custom-built from the ground up in partnership with the leading metaverse platform, Odyssey, and features collaboration spaces, a networking lounge area, as well as a creative showcase of Wunderman Thompson’s most inspiring pieces of work. Later this week additional features including an interactive shopping space and a DJ booth will also launch to keep visitors engaged in new ways.

‘Inspiration Kiosks’ have been placed throughout the beach to present Wunderman Thompson’s take on key industry themes including Sustainability; IE&D; Data and Technology; Brand Creativity and Effectiveness; Talent; and Business Transformation.

Gareth Jones, SVP global marketing at Wunderman Thompson, said: “At Wunderman Thompson we’re always looking for innovative ways to create a more inclusive customer experience. This is why we’re excited to launch the WT Inspiration Beach, a virtual activation in the metaverse to allow our clients and colleagues around the world to experience our take on creativity in a unique and highly immersive environment.”

Reid Santabarbara, CEO of Odyssey, added: “As brands seek to enter the metaverse, many are looking to Wunderman Thompson who are thought leaders in this space. Through our collaboration, we’re able to provide these ambitious brands the most accessible, highest-visual-fidelity streaming metaverse platform on the market today. In creating the WT Inspiration Beach, our product team, led by Odyssey CTO Maxime Long, has captured the creativity and inspiration of advertising’s biggest festival and delivered an experience that demonstrates the limitless opportunities of the metaverse.”

Wunderman Thompson was one of the first agencies to launch their own metaverse, debuting the space at CES 2022. The global network has published two original reports about the rise of this new frontier of customer experience: ‘Into the Metaverse’, launched in September 2021 and the follow-up report, ‘New Realities: Into the Metaverse and Beyond’, launched in May 2022, which found that awareness of the metaverse has more than doubled in less than a year.

Source: WPP