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Virtue Worldwide, the creative agency powered by VICE, has created an office inside the metaverse for VICE Media Group (VMG), a global multi-platform media company. The virtual building will be open to multiple VMG businesses including Virtue and VICE and act as a permanent residence for the group in Decentraland.
The initiative was created by Virtue Futures – a dedicated innovation division within Virtue that helps brands to innovate in new platforms, technologies and spaces in culturally relevant ways. In mid-2021 the Virtue Futures team launched Coca-Cola’s first NFT marking the first meaningful example of how brands and agencies can use the technology.
Built in Decentraland’s open digital world platform, the space will serve as the agency’s virtual innovation lab where teams can experiment with NFTs, DAOs and Web 3.0, applying insights directly for brands eager to make an impact.
Morten Grubak, Global ECD Innovation, Virtue Futures said: “The creative opportunities within the metaverse are hugely exciting and as we’re already helping brands navigate this new space it makes sense to have an office there ourselves. Working with the world-renowned architects at BIG, the vision has taken on a new reality.”
The Decentraland HQ serves as the central node in Virtue Futures’ global borderless team setup. Here, clients and collaborators can meet for briefings, presentations and in-situ demonstrations of recent projects. The space showcases a range of digital experiments, and has plenty of hidden extras for curious explorers — including a direct route for young creatives to reach a selection of highly acclaimed global Meta-Mentors. It will also serve as a launchpad for digital field research into the sociology of digital communities.
The virtual building is designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, the pioneering architectural firm behind The Pyramid in Manhattan and Google’s Mountain View North Campus.
Nancy Dubuc, CEO of Vice Media Group said: "Vice has always been about being inside culture, going to places where our audiences are. This is a new frontier filled with potential and once again, we’re proud to be pushing the boundaries."
Adam De Cata, Head of Partnerships at Decentraland said: “We’re seeing massive interest from players big and small, but for a lot of the more entrenched actors, it’s more about saying you did it than actually involving themselves with our community. So it brings us great joy to see two such iconic organisations — BIG and Virtue — get their hands dirty with such earnest dedication.”
It is worth mentioning that recently, Havas Group has entered the metaverse too, buying a plot of virtual land in The Sandbox video game where it plans to inaugurate its first virtual village (the 69th Havas Village).
