LONDON: Virtue Worldwide, Vice’s creative agency, has created an office inside the metaverse for Vice Media Group. The virtual building will be home to Vice’s many businesses, including Virtue, and act as a permanent residence for the group in Decentraland, a 3D virtual platform.
The initiative was created by Virtue Futures, a dedicated innovation division within Virtue that helps brands to innovate in new platforms, technologies and spaces.
Last year, the Virtue Futures division launched Coca-Cola’s first NFT, or non-fungible token, marking one of the first examples 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, decentralized autonomous organizations and Web 3.0.
“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,” said Morten Grubak, global executive creative director at Virtue Futures.
The Decentraland headquarters will serve as the central point for Virtue Futures’ global team. Clients and collaborators can meet for briefings, presentations, and demonstrations of recent projects in the virtual space.
The virtual office also showcases a range of digital experiments and has “hidden extras for curious explorers,” such as a route for young creative talent to reach a selection of highly acclaimed global “Meta-Mentors,” according to a company statement.
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 architectural firm behind The Pyramid in Manhattan and Google’s Mountain View North Campus.
“Vice has always been about being inside culture, going to places where our audiences are,” said Nancy Dubuc, CEO of Vice Media Group. “This is a new frontier filled with potential and once again, we’re proud to be pushing the boundaries.”