WPP and Epic Games team up to grow metaverse offering

WPP and Epic Games have partnered to help WPP agencies deliver digital experiences for client brands in the metaverse. As part of this collaboration, WPP teams will work closely with Epic Games to learn how to build next-generation interactive experiences leveraging Unreal Engine, a real-time 3D creation tool used across a range of industries such as games, film, architecture, fashion, automotive, music and live events, for virtual production.

With this new training programme upskilling WPP creatives and technologists, they will be able to create new, custom experiences and build imaginative worlds for brands inside online games such as Fortnite. The new metaverse curriculum offers three separate tracks of learning for executives, creative practitioners, and media experts and strategists.

"We think of WPP as the creative transformation company, one that embraces new environments like the metaverse and sees the potential for clients. Epic Games’ technology is world-class, and we are delighted to partner with it to raise the bar for social experiences in virtual worlds on behalf of our clients,” Nilufar Fowler, executive vice president of strategic partnerships at WPP, explained. 

Matthew Henick, VP of Metaverse Development at Epic Games added: “The collaboration between Epic, WPP, its clients and the creator community will accelerate the building of diverse social entertainment experiences that players across the world will love."

According to Henick, this partnership with WPP bolsters Epic Games' mission to educate more trailblazing brands and creators on how its tools across Fortnite, Unreal Engine, and 3D marketplaces such as ArtStation and Sketchfab can be used to bring its metaverse visions to life.

Additionally, WPP will continue to work with SuperAwesome, an Epic Games company that develops digital marketing platform designed to meet data privacy requirements of the global children's industry, to deepen its understanding of online safety and privacy. According to WPP, this joint effort will help its campaigns engage younger audiences safely. In fact, WPP has previously collaborated with SuperAwesome to produce innovative work such as the immersive Island in Fortnite for its Ozweego sneaker line. 

The WPP-Epic Games partnership follows WPP’s announcement of The Metaverse Foundry, a new global metaverse offering through Hogarth, its specialist creative content production company. WPP said then that it believes that brands and creators have a tremendous opportunity to meet the need for connection and unlock unlimited creative potential within interactive virtual spaces.

It also previously explained that success in the metaverse depends not only on creative excellence but deep production capabilities, sound strategies for amplifying digital experiences and expert knowledge of the complex online safety and privacy landscape. This has served as a driving force for WPP to invest early in the tools and talent needed to succeed in the metaverse, leading to the birth of this partnership. 

Separately, WPP and Reddit have also tied up to help brands better leverage the purchasing power of online communities. Both parties will tap into the commerce and technology expertise across WPP and its media agencies within GroupM through quarterly advisory meetings. According to WPP, the partnership was said to be a mutually beneficial one, as many WPP clients were already working with Reddit to drive commerce solutions through its user base and more than 100,000 communities. 

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