Ocean Outdoor wants to ‘send brands into metaverse’ with Admix tie-up
Ocean Outdoor will “send brands into the metaverse”, the company has announced, after partnering with Admix, an adtech company that has pioneered the non-intrusive digital ad format In Play.
Starting on Sunday, the two companies are working on series of activations that couple digital out-of-home (DOOH) with virtual worlds, aimed at driving incremental reach for advertisers.
Ocean will launch three DOOH ad spots as non-fungible token (NFT) billboards. The first drop will feature digital replicas of three bespoke DOOH locations which are similar in design and scale to its premium city centre UK sites.
Ads that appear at the real-world locations will also appear on their virtual NFT counterparts.
The digital sites will comprise a “spectacular” tri-screen roadside location, a “giant” curve screen full motion location and The Loop city centre full motion network in Manchester and Birmingham.
The Ocean Outdoor UK and Admix NFT billboards will be auctioned via the world’s largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, and displayed by the successful bidders within Somnium Space –an immersive space where users can purchase digital land and build games and experiences within it.
Ocean Outdoor UK joint managing director Phil Hall said: “Under this agreement, all of the elements that make Ocean a market leader in the real world – high quality builds with unmissable, unskippable ads served in an environment that people choose to be in – apply equally, if not more so, in the virtual world.
“This partnership is a natural evolution for the company and has an indisputable link to the core Ocean product and the wider addressable market.”
Samuel Huber, CEO and co-founder at Admix, described the move as a “watershed moment for the ad industry”.
“The metaverse is the perfect playground for Ocean’s creativity and its customers are making a symbolic step that will mark them out as pioneers of a new form of advertising which has unlimited reach.
“Of course, this is just the beginning: there will be dozens of ways for brands to engage consumers in the metaverse and Admix aims to be the gateway for brands to help shape the future of digital experiences for their audiences.”