Join the Campaign Brief / T&DA Mate-a-verse virtual party tonight (Friday 24 Sept) from 5pm
This cover issue of Campaign Brief has been designed by the creative minds at T&DA. A digital representation of a QR code acts as an invite to an online experience the team has created for Campaign Brief and all its readers. This is a chance to connect and come together as an industry virtually from 5pm TONIGHT.
First things, first – the Metaverse is a collective virtual shared space, the convergence of the virtually enhanced physical reality and virtual worlds, AR, and the internet. In essence, this is where things are beyond (meta) the universe (verse) as we currently experience it.
And, since Australia is still under various lockdowns and restrictions, the team at T&DA took the vision of the metaverse and created the ‘Mate-a-verse’. This is a platform web experience that allows the industry to gather round and talk to friends, old and new, in the virtual world – from wherever they are – and masks aren’t even required. There’s even the odd curiosity to navigate, hanging out in this virtual world!
Why the Mate-a-verse? Because, as CB Advertising Manager Mollie Myerson, patron saint of this space, said: “I’d love to have a wine with my friends, but not on Zoom.”
“Normally at this time of year we gather at events and socialise, so we wanted to take an element that we are all so very familiar with – the QR code – and invite everyone to still come together,” said Tyrone Estephan, Executive Creative Director.
“Think of this as a Campaign Brief event, sponsored by T&DA, so naturally there’s Lynchy’s Lounge, and a virtual club, in honour of all those arduous days’ hard at work in Cannes, Singapore, Pattaya or even closer to home.”
Adds Raymond Leung, Creative Director of Technology: “Every day we are hard at work on projects using leading edge tech, but we also love going back to basics and creating fun worlds with pixel art, like the early days of video games. We’ve designed the Campaign Brief experience using gather.town, but with familiar flourishes to make the advertising world feel at home. Essentially, it’s a virtual party, where you guide a 2D avatar around and you can go stand next to people and chat away, or you can go explore the different rooms as if you’re at a party.”
“Yeah, like a warehouse rave,” said Estephan. “The Campaign Brief cover is an empty warehouse, or an empty stage. But here some nights might just be pumping.”
And since it comes from the T&DA team, naturally the entire front cover as well as their full page ad inside was created and rendered in real-time using Unreal Engine.
Campaign Brief Mate-a-verse Party – sponsored by T&DA
While the experience is live now to explore, Campaign Brief and T&DA would like to extend a warm invitation to all to join us from 5pm on Friday 24th September – live and ‘in-person’!
When: Friday 24th September 2021
Time: 5pm onwards
Where: gather.t-da.io
BYO: Snacks & Drinks
Dress Code: Pants, optional!
You can join by scanning the cover, but for the full experience, visit the link above on your desktop.
See you on the Mate-a-verse dancefloor!
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Hit link gather.t-da.io
2. Create your character
3. Use arrow keys to navigate around the experience
4. Once you are there – you can have private chats at the bar or in a booth.
5. You need to be close to people to hear them or talk to them, but once you stand next to someone it connects video and audio so you can chat. You can go on the dance floor and connect with the DJ for instance, and hear some tunes but if you want some quiet time, just walk. (Pro-tip: the Z key lets you dance also)