Hogarth, WPP’s specialist global creative content production company, has launched The Metaverse Foundry, a global team of over 700 creatives, producers, visual artists, developers and technologists who seek to deliver–from design to execution–brand experiences for clients in the metaverse.
The Metaverse Foundry is a resource available to all of WPP’s clients and agencies globally, bringing the very best expertise in metaverse production and virtual art together to help realize strategies and ideas from across the WPP network. WPP agencies are already delivering multiple metaverse projects for clients including Wendy’s, Under Armour, Duracell, Pfizer, Pizza Hut and Bombay Sapphire.
The Foundry will also collaborate with specialist WPP agencies such as Subvrsive (virtual events and immersive experiences) and Ars Thanea (design/animation and live action/visual effects studio) to supplement with specific additional skills.
The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of innovative technologies as people have learned to connect with each other in new ways. The metaverse–encompassing and connecting virtual worlds, augmented reality, NFTs and the blockchain–presents limitless opportunities for brands to build new creative experiences and engage with diverse, highly loyal audiences. Its market size in 2021 was estimated to be more than $1 trillion, growing at mid double-digits for the foreseeable future. To be successful in these areas, clients need strong expertise in experience design, brand strategy and audience insights, as well as virtual art and gaming engine execution.
Richard Glasson, global CEO of Hogarth, said, “This is a very exciting time to be in the production and content creation business. We are living through extraordinary change, and our clients have whole new worlds to navigate and radically new ways to engage with their customers. At Hogarth we are perfectly positioned to launch our clients into these new channels and create incredible experiences for consumers globally.”
Mehta Mehta, global executive creative director of Hogarth, said, “The Metaverse Foundry is a limitless place where creative, production and innovation come together to bring to life your greatest ideas. A place for future-focused brands that want to build communities, and technologies that are designed to elevate e-commerce and customer experiences. In a nutshell, The Metaverse Foundry is built to take ideas to the next level at scale. The only limitation is going to be your imagination. You think it, we’ll make it happen.”
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More