We didn’t build it, but they still came: How an imaginary WPP campus got real media attention.
During the pandemic, a young planner from Mindshare proposed a virtual holiday party set in a Minecraft replica of the WPP Detroit campus. This sparked an idea in me: why not unite WPP globally within a single virtual space? By placing the WPP Detroit campus alongside every other WPP campus in Minecraft, we could create a groundbreaking ‘WPP Campus Campus’ that transcended geographical boundaries.
I drafted a proposal (slides above), which quickly gained momentum within WPP. BDG, the agency behind WPP’s physical campus designs, was on board, and while the project was still in its early stages, their CCO casually mentioned it during a presentation:
That brief mention was enough to generate press coverage, with headlines suggesting WPP was already bringing this vision to life!
As the project evolved, we shifted our focus from creating faithful replicas of existing WPP campuses to something far more imaginative. Rather than merely constructing digital twins in Minecraft, we envisioned a campus so creative it couldn’t exist in the physical world. Freed from the constraints of geography, building regulations, and even gravity, we challenged the team with a bold new brief: to create “The Most Creative Campus in the World,” a space unbound by reality, designed to bring our people together for truly innovative interactions.
This project began before the rise of newer “metaverse” worlds like Decentraland and The Sandbox, after which we carefully weighed the option of building in one of these emerging virtual spaces. However, this particular WPP Campus project ultimately didn’t move forward due to shifting priorities. Despite that, the media attention it generated and the concept itself underscored the immense potential for virtual collaboration in our industry, paving the way for future explorations in the boundless and ever-evolving virtual world.
PROJECT COLLABORATORS
Rob Reilly
Dave Rolfe
Andy Martin
Nick Wiertella