THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!
From the 16th Annual Shorty Awards

The Met Replica

Winner in Extended Reality, Interactive Content, Gamification, Gaming, Live Events

Gold Honor in Immersive, Brand Partnership, Education

Audience Honor in Extended Reality

Objectives

After lockdown, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was looking for a way to boost visitation. So, they set their sights on a demographic that’s always been challenging to engage—kids. 

 

Today’s youth are digital natives. So it’s no surprise the 8 to 13 year old set is more interested in playing video games than learning about art. To them, visiting an art museum is like eating spinach. They do it because Mom makes them. So how do we get kids begging their parents to take them to The Met?

 

Strategy and Execution

Verizon and The Met have an existing partnership and a shared goal to inspire learning. For years, Verizon has been at the forefront of the effort to provide tech education to schools across America, ensuring that kids expand their worldview using our technology. In 2022, Verizon’s 5G network got a supercharged upgrade, creating the perfect opportunity to bring The Met into the 21st century with a tech-forward, interactive, and creative learning experience with fine art.

So instead of fighting the phone. We leaned into it.

The Met Replica.

The first ever real-world Roblox avatar collection that brings the metaverse to the physical halls of The Met. Visit The Met. Enter the metaverse.

We created an  app that sent kids on an interactive, educational scavenger hunt that turned 2 million square feet of the largest museum in North America into an infinite metaverse playground.

 

Educational clues helped them find the original in IRL and replicate it in AR. Like magic, 5000 years of art transformed from real to Roblox virtual items. Making their avatar a work of art. Not only did kids become true metaverse art collectors, they used their phone and the Verizon network to learn a thing or two along the way.

 

Results

With zero paid media: 

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Verizon Creative Marketing, Verizon

Link

Entry Credits