Admix, the In-Play company that bridges the gap between brands and the metaverse, today (9 December) announce a new partnership with Ocean Outdoor, the UK’s leading digital out of home (DOOH) operator, to send brands into the metaverse.

Brands are increasingly waking up to gaming and virtual worlds as a new form of ‘real’ estate on which to advertise. As the digital and physical worlds converge, consumers now spend similar amounts of time immersed in each, creating a new frontier for advertising. Virtual platforms such as Roblox, which has 220 million monthly active users, and Sandbox, which recently sold a plot of virtual real estate for USD$4.3m (£3.3m), are leading this convergence via realistic experiences such as games, concerts, and fashion shows.

The partnership between Admix and Ocean Outdoor UK signals a new dawn for the advertising industry as the two companies join the dots blending the physical with the virtual world. A series of activities that couple DOOH with virtual worlds are planned for the next year and beyond, aimed at maximising eyeballs for advertisers in the DOOH market, which is already projected to be worth USD$50bn (£37.9bn) by 2026.

The starting gun will be fired with the launch of three DOOH ad spots into the metaverse as NFT billboards. Ocean’s first drop will feature digital replicas of three bespoke DOOH locations which are similar in design and scale to its premium city centre UK assets including 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.

Using Admix’s In-Play technology and Ocean Outdoor UK’s brand partnerships, the NFT billboards will synchronise with the creatives displayed on their real-world counterparts. This collaboration is an adland-first that paves the way for global brands looking to take steps into the formative metaverse.

Samuel Huber, CEO and Co-Founder at Admix, commented, “Admix’s partnership with Ocean Outdoor UK is a watershed moment for the advertising industry, creating realistic ad experiences that merge physical and virtual worlds for the very first time. 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.”

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.”

Admix has pioneered In-Play, a non-intrusive digital ad format which creates an advertising experience similar to the real-world. As an increasing number of users enter worlds such as Roblox, Sandbox and Decentraland to name but a few, brands need the infrastructure to reach and engage people in virtual worlds without disrupting their experience.

Starting from Sunday 12th December 2021, 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. Social VR platform Somnium Space is an immersive space where users can purchase digital land and build games and experiences within it. The partnership with Admix means Ocean’s Labs division and the Ocean UK sales team will be able to sell an engaged 16 to 34 audience as a cohesive physical and virtual combined offer.