Earlier this week, Vivendi Group announced its first Vice President of Web 3.0, Fabien Aufrechter. The French group owns film and TV company Canal+ and big six global advertising agency Havas, amongst other publishing and gaming interests.
“Following a hackathon attended by experts from all our businesses, we identified major projects within the metaverse, leveraging our intellectual properties, and are currently assessing their technical feasibility and business model,” said Félicité Herzog, Vivendi’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer.
Aufrechter previously led Havas Blockchain since its launch in 2018 as an ICO advisory firm, which tried to weed out the dodgy crypto initiatives by launching a ’10 commandments’. It evolved into a blockchain and crypto startup studio. In 2019 it launched fan tokens to reward sports fans for their engagement. Despite the early move, others have dominated the sector, with Socios creating a massive business in that niche.
Havas also participated in advertising industry initiatives that explored the use of blockchain to improve transparency and trust in the online advertising sector.
“Vivendi has a huge head start in Web 3.0 because of its pioneering talents, several years of internal projects, already more than a hundred clients and supported projects, as well as valuable internal audit work,” said the new Vivendi web3 VP, Aufrechter. “Decentralized technologies represent a business lever and a major transformation tool for Vivendi.”
In 2021 Havas launched Metaverse by Havas, a consultancy practice, and this April made the step itself by setting up a presence in The Sandbox. With Havas Group spread over 100 countries, it already had 68 Villages, and The Sandbox presence made the 69th.
“The metaverse provides a wealth of new media and new opportunities for the communications sector and for brands,” said Yannick Bolloré, Chairman & CEO, Havas Group. “Whether the aim is to create original and meaningful experiences, reach out to new target audiences, or simply reinforce an existing bond, the possibilities are practically endless.”
Havas also plans to use the metaverse to launch a recruitment service as well as an onboarding experience for recruits. During the pandemic, Accenture used its metaverse platform to onboard 150,000 new staff.
