The Met Replica

• THE BRIEF

Kids get bored at museums because they can’t touch or play with any of the cool things. So how can a museum let kids get their hands on an irreplaceable piece of history?

Verizon wanted to use the power of its ultra-fast, ultra-reliable 5G Ultra Wideband to connect young people to art in a new and culturally relevant way. So together we collaborated with The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to create a connected digital experience that blends entertainment and education: an augmented reality treasure hunt within the walls of The Met that extends into Roblox.

• THE CLIENTS

Verizon
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

• MY ROLE

Creative Director

• WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Replica is a first-of-its-kind experience happening at The Metropolitan Museum in New York and in Roblox simultaneously. It begins at The Met, with an engaging treasure hunt that adds an extra layer of immersion to the visit. Visitors can download a phone app to explore the halls of the museum discovering the hidden Replica art pieces, learning about them, and earning rewards along the way. Once visitors return home, they can use their hard-earned items in the Roblox experience.

An app sent kids on an interactive, educational scavenger hunt for Replicas, in the largest museum in North America.

Educational clues helped kids find the original artwork IRL and replicate it in AR. Like magic, 5,000 years of art transformed from real to Roblox virtual items.

Fun facts provided kid-friendly context to the art in the museum.

For the first time ever, kids turned their avatars into works of art.

Kids used their phones to learn about art history, all while becoming true metaverse art collectors.

• THE ROBLOX EXPERIENCE

To make the experience accessible to kids outside of New York, we also created a replica of The Met in Roblox, including the museum’s iconic facade and other renowned spaces like the Great Hall. Explore the full Replica collection, learn about art, compete for the coolest outfit, and take avatar photos in one of four immersive photo booths inspired by famous painted scenes from the museum’s collection.

You can enjoy the Roblox experience here.

• TRANSLATING ART PIECES INTO ROBLOX OBJECTS

To create the digital replicas, the creative team at UNIT9 collaborated with Verizon and The Met curators. We carefully designed digital items that capture the essence of the real art while fitting seamlessly with the Roblox aesthetic.

Original art piece

Roblox accessory concept illustration

Roblox accessory early 3D draft

Final Roblox accessory

• RESULTS

1.4 billion impressions
$0 media spend
200k new visitors to the Met
426,000 Replicas collected
2 million square feet of the largest art museum in the US turned into an educational metaverse playground

• AWARDS

5x Cannes Lions shortlist
7x Clio Awards (3x Gold, 2x Silver, 2x Bronze)
4x The One Show Pencils (1x Gold, 1x Silver, 2x Bronze)
7x Art Directors' Club Awards (2x Gold, 5x Silver)
3x Webby Awards
7x Shorty Awards
FWA of the Day

• TEAM CREDITS

Creative Directors: Veronika Watson-Kuc, Zlaten Del Castillo
Executive Producer: Erin Ray
Project Manager: Nadaa Baqui, Paulina Pawlak
Art Director 3D: Pedro Custódio
Art Director 2D: Mitch Fernandes
UX design: Florencia Pavan, Stefania Solari
2D design: Gosia Borkowska, Krzysztof Turek, Eduardo Amorim, Hamza Anjum
3D design: Andrea Mancuso, Pavel Suprun, Denis Uzdyaev, Kheloud Sayed
Audio direction: Dani Valkova
Copywriter: Alex McGill
Motion: Norbert Mikołajczyk
Illustration and concept aty: Vero Gomes, Miguel Sastre, Mirco Pierfederic, Zdravko Jandric
Tech Director: Krzysztof Wyrzykowski
Game Director: Andrew Oaten
Roblox Tech Lead + Roblox Developer: André Mattos
Mobile App Tech Lead: Sina Cetin
Unity Developers: Riess Phillips, Richard Drake
Roblox/Front End Developer: Tiziano Casu
QA: James Stokes, Tom Watson, Alix Saunders, Pani Nicola, Fabrizio Rossi, Stephanie Thorpe, Victoria Sharpe, Pritty Gilbey
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THE MET REPLICA