Horizon Media opened a Web3-focused division called Chapter & Verse, making it the latest agency to leap into the metaverse.

The unit, which debuted about a month ago, is being led by co-founders Donnie Williams and Pedro Rodriguez. Williams and Rodriguez will maintain their roles as executive VP, chief digital officer, and senior VP, business growth, digital marketing & transformation, respectively, for Horizon Media.

This continues a trend of agencies opening their own Web3-related practices, such as Vayner Media's VaynerNFT and WPP’s Metaverse Foundry. Other agencies that have opened metaverse practices include Dept, Harper+Scott, Unit9, and even consulting giants such as Accenture and Deloitte.

Chapter & Verse will mainly focus on metaverse consulting, to begin with, according to Williams. He noted that Horizon started building out its Web3 expertise around nine months ago, but this is the first official formalization of a Web3 practice.

“The gravitational force is definitely around the metaverse,” Williams said. “I think it's because people are like it looks kind of looks like a commercial or it kind of feels like an in-game activation or it could be mobile. I think people are like, that part feels the least scary. We're happy to help inform people, but I don't know that's where the story for us is going to end. I like metaverse activations because it promises to be a new and unique way to address all of the hot buttons for marketing, like gathering real-time insight, focusing on diversity and inclusivity efforts, reimagining product positioning and actually having one-to-one relationships."

Williams added that the biggest challenge "is going to be, whether you're dealing with blue-chip clients all the way down to customers of emerging and disruptive brands, how much effort and energy and consumer opportunity actually exist in a meaningful way.”

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Beyond consulting clients on understanding Web3, Chapter & Verse will also help clients figure out strategy and ideation around Web3-focused activations; help brands define their crypto readiness; build experiences in the metaverse including in-game media; and develop NFTs, brand merchandising and event activation, among other things. 

Although the business unit is fairly new and doesn’t have any work yet, it has been in conversations with 15 brands, both current Horizon clients and non-clients. The unit currently has six full-time employees. Williams will look to leverage expertise from external partners, as well as expertise from various Horizon agencies such as Blue Hour Studios, which is a content marketing agency with production capabilities.

“Many organizations operate in this capacity where they're like, 'we want to do this project so let’s find someone who's an expert in that type of production capability,'" Williams said.

Horizon Media is working with Vatom, "which is basically a 3D production design organization, to create effectively what will be an educational environment for our own staff and for clients," Williams said. He described it as a "portable, 3D experience where you can move around to different metaverse environments, but a structured place where you can check out videos and educational aspects of Web3, where you can engage with and create your own avatar.”

Over the past couple of years, and more so recently, agencies including Wunderman Thompson, Mediahub, VCCP, Movement Strategy and others have started to build their own metaverse or virtual office spaces to help educate employees or clients. Beyond the virtual “Educational Colosseum,” which is what Williams calls the metaverse space being built, the new business unit will be based in Horizon’s New York office. However, Williams will look to add one component of its physical office into the virtual space: Horizon has a computer-based robot named Pepper, which helps people navigate Horizon’s New York space, and will now also act as a navigation tool in its metaverse space as well.

Williams will look to continue to fill a few more positions for Chapter & Verse which he says 90% of recruiting efforts currently take place on Discord and 10% on Twitter.

“We're trying to integrate ourselves within the fabric of the existing Web3 community,” Williams said. “These are things like meet-up groups for people that want to learn about Web3  and we're going to host some ourselves. It’s a working idea, but we're calling them Meta Mondays, which is basically just like, here's all that's happening within the space and how does that impact you? But we'll be inviting folks from various groups where this conversation's already happening in an attempt to get people exposed to what our company does to get us exposed to the way people are thinking about Web3 and other industries and hopefully identify areas of overlap.”