A new film from Meta and Droga5 illustrates the possibilities of the metaverse through the eyes of an African cycling team. 

The film centers on "Team Amani," 12 young cyclists from across East Africa who compete in the global cycling scene. As we see some of them riding in the African landscape, the narrator tells us that they already use tech to communicate and have ambitions to compete in the Tour de France. However, he adds, he foresees a day when technology will allow them to benefit from world-class training and compete on an even larger scale.

Every year, the team organizes the Migration Gravel Race with the goal of bringing some of the world’s top cyclists to experience a whole new way of cycling in East Africa, known for its high-altitude gravel roads. The film showcases some of that competition and imagines a futuristic Nairobi race with members of the team riding in virtual reality with cyclists from all over the world.

The endline reads, "When we connect beyond boundaries, we all go farther."

Directing duo Illimité World (Aus Taylor and Marleaux Desiré) helmed the film via Love Song, working with Daniel Wolfe as the executive producer. Wolfe also executive produced Meta’s “Skate Nation Ghana” film for the Tokyo Olympics, which earned a nomination for a commercial Emmy, among other nods. 

While the latter focused on the power of Meta and Facebook's communities, the new ad aims to show what the metaverse can offer as Meta pushes its vision of the future in a more emotional way, emphasizing the role it can play in shared experiences.

“When people say 'metaverse' you tend to think of fake or imaginary worlds," said Thom Glover, executive creative director at Droga5. “But really, it has the potential to take away real barriers that matter in our lives. This story is about what could happen when geography doesn’t matter so much. It’s a story about a group of cyclists, but the message is much broader; this is about how far we all could go, if we weren’t limited by where we started out.”

The campaign will run across broadcast, linear and social channels.

Meta is not the first advertiser to use a cycling team to illustrate the opportunities brought by tech; Decathlon won a Grand Prix at Cannes this year with a campaign that assembled an e-cycling team from a group of prisoners via virtual platform Zwift.