Web3 Community at Publicis Groupe

Web3 Community at Publicis Groupe

Tags
Community GrowthInnovation StrategySpatial Computing
Date
2022
In 2021, I co-founded Building Blocks, an internal Web3 learning community at Publicis Groupe. What began as a grassroots initiative to educate teams on emerging technologies scaled into a 1,000+ member innovation hub, shaping thought leadership, creating Web3 and XR prototypes, and winning 10+ paid client engagements.

My Role

Our group of six Early Careers co-founders represented Product, Design, and Engineering capabilities. We all wore many hats but I focused my attention on growing our community, building our educational offerings, and specialising in Extended Reality tech.

The Problem Space

As Web3 and Extended Reality technologies gained momentum, interest across Publicis Groupe was high, but expertise was too fragmented across the organisation.

1) No centralised learning platform for Web3 fundamentals

2) Clients showed interest but lacked practical guidance on adoption

3) Our teams needed hands-on experience to build credibility in emerging tech

SOLUTION PROMPT

How might we build a thriving Web3 learning community that empowers our teams to identify and implement valuable applications for our clients?

The Solution Space

We tackled this challenge with a strategic blend of education, prototyping, and partnership.

EDUCATION

Our ability to win and deliver projects in the Web3 space hinged on having the right skills. To scale this capability across Publicis Groupe, we developed accessible Web3 educational materials:

  • I bootstrapped together a Learning Management System which housed the 5 Web3 courses our team produced.
  • I published monthly articles on our company intranet promoting our community to the 80K+ Publicis Groupe employees worldwide.
  • I also led the Extended Reality curriculum and ran community sessions offering practical workshops, fireside chats with industry leaders, and technical deep-dives.
“Metaverse” course excerpt and sample certificate.
“Metaverse” course excerpt and sample certificate.

PROTOTYPING

To move beyond theory, we launched five Proofs of Concept (POCs) targeting key industry challenges that could uniquely be answered by Web3/XR technologies. I led two POCs as a PM:

  1. Virtual fitting room, tackling high return rates of fast fashion with “digital twin” garments, a personalised mannequin, and an Augmented-Reality fitting experience.
  2. NFT-based car resale market, exploring how blockchain could enable secure, verifiable ownership transfers for used vehicles.
Proof-of-Concept for “Virtual Fitting Room” designed to combat high return rates in online fashion retail with Digital Twins & AR.
Proof-of-Concept for “Virtual Fitting Room” designed to combat high return rates in online fashion retail with Digital Twins & AR.

PARTNERSHIP

As our community grew, we deepened partnerships with our clients by exploring where they were best positioned to leverage Web3 technologies with industry focused Go-To-Market strategies, exploration workshops with individual clients, and 0→1 build projects.

  • We secured 10+ paid Web3 engagements. Highlights include launching the world’s first Beauty DAO with L’Oréal, a metaverse-based store for Sephora, and the Web3 Go-to-Market strategy for Mondelez.
  • Within our first 9 months, our membership surpassed 1,000 members, distributed across Publicis Groupe agencies like Publicis Sapient, Publicis Media, Epsilon, and Digitas.
  • As part of the Early Careers programme at Publicis Sapient, we also provided mentorship and encouraged graduates to explore Web3 by collaborating on PoCs and launching their own initiatives.

The Outcomes

1) AN ACTIVE COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS AND BUILDERS

In nine months, we grew the Building Blocks community to 1,000+ members from more than 10 agencies across the globe. Through frequent events and projects, we fostered a collaborative spirit that saw our Web3 enthusiasts participate in fireside chats, client workshops, and paid engagements.

2) FROM WEB3 ENTHUSIASM TO WEB3 EXPERTISE

We published five courses across the scope of Web3 technologies and awarded more than 200 skill certificates. Offered at three levels of proficiency, our learners now understand the fundamentals of the technologies, their potential applications, and the strategic considerations for planning Web3 work with their clients.

3) POSITIONING PUBLICIS AS A LEADER IN WEB3

We procured 10+ client engagements to strategise, prototype, and deploy experiences that leveraged NFTs, DAOs, DIDs, and Metaverse (XR) tech. Publicis Sapient also received an industry recognition for leadership in Metaverse from HFS Research.

Want to know more?

If you have any questions about this project, reach out and let’s set up a call.

Where to next?