AT&T Built a Virtual Reality Island Complete With a Movie Theater and a Clothing Store

The article originally appeared on Adweek.com on October 2, 2021 – https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/att-built-a-virtual-reality-island-complete-with-a-movie-theater-and-a-clothing-store/

AT&T has teamed up with lifestyle and gaming brand 100 Thieves to build a virtual reality space geared towards socialization. The heavily branded “AT&T Station” is a spaceship-like area within the social VR platform VRChat that offers a movie theater for HBO Max titles; games like trivia, billiards and hide-and-seek; and a clothing store full of shoppable 100 thieves merchandise. The experience can be accessed either with a VR headset and hand controllers or simply through a desktop computer.

The activation is the latest example of a brand wading into the so-called metaverse, a collection of shared online worlds populated by user avatars, as consumers become more amenable to such remote immersive experiences during the pandemic.

“It’s a really amazing, groundbreaking new experience that puts AT&T at the center of gaming and technology and culture,” said Sabina Ahmed, AT&T’s assistant vp of sponsorships and experiential. “We really wanted to find a platform that gives us a good number of available users and fans that are already engaging in that space and then obviously find ways to make sure that we create a truly immersive experience for them.”

The experience consists of a sleek, bi-level space surrounded by an outer space background visible through the windows. Nods to AT&T branding and inside jokes between 100 Thieves and their fans are scattered throughout, in addition to mini-games like a billiards

table and a trivia contest. Different rooms branching from the main area offer social gathering spaces like an animated hot tub and a fire pit with flames in AT&T‘s signature blue color.

“We’re always looking to show up for our community in unexpected ways that deliver on that ‘holy shit’ moment,” said 100 Thieves chief revenue officer Matty Lee. “AT&T has been a great long-term partner, and they know us. So, when they came to us with the idea, it seemed like a really exciting way to deliver value to our community and the broader VRChat audience with creative integration of some of our business lines like apparel, content, as well as our talent.”