Mango was Havas’s southernmost US team specializing in consumer creative and emerging tech. In late 2021, our Global CCO Eric Weisberg asked us to create an all-new, never-been-done Web3 internship. After some research, we found our internship wouldn’t just be a network first—it was a category first. Long and short, we built official and unofficial social campaigns to attract talent on platforms like Discord, Twitch, Instagram, and beyond. 300 applications later, we had four hires. Nine weeks later, we had four white label health and wellness experiences built across Roblox, Horizon Worlds, Spatial, and AltSpaceVR. More on all that below.
After a successful recruiting campaign (below), we hired Juan Diego Torres from Ohio State University, Sarah Kim and Jingyuan Kang of Carnegie Mellon, and Joshua Igwe of Ontario College of Art and Design. Between their 15 years of Maya, Blender, and Unity experience, they knew enough to cover each others' gaps. My partner Aly and I directed their individual experience narratives and kept each intern in their own visual and thematic lane.
Jingyuan transformed cognitive therapies into playable games in Vibe Chamber. Sarah curated Eclipse, an immersive exhibition space dedicated to hosting fitness influencers live. Joshua built Chronic Escape, a multi-level escape room where players outrun unhealthy life choices. Lastly, Juan Diego created the Missing Museum, an approachable edu space housing lessons that got censored in conservative climate.
Just a few program accolades
Over 500 unique players joined our worlds in Roblox, Horizon Worlds, Spatial, and AltspaceVR. CCO Eric Weisberg took them on a global tour, generating over 300k organic impressions. These experiences are still live and can be played. Not only is "The First Metaverse Internship in the World" into year three, but we stacked up awards (as seen below).
Hiring #zoomers where they were
For recruitment, we needed to establish a look and feel of the program. We created a bank of highly visual 3D gifs then paired each visual with a self-aware Web3 headline. Most creators were unfamiliar with the ad world, so I went into Decentraland, Roblox, Horizon Worlds, multiple Discord channels, and even followed emerging Twitch streamers, tipping them with the gig's hourly rate. The posts and tactics landed us 150k impressions for under a hundred bucks, 300 global applicants, 7 pirate* job posts, and 4 IRL hires.
*After receiving crazy response rates, we Googled the role only to find multiple job boards (that we didn't post to or connect with) were reposting and sharing the roles.
Havas Mango
Metaverse Interns/Creators: Juan Diego Torres, Sarah Kim, Joshua Igwe, Jingyuan Kang
Strategists: Christen Casey, Laura Santana
Design Director: Aly Lopez
Producer: Melody De Zendegui
Managing Director: Tristan Stevens
Director of Technology: Yossi Speiser
CCO: Eric Weisberg