best in category
Best Use of a Brand in Gaming

Wendyverse




information

VML Seattle


Partnering with the largest social network in the world, Meta, Wendy’s built an entire virtual world all about the Wendy’s brand in Horizon Worlds: the Wendyverse. We brought new meaning to “playing with your food” as users interacted with our menu items in ways only possible in virtual reality and even built a fully functional virtual Wendy’s restaurant, giving people the ability to snag real Wendy’s Nuggs in virtual reality. The Wendyverse proved to be a popular destination, becoming the #1 world in Horizon upon launch with 11.5 minutes average playtime.


Last year, Wendy’s dethroned Burger King to become the No. 2 burger chain. But the category leader, McDonald’s, still outnumbered us three to one in restaurants. That’s a problem when mealtime decisions are made impulsively and our competition has a restaurant on every block. Wendy’s challenge was to climb the ladder of consumers’ minds by getting in front of them in more memorable ways.


So how do we keep up with the scale of our competition? By going places they can’t. Enter the Wendyverse. A virtual reality world all about the Wendy’s brand. Part restaurant, part Wendy’s amusement park. What better place to reach your audience than a world where your competition can’t exist? No clutter. No competition. Just Wendy’s.

In launch weekend alone, 121,000+ minutes were spent there, becoming the #1 most visited world in all of Horizon Worlds, earning 650+ million impressions, with the #1 daily active users in all of Horizon Worlds averaging 11.5 minutes of playtime.


If you’re going to build a virtual world, then you might as well do it with the backing of the largest social platform in the real world, Meta. Therefore, the Wendyverse launched in Horizon Worlds.


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credits

Debbi Vandeven


John Godsey


Glen Scott


McKay Hathaway


Tanner Rogers-Goode


Kyle Gracey


Matt Keck


Conor Clarke


Hannah Kirkeiner


Jessica Iglesias


Kurt Kane


Carl Loredo


Jimmy Bennett


Frank Vamos


Kristin Tormey


Dave Kaufman


Jason Sperling


Tony Kalathara


Zsofia Solta


Ben Conaghan


Brian Bockelman


Lauren Kimak


Colin Belmont


Kyle Luke


Jeremy Cline


Samantha Schuster


Chelsie McCullough


Shae Mermis


Matthew Udy


John Mclay



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