Dept unveils 300-person global team dedicated to Web3

Dept has formalized its Web3 offering with the launch of a global, 300-person team and co-brand dedicated to blockchain technology, the metaverse and NFTs.

Called Web3/Dept, the co-brand aims to position the digital agency as a marketing leader in virtual worlds and blockchain technology.

“We want to be the go-to Web3 agency of record,” said Isabel Perry, VP at Web3/Dept. “We’re in a really strong position in the market to be competitive and achieve that.”

Dept aims to derive 20% of its revenue from Web3/Dept by 2025, a marked boost from the 5% of revenue — more than $29 million — it now contributes. It also hopes to grow Web3/Dept to more than 1,200 employees in that same timeframe.

After developing dozens of Web3-focused projects for brands such as H&M and Sprite, the team that makes up Web3/Dept will continue to devote much of its time to explaining the ill-understood brand potential of blockchain technologies, immersive web experiences, AR, VR, gaming and the metaverse.

To assist with that education process, Dept is also launching Web3 Labs, a nine-step course designed to instruct clients and Dept employees on the blockchain. Clients who purchase the lessons and employees will have experience redeeming, trading and minting NFTs, Perry said.

As new concepts and ways to use blockchain technology emerge, education will be a pillar of what Web3/Dept does, but Perry hopes it will have a reduced focus by 2025.

In addition to its consulting work, Web3/Dept will build experiences in the metaverse and strategize around launching NFTs.

“When we’ve presented this to clients, they’ve had no idea that one company does this much,” Perry said.

Perry is leading the team alongside fellow VP Brandon Aaskov. Perry will focus on operations, strategy and sales while Aaskov leans into the technical engineering side of applying Web3 technologies. Fifty percent of Web3/Dept is based in the U.S.

One of Web3/Dept’s longstanding projects is building a virtual world by 2025 called Translucia, a $100 million metaverse venture started in 2021 by Australian team Two Bulls/Dept and T&B Media. The goal of Translucia is to reinforce and reward positive behavior like fitness and healthy cooking.

“There are economists employed to look at how you create a self-sustaining virtual economy,” Perry said.

Dept has more than 3,500 employees globally and hit $500 million in revenue in 2022.