Manchester City and OKX drive fan engagement across the metaverse with personalised kit avatars

Web3 tech company and Manchester City training kit partner OKX have kicked off another interactive metaverse campaign for fans of the club.

‘Play For the City’ allows fans to personalise their own digital avatars in Manchester City training kits to then be used across 4,000 metaverse games and apps, inspiring them to share their love for the club in the virtual world.

Supporting the initiative is a hero video featuring top Manchester City players reimagined as giant avatars exploring Manchester. The video headlined the multichannel campaign’s launch ahead of the Citizen’s match-up with title hopefuls Arsenal earlier this week.

Manchester City and OKX collaborated with Yahoo to create the campaign. Working with the ‘Ready Player Me’ platform to build the bespoke AR and avatar experience, Yahoo created the hero video and will distribute the content through digital out of home (DOOH) locations as well as video, display and native formats across mobile, tablet and TV screens to maximise reach and fan engagement.

Haider Rafique, Global Chief Marketing Officer at OKX, said: “The metaverse experiences we’ve been developing with Manchester City represent a whole world of exciting new opportunities, and your avatar grants you access to these. This campaign is another example of how Manchester City and OKX are delivering on the promise of Web3 to enhance the fan experience and help people get closer to what OKX considers ‘a new way to internet’.”

Gavin Johnson, Media Director at City Football Group, added: “Bringing together expertise from all three collaborators, we’re able to offer Manchester City fans across the world the ability to connect and engage with the club in a unique and interesting new way and we hope fans enjoy the experience on offer.”

This is the latest Metaverse experience brought to life by this partnership and follows the launch of a training course with Rúben Dias and a tactical masterclass with İlkay Gündoğan in the OKX Collective metaverse. Looking ahead, May will see fans invited into the metaverse for exclusive experiences with star players Jack Grealish and Alex Greenwood.