Socialize Becomes Only UAE Agency to Scoop a Webby for Plus Company's ‘PlusConnect’
Socialize, the socially-led creative & media agency, has been recognized at the 27th annual Webby Awards this month, for a first-of-its-kind employee relations campaign using NFTs, created for its client Plus Company.
The PlusConnect NFT Collection and Innovation DAO won in the HR and Employee Experience category, with Socialize becoming the sole agency winner from the United Arab Emirates at the annual awards program, which recognizes the best of the internet.
The impetus behind PlusConnect was the 2021 formation of the Plus Company network of creative agencies. With 3,000 employees in 25 agencies, there was a pressing need to help members connect and get to know each other – but these agencies are located in 13 countries and no fewer than XX time zones, so it wasn’t a case of organizing a company away day. Web3 seemed a natural choice – and a good way to help employees who knew nothing about it to engage – and the idea of PlusConnect emerged.
Developed through a collaborative effort between Socialize, We Are Social and Fuseproject, it involved the creation of 25 customizable NFTs, one for each agency in the network.
All 3,000 agency employees were invited to claim their artwork, created by the designer radarboy3000, by registering a Web3 wallet if they didn’t already have one, and minting an NFT. Once claimed, the NFTs were designed to evolve when the owner interacted with another Plus Company member, creating a one-off piece of art for everyone involved.
Those with the highest number of connections were recognized on a leaderboard and invited to join the PlusConnect Innovation DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) which includes the company's first employee-directed innovation fund.
Within 90 days of the launch of the initiative, over 23,000 connections were made across the organization, with over 800 employees claiming their first-ever NFT and 3,000 NFT holders joining the Innovation DAO.
PlusConnect is not the only first-of-its-kind work developed by Socialize. In 2014, the agency was behind MAF Properties’ AR-fueled gamification experience; and in 2016 the Dubai-based team developed the world’s first automotive, AI-driven Messenger Bot. The business itself was the first socially-driven creative and media agency in the region when it launched in 2010.
