Episode 43 | Immersive Commerce | DEEP DIVE | Brands In Play

[NEW EPISODE ALERT] 

This week on Brands In Play, Albane Prioux and Nic Hill unpack immersive holiday commerce in 2025. They cover everything from Target’s Alpine store makeovers and Walmart’s ambient-room shopping, to Amazon’s 3D “Beyond Rooms,” UGC gaming worlds and AI shopping assistants. We stress-test each one on whether it genuinely makes buying smarter and easier, or is it all gloss? Shop… or drop.

In the news, ChatGPT Goes Shopping, Adidas Enters Minecraft, Quentin Tarantino Reveals a Lost Kill Bill Chapter in Fortnite and Disney Plans a Live Animated NBA Game in Real Time.

And we wrap with a Real-Time Review of Formula 1’s new integration into Fortnite. So, how did one of the biggest sports in the world choose to enter Fortnite?

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Nic Hill -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-hill-6553873/
Albane Prioux -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/albaneprioux/
Edward Regue -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-regue-%C2%A9-44b0421b2/
Dr. Giovanna Casimiro https://www.linkedin.com/in/ggcasimiro/

Website: https://www.brands-in-play.com/

#brandsinplay #deepdive 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Unlike the shopping that we're used to, it's like I want to see everything that this store has to offer, and then I want to narrow down to this category, and I want to see all my options in that category. These don't these sort of immersive experiences don't scale in that way right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

It is a showroom, so you know it's been catered, tailored for you and for that specific design, but you don't search, you don't browse. Like there's not there's not any way of editing and changing your environment for the specific type of product that you're trying to look for. Welcome back to Grands and Play, your weekly podcast for everything in massive marketing. I'm Alban Priou, strategic marketing consultant.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

And I'm Nick Hill, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Sock Horse. This week in the news, ChatGPT goes shopping. Adidas enters Minecraft. Quentin Tarantino reveals a lost killbill chapter in Fortnite, and Disney plans a live animated NBA game you can watch in real time.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

And later, we're deep diving into immersive commerce, covering everything from AI that helps you find the right gift. Also 3D spaces and UGC Worlds that make discovery for brands a little bit more fun. And we'll deep dive into what's here to stay, but also what's up.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

And for our real-time review this week, I jumped into the Formula One activation on Fortnite.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I really like the sound of that. And if you're enjoying the show, please make sure to like, subscribe, and follow us. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Let's go. Alban, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Um very well. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Doing well. Just had an amazing Thanksgiving with the family.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yes. Did you have a successful bake, not baking, but cooking of turkey, doing all of the everyone happy?

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Classic Thanksgiving stuff. Happy family, happy turkey, the whole thing. It was awesome. Great. Um, but you know, we were just talking with the family about how we're thankful for things, thankful for family. And I just want to take a moment to say I'm thankful for you guys for putting the show together every single week. It's been such a commitment, but uh, you know, everyone who works on this show is just uh it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

So yeah, really thankful for the whole team. And we we had the like last few episodes before the end of the year, so we made it.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Yeah, it's uh I I'm surprised that we have not missed one week, and I'm impressed. So it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Without this discharge, it could have happened, but we made an effort to always always bring content.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

We don't let anybody down. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

And we are in an industry where there's always things as well to talk about. So there's a there's a lot of news for us to cover even this week, so close to Christmas, you think that maybe things will die down, but there's a lot to cover.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Yeah, that helps. And are you doing any shopping for Black Friday or Cyber Monday?

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Uh so in the UK, you also get January sales, which tend to be a bit better. Because the Black Friday is a little bit like the pre-Christmas, but then January gets a bit better because it's kind of the all of the stuff they had they hadn't really managed to sell. So that I'm I'm waiting essentially for January. And what about yourself? Are you uh Yeah?

SPEAKER_02 3:08

I mean, we had a long weekend, so we were kind of scouring the internet trying to find all the gifts going into the December holiday. Yeah. So just uh taking advantage of that and um excited for our deep dive, which we'll be talking about all the time.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

There might be a few features that you like.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Exactly. But let's keep it moving and let's jump to the news.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

So for our first story, Nick, I think this is actually one that might help you in your you know search for the best present. Uh, but ChatGPT very strategically has rolled out a new feature which is called shopping search. I thought this is something that you could already do, but this is apparently a new feature, which essentially allows you to run quests on, you know, you define essentially the kind of present that you're looking for, or like it doesn't have to be a present, by the way. It's just like anything that you look like you're shopping for. And the thing that is interesting here, it hasn't happened in my search, but in the press release that OpenAI released, is that this is now connected with the instant checkout, which I think you spoke about uh when it came out earlier. I think it was in September. So that's connected with Etsy, with Shopify. So if if you know the product that you land on, you can now find the product, but also purchase it all within the OpenAI and ChatGPT um platform, which is quite interesting and also worrying probably for Google because that means it's not leading any traffic anymore to their search engine.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yeah, that's awesome. I I feel like I I'll test it out this season and see how it works. I will say I was just using Chat GPT to help me find a webcam. And I didn't do the actual shopping through the app, but I was asking tons of questions, having a dialogue, figuring it out. I found a great one shipped to my house, and it turns out I'm on a Mac, I can't use it. So, like, as smart as this as this software is and it knows that I'm on a Mac talking to it, it didn't flag me and uh you know filter that out from the results.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

I was gonna say you have to that that's that was my the one thing I was gonna say is that you have to like for for the pre, for example, for the present for my sister to be relevant, I had to fed more information. She's not gonna lie to this by the way, but but I just had to like you have to make your quest so precise. I think the one thing that is quite useful, it allows you to like compare different gifts. So like I'm thinking for a camera, you know, it used to be such a pain to be able like either you had a YouTuber that had done a review on a comparation video to be able to compare two cameras, or you had to put like the two web pages side to side to be able to like compare the specs. This is now so much easier. Um you I think you can only blame yourself, Nick. You had to say, you had to say that it was a Mac. Don't blame Chad GPT.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Okay. Well How would I know? How would I know that? Why wouldn't it ask me? Because I was saying it was asking me all these questions. Like, is this important to you? Is that important to you? Do you want this? Do you want that? And I was like, we were going on and on and on. I think another important question by him or her would be well, what type of machine are you running? You know? Yes. But whatever. You know, I think this is all just speed bumps that you know are gonna that just we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

And the that's information, it's I'm not gonna go too much to detail because it is a leak leaked sorry information, but I thought I would mention it because it is kind of part of like our D2C conversation and commerce conversation, but there has been leaked footage, again, non-confirmed and hasn't been released by Roblox, so taking with a pinch of salt. Uh, but potentially a new feature that will be released within the platform. And the footage showed essentially what a click out um feature would look like. So essentially allowing brands to be able to link their website uh within the experience of Roblox. Now, I think you and I had a lot of debates about uh the need for this to happen because I think for specifically for ads, this is now a direct conversion path, which is really exciting and is kind of showing the ROI of these ads, uh, but also of experiences. But my only my only you know comments around that is that I doubt that Roblox will ever allow people to move out of their platform. And it's more, I'm thinking a little bit more like how Instagram is doing this, where you still have Instagram in the background and you have the overlay of the web page. And I th that I think this is what it looks like, uh, just from the footage, where it you're not because it's kind of annoying from a user perspective, anyway, if you're on your phone and you have to like jump from the nap to Google Chrome or whatever search engine you're like utilizing. Um, so I think this is probably the route that they're going for, where you'll still be on Roblox, but you have the ability now to have viewing a website from a brand. Um, so that's exciting. Again, this is not confirmed and it's leaked footage. Uh, but we we kind of knew from from you know a lot of the paths that they're they've taken this year that this was in in the road map. It's just excited to see first UX coming out.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Yeah, well, we'll we'll keep an eye on it and as it develops, it's exciting.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Yeah, really exciting. But what do you have next?

SPEAKER_02 8:11

So my first story is all about how Adidas brings the three-stripe city to Minecraft. So I don't know. I mean Adidas has been a cool brand. They've sort of been uh activating across all of these UGC gaming platforms in different ways uh over time. Did you see this Minecraft one?

SPEAKER_01 8:29

I uh I think I did. Is it is it the close is the release uh closing collection, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yeah, there's it's across it's it's both things.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

So yeah, they haven't seen the in-game stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Yeah, they launched this whole massive, like immersive uh custom world inside of Minecraft that was called Three Stripe City. It's free for players and it's packed with branded biomes, animals, gears, and quests. And the cool thing is is at the same time they released a bunch of IRL uh Adidas branded Minecraft clothing in the real world. So this is the sort of digital to physical, like sort of connection there, which I think is pretty cool. But what's really interesting is that this is also a loyalty program and CRM play. So uh Adidas has this uh loyalty program called the Addi Club. Yeah. And it's their Adidas loyalty and CRM ecosystem. And so you could basically earn points by shopping and doing different interactions. And they found a way to tie that into what's happening on um on Minecraft. So the brand didn't say exactly how they did that, but they said that it is connected. So I thought that that, you know, is definitely exciting. Um, and I think it's a a shift to how a lot of brands are sort of looking for a deeper ROI in these experiences and you know, not just looking at it as solely uh, you know, a marketing activation. And I feel like this activation's smart the way it's put together, and I think it checks all those boxes. My question would be will it actually convert? You know, I'd be curious to know what percentage of those fans that were on Minecraft, you know, actually jumped in and joined that um that loyalty program. You know, is there is it smooth? Is there too much friction? What are the numbers? I don't know. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 10:15

I think you're absolutely right. I think it's very difficult because I haven't I haven't seen so it's it just to understand, so you can now sign up to Addy Club within Minecraft.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

I don't know if you can sign up, but it is connected. So maybe like some things that you do with inside of Minecraft you can redeem inside of the inside.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah, that's interesting. I think I'm I'm always you know skeptical. If it's is if it's not if you're asking people to like jump out of the game, especially Minecraft, which is I don't know actually if it's more mainly play on mobile or PC, but I would say like this, if you have to jump out of the experience or like the app that you're into, I think that's just gonna create more friction and people are not gonna want to like come out. What is I think almost a guarantee, and then this is like not a guarantee, but this is more looking at the success of Lacoste, um, is the clothing line, where I feel like this is a bit a little bit more predictive in terms of RI and how much they're gonna be able to sell of these uh of these clothing items, uh just because there's been so much success with other Minecraft partnerships in in that similar similar industry. But I agree with you. I think when it comes to CRM, a little bit less like I it we'll have to dig a bit more into like what is the process for it.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

We'll see if we can find a case study. Um, what do you got? What's your next story?

SPEAKER_01 11:29

So, next one is a really exciting one. I know this probably is more of a real-time review news, but I just wanted to highlight it. It's Tarantino that is coming to Fortnite, but for something incredibly special. Um, I don't I I I feel like this is an obvious question, but are you a fan of Tarantino?

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Yeah, of course. I mean, an amazing filmmaker. He's made so much impactful work. He's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

I I I adore him. So I'm I'm I'm a huge fan. I think some of his um Death Proof is probably some of like in my top five of my favorite games. Inglorious Bastards. Huh? Inglorious Bastards. So good, Kill Bill. But I think Deathproof, for some reason, is like the one that I always loved. But anyway, so 20 years ago, it's it's I don't know, I feel so old, but 20 years ago is when he wrote and released Kill Bill, uh, the first volume, I believe, not the second one. But anyway, so there was a scene within this film that was never made. Uh it did not even make like um the second draft. It wasn't his first draft. They never like shot it or anything like that. Um, and when the conversation between Epic and a potential partnership with Tarantino arrived, they asked him, so that was an interview that he mentioned, they asked him whether there was any unreleased, you know, scenes that he like never never made the clip. And he talked about this specific scene uh that was supposed to be within Kalewin Volume 1. And thanks to this incredible partnership between Unreal, um between Epic Games and uh Quentin Tarantino, they were able to bring this scene to life. And I think it kind of reminded me some of the conversation we had previously around the evolution of AI and technology for entertainment. But he mentioned that at the time it would have costed so much money for them to make this that for budget and timing, they just couldn't make it. So the exciting thing is that this new unreleased clip, so it's an eight-minute section, has been done all on Unreal Engine. So you can now watch this whole clip that is called uh The Lost Chapter, Yuki's Revenge on Fortnite. So you have to just put down the discovery. Um, and it's incredible. I don't know if you've watched it, but this was such an incredible experience to see something from his mind that has never been um, you know, released before from like such a beloved uh film franchise. I I was just ecstatic.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

I think that is so awesome and so inspiring. What I love the most about this is you know, it's the it's the traditional film world, you know, where filmmakers are basically coming into the the video game space and then figuring out how to create something and impact audiences there. You know, it's the natural thing is like, oh, just make an immersive game of your IP. But I think what's cool about this is, you know, he was able to leverage the, you know, the the 3D technology, the visuals, and partner it with what he does best, which is storytelling and filmmaking, and create this unique sort of hybrid version of that story and then have it only viewable inside of the game. I think it's just a good step forward in how Hollywood should be looking at these these gaming immersive platforms to get creative and do things that are different.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

And it it kind of like sparked the the conversation of are are we gonna watch more, you know, because there's it's no gameplay. Like you are just watching that there's a little bit of gameplay at the beginning where you're waiting for the screenings to start, which is a little bit fun and immersive, but the rest is just as if you were on YouTube, like it's just uh the the clip is running. So I thought that was really interesting to think like, are we going to see more of those like maybe short, I don't know, short films that are done with Unreal and like you now again go on Fortnite to play, but also watch really qualitative content. So I I thought that was like incredible. Like I'm because maybe I'm biased, I'm a huge fan of his. Um, and I just thought it just felt like an incredible, like creative partnership between the two. And I'm just so so happy that thanks to like the evolution of the engine, this this thing in his mind was able to come to life. Um, so I would recommend people to like watch it or go on Fortnite to be able to experience it for yourself.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Yeah, it's definitely a step in the right direction. Um, so excited to see how that evolves.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Yeah. What do you have next?

SPEAKER_02 15:36

My last story is all about how Disney is planning an animated NBA game. Have you seen this step before?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

I haven't. No.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Okay. So this is uh officially Dunk the Halls. It's a Christmas event that's happening on Christmas Day this year. They did the same thing last year, so this will be the second time. But so it'll be a live NBA game. It's the uh Cli Cleveland Cavaliers versus the New York Knicks, and it's gonna be presented in this real-time animated sort of broadcast at the same time that the live sort of video broadcast is happening. And so what they're doing is like they're creating this 3D environment that is essentially Disneyland. It's like Main Street USA, the Magic Kingdom. You're gonna have all of the Disney characters on the on as fans on the sidelines looking in. Okay. And then you're gonna have avatars, 3D avatars of every single athlete, uh, basketball player that's on the court. And what's crazy is that they have this real-time data that can be mapped from the game at the stadium into this 3D environment. So, like every single dunk, pass, layup, it's all motion tracked and then mapped and applied to the avatar in real time. So this is like uh a technology called Beyond Sports that's owned by Sony. So that does the sort of the virtual side, and then it's leveraging the special data that's inside of the stadium, which is called Hawkeye Innovations technology. So there's a bunch of smart stadiums in the US and other places that are recording data and then sending it out. And so this is an example of like how all of that can come together and be repurposed. And so the uh broadcast itself is gonna be distributed through Disney and ESPN platforms. Okay, cool. And we know that Disney acquired ESPN. And I think what's so interesting about this story is that it, you know, it covers the intersection between like sports, technology, and entertainment IP. Um and it's you know, it's it's a look at how like leagues like the MBA can start uh, you know, thinking outside the box uh on how to like repackage or or also share what they're doing in different immersive and interesting ways. And I think one of the reasons why they're doing this is to kind of capture younger audiences. Yeah, absolutely. Right? Because it's like there's all these, you know, NBA sports fans uh that are maybe a little bit older. What about all the kids? How do they get into it? I'm curious because my son is six years old and he's a huge NBA fan. We watch all the Lakers games together. I want to watch this with him. Yeah, he's big into it. Um, I want to watch this with him, and I'm curious to get his gauge because I don't know if he's gonna like it or be like be thinking like, oh, I actually want to watch the actual athlete.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Yeah, it's too mature for maybe for him. I think I it feels like it's something to introduce the sport to a non- Outsiders. Yeah, exactly. To people that like, you know, they're not really into it, and it like they kind of need that little like oomph or like something more to be able to like hook them into the sport. Yeah. As opposed to if you're a hardcore fan or like you just really love the sport itself, I think you don't I don't know if you need that. I feel like this is more for an audience that needs that like extra entertainment to justify watching the game. Yeah, I think that I think that would like that would make me really curious.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Yeah, and it's interesting because they don't have like a picture-in-picture, they're not doing a split screen, like it's its own world. Exactly. But I do think that technology is impacting live sports in all kinds of interesting ways. So I think the way that we consume sports is gonna change a little bit as the technologies and the mediums kind of like evolve. And this is you know a big swing in one direction, but I think in general, sports are gonna be consumed in more interesting ways in the future.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Absolutely. And and speaking of sports, shall we move on to real-time review? I believe you have an F1 integration into Fortnite ready for us.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

That's right. Let's jump into our real-time review. So for this week's real-time review, we're talking F1 integration into Fortnite. F1 is sort of taking over the world. Before we jump into it, Alban, I just want to ask you like, are you an F1 fan? Like, what is what is your take?

SPEAKER_01 19:56

So my my partner is. So I think uh I have no choice. So it's I'm I'm I'm looking at it, but not not by choice. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Well, I think you're not the only one. Um the world is kind of like looking at the case.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

I feel like it's it's kind of the way with sports. It's like sometimes you just have someone in the household that's like watching by default. They have no choice. So that's me for F1.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

But now you're in. But before we jump in, I want to just talk about some global stats about the the sport itself because it's so interesting. Um the fan base is exploding. There's something like 825 million global fans with double digit year over year growth, which is pretty awesome. Um, you know, it's it's expanding outside of the traditional markets, so it's fastest growing in the US, China, and with younger audiences. Um, you know, the younger audiences are crazy because about 43% of the fans are under the age of 35. Oh. And so that's making F1 one of the youngest skewing global sports, period.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

I wonder if that has anything to do with the Netflix show that they've done.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

I think probably it probably does. You know, everything ties into this flywheel, but it's also female fandom is up like crazy because 42%. Yeah, 42%.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

No, I know. It's because I I've seen Elf doing a partnership with the female team, and I was like, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah. So 42% of the fans are women, and uh, they make up 75% of new fans. And then, yeah, you know, it's a digital first sport with huge engagement on social media, streaming, and all the younger platforms, more so than a lot of other sports. And I think the most important part here is it's a cultural brand, not just racing. And this is where brand storytelling comes in. Um, where it's really about, and I think we talked about this on the show before, it's like it's about the personalities and the stories and the fashion, the lifestyle and the drama behind the racers. You know, it's like looking behind the curtain. Exactly. And obviously, you know, the movie came out uh uh with Brad Pitt, F1, which did really well.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

I didn't see that one actually.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

I haven't seen it either, but it's it performed well at the box office, I know. Um, but essentially it's a big commercial boom for all people involved. So huge brands are rushing in to be attached to it with sponsorships like American Express, LVMH, Red Bull, and also like obviously the entertainment industry is trying to attach itself with like you mentioned the Netflix show Drive to Survive, F1 movie. And now gaming is like, well, how do we connect that? In addition to your standard racing games, you know, now we have this Fortnite activation, which makes total sense as this sort of cultural phenomenon is impacting everything that we do. So, how did Fortnite or how did F1 show up on Fortnite? They did this collaboration bringing the F1 cosmetic team set to Fortnite's in-game store. So I jumped into Fortnite, it was really easy to find. I just went straight to the store. You scroll down and see what's for sale, and and right now they're promoting this F1 line of uh branded skins. Okay. So these are customizable outfit skins um inspired by all 10 F1 teams. But what's interesting is like there's no driver celebrities. I'm sure that was probably like a legal issue, rights nightmare. So they just went with the team names and the team colors and designs.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

And they're all basically like futuristic looking racing suits. So they're kind of like they look like the real racing suits, but they're tweaked a little bit. They look pretty cool. Um, in addition to that, in the store, there's a cosmetic pack uh that comes with it, which is like uh the pickaxe weapon, um a glider, back bling, and uh any emote. And so that's pretty much it. Like there's no other activation part.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

It's just in the actual game.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

It's just in the store. It's just cosmetic side. Um and the cost for these, if you buy the whole bundle of of all of the um teams, it's 3,200 V-bucks or$23 um USD. Or if you buy an individual uh uh skin, it's nine dollars USD. So that's what I did.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

It's still a lot. It's still a lot of finding.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Still yeah,$10 is a lot. Especially on Roblox, like no one's gonna spend$10 on something.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

It's still a lot. But I quality is high. The quality is high. And usually you don't, because it's so much, you don't really s change and interchange your skins as often, I feel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Um also it's less customizable, like the scalable avatar system. It's a full suit. Exactly. It's like your head, your face, everything. The only thing you change is your shoes and your backpack. But um, you can be a little less creative and customizable than the Roblox side. But, anyways, I bought a suit just because I wanted to have it.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Just did it.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Wanted the branded F1 suit that in my library, so I got it. Looks cool. So, to sum up my recap and review, like the good is that it's simple. There's no confusion. You this you want to find out what what uh how F1 has shown up, go straight to the store. You find it. If you like it, you buy it. If you don't, you move on. There's it's not a complicated or or misleading or confusing integration. Um, I think it's a great opportunity for gamers to celebrate their F1 fandom. So, like if you are a fan, you're stoked because you just grabbed your um your team outfit. Exactly. Uh the bad, I would just say, you know, there's no racing modes, like I said. Like they it's just cosmetic skins that got dropped in, which is fine. But I think you could have done something really interesting with like sort of uh an integration into the rocket racing side of the platform.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Maybe, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Or introduced car a car mode um in the battle royale, like something that kind of stands out or was more like creatively integrated. But um, you know, I'm not mad at it. And the last thing I say, was it innovative? I'd say no. You know, like a lot of brands have done skins across the board.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah, absolutely. I think I think in this case it's just like a licensing is probably Fortnite licensing the team skins, and that's it. Like there wasn't much of a creative, you know, brainstorm around how this was going to show up.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

For sure. Like it's, you know, you look at the kill bill thing. I mean, that's way advanced. Yes, exactly. Very, very cool. Taking integrate you know, integrating in such a unique way that's you know, deeper. But this is fine. It's not bad. It's not good, it's not bad, it's fine, and it works. So that's my review.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Let's keep this moving and let's jump onto our yeah, you're welcome. Let's jump to our deep dive on immersive commerce.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Perfect. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

All right, we're jumping into our deep dive today where we're gonna be talking about immersive holiday commerce in 2025 because now is the time you gotta run out and buy your gifts for your family. So we thought that this is a good look at all the options for you to do that. Alman, uh, are you a big holiday shopper?

SPEAKER_01 26:52

I mean, yeah, I we we do gifts as well here. So I would say, I mean, I feel like with with the time, we probably buy less, but you're always looking for I think I think nowadays everyone has everything. So I definitely maybe spend a bit more time trying to find for that specific present that is gonna make someone really happy. Uh so e-commerce has come very handy. I don't really like to go to stores during that time of year because it's awful and super busy. So e-commerce comes into play a lot.

SPEAKER_02 27:24

Well, that's what we're talking about here because the evolution of shopping has changed quite a bit. We used to have to go into physical stores, and now we have e-commerce. Yes. Now this new layer of immersive commerce is coming where it's supposed to enhance that experience even more, not only make it more immersive and fun to shop, but also, like the the e-commerce example, more valuable, able to like locate the thing you want with intelligence and data. So you're shopping better. And I think we want to look at like, is this hype or is this real value? You know, it's all it's oftentimes these things pop up and it's like, look at this new way to shop or this new thing to do, and people get excited, and then you actually use it a couple of times and you're like, Well, I wouldn't, I don't want to shop like that.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Yeah, exactly. I think I think there's a lot of appetite from obviously commercial like and innovation teams on how they are going to engage consumers for for gift-giving. But um, I agree with you. Let's let me a bit let's go deep dive into a few of the cases that we've seen for this this winter period and see whether or not we think this is a long-term strategy or if this is just uh a hype thing.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

Exactly. And we're gonna jump in and uh review each one and decide whether it's shop or drop. So let's start with the first one. Uh, I'll kick us off. Physical store activations. So this is uh starting from what we all understand is walking into a physical store to buy something. But during the holiday seasons, there's some changes to these stores that have become more immersive. And the first example we'll highlight is what Target has done with the alpine villages. Have you seen this at all?

SPEAKER_01 29:03

No.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Okay. So this is part of the zone. What's that?

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

So it's step into holiday campaign, which is their what the what campaign that they're running right now. And basically they've activated this across all 2,000 stores in the United States. And the first thing that they've done is they've totally reskinned the environments and made holiday decor. That is not new or innovative because we do rescins all the time. But what's interesting is they're piping in holiday scents across the whole stores. So every time you walk into the store, you're smelling, you know, holiday. Thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 29:42

I don't I don't know if I like, I don't know. I don't know if I like having like being like splash with like perfume as I come in. I like the idea. I think I would just be a little bit wary of like the chemicals, but that maybe that is my French side where we are very like everything's natural, eco-friendly, etc. Well, that's fair.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

We don't know that.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

I like the idea.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Yeah, exactly. And that you know helps sort of uh with the shopping experience. Maybe it makes you feel more comfortable. But there's a couple other things that they did that I think is interesting is they have these interactive weekend events. So every weekend they have different things happening in the stores. So like toy demos, children's activities, and then like special guests' appearances. So that's kind of immersive. You know, you step in to go shopping, but all of a sudden you're sitting down, interacting, doing something different. And then the other thing that's tech focused is they have AI-powered features inside the stores for like gift finders, list scanners, and in-store navigation.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Oh, I like that.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

So, I mean, as far as like physical shopping goes, I feel like this definitely is a step forward. But I want to get your thoughts shop or drop.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

I mean, the the immersive, I feel like maybe we were spooled in France as well in the UK, but you know, I as you said, like all of these like in-between aisles activation with like toy testing, etc. That I feel is just, you know, that's how you run a supermarket. Like that's how you get people to get excited, especially during that period of time. So it's not something that I haven't seen before. Um, so I would say like continue because it's kind of like the basic. Um the the one thing that I'm wondering about is is maybe more the AI-powered feature. I think that could be quite interesting. Where I think that is the thing, the one I haven't seen how they've deployed it, but I think that would probably be something that I will continue to adventure on is how can you utilize AI to create personas and help people shop? Because I think that's the that's the one thing that's very difficult when you always have that one friend or one family member, as I said, that has everything and is is very hard to shop for. So maybe this is where AI can become quite handy.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

Yep. I mean, I do think that's the most exciting part of this. I'm gonna say this is a drop. You know, I'm not a huge fan of like driving around town and going into stores. So I will uh I'll do a drop.

unknown 32:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

So I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

What's next?

SPEAKER_01 32:13

My next one is Ambience Room Shopping by Walmart. So that was on YouTube. So just wanted to give you a bit of context because this is, I guess, a two-layer type of activation. The first, I don't know if you are familiar with Ambience Room on YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Yeah, we built this one.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Oh, okay. But but are you familiar with the concept?

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Outside of the one of yeah, but tell our listeners the ambient room, it's its own vibe, it's its own thing. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

So I mean, Ambient Room is a is um type of content of its own. So I I I'm I'm hoping I'm not the only one here, but I love Ambient's Room. So I often during this like winter season will put on my like screen or TV, would put like one of those ambient room videos that usually lasts for hours. And I just I was looking at some of them specifically for Christmas. So there's one of Michael Bubeli, and it's just his Christmas songs with a firecase, like a fireplace, sorry, on the on the video, and that has already 90 million views. So it is like Walmarks is already tapping into a like a trend. Yeah, it's quite trendy, but also it's like a one when you know you know type of content. So they created those videos that you are supposed to put in your background on your screen, and it's something that like is now part of like your decor during those those winter holidays. Uh so I thought that was already quite smart to have a brand tapping into that. And then the other layer that comes within it is that they've they've created different rooms with, I guess, different characters. The one that I went into was specifically the Grinch, uh, the Grinch cave. I think that's why it was called. And as you were what was really smart is that very like in slow motion, you would have very like different focus points of the room. So very like smoothly, your point of view of the camera will change and pace towards a specific area of the room. And as you go in into certain area, like the first one that you see is um there is this little dog by a fire case, and you realize that there are QR codes that are above certain elements. So when you scan that, you are then brought into, and and what I understood is it's still something that we we covered before, but it is the Walmart realm, which is then an immersive um, like I would say it's like yeah, it's like a 3D, like immersive room where you are able to essentially explore different products. So in that one specifically, because you were in the dog's domain and area, the QR code then led you to an immersive room that was all about like product related to that dog. So you had like different like colors, foods, uh, etc. So I thought it was quite interesting, like the merge into two different, I guess, type of content because Walmart is inviting themselves essentially into your living room. And then the additional layer was the fact that if you wanted and were a bit curious and you scan that QR code, you were also able to shop with the environment that was related to what were you looking at on that video.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

Awesome. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 35:18

I really liked it. I thought it was like a really interesting in terms of like shop or drop. I I think this is still like I'm not sure. I I think it's it's it I find it quite interesting and it's probably more entertaining than it is. I have a mission of like I want to buy something. I think like e-commerce is always going to be like the the way that e-commerce is structured right now on Walmart or Amazon, I think is still like the most effective and best way. I think this is just more a fun thing to be able to discover new products. Um, and I think this is more on like the awareness piece and just product discovery piece. Uh, whether this is going to be fully adopted, I still think the fact that you have to like scan a QR code is another friction. And I'm quite interesting to see actually, Nick, how maybe with wearables that that you have right now, whether there's going to be something that's changing a little bit. I still think the fact that you have to have another screen and scan something else is an additional friction and it's not as seamless as it could be. Um and I wonder what the future would be with those wearables.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, like if it pops up in your glasses and you just click a button and all of a sudden you can click another button to purchase. The friction has been removed at that point.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

That's right. Because you're kind of betting on someone, not only, you know, because usually those ambience rooms, they are like they're ambient, so that you're not always like looking at them. So you need to spot that QR code, scan that. And uh like I think there's like there's a lot of frictions before you get to the content of purchasing things. But um, but I do like, I do like the original idea anyway of like ambience room. I thought that would like just for that, I just loved uh the way that they're integrating themselves into my living room.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Yeah, I mean, I'm on the fence because I agree with you. I think it's it's got a lot of great surprise and delight, you know. Like maybe you're not shopping, but you're enjoying this and you're like, oh wait, I can get well, I like that thing. Oh, I can get that thing? Okay, cool. But it might not be a great source of like discovering all kinds of brand new things for for your family, for gifts. So I think that's how we'll leave that one. Next up is UGC gaming platforms. So we're talking about Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, that whole space, um, and commerce inside of it. So we all know that Roblox is the front runner when it comes to commerce. And on last week's episode, we covered Amazon's holiday shopping world that they built. And essentially they're selling, I think, something like 20 IRL products, gifts that if you're 18 plus on the platform, you can purchase those. You can also spend Robux to get gift cards all within the three-dimensional uh gaming platform in that uh owned world. Um, I think this is pretty advanced. You know, this is definitely there like, you know, it exploring this new space. I do think there still is some friction because, you know, within the gaming environment, it pops up a new UI. That UI has Amazon there. You have to have an Amazon account, then you have to connect your credit card. So there still is that friction. But I do think from discovery, it's great because you're in a three-dimensional environment, you're having fun with your friends, you're seeing 3D objects, 3D toys, and things, you're discovering. And if you're like, oh, I I actually want that, there's now a path to quickly get it. I just think they need to keep knocking down friction. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 38:47

I I agree, I think I agree with you where I think that the the buying process can be a bit smoother. I I I think I reiterate, and I think that probably is going to be my my stance for a lot of the example that we see today, is that this is great for like, I would say, spontaneous, spontaneous purchase. I think this is I I don't think we're at a stage yet where people are like, huh, I want to, you know, buy a shirt and let me go on the Nordstrom Roblox experience to discover the different types of shirt that I could buy, because I'm on the lookout for like a white t-shirt, blah, blah, blah. I think when you know exactly what you're looking for, I feel like the way that e-commerce is done at the moment on like on a website is just optimize for purchase. And I think this is probably more like great for product discover discovery, and you're betting on like a spontaneous purchase when you are presenting to a consumer a product that you think they're gonna like and hoping that they spontaneously will want to buy it, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

Yeah, it's still in the innovation phase. There's not the whole catalog of products. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

And nor do I think because these are like entertainment spaces, I think people are more in the space of. I want to play, I want to like, you know, discover new things as opposed to I'm going here to shop. I d or I don't think we're there yet. I feel like, you know, the the easiness of open a web page, find your article, put in your basket, cash out. This is so smooth and there's been like years of making this better. And that's tough to beat.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

You know, like we're adding layers of immersion and different ways to shop, but we're losing the the ease and the vast uh kind of search nature and aggregation of these networks that have been built.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

So that's the trade-off.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Yeah. I think this is probably where you can add a bit more of like emotion. So, you know, like link to your storyline. If you manage to like link then a product within that, then that that is when you can have a bit of that spontaneous purchase where you didn't know that you wanted this product, but because it's part of like this environment where you spend a few minutes, hours sometimes playing and building connection with your friends, maybe you'll want to purchase it because there's now this additional layer of emotion that's associated to it. But I still think it's a it's a spontaneous purchase.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

I'm gonna say shop on this one. Uh just because I see where it's going. It's got a lot of development that needs to happen and it needs to evolve, but it's it's it's it was one to watch.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Yeah. Uh up next, I have Amazon Beyond Room. So I would say it's a little bit similar to Walmart Wellm, but let let me let me explain what it is. So essentially, it's at the moment, they've put this in their homepage, at least in the UK website. So it is a massive 3D room that you can access through their website. What I liked about it is all browser-based, right?

SPEAKER_02 41:42

So that's the nice thing. You don't need to log into a gaming platform, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:47

No, no, no. It's it's on the Amazon website, it's on their homepage, and then you arrive into another page that has like different thumbnails of different rooms. Um, what I liked about it is that they essentially segmented the rooms by personalities, but also brands. So you have this the Star Wars room, sorry, Lego, American Girl, Logitech, and All Saints, and there's there's many others. But I went into the Wicked, uh, the Wicked one just because the film is coming out or has come out already, yes. So went into that one, and it was essentially it was quite clever. It was so you you arrived into um Alphabet and Glinda's room from the movie, um, and you can see both sides of the room, and they essentially picked items, not all of them were from like the official like wicked manufacturer, others were more like this is the environment of Glinda. So they had like hair rolls, uh pink hairbrush, like they had different essentially what they did is like select product that they felt associated with the realm of the character. And I quite like that. I thought it was like quite quite um a new way essentially, again, to discover per like products. So if I was to buy for someone that's like a little girl that's super fan of Wicked, you then see like what are the product that you think they might like because it's associated with that character. So I thought it was quite an interesting way of presenting a new range of product and giving them a different kind of context by associated with Wicked. In terms of like the innovation, it's it's something that we've seen before. Like the the way that you um the UX is not it's not made for gamers, it's made for you know, people that are familiar with Google Maps. When you drop your little like yellow, yellow person into the map, that's what that's what it is. You just click into like the the other circle and it brings you to other like points in the in the room. So it's it's nothing like that.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

You can drag your mouse around to look. So you see changes.

SPEAKER_01 43:45

It's really nothing groundbreaking, honestly. Nor is it like super immersive. So again, like it's more if you know what you want to buy, not really the best way to shop, but it's more like I'm buying for someone that's really fan of the franchise, but I don't want to give them like the merch t-shirts. It's quite a clever way to like instead of having like a catalogue of potential, um potential product, this is more like an immersive, aggregated list of product that's associated with both characters. So I thought that was quite interesting.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

Yeah, again, I mean, we're in that same bucket of like uh sort of uh just surprise and delight and discovery. Like you get immersed in a space, you discover six items that are interesting, you get to go deep and kind of experience it. And then if that changes your mind and you want to purchase, you then have a pathway. But unlike the shopping that we're used to, is like I want to see everything that this store has to offer. And then I want to narrow it down to this category, and I want to see all my octons in that category. These don't, these sort of immersive experiences don't scale in that way right now.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

No, exactly. It's you're you're very much like it's it's almost it's it is a showroom. So, you know, it's been catered, tailored for you and for that specific design. Uh, but you don't search, you don't browse. Like there's not there's not any way of editing and changing your environment for the specific type of product that you're trying to look for.

SPEAKER_02 45:07

Yeah, and since we're talking about these sort of like immersive stores that are browser-based, um, you mentioned earlier, but Walmart Realm also is similar to this uh one that you described. Um, and that I the only thing I would add is similar product discovery, similar immersion and 3D and navigation ability. This is built with Imperia. And the one of the differences we have mini games on on Walmart Realm, but also it's influencer powered. So partnering with influencers to have a say on how those rooms are built and kind of built around their character. And then they're helping to pick products that they are then uh presenting to um the shoppers.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

So yeah, I like the approach that you guys have taken for the for that particular project uh because I thought, you know, influencers are known to, especially during that time of the year, to say, like to have videos of top gifts that I would recommend. Or like they have so many, like those kind of content right now are like popping off, or like top things to buy Lot Gil Toddler, etc. So I think it's quite interesting. Instead of like you can imagine a world where instead of having like different licks, links at the bottom, they just share the links of their room and people can then see the product a little bit more closely, like in the context again. So that helps people also project themselves on, you know, does it fit within the like environment of the person that I'm shopping for? Because I can also see it being illustrated in real life.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:35

You know, if you're shopping for like a teenage boy and you are being dropped into like, I don't know, the stereotype of a teenage boy room, it it helps as well, maybe for people and for buyers to like see the products in the context, an environment context. So I can see I can see that I think being quite useful for influencers as well, but also for like it the same as the example of of Amazon from before. It's helping people that are like don't really know what to buy to like put the product into a context.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

Yeah, I I'm with that. So I'm I'm gonna say I'm on the on the fence here. Like I think these need to advance as well until I'm gonna start heavily shopping.

SPEAKER_01 47:12

I agree. I think the UX could be improved.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Um jumping over to our last one, and is this is just the bud buzzword, AI. You know, how AI is affecting shopping. And I feel like this is really important. And I I hate to be that guy, but I think this is the winner out of all the things that we've talked about, is AI is transforming the future of shopping. And I think it's improving the way we shop. So basically, all brands and are leveraging chatbots to help personalize the shopping experience and really discover and um just improve the way people shop. And these brands are automatically sort of uh applying this to all of their independent websites that they own. This is also going into other large sort of uh aggregation websites. And essentially, this is like the concept of a virtual assistant or a shopping assistant where you're really like, hey, this is the event, this is the person, this is what they're into. Like, what do you think? And basically it's just scouring every possible option and it's starting to condense it down to recommendations. And that is, you know, when you shop, essentially you're doing that. Um now you have kind of an assistant that's you know really helping you, whether that's across the entire internet with something like Chat GPT or it's something um, you know, that's all based on one uh brand's website. This is a new way that we're we're kind of rolling out. And I'll just mention that Walmart's partnership with OpenAI, uh, you know, putting that shopping directly into Chat GPT and the ability to check out and do the purchase inside there is pretty revolutionary. And in my vote, it's definitely a shop, and that's the winner.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

Yeah, I agree. No, no, I fully agree with you because I think this is this is unlike like virtual rooms, this is this is um, it's a texture. So this is something that people are used to. They don't have to like learn another way actually of looking for information. They just have Google search on steroids. And like I've I've actually used Gemini a lot to be able to, I was like, I did exactly what you said, which is I have this person that I'm like purchasing for, this is what they like, what would be the product that you recommend for them? And the Google one obviously like has everything integrated, so they were able to recommend different websites and different things that that person might like. And in terms of like product discovery, that was by far the like the quickest way to get ideas. Um, so I I I'm with you on that one. I think uh the integration with LLMs or like with AI agents like Gemini, Chat GPT, all of that is just going to become essential for those uh retailers.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

100% agree. And I think forward-leaning, the one thing that is limiting about chatbots is the UI. You know, it's like text-based. Occasionally you get a picture in there, maybe a video, but it's really kind of like very flat.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

Yeah, have you tried you should you should really try Gemini voice chats? It's it's great. It's like talking to a human being. Like the the intonation, it's like talking to a person. You should really try it out.

SPEAKER_02 50:23

The voice Yeah, I think that's definitely an improvement to the chat, but I also think that there's another thing about like uh immersion. You know, imagine when like spatial computing meets AI chat bot assistance, like you're gonna have everything just floating in front of you. You're gonna be able to stop it more immersively.

SPEAKER_01 50:41

I guess I guess maybe that comes more in like you know, your decision process where you have maybe like three products selected and you want to like go closer before you actually purchase it. Yeah, or spin it around.

SPEAKER_02 50:52

Or it's the back of the jacket, you know?

SPEAKER_01 50:53

Yeah, maybe like I think the way that we like if you think of like the typical funnel, maybe the the AI is still going to be at the very beginning of like product discovery, and then like maybe those immersive spaces are more going to be like, I have two products, I want to come close to it before I actually make the purchase at the end.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. Well, that's a wrap on our deep dive on immersive shopping. We've kind of outlined all of the most cutting-edge immersive shopping options that you have this season. And I think we just gotta say now you have no excuse to get shitty gifts for your loved ones. Go forth and shop immersively. And with that, let's go back to the show.

SPEAKER_01 51:43

All right, that was it for our deep dive on commerce. So no excuse specifically coming up to uh the holidays. You have all the tricks to be able to shop and find the perfect gift for your loved ones and family. But now, Nick, it is your time for the hit, miss, and bet.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

Let's go. Okay, so for my hit, I love this one. I think you're gonna like it too. Is it this is from a company called Ramp. They did an immersive marketing stunt in New York. They basically put the actor Kevin from the office in a glass box. Did you see this?

SPEAKER_01 52:20

I didn't see it, but I'm I'm familiar with the office. Tell me about the company.

SPEAKER_02 52:23

Amazing comedy sitcom in uh both in the UK and in the US.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

I was gonna say British phone.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

Gotta give props to the OG uh that set it up, uh Ricky Jarvez. Uh, but this is from the Steve Corell world in the US. Um basically, this company, Ramp, which is a company that automates expense reports, that's what they do. Okay. They're like a tech company. Um, and what they did is they did this immersive marketing campaign where they put Ked, the character Kevin, uh, who's sort of like this grumpy, kind of like kind of burnt-out guy that works at the office. They put him in this glass box in an office setting, and he's basically he was in there for uh six hours doing expense reports, the old-fashioned way. So he's in front of a computer, he's got his calculator, he's got like stacks and stacks of paper, and he's just going through it in a mundane way. In New York City, everyone's coming by, they're taking pictures of him, they're taking video, they can't believe that they're this is actually happening. Um, so it was like pretty awesome immersive stunt. The purpose is they really wanted to get a viral marketing campaign for Ramp, and they generated a ton of buzz um and got in the news. And essentially, all these people were crowdsourcing. You know, they were doing the the marketing for them. You know, everyone's like, look, I'm I'm out here seeing this, and everything got reposted and shared and kind of blew up online. Um, I think it's really smart. I love it. My miss this week, uh, which is like I I don't want to be too critical, but I just think it's weird. BMW acquired a board ape. Oh. You know, a couple weeks ago. Um his name is Max. And I feel like this may be like a little late to the party. So, you know, be this is sort of BMW's kind of step into web three and NFT world. Yeah. Uh, you know, it's been it has its ups and it's huge down the industry, the web uh three NFT industry in general. So it's a weird time to be getting into it. I do know that BMW has done other partnerships in the the space before they've made ape cars where they've kind of like rescanned uh BMW in like board ape art. Um and so I my make my big question is like what is the goal? It's like unclear here. Now you own this board ape. What are you gonna do with it? I will say Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:46

No, I wonder that has to do because remember, like not long ago, maybe it was last month, and we talked about board ape because they were releasing their metaverse or like UGC. Yeah, maybe it's tied to that. And maybe it's tied to that. I will say that there's an amazing video.

SPEAKER_02 55:00

Yeah, there's an amazing video they made, full 3G uh CG, 3D animation of the apes in the BMW. It looks sick. Um I mean they're always great for that.

SPEAKER_01 55:09

I feel like they've they've always been great for like 2D, like you know, videos, but the the like we haven't seen much. Like I still haven't seen, I haven't gone into like the open world. So maybe there is like a tease of what's to come. So they're trying to like catch up with that. But I think I I agree with you where this feels a bit like an odd platform to invest in.

SPEAKER_02 55:30

We'll see. But we'll that kind of transitions us into uh my bet for this week. I'm gonna bet that brands will not have success in the Web3 NFT space in 2026. I think that, you know, maybe obviously there's been a little bit of a upswing of interest in crypto um since Trump took office.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

Yeah, I was gonna say you're saying that. I mean the US, it sounds like I'm well it's not it's not a massive swing, it becomes a political conversation.

SPEAKER_02 56:00

Yeah, it's not a massive swing, but it's like it did come back into the conversation. You know, you see BMW doing this with uh, you know, with Board Ape. Uh, you know, I just think that like I would love to revisit this, you know, a year from now and see. Yeah, and see. But I just think we'll hear about a couple pop-ups here and there, but I don't think anything is gonna catch traction and become significant uh for brands partnering in that space. Mark my words.

SPEAKER_01 56:26

All right. Well, that is it for this week, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in. Nick, what do we have on next week?

SPEAKER_02 56:33

Well, next week I'm gonna be at the SEG 3 conference in Los Angeles. Nice. And those that don't know, it's a global conference focusing on immersive experiences across sports, entertainment, and gaming. So I'm gonna cover the event and I'm gonna talk to Joe Cordone, who's the founder and CEO, to learn more about it and share it with all you guys.

SPEAKER_01 56:51

Looking forward to that one. And if you like the show, guys, please don't forget to like and subscribe. Really appreciate that. Um, and up until next week, we'll see you there.

SPEAKER_00 57:00

Peace out. And that was Brands in Play. Thank you for joining the podcast where we explore immersive marketing and the people who are leading it. Coasted by our band Priu and Nick Hill. Our show today was produced by myself, Edith Reggie, with creative direction by Joey Jada and audio engineering by Summon Kiyou.

SPEAKER_02 57:16

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast are probably those of hosting cast and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of post employers. The information shared during this podcast is based on personal experience and publicly available information and is intended for information purposes only. Any references to specific platforms, companies, or partnerships.