Roblox isn't just a game you watch your kids play on your computer or console, but a platform in and of itself for tons of interactive experiences, many of which are created by users themselves. With Hollywood relying on Roblox heavily to promote films, series and other media experiences, global brand partnerships VP Stephanie Latham stopped by to discuss how these deals come together and how Roblox works to strike a balance between its user-created content and experiences developed for all sorts of different brands.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Corey Erickson, media analyst a Variety Intelligence Platform. This episode's
guest is Stephanie Latham, vice president of Global Brands Partnerships
at Roadblocks. Our conversation touches upon the massive reach of
the game creation platform, which boasted an average of seventy
(00:29):
seven million daily active users in the first quarter of
twenty twenty four. We get into how Roadbox utilizes outside
brands to keep users engaged within its many interactive experiences,
and how the platform incentivizes those same players to craft
their own experiences. But when so many Roadbox users are children,
focusing on safety is as big a priority as making
the most of its brand deals. We're going to take
(00:50):
a break, but let me come back. Listen to the
full conversation to understand why Roadblocks isn't going anywhere and
how its approach to advertising is always evolving. Welcome back
to Variety Strictly Business podcast. I'm Corey Erickson, media analyst
(01:13):
with Variety Intelligence Platform, and I'm joined today by Stephanie Latham,
vice president of global brand partnerships at Roadblocks, Stephanie. Before
you joined Roadblocks, you spent more than a decade I
Meta Platforms back when it was mostly still just known
as Facebook. What was the nature of the various roles
you had there and how did that lead you to Roadblocks?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, Hi, Corey, First, thank you so much for having
me excited to dive in with you today. Yes, you
are correct, I spent about twelve years at Meta or
as you, as you can point out, Facebook will always
be Facebook to me in my heart. My entire time
at Meta, I worked in the advertising and partnership space,
so I worked across so many different categories, from helping
(01:55):
build our automotive vertical to more recently running on the
entertainment tech in Telco North America advertising partnerships for Meta.
So was really able to work across so many different
creative surfaces as we launched them and then help bring
advertisers along into kind of where some of the future
media was. So I've kind of followed behavior consumer behavior
(02:18):
my entire career, and before Meta, I worked in the
advertising agency space, both in digital and in print and
TV before that, so consumer behavior has been a through
line of every step and for me coming to roadblox
with such a natural fit as we started to see
so many partners lean into immersive and what is the
future of that?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Very cool? When did you join Roadblocks specifically?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I joined Roadblocks this fall, in early October last fall.
I guess I should say, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So you're coming to Roadblocks after sort of this period
where you know your previous employer was moving into the metaverse.
How does Roadblocks itself sort of revolve around the same
concept of not just you know, a core gaming experience
that maybe a lot of outsider see it as, but
also a platform that offers all different kinds of experiences,
(03:06):
oftentimes far removed from you know, the concept of video
games itself.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I mean, I think, yes, it's so exciting, Like Robox
is so much more than gaming, and we have a
very visionary CEO at the top who has put out
a big, bold vision for us to really reimagine how
people come together. I think we are really sitting at
the future of communication and connection and as we you know,
set out to connect a billion people on Roadblocks, we
(03:32):
have already seen the behavior expand beyond playing, which is
where we started for sure, to shopping exploring, learning all
kinds of different things, Corey. You know, it's been really
fun to see in the music space, artists like Black
Pink Twice, Elton Mariah, I mean, the full range and
full gamut come to the platform to perform, to connect
with their fans and really use it as a deep
(03:54):
form of engagement. We're seeing that across categories too. You know,
sports is another great please. A lot of the leads
have leaned in, Corey, like NFL, NHL, even Tennis, USTA,
NASCAR using Roadblocks as a way to extend the events
that are happening in real life, using Roadblocks as a
way to extend the seasons and kind of keep that
(04:15):
connection going. And I think also it's been really exciting
to see new audiences, right Roadblox brings to so many
of them, this new audience of the ten millions of
gen z's that we have every month.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Ye speaking to that point on audiences, I do think
a lot of people sort of in the public ice
Roadblocks as a platform primarily for kids, but with the
kind of engagement it has. You know, clearly Roadblocks has
to rely on appealing to all sorts of different kinds
of demographics and just today through an Xbox sort of
(04:46):
third party presentation, they announced this partnership with the Chucky
brand for this IP hub called Griefill. How do experiences
like that come together?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Sure, well, a lot of parts of that question to unpact.
So I think Chucky the Chucky experience is a great
example of how the entertainment industry overall is looking at
roadblocks is a new way to really bring immersive IP
to their fans. We're seeing that across the board right
whether it's Hunger Games bringing the Academy experience to Roadblocks
(05:24):
you could kind of go through that, or it's Aquaman,
Kung Fu Panda four, like, just all kinds of IP
is coming and bringing that to life for our users.
We're also seeing Corey like robos being used to bring
new life to some older or more classic IP. We've
had a recent activation with Jaws for example, and again
it's giving that like new audience extension and kind of
(05:46):
that new life to things by being able to put
users like immersed in the story and the experience in
the IP.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
And you've already mentioned a lot of different experiences across music,
sports and now filmed to that you know you've helped
overseeing through the brand partnership side of Roadblocks. What's one
recent experience in particular that you were really excited to
finally bring to the platform.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Well, I am really excited, Corey. By the time this
episode airs, we will have brought our first major streaming
co to the platform with a hub like experience, seeing
them invest truly in a persistent presence on Roadblocks to
bring their best ip forward.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
What are the strategies at play to keep users loyal
to Roadblocks and consistently coming back to the platform.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So this is a fun one for us Qurey. As
we lean into the future here, we're really starting to
see more crossover with loyalty programs like back to the
spirit of like that blur between the digital and the
physical and how to connect the dots. So you know,
we've had recent example with Hilton Honors Points in Living Land,
which is Paris Hilton's experience, and we saw that they
(06:57):
were able to connect their like real world loyal with
behavior on Roadblocks and close the loop. We also have
seen a recent activation with Pepsi and Bubbly similar spirit
and one of my favorites was Lamborghini offered some exclusive
UGC in their experience that then was redeemable for a
(07:18):
ticket to their factory in Italy. And so just kind
of like this continuous activate the community on roadblocks and
then connect the dots to the real world, which is
also kind of the spirit of I mentioned we're getting
into real world commerce and we'll be testing that later
this year. So we talked a little bit about it
with the shopping lens, which is so endemic to our platform.
(07:39):
But when we think about entertainment and we think about
other categories, it's really exciting to imagine once you're able
to link out to another place, you could watch an
immersive trailer, watch an immersive trailer with a friend, and
then click out two ticketing to Fandango and purchase your
movie tickets for that weekend or that night. And so
I think these use cases are really exciting us as
(08:00):
we get beyond just brand exposure and brand experiences to
actually driving real world outcomes for our partners.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, alongside those e commerce aspects, what other areas of
engagement has roadblocks not fully tapped into yet.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
We have touched on this throughout Corey, but we are
just getting into ads. Like we're at the very very
early days of like what our ads and solutions are,
and I think the more ways we can connect the
dots like brands is such a flywheel for us right
it's content, it's shopping, its ads, And as we continue
to evolve those solutions and lower the barrier to entry
for brands on the platform, I think the future there
(08:39):
is limitless.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Do you think there is maybe like a little bit
of a user risk if you know, experiences within roadblocks
users are very familiar with and comfortable with the you know,
like grant them a lot of kind of the same
kind of experience they may want over and over again.
Could there potentially be a bit of a user backlash
if they suddenly just start seeing ads appearing within the
(09:04):
experiences where they're not used to seeing ads.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I think we've been very intentional about this, Corey. You
may remember years ago robots actually did have ads, and
I think we learned a lot from that, and so
like the true north for us on everything ads is
our ads are all really immersive. They're very thoughtfully integrated
into an experience that already exists. So think about it
(09:28):
like walking by a real world billboard, Like that's how
the ads are integrated into the experiences. So it's very
different than a pre role or a force view or
something like that. They're very thoughtfully executed in that way.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
So do you see robots kind of taking a cue
from sort of the way a lot of existing things
like product placement are handled in TV and film like
Like for instance, last night, I was rewatching one of
the older seasons of True Detective and during sort of
this legal during this legal scene, uh, they had water
bottles out on the table with you know, the brand
(10:04):
very clearly displayed. You know. Is that sort of something
that is front of mind for roadblocks? You know, how
do we kind of replicate that sense of you know,
product and ad placement that feels, you know, just as
natural as what already exists in other forms of media.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So I think that exact example is a little bit
early days. However, if you think about our Avatar marketplace
and our Creator marketplace, like, we have the virtual economy
and like infrastructure in place to be able to extend there,
so you can imagine that is a natural place for
us to go over time. But I don't have anything
specific to announce about that today.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Okay, So roadblocks, in addition to all these different kinds
of brand partnerships is also known for, you know, being
a pretty big player in the creator economy. Lots of
different Roadbox users can create their own experiences within the platform.
How does that aspect of Roadblox still sort of form
opportunities for brand partnerships?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Sure, well, I think you know, Roadblocks at its core,
we're always thinking about our community first, We're always thinking
about our creators first. We have this very robust creator economy.
The exciting thing for someone in my role and someone
that gets to work with brands is brands are a
very core part of that creator economy. Last year alone,
I think we paid out seven hundred and forty million
(11:24):
dollars to creators. But when we look at the brand
role in that, we're seeing like one point eight billion
visits to brand experiences corey, like one hundred and eighty
five million hours. Like, the brand component of Roadblocks is
a very robust and growing one, and there's lots of
different ways that brands are participating. Right, So brands are
creating persistent experiences like some of the ones that you mentioned.
(11:47):
They're also selling virtual items and getting in on our
virtual economy. Of course, they're they're buying ads, and we're
also seeing them matchmake with our creator community, so a
lot of integrations. I think integration grew one hundred and
twenty four percent year on year last year. So they're
very hungry to contribute in different ways, and it all
(12:07):
works together to fuel that economy.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Given that creators can make money off of the experiences
they make within roadblocks, I think you just said, you know,
it was as much as seven to fifty million in payouts.
I think forty right, sort of on the inverse on that,
because users can potentially make their own money through roadblocks,
does it cost users money to be able to create
on roadblocks?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
No, I think that's the Like one of the magical
parts of it is we really invest heavily in giving
creators the tools to then take that in front of
it right where their creativity takes them. I think that
is the heart and soul of a UGC platform like ours,
and one of the reasons we've been able to have
such terminous growth and also such diversity of content. Right,
(12:52):
we provide the tools and the platform, and then we
let the creativity flow.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Given that Roadblocks does have you know, such a heavy
agen z and in some cases gend alpha presence as
well as this incentive for users to you know, figure
out ways to create their own experiences within roadblocks that
could you know, potentially go viral and become very popular.
You know, are there exterior concerns with regard to safety
for you know, all these different users on the platform
(13:20):
that could be spending significant amount of amounts of time,
especially for the younger users.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You no, I love this question. Corey Roadbox's commitment to
safety and civility is actually one of the reasons that
I came over. It is absolutely amazing to work at
a company that was founded with safety and civility at
its core, and that commitment has is so clear, has
been part of the DNA from day day one. With
the leadership team here, I think there is a very clear,
(13:48):
full company alignment that our vision is to be the
safest platform possible, and we invest really heavily in that right.
We're constantly building safety features into our design, leaning into AI,
leaning to mL text filters, chat filters, like all kinds
of work. With that, we have moderators, a robust team
of moderators monitoring twenty four to seven. We partner with
(14:10):
I think over twenty different global organizations on this because
we feel like it's it's our responsibility to be so
heavily leaned in here and honestly to lead the industry
in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
On the brand side, when you know you're fostering different
partnerships with different companies, do they oftentimes, you know, want
to have a lot of control with regard to how
users can come to their experiences, especially when they know
a significant chunk of the Roadblox audience is going to
be younger users, you know, do they have their own
(14:41):
concerns sometimes about how that's going to integrate with an
experience you know branded under IP they control?
Speaker 2 (14:49):
So I think, you know, we do not do any
advertising to anyone under thirteen. And the exciting part for
us is that our over thirteen audience is can consistantly
the largest growing cohort. So I think when we think
about ads, when we think about solutions, when we think
about traffic driving, that's all for the over thirteen and
(15:10):
we have a very extensive process and policy around that
to ensure that ads are not shown to the under
thirteen crowd.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
So on the business side, how do these brand partnerships
and you know, the various partners which you want to
license IP from. How does that ultimately inform the actual
revenue models behind roadblocks, especially, you know when so many
of its users are on the platform playing for free essentially.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So I think a call take you back to kind
of where we were talking about the creator economy. Right,
we give brands a variety of ways to come onto
the platform and help fuel our ecosystem. Yes, one of
course is content, but then we also let them do
virtual items and participate in our marketplace. Right. We also
you're seeing us and you'll just continue to do this
(15:58):
remove friction from an average perspective, so that we have
more standard ad products to give brands access to our audience,
even if they're not ready for a persistent experience yet.
You're going to see us over the next couple of
weeks and months, even have more exciting opportunities for brands
to own cultural moments where we have a new website,
(16:19):
takeover product, We're you know, launching our first playable trailer
with Godzilla. So we're giving them lots of different ways
corey to come into the platform based on what their
objectives are, and all of those ways help roadblocks in
a variety of other ways.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So for something like, you know, an experience crafted around
a trailer for Godzilla, that that's going to be the
kind of thing that a company is sort of going
to want to have a lot of input over. But
there's also this whole music side of roadblocks where virtual
concerts can happen. You know, when you're fostering those specific partnerships,
is that always as much of a conversation with you know,
(16:56):
the artists themselves as much as as much as it
is label And how do artists who have sort of
their own direct involvement with roadblocks tend to, you know,
think of ways to bring their experience to the platform.
I think you mentioned a Black Pink earlier, right.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I think that takes a very different flavor cory depending
on the artists and depending on the label, and depending
on the artists comfort and knowledge with roadblocks from the beginning, right,
So we have all different you know, ways that they're
coming in we had, you know, we think about Black
Pink like they have a really robust fan club experience
(17:34):
where users are able to leave them messages and notes
and fan mail and they're able to respond. We see
other artists like drop into their experiences unprompted paras Hilton
just did this to s living Land a couple of
weeks ago and kind of show up with the surprise
and delight. And so I think you see the whole
range based on who that artist is and also how
(17:54):
they're organized and how their teams organized.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
So when you are dealing with an artist or of
an experiencediences where a labels involved and artists is involved,
how does that translate to you know, the money that's
essentially made off of the experience. You know, concerts usually
always have merch tables after and especially for how kind
of fragile the touring business can be these days, you know,
(18:17):
the sales made at merch are really significant to artist
bottom lines? Is that very much the case on sort
of you know, the digital ecosystem and virtual worlds of roadblocks,
you know, as much engagement as a really fun concert
can get, you know, is there still a lot of
thought pot into well, how does this translate to virtual
items for users to buy and then you know continue
(18:39):
to you know, where on their characters as they go
into other experiences.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yes, so I think from the very beginning are like
virtual virtual items, and also we have quary what's called emotes,
which is basically like you can sell your dance moves.
Oh yeah, you can also sell your merch you can
sell your style like a variety of ways. So you're
seeing artists lean in and do that and actually generate
(19:06):
generate money from that in our marketplace. The other thing
that we're leaning into this year, and you're going to
hear more from us about this later this year, but
is real world commerce. So how do we take that
idea of exactly what you're talking about right the merch
table at the concert, and how do we enable users
to actually like link out somewhere and purchase that T shirt,
that poster, those you know, like whatever that item is.
(19:29):
And we're thinking about that a lot in the lens
of like the number one ask we get from all
brand partners, not just music partners, is how do you
merge that digital and physical world? And our users love twinning, right,
that's a huge ass that we get from them all
the time. So to be able to merge the here's
my black pink concert T shirt and now I just
ordered it to be delivered to my house to match
(19:51):
so that my avatar and I are in sync is
a place where we feel like we're really excited about
shopping is so endemic to our platform. I think one
point six billion items were sold on robots last year,
so that we're just getting started there, and there's set
an opportunity for artists and others to monetize that way.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
On the music side, aside from these digital items, when
you focus on these partnerships, do you also make the
kind of deals that allow you to bring you know,
the actual music libraries of you know, big rosters like
Sony Music or Universal or you know, Warner Brothers Music,
So that way these experiences can also be played, you know,
(20:30):
to user curated soundtracks of music that these labels own.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
You know, this is a complicated one, Corey, and it's
it's a place where we're like leaning in and exploring
what a variety of different futures here could look like.
But I would say we're pretty early on the rights
negotiation and what that looks like honestly in the immersive
space and for the future.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Right because then you have to contend with you know,
not just you know, the kind of deals a label
wants to make with respect to the rights of what
it owns, but also you know, are there very specific
differences from artists to artists in terms of the contracts
that are on place, that are in place exactly right.
So we are going to take a break. When we
get back, we're going to get into the wider market
(21:11):
that Roadblocks is a part of. And you know what
we're seeing across the competitive space against Roadblocks, We're back
on strictly business with Stephaney lay them from Roadblocks, So
alongside Roadblocks in sort of this very metaverse driven ecosystem
(21:35):
on platforms that are associated with gaming but catering to
so many different other kinds of experiences. You know, one
other very very big name in the space is Fortnite.
You know, does Roadblocks see Fortnite as its primary competition
and if so, what are the sort of key differences
you see with where Roadblocks offers versus what competitors like
(21:57):
Fortnite offer.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
So, I mean, I think zooming up Corey, right, we
have the largest immersive platform, we have a massive virtual economy.
We have a huge vision to reimagine how people come
together and communicate and connect. So, you know, I think
when we apply that lens, it's really hard to quantify.
Like one, it's hard to compare us to anyone truly
(22:20):
when you look at our demographics, when you look at
our female demographics, like, there's just so many places where
I think we are really hard to compare. I'll tell
you from the advertising side, because I spend most of
my time talking to brands and talking to agencies. I
think what's really exciting as we think about for the
future is ROADBLOCKX fits into so many different buckets, which
(22:41):
makes our opportunity limitless. We're in the gaming bucket, We're
in a social bucket, we're in the now digital video bucket,
we're in the innovation bucket, and so we get to
play across and I think it makes the competitive set
much greater. But then it also allows us to stand
on our own. We're uniquely positioned. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
I brought up four Night in particular just because last
month there was pretty significant news on sort of the
partnership side with Fortnite and Epic Games, where Disney invested
as much as one point five billion into the platform
to you know, build a variety of different player experiences
around its IP. Since Roadblocks partners with so many different brands,
(23:23):
is that kind of sort of megadeal something that Roadblocks
is open to or is Roadblocks's you know, primary point
of concern trying to keep its options as open as
possible and not you know, devoting too much attention and
presence to one brand. If you know, there's a priority
to make sure no one associates any sort of particular
(23:45):
big company with the platform.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
You know, I think on that, Corey, what I'll say is,
when we're in a really fortunate position. You know this,
We're a publicly traded company, and we've been generating cash
and have a really strong balance sheet, but we are
always looking towards what our community wants, right, and so
I think we will always we will always lean into that.
We've done that in the past. You've seen us lean
in with Gucci to set up Gucci Garden. We leaned
(24:09):
in with Lil naz X to bring that to the
platform and kind of lighthouse examples that move different categories
and move different use cases for how to think about
roadblocks and how to think about content on Roadblocks. So
I think again, we'll be listening to our community and
staying close to what they want to help us grow
and diverse.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Five. Obviously, Roadblocks is not confined to gaming, but it
is still a significant player within the gaming space, and
this year in particular is seen not not just this year,
last year as well, but lately there's been a significant
amount of belt typening across belt tightening across a lot
of the sort of major players in the gaming space,
(24:48):
to the point where a publisher like EA, for instance,
as part of you know, a layoffs announcement, also revealed
that they were going to sort of be going away
way from licensing as a part of their strategy, as in,
you know, they were going to sort of double down
on the IP they own rather than licensing out from
(25:09):
other companies. Obviously, to do what Roadblocks does does require
a lot of licensing of sort of exterior companies. You know,
has there been any kind of impact on the Roadblocks
end in terms of finding that you know, some companies
are now not as willing to license to the degree
they were. You know, how how does Roadbos respond to
(25:32):
sort of shifts in the wider you know, media business
when companies move away from wanting to work with licensing partners.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
So you know, for us qrey, we're the platform, right,
so we're we're creating the space for that to happen.
We are not brokering all those licensing deals, Like we
have been UGC from the start and we can you know,
we lean into our community in that way. But our
core business model is to set up the platform and
(26:02):
we've let it grow organically from there with the creators. Right.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Since Roadbox is so focused on the platform itself and
making sure it's as flexible as possible to attract you know,
as many partners as possible, potentially, has Roadbos had any
kind of inclination to sort of you know, approach partnerships
from outside the platform. You know, we see a lot
of gaming companies now getting their IP into the TV
(26:29):
and immediate the TV and film spaces for various kinds
of adaptations. Minecraft for instance, has a film set up
for twenty twenty five. I think, you know, is that
something that Roadblocks is you know, potentially interested in as well,
eventually you know, finding ways for Roadblocks to gain visibility
(26:49):
outside of its own platform.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
So I think Corey, our filter with this again is
we're always looking to support our creators, right, So it's
really exciting for us to see adopt Me working with
McDonald's and that standing outside of our world or IP
like Piggy inspiring books and things like that. So we're
always like in service of the creators, and you know,
(27:11):
there's nothing that we would love more of them for
them to get more access and more exposure to grow
their businesses.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Since a lot of sort of individual gaming personalities are
often kind of their own brands themselves, how does Roadblocks
partner with known creators on the individual level, you know,
not just companies, but people acting as sort of their
own streaming personalities. Do they often come to Roadblocks with
their own ideas of an interesting experience that they can
(27:40):
build and then you know, potentially stream to their own audiences.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So I think we have a variety of ways like
that also takes a bunch of flavors, right, So we
have a robust developer relations team that works with creators
of all sizes to help them maximize the tools that
we have to offer and lean into our best practices.
We also offer and work with influencers, right And you know,
we talked a lot about music talent and artists, but
(28:05):
we have kind of a variety of different service flavors
and support that we offer based on what they need.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Are there any upcoming experiences that you know you're you're
actively working on that you're really excited about in the
near future.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
There's so many Corey, So I'm really excited about some
of the shopping stuff. Adidas just launched their shop and
for the first time ever, you can buy footwear on roadblocks,
so you can get some sambas for your avatar to
match yourself in real life. And then, like with the
Lens on the entertainment space, I'm really excited about this
new streaming hub that we'll be talking more about soon,
(28:43):
and I just think it's really underlining how we're transitioning
from like one off moments to how our entertainment partners
are thinking about what is the like persistent conversation they
want to have with their fans across their library of
content all the time. And so I just feel like
that's so exciting to see because that feels very much
like the future to me.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Looking at these various shopping hubs, but also the streaming
hub you're excited about, is there any kind of move
to have the option of integrating those with other kind
of more like game heavy experiences, as in, you know,
can a user you know, theoretically in a shopping hub
also sort of unlocker access kind of like a mini
(29:26):
game within that kind of virtual environment, so that way,
you know, it doesn't just feel exactly like you know,
going to the store and shopping. You know, there's an
aspect of it you wouldn't actually get in the physical
space at them all.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yes, like absolutely is the short answer to that. And
you're going to see a lot more ad products from
us coming out that lean into that behavior and give
developers and brands ways to drive traffic, with ways to support,
ways to make that actually like very scalable and easy
to create your shop, and to then work with our
(30:00):
team to find the right creators and partners to showcase
your shop and their experience and different things like that.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Stephanie.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Thank you so much, Corey.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Thanks for listening to Strictly Business. Next week we'll have
a conversation with Takashi Nakano, head of content and Distribution
for Samsung TV Plus. Feel free to leave us a
review at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music, and be sure
to sign up for our weekly Strictly Business newsletter at
Variety dot com.
Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Corey Erickson, media analyst a Variety Intelligence Platform. This episode's
guest is Stephanie Latham, vice president of Global Brands Partnerships
at Roadblocks. Our conversation touches upon the massive reach of
the game creation platform, which boasted an average of seventy
(00:29):
seven million daily active users in the first quarter of
twenty twenty four. We get into how Roadbox utilizes outside
brands to keep users engaged within its many interactive experiences,
and how the platform incentivizes those same players to craft
their own experiences. But when so many Roadbox users are children,
focusing on safety is as big a priority as making
the most of its brand deals. We're going to take
(00:50):
a break, but let me come back. Listen to the
full conversation to understand why Roadblocks isn't going anywhere and
how its approach to advertising is always evolving. Welcome back
to Variety Strictly Business podcast. I'm Corey Erickson, media analyst
(01:13):
with Variety Intelligence Platform, and I'm joined today by Stephanie Latham,
vice president of global brand partnerships at Roadblocks, Stephanie. Before
you joined Roadblocks, you spent more than a decade I
Meta Platforms back when it was mostly still just known
as Facebook. What was the nature of the various roles
you had there and how did that lead you to Roadblocks?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, Hi, Corey, First, thank you so much for having
me excited to dive in with you today. Yes, you
are correct, I spent about twelve years at Meta or
as you, as you can point out, Facebook will always
be Facebook to me in my heart. My entire time
at Meta, I worked in the advertising and partnership space,
so I worked across so many different categories, from helping
(01:55):
build our automotive vertical to more recently running on the
entertainment tech in Telco North America advertising partnerships for Meta.
So was really able to work across so many different
creative surfaces as we launched them and then help bring
advertisers along into kind of where some of the future
media was. So I've kind of followed behavior consumer behavior
(02:18):
my entire career, and before Meta, I worked in the
advertising agency space, both in digital and in print and
TV before that, so consumer behavior has been a through
line of every step and for me coming to roadblox
with such a natural fit as we started to see
so many partners lean into immersive and what is the
future of that?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Very cool? When did you join Roadblocks specifically?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I joined Roadblocks this fall, in early October last fall.
I guess I should say, yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So you're coming to Roadblocks after sort of this period
where you know your previous employer was moving into the metaverse.
How does Roadblocks itself sort of revolve around the same
concept of not just you know, a core gaming experience
that maybe a lot of outsider see it as, but
also a platform that offers all different kinds of experiences,
(03:06):
oftentimes far removed from you know, the concept of video
games itself.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I mean, I think, yes, it's so exciting, Like Robox
is so much more than gaming, and we have a
very visionary CEO at the top who has put out
a big, bold vision for us to really reimagine how
people come together. I think we are really sitting at
the future of communication and connection and as we you know,
set out to connect a billion people on Roadblocks, we
(03:32):
have already seen the behavior expand beyond playing, which is
where we started for sure, to shopping exploring, learning all
kinds of different things, Corey. You know, it's been really
fun to see in the music space, artists like Black
Pink Twice, Elton Mariah, I mean, the full range and
full gamut come to the platform to perform, to connect
with their fans and really use it as a deep
(03:54):
form of engagement. We're seeing that across categories too. You know,
sports is another great please. A lot of the leads
have leaned in, Corey, like NFL, NHL, even Tennis, USTA,
NASCAR using Roadblocks as a way to extend the events
that are happening in real life, using Roadblocks as a
way to extend the seasons and kind of keep that
(04:15):
connection going. And I think also it's been really exciting
to see new audiences, right Roadblox brings to so many
of them, this new audience of the ten millions of
gen z's that we have every month.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Ye speaking to that point on audiences, I do think
a lot of people sort of in the public ice
Roadblocks as a platform primarily for kids, but with the
kind of engagement it has. You know, clearly Roadblocks has
to rely on appealing to all sorts of different kinds
of demographics and just today through an Xbox sort of
(04:46):
third party presentation, they announced this partnership with the Chucky
brand for this IP hub called Griefill. How do experiences
like that come together?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Sure, well, a lot of parts of that question to unpact.
So I think Chucky the Chucky experience is a great
example of how the entertainment industry overall is looking at
roadblocks is a new way to really bring immersive IP
to their fans. We're seeing that across the board right
whether it's Hunger Games bringing the Academy experience to Roadblocks
(05:24):
you could kind of go through that, or it's Aquaman,
Kung Fu Panda four, like, just all kinds of IP
is coming and bringing that to life for our users.
We're also seeing Corey like robos being used to bring
new life to some older or more classic IP. We've
had a recent activation with Jaws for example, and again
it's giving that like new audience extension and kind of
(05:46):
that new life to things by being able to put
users like immersed in the story and the experience in
the IP.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
And you've already mentioned a lot of different experiences across music,
sports and now filmed to that you know you've helped
overseeing through the brand partnership side of Roadblocks. What's one
recent experience in particular that you were really excited to
finally bring to the platform.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Well, I am really excited, Corey. By the time this
episode airs, we will have brought our first major streaming
co to the platform with a hub like experience, seeing
them invest truly in a persistent presence on Roadblocks to
bring their best ip forward.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
What are the strategies at play to keep users loyal
to Roadblocks and consistently coming back to the platform.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So this is a fun one for us Qurey. As
we lean into the future here, we're really starting to
see more crossover with loyalty programs like back to the
spirit of like that blur between the digital and the
physical and how to connect the dots. So you know,
we've had recent example with Hilton Honors Points in Living Land,
which is Paris Hilton's experience, and we saw that they
(06:57):
were able to connect their like real world loyal with
behavior on Roadblocks and close the loop. We also have
seen a recent activation with Pepsi and Bubbly similar spirit
and one of my favorites was Lamborghini offered some exclusive
UGC in their experience that then was redeemable for a
(07:18):
ticket to their factory in Italy. And so just kind
of like this continuous activate the community on roadblocks and
then connect the dots to the real world, which is
also kind of the spirit of I mentioned we're getting
into real world commerce and we'll be testing that later
this year. So we talked a little bit about it
with the shopping lens, which is so endemic to our platform.
(07:39):
But when we think about entertainment and we think about
other categories, it's really exciting to imagine once you're able
to link out to another place, you could watch an
immersive trailer, watch an immersive trailer with a friend, and
then click out two ticketing to Fandango and purchase your
movie tickets for that weekend or that night. And so
I think these use cases are really exciting us as
(08:00):
we get beyond just brand exposure and brand experiences to
actually driving real world outcomes for our partners.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, alongside those e commerce aspects, what other areas of
engagement has roadblocks not fully tapped into yet.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
We have touched on this throughout Corey, but we are
just getting into ads. Like we're at the very very
early days of like what our ads and solutions are,
and I think the more ways we can connect the
dots like brands is such a flywheel for us right
it's content, it's shopping, its ads, And as we continue
to evolve those solutions and lower the barrier to entry
for brands on the platform, I think the future there
(08:39):
is limitless.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Do you think there is maybe like a little bit
of a user risk if you know, experiences within roadblocks
users are very familiar with and comfortable with the you know,
like grant them a lot of kind of the same
kind of experience they may want over and over again.
Could there potentially be a bit of a user backlash
if they suddenly just start seeing ads appearing within the
(09:04):
experiences where they're not used to seeing ads.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I think we've been very intentional about this, Corey. You
may remember years ago robots actually did have ads, and
I think we learned a lot from that, and so
like the true north for us on everything ads is
our ads are all really immersive. They're very thoughtfully integrated
into an experience that already exists. So think about it
(09:28):
like walking by a real world billboard, Like that's how
the ads are integrated into the experiences. So it's very
different than a pre role or a force view or
something like that. They're very thoughtfully executed in that way.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
So do you see robots kind of taking a cue
from sort of the way a lot of existing things
like product placement are handled in TV and film like
Like for instance, last night, I was rewatching one of
the older seasons of True Detective and during sort of
this legal during this legal scene, uh, they had water
bottles out on the table with you know, the brand
(10:04):
very clearly displayed. You know. Is that sort of something
that is front of mind for roadblocks? You know, how
do we kind of replicate that sense of you know,
product and ad placement that feels, you know, just as
natural as what already exists in other forms of media.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So I think that exact example is a little bit
early days. However, if you think about our Avatar marketplace
and our Creator marketplace, like, we have the virtual economy
and like infrastructure in place to be able to extend there,
so you can imagine that is a natural place for
us to go over time. But I don't have anything
specific to announce about that today.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Okay, So roadblocks, in addition to all these different kinds
of brand partnerships is also known for, you know, being
a pretty big player in the creator economy. Lots of
different Roadbox users can create their own experiences within the platform.
How does that aspect of Roadblox still sort of form
opportunities for brand partnerships?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Sure, well, I think you know, Roadblocks at its core,
we're always thinking about our community first, We're always thinking
about our creators first. We have this very robust creator economy.
The exciting thing for someone in my role and someone
that gets to work with brands is brands are a
very core part of that creator economy. Last year alone,
I think we paid out seven hundred and forty million
(11:24):
dollars to creators. But when we look at the brand
role in that, we're seeing like one point eight billion
visits to brand experiences corey, like one hundred and eighty
five million hours. Like, the brand component of Roadblocks is
a very robust and growing one, and there's lots of
different ways that brands are participating. Right, So brands are
creating persistent experiences like some of the ones that you mentioned.
(11:47):
They're also selling virtual items and getting in on our
virtual economy. Of course, they're they're buying ads, and we're
also seeing them matchmake with our creator community, so a
lot of integrations. I think integration grew one hundred and
twenty four percent year on year last year. So they're
very hungry to contribute in different ways, and it all
(12:07):
works together to fuel that economy.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Given that creators can make money off of the experiences
they make within roadblocks, I think you just said, you know,
it was as much as seven to fifty million in payouts.
I think forty right, sort of on the inverse on that,
because users can potentially make their own money through roadblocks,
does it cost users money to be able to create
on roadblocks?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
No, I think that's the Like one of the magical
parts of it is we really invest heavily in giving
creators the tools to then take that in front of
it right where their creativity takes them. I think that
is the heart and soul of a UGC platform like ours,
and one of the reasons we've been able to have
such terminous growth and also such diversity of content. Right,
(12:52):
we provide the tools and the platform, and then we
let the creativity flow.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Given that Roadblocks does have you know, such a heavy
agen z and in some cases gend alpha presence as
well as this incentive for users to you know, figure
out ways to create their own experiences within roadblocks that
could you know, potentially go viral and become very popular.
You know, are there exterior concerns with regard to safety
for you know, all these different users on the platform
(13:20):
that could be spending significant amount of amounts of time,
especially for the younger users.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You no, I love this question. Corey Roadbox's commitment to
safety and civility is actually one of the reasons that
I came over. It is absolutely amazing to work at
a company that was founded with safety and civility at
its core, and that commitment has is so clear, has
been part of the DNA from day day one. With
the leadership team here, I think there is a very clear,
(13:48):
full company alignment that our vision is to be the
safest platform possible, and we invest really heavily in that right.
We're constantly building safety features into our design, leaning into AI,
leaning to mL text filters, chat filters, like all kinds
of work. With that, we have moderators, a robust team
of moderators monitoring twenty four to seven. We partner with
(14:10):
I think over twenty different global organizations on this because
we feel like it's it's our responsibility to be so
heavily leaned in here and honestly to lead the industry
in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
On the brand side, when you know you're fostering different
partnerships with different companies, do they oftentimes, you know, want
to have a lot of control with regard to how
users can come to their experiences, especially when they know
a significant chunk of the Roadblox audience is going to
be younger users, you know, do they have their own
(14:41):
concerns sometimes about how that's going to integrate with an
experience you know branded under IP they control?
Speaker 2 (14:49):
So I think, you know, we do not do any
advertising to anyone under thirteen. And the exciting part for
us is that our over thirteen audience is can consistantly
the largest growing cohort. So I think when we think
about ads, when we think about solutions, when we think
about traffic driving, that's all for the over thirteen and
(15:10):
we have a very extensive process and policy around that
to ensure that ads are not shown to the under
thirteen crowd.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
So on the business side, how do these brand partnerships
and you know, the various partners which you want to
license IP from. How does that ultimately inform the actual
revenue models behind roadblocks, especially, you know when so many
of its users are on the platform playing for free essentially.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
So I think a call take you back to kind
of where we were talking about the creator economy. Right,
we give brands a variety of ways to come onto
the platform and help fuel our ecosystem. Yes, one of
course is content, but then we also let them do
virtual items and participate in our marketplace. Right. We also
you're seeing us and you'll just continue to do this
(15:58):
remove friction from an average perspective, so that we have
more standard ad products to give brands access to our audience,
even if they're not ready for a persistent experience yet.
You're going to see us over the next couple of
weeks and months, even have more exciting opportunities for brands
to own cultural moments where we have a new website,
(16:19):
takeover product, We're you know, launching our first playable trailer
with Godzilla. So we're giving them lots of different ways
corey to come into the platform based on what their
objectives are, and all of those ways help roadblocks in
a variety of other ways.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
So for something like, you know, an experience crafted around
a trailer for Godzilla, that that's going to be the
kind of thing that a company is sort of going
to want to have a lot of input over. But
there's also this whole music side of roadblocks where virtual
concerts can happen. You know, when you're fostering those specific partnerships,
is that always as much of a conversation with you know,
(16:56):
the artists themselves as much as as much as it
is label And how do artists who have sort of
their own direct involvement with roadblocks tend to, you know,
think of ways to bring their experience to the platform.
I think you mentioned a Black Pink earlier, right.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I think that takes a very different flavor cory depending
on the artists and depending on the label, and depending
on the artists comfort and knowledge with roadblocks from the beginning, right,
So we have all different you know, ways that they're
coming in we had, you know, we think about Black
Pink like they have a really robust fan club experience
(17:34):
where users are able to leave them messages and notes
and fan mail and they're able to respond. We see
other artists like drop into their experiences unprompted paras Hilton
just did this to s living Land a couple of
weeks ago and kind of show up with the surprise
and delight. And so I think you see the whole
range based on who that artist is and also how
(17:54):
they're organized and how their teams organized.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
So when you are dealing with an artist or of
an experiencediences where a labels involved and artists is involved,
how does that translate to you know, the money that's
essentially made off of the experience. You know, concerts usually
always have merch tables after and especially for how kind
of fragile the touring business can be these days, you know,
(18:17):
the sales made at merch are really significant to artist
bottom lines? Is that very much the case on sort
of you know, the digital ecosystem and virtual worlds of roadblocks,
you know, as much engagement as a really fun concert
can get, you know, is there still a lot of
thought pot into well, how does this translate to virtual
items for users to buy and then you know continue
(18:39):
to you know, where on their characters as they go
into other experiences.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yes, so I think from the very beginning are like
virtual virtual items, and also we have quary what's called emotes,
which is basically like you can sell your dance moves.
Oh yeah, you can also sell your merch you can
sell your style like a variety of ways. So you're
seeing artists lean in and do that and actually generate
(19:06):
generate money from that in our marketplace. The other thing
that we're leaning into this year, and you're going to
hear more from us about this later this year, but
is real world commerce. So how do we take that
idea of exactly what you're talking about right the merch
table at the concert, and how do we enable users
to actually like link out somewhere and purchase that T shirt,
that poster, those you know, like whatever that item is.
(19:29):
And we're thinking about that a lot in the lens
of like the number one ask we get from all
brand partners, not just music partners, is how do you
merge that digital and physical world? And our users love twinning, right,
that's a huge ass that we get from them all
the time. So to be able to merge the here's
my black pink concert T shirt and now I just
ordered it to be delivered to my house to match
(19:51):
so that my avatar and I are in sync is
a place where we feel like we're really excited about
shopping is so endemic to our platform. I think one
point six billion items were sold on robots last year,
so that we're just getting started there, and there's set
an opportunity for artists and others to monetize that way.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
On the music side, aside from these digital items, when
you focus on these partnerships, do you also make the
kind of deals that allow you to bring you know,
the actual music libraries of you know, big rosters like
Sony Music or Universal or you know, Warner Brothers Music,
So that way these experiences can also be played, you know,
(20:30):
to user curated soundtracks of music that these labels own.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
You know, this is a complicated one, Corey, and it's
it's a place where we're like leaning in and exploring
what a variety of different futures here could look like.
But I would say we're pretty early on the rights
negotiation and what that looks like honestly in the immersive
space and for the future.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Right because then you have to contend with you know,
not just you know, the kind of deals a label
wants to make with respect to the rights of what
it owns, but also you know, are there very specific
differences from artists to artists in terms of the contracts
that are on place, that are in place exactly right.
So we are going to take a break. When we
get back, we're going to get into the wider market
(21:11):
that Roadblocks is a part of. And you know what
we're seeing across the competitive space against Roadblocks, We're back
on strictly business with Stephaney lay them from Roadblocks, So
alongside Roadblocks in sort of this very metaverse driven ecosystem
(21:35):
on platforms that are associated with gaming but catering to
so many different other kinds of experiences. You know, one
other very very big name in the space is Fortnite.
You know, does Roadblocks see Fortnite as its primary competition
and if so, what are the sort of key differences
you see with where Roadblocks offers versus what competitors like
(21:57):
Fortnite offer.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
So, I mean, I think zooming up Corey, right, we
have the largest immersive platform, we have a massive virtual economy.
We have a huge vision to reimagine how people come
together and communicate and connect. So, you know, I think
when we apply that lens, it's really hard to quantify.
Like one, it's hard to compare us to anyone truly
(22:20):
when you look at our demographics, when you look at
our female demographics, like, there's just so many places where
I think we are really hard to compare. I'll tell
you from the advertising side, because I spend most of
my time talking to brands and talking to agencies. I
think what's really exciting as we think about for the
future is ROADBLOCKX fits into so many different buckets, which
(22:41):
makes our opportunity limitless. We're in the gaming bucket, We're
in a social bucket, we're in the now digital video bucket,
we're in the innovation bucket, and so we get to
play across and I think it makes the competitive set
much greater. But then it also allows us to stand
on our own. We're uniquely positioned. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
I brought up four Night in particular just because last
month there was pretty significant news on sort of the
partnership side with Fortnite and Epic Games, where Disney invested
as much as one point five billion into the platform
to you know, build a variety of different player experiences
around its IP. Since Roadblocks partners with so many different brands,
(23:23):
is that kind of sort of megadeal something that Roadblocks
is open to or is Roadblocks's you know, primary point
of concern trying to keep its options as open as
possible and not you know, devoting too much attention and
presence to one brand. If you know, there's a priority
to make sure no one associates any sort of particular
(23:45):
big company with the platform.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
You know, I think on that, Corey, what I'll say is,
when we're in a really fortunate position. You know this,
We're a publicly traded company, and we've been generating cash
and have a really strong balance sheet, but we are
always looking towards what our community wants, right, and so
I think we will always we will always lean into that.
We've done that in the past. You've seen us lean
in with Gucci to set up Gucci Garden. We leaned
(24:09):
in with Lil naz X to bring that to the
platform and kind of lighthouse examples that move different categories
and move different use cases for how to think about
roadblocks and how to think about content on Roadblocks. So
I think again, we'll be listening to our community and
staying close to what they want to help us grow
and diverse.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Five. Obviously, Roadblocks is not confined to gaming, but it
is still a significant player within the gaming space, and
this year in particular is seen not not just this year,
last year as well, but lately there's been a significant
amount of belt typening across belt tightening across a lot
of the sort of major players in the gaming space,
(24:48):
to the point where a publisher like EA, for instance,
as part of you know, a layoffs announcement, also revealed
that they were going to sort of be going away
way from licensing as a part of their strategy, as in,
you know, they were going to sort of double down
on the IP they own rather than licensing out from
(25:09):
other companies. Obviously, to do what Roadblocks does does require
a lot of licensing of sort of exterior companies. You know,
has there been any kind of impact on the Roadblocks
end in terms of finding that you know, some companies
are now not as willing to license to the degree
they were. You know, how how does Roadbos respond to
(25:32):
sort of shifts in the wider you know, media business
when companies move away from wanting to work with licensing partners.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
So you know, for us qrey, we're the platform, right,
so we're we're creating the space for that to happen.
We are not brokering all those licensing deals, Like we
have been UGC from the start and we can you know,
we lean into our community in that way. But our
core business model is to set up the platform and
(26:02):
we've let it grow organically from there with the creators. Right.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Since Roadbox is so focused on the platform itself and
making sure it's as flexible as possible to attract you know,
as many partners as possible, potentially, has Roadbos had any
kind of inclination to sort of you know, approach partnerships
from outside the platform. You know, we see a lot
of gaming companies now getting their IP into the TV
(26:29):
and immediate the TV and film spaces for various kinds
of adaptations. Minecraft for instance, has a film set up
for twenty twenty five. I think, you know, is that
something that Roadblocks is you know, potentially interested in as well,
eventually you know, finding ways for Roadblocks to gain visibility
(26:49):
outside of its own platform.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
So I think Corey, our filter with this again is
we're always looking to support our creators, right, So it's
really exciting for us to see adopt Me working with
McDonald's and that standing outside of our world or IP
like Piggy inspiring books and things like that. So we're
always like in service of the creators, and you know,
(27:11):
there's nothing that we would love more of them for
them to get more access and more exposure to grow
their businesses.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Since a lot of sort of individual gaming personalities are
often kind of their own brands themselves, how does Roadblocks
partner with known creators on the individual level, you know,
not just companies, but people acting as sort of their
own streaming personalities. Do they often come to Roadblocks with
their own ideas of an interesting experience that they can
(27:40):
build and then you know, potentially stream to their own audiences.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
So I think we have a variety of ways like
that also takes a bunch of flavors, right, So we
have a robust developer relations team that works with creators
of all sizes to help them maximize the tools that
we have to offer and lean into our best practices.
We also offer and work with influencers, right And you know,
we talked a lot about music talent and artists, but
(28:05):
we have kind of a variety of different service flavors
and support that we offer based on what they need.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Are there any upcoming experiences that you know you're you're
actively working on that you're really excited about in the
near future.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
There's so many Corey, So I'm really excited about some
of the shopping stuff. Adidas just launched their shop and
for the first time ever, you can buy footwear on roadblocks,
so you can get some sambas for your avatar to
match yourself in real life. And then, like with the
Lens on the entertainment space, I'm really excited about this
new streaming hub that we'll be talking more about soon,
(28:43):
and I just think it's really underlining how we're transitioning
from like one off moments to how our entertainment partners
are thinking about what is the like persistent conversation they
want to have with their fans across their library of
content all the time. And so I just feel like
that's so exciting to see because that feels very much
like the future to me.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Looking at these various shopping hubs, but also the streaming
hub you're excited about, is there any kind of move
to have the option of integrating those with other kind
of more like game heavy experiences, as in, you know,
can a user you know, theoretically in a shopping hub
also sort of unlocker access kind of like a mini
(29:26):
game within that kind of virtual environment, so that way,
you know, it doesn't just feel exactly like you know,
going to the store and shopping. You know, there's an
aspect of it you wouldn't actually get in the physical
space at them all.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yes, like absolutely is the short answer to that. And
you're going to see a lot more ad products from
us coming out that lean into that behavior and give
developers and brands ways to drive traffic, with ways to support,
ways to make that actually like very scalable and easy
to create your shop, and to then work with our
(30:00):
team to find the right creators and partners to showcase
your shop and their experience and different things like that.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Stephanie.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Thank you so much, Corey.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Thanks for listening to Strictly Business. Next week we'll have
a conversation with Takashi Nakano, head of content and Distribution
for Samsung TV Plus. Feel free to leave us a
review at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music, and be sure
to sign up for our weekly Strictly Business newsletter at
Variety dot com.
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