January 18, 2024 • 32 mins
| While Covid got us more digitally reliant than ever before, it also reminded us of the power of live physical experiences- with flights and concerts now commanding eye watering prices in 2023. How can brands address this healthy tension through crafting connected experiences that intertwine tactics and drive consumer interest and action?
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:01):
Thanks so much for joining me folks. Good to have
you here. I thought we could doa quick intro. You guys are much
more exciting than I am on theagency side. So let's start with
you give the guys a quickoverview. Oh, no ladies, first,
okay.
On Bumble women do you make thefirst moves? I guess that's very
Hi everyone. I'm Georgie cube. Iam the Associate Director for
(00:22):
brand for Bumble. I have beenwith the wider Bumble
organization for over six years,I've worked across three
continents, and most recentlyhave moved to New York to be on
the band team. So thank you somuch for having me today.
Great. Eric, over to you.
Hi, everyone. I'm Eric Crawford,Mr. Rutherford. I have a podcast
called not just pretty pictures.
I'm a senior producer with anexperiential company 1540. And
(00:43):
also, I am a ambassador for thenew Perlman performing arts
center that is just about toopen. In downtown New York.
I want you much more exciting tome. I'm Mike silver. I'm the MD
of ima. We're an experientialand content agency. Originally
from the Cape Town office, I nowhead up the New York branch. And
(01:06):
they are really good to have youfolks here. This is not quite
the graveyard shift. I thinkthere's another 30 minutes to
go. So good luck, whoever'sgoing next. But yeah, I look
forward to chatting to some ofyou at the cocktail hour, but
later. So folks, we're going tostart, we're gonna get a little
bit depressing, I got to getbetter and more exciting
afterwards, I promise you. Solet's talk about LockDown. To
begin with. This whole sessionis about getting digital. So
(01:29):
don't worry, nothing's gonnahappen. It's all gonna be
digital. But it's a mixture ofphysical and digital. So how
those two worlds converge. Beingfrom an experiential background,
we're seeing live events, moreand more have digital elements
incorporated into them either.
In Eric's world, from a creativeperspective, or even from a
creative tech perspective, withall sorts of weird and wonderful
I saw, this is a bit of a puntfor the guys outside, I saw a
(01:49):
machine that cleaned your phonewhile you watch an ad. So that
sort of stuff is prettyexciting. So COVID happened, I
must say this is a slightlybiased choosing Georgie because
my brother and sister in law meton Bumble, and our account
director made her partner so ifyou're single you out there
definitely recommend Bumble. Butum, let's talk about COVID.
Because if you were singleduring COVID, you know, it was a
(02:11):
challenge. How was COVID for thebread?
I mean, it's so lovely to hearthat your sister and her partner
on Bumble, so wonderful. Soobviously, I think so many of us
found ourselves in completelyuncharted territory, it
happened. So suddenly, Ipersonally was living in Mumbai,
and working for Bumble, India atthe time, and I think everyone
(02:33):
just did not know what to do, wevery quickly decided that we had
to obviously jump to attentionand really support our users. So
we launched a campaign calledstay fall, get close to think
about ways that we could stillbring our community together
during what was such anisolating and challenging time
for so many. It's reallyinteresting, we actually saw
around a 70% lift in audio andvideo chats in Bumble at the
(02:56):
announcement of the state ofemergency in the US, which I
think just shows how much peoplereally needed that connection,
especially if you're single orliving alone at that time. So a
really challenging time for somany people. But definitely, I
think a time that we couldreally be there for our users.
Brilliant, amazing. And and fromyour perspective of if I get
reincarnated, I want to comeback as a creator. It just seems
(03:17):
so glamorous. And you get loadsof free stuff. I'm sure it's not
that easy. But from your night.
So from your perspective, Imean, it was it was good for
business. Was it toochallenging?
Oh, I mean, I think you all cananswer that. Right? Was it good
for business? No. Was it goodfor humanity? No. Was it good
for the individual or culturalwherever the city again? It was?
(03:39):
I don't think it was good foranybody. I, you know, for me,
personally, you know, I rememberin the span of a week, I lost 10
jobs. Wow. When everyone goesinto lockdown, immediately had
one family member affected. Andthen obviously, it just began to
(04:02):
ripple out, right. And so Icertainly was faced with I mean,
what am I going to do? What areyou going to do besides being
disconnected from the world,your sense of purpose of waking
up in the day, whether it wasinteracting with your with your
colleagues interact, you know,doing a job creating something
you could do, you could donothing? You know, the UN in
(04:27):
that time, you know, I was luckyenough to have some people in my
life, some of our friends, andsome who I follow for
inspiration. Immediately theyleaned in how could they be
helpful? How could they be ofservice? How could they begin to
find a silver lining and whathappened both from a brand point
(04:47):
of view, but also just from asocial point of view? And so
what I tried to do and you know,I always look in anything that
I'm doing in my life, how can Ibe helpful? How can I be of
service if I'm working with abrand And how can I help the
brand? How can I listen to whatthey're looking for? So I was I
adapted that immediately intowhat I was putting out, you
(05:07):
know, and I had some contractsthat didn't go away. So what we
tried to do, you know, one thingtoo, and we were joking about
this, we're talking yesterdayand getting prepped, you know,
there are some people I don'tknow, if you remember, in some
of you, as a brand's may havebeen in that situation, you
still had contracts that youneeded that you were committed
to. And I think some brands werequicker to respond than others.
(05:31):
They weren't necessarily readingthe room, that phrase that we
hear over and over again. And Ithink that's one thing that
everyone learned from right, youknow, we are all connected, we
it is a smart audience. So, youknow, I even would out you know,
reach out to friends of minethat were still because they had
a commitment, and they, theywanted to support the brand, and
(05:51):
also tried to bring somenormalcy of what we all lost to
their daily lives. So they werestill posting in a bathing suit,
or you know, cooking a meal,prepping a meal or something
along that lines. And but whatended up happening was the
backlash that came, so theneveryone went into a reset,
myself included. So as brands,and I'm sure you all adapted
(06:14):
somehow, right. And again, wehad to figure out a way to keep
the lights on. So again, fastforward, so people start doing
that you start sending, youknow, a new collection to
someone's house to incorporate,like work from home. So you
start to see how it could bebeneficial to what we're all
going through, you know, and forme the reset, and I was already
(06:34):
leaning into this again, I Ialways like to joke, I'm an old
man and a young man's game,right? And I said that when I
came back to it, because I usedto produce events all over the
world. And then I did a pivotinto what's called an influencer
right? About seven years ago.
And I use the word I want to usethis. Listen
to this, it's an easy term,everyone has an understanding of
what was of what it is, it'scertainly adapted and evolved.
(06:58):
You know, you know, I think, afew years ago, it became this
absolute negative word, youknow, but I think that came from
it was, because we lost in this,I'll go back to kind of what I
feel, or hopefully has come outof the pandemic, you know, in
this reset, you know, it wassend, send stuff, pay people
stuff do so, well, what are youreally getting out of it, we're
(07:20):
all looking for a connection.
And when the pandemic happened,we're all forced to reset. And
to begin, hopefully, to begin toassess what really matters. What
really matters to you as abrand. What matters, certainly
to me as a brand partner, andwhat you're putting out there
because you are messaging youare affecting people. And so as
(07:42):
we began to adjust, and find away to reconnect with people to,
you know, to again, let's beginto interact, let's find new ways
to interact. You know, what Iwanted to bring through this is
still like, how, what is mypurpose in this? In working with
a brand? What is the brand'spurpose in doing what they're
(08:06):
doing? You know, here we arethree years later, which still
blows my mind. Because I again,we get memories that pop up,
right. And I recently had theseposts pop back up of me walking
alone, vulnerable sharing,because that's all I also felt
that was one thing and we'llpivot into one of the questions
(08:26):
we're going to talk about, toshare with what you're going
through. Because I think thegreatest thing, it to me, I love
social media, I think it's apowerful tool, it's a positive
tool. Many of us that grew upalone, you know, are trying to
find our tribe, so to speak,you're able to connect that way.
And so for me to work with abrand to be truly authentic, and
(08:46):
I know that word gets thrownaround. But to me coming out of
the out of the pandemic, thathelped a lot of people reset
what what, what is my authenticself? What is that brand voice?
And, and the public is smart.
You know? Was it I could talkkeep talking, I'm very,
(09:10):
I was actually gonna say youkeep saying reset. And one of
our dating trends we noticed atthe end of 2021, was about
recetas. So people truly decidedto take a step back and push
like the reset button on theirdating life. So I just the word
just triggered that me and I waslike, oh, that sounds really
relevant.
I was gonna say that. So also, Ithink Eric was touched on
normalcy and connections. Andthere was that terrible phrase,
(09:33):
if it's the new normal, it's thenew normal. But the reality is,
from a tech perspective, therewere a lot of new normals and a
lot of behavior changes thathappen for a business like
Bumble. How did you find thatcoming out of COVID? Because in
a way, COVID was a terriblething that led to loads of new
insights and understanding abouthuman behavior, and also
(09:56):
adoption of technology. How didyou find things coming out into
this? Oh, One world again,for sure. So I'm not sure if you
both agree. But I feel on apersonal level, I became a lot
more kind of intentional andselective with what I wanted to
do with my time, we'd had a lotof time to reflect in on who we
are and what we want. And so Ithink that that's a really
interesting thing that's beenreflected more widely in, in
(10:17):
what we've seen at Bumble. So weran a survey and we've actually
seen that people are looking formore intentionality in their
dating. So it was one of our topfilters used in 2021. This other
really interesting trends, sothe reset trend that I just
spoke about, but also thingslike power, PDA, you know,
people, I think it was like twoand three people are more open
(10:38):
to kind of public displays ofaffection. And that's partly
because I think there was theHollywood trend of PDA, but also
the rise of vaccination rates.
There was also a shift, I think,as well, you know, a lot of
people would looking inwardsduring COVID, dry dating, you
know, alcohol, lots of peoplestarted questioning their
relationship with alcohol. Andso people were more open to
(11:00):
going on a date that maybedidn't involve booze, which I
think is a really positiveshift. So we saw quite a lot of
shifts, actually, when it cameout. Yeah, some real real
positive changes in consumerbehavior, and just general human
behavior coming out of it. Ithink I wanted to kind of pivot
into obviously, we're talkingabout the digital world today,
which is difficult to spell. I'mnot even sure if it's accurate
(11:21):
up there. But um, let's talk nowabout COVID happened. Behaviors
changed. We've come out ofCOVID. I mean, I don't know
about you guys, you traveled orticket flights, I went to watch
a live event the other day, itwas that the ticket the sticker
price was at $900 to sit like anaverage seat. And I was
thinking, you know, good. Thiswas a gift for me. But I just I
(11:42):
think it's gone crazy. Liveexperiences the value of them.
from a brand perspective, I wantto touch them from two parts,
one from own brand perspective.
And the other from a, I guessamplification perspective,
because we spoke about you,Eric, almost as a media
platform. What does experientiallook like to you? What a live
experiences look like? And howhas this changed this new
(12:06):
digital normal been incorporatedinto the live experiences Bumble
do?
For sure. So I think for Bumble,rip IRL in real life experiences
have always been very much partof our DNA. It's something we've
done a lot of over the years. Sorecently, we've done that
actually quite a lot of events.
So we celebrated Friendsgivingwith Bumble BFF, which is one of
the modes in our app back inNovember, we had this insight
(12:29):
that if you don't have family orfriends in the city, it can be
an incredibly lonely andisolating time. So we're really
excited to bring a group ofBumble community together along
with influencers to host a hugeThanksgiving lunch in both LA
and New York. So we kind ofcollect people and advertise
that within our platforms, andthen bring them together to
(12:51):
celebrate that moment.
Brilliant,amazing. And from your
perspective, Eric, like, brandsare doing these types.
Friendsgiving I love that. Andalso, Georgie wouldn't tell me
before we try dating or not, wasits public PDA or power.
Learning all of it tonight,we'll be using that Lincoln from
tomorrow. But from yourperspective, Eric, so when
friends incorporate you intotheir experiences, what have you
(13:13):
noticed the change of thosebrand experiences taking place?
And then I guess from atechnology perspective, have you
seen anything where you'd belike, Wow, this is amazing. Kind
of convergence of the twoworlds?
Yeah, I mean, I'll give you acouple examples. One with a
company, I preusser with 1540.
You know, one thing that alsocame about during the pandemic,
right, we were stuck at home.
(13:36):
And we really became we became aviewing audience all over again,
we weren't we were watchingeverything on every possible
screen we could get our handson. And so when it began, and
this is probably about a I guessit was a year ago. You know, you
saw you know, we shut down wetalked on the call, you know,
the superstars that rose on ticktock right during the pandemic.
And because there was a rawnessthere was an authenticity,
(13:59):
because it felt like you weredropping into their lives. But
it didn't feel filtered. Whathad been kind of how Instagram
have kind of pivoted towards. Itfelt raw, it felt messy. It felt
like it felt like how you werefeeling at home watching them,
right. So obviously, you had afriend you're talking to, you
know, and besides, you couldshare like I'm watching this
show, I'm watching the show. Andyou know, one of the streamers
(14:20):
that we were working with onlymurders and that produces all
the murders in the building,which took off during the
pandemic. So they wanted toalmost thank their fans. And
because of my position both as acontent creator, but also as a
producer, we then began toformulate how can we recreate
that experience of what you'vewatched in the show and give you
(14:40):
gifts along the way, give yousurprises give you codes to to
interact. So we ended upproducing this fan activation
that we I mean, we it was freetickets for everybody. We took
over a ballroom in Manhattan andwe recreated the apartments of
the show. I don't know if everywas familiar with the show, so
(15:02):
that you as a fan could and wegave all these Easter eggs,
right? These surprises and wereally encourage you to whatever
you had been watching in anepisode, we would recreate
moments, you know, whether it'syou helping to solve the murder
and or opening up a closet, orgoing through a closet or
something along those lines, wemade it available. Again, we did
(15:23):
promotion, we had ambassadorstalking about it, but the fans
were so hungry, to engage witheach other. And the show, when
we released it was, again, allfree. So when we released the
slots, every slot was filled inseven minutes. And we did it for
three days. And it was eighthours a day. So what's happened
(15:44):
is everyone obviously into itagain, not that we're the only
ones that are doing it, but youyou We met that need we met and
you know, that ache to connectwith people, but in a very
polite, fun, positive, joyfulway, moving away from what we
had just gone through. And sowhen working with a brand, you
(16:05):
know, it's, you know, I just didsomething with a skincare brand
a few weeks ago. And, you know,I always in approaching My
presence will say and workingwith a brand. And in the
wonderful thing is when I dowork with a brand because I was
on that brand side for so manyyears, I understand the
(16:26):
importance of hitting thosetalking points of why they need
to be shared why someone feelsthey need to be talked about
right or hit. What I try to dois because working with me, and
hopefully what again, I'veleaned into this even more so is
it's got there has to be atruthfulness to it. You know, I
(16:49):
have always found it I hear fromeven my followers, you know,
they'll DM me though. Again,I've wonderful positive people
that I engage with. And I'm verylucky because I have some
friends that don't. But theylook for that honesty. They
don't they, you know, again,sometimes you're talking about
but they'd rather me say it inmy own words, because they'll
(17:14):
believe it more. And they trust,they will trust me and trust the
brand. So what I tried toexpress again, it's you can put
it in the caption but even that,I think what we've learned
during COVID is people weren'tdidn't want to read long
captions. I mean, most peopleweren't wanting to write short
clips of something. So again,trying to find a way. The other
(17:38):
thing I was gonna say is in foras for a brand, it's about
building those relationships,right? I would encourage brands
to build a relationship withmaybe it's 10 partners, and not
30. Because what you've createdis similar what you're doing a
bundle, you're bringing peopletogether, then the audience
(18:01):
begins to identify with thatperson. So then they actually
pay attention because you'rereally listening to someone
you're familiar with. And thatis something to me, I always try
to voice and when I'm speakingto someone or sharing or
whatever I'm writing. Sogoing back to this point around
like the technology piece. Ithink banana bread had its
(18:24):
moment during COVID. But so didthe QR code. brands were trying
to have the QR code use no onewas using it. We had done a an
event or an experience beforewhere you had tweeted. And the
more tweet received, the morethe rain came down. And as dance
floor was a brand was more aboutrefreshment. So people were
playing in the space of creativetechnology, as it must be
(18:45):
interesting for a digital brandor a digital product to then
create live experiences. Doesthe bread does the product get
incorporated into the eventitself into the experience? It
does. Sowe have we ran a series last
year called Bumble IRL, whichwas a kind of series of low,
basically very simple, effectiveevents for our community to
(19:09):
attend. So we wanted people tobe able to meet and date in real
life. So there was live music,there was bar nights, there was
even workout classes across 10US cities for us to just really
kind of get everyone backtogether again after COVID. The
way in which we incorporateBumble is it's pretty simple.
You need to have Bumble and youneed to show a QR code. So we
(19:32):
have a feature called a beaky,which means that you can
basically generate your ownpersonalized QR code within the
app itself. And that gives youthat access to an event or an
IRL experience. I have to say, Idon't know if you agree, but I
feel like this is personalexperience. But QR codes were
kind of a thing and then theybecame a massive thing
(19:52):
overnight. And I remember I wasworking on an out of home
campaign for Singapore and wewere aiming and firing about You
know what the role of the QRcode now that we are in a world
that is much more remote. And wedecided, because according to
our colleagues in Singapore,there was so much kind of
emphasis on the QR code asbeing, you know, a health check
you to get into bars, it was amenu it was it was, you know,
(20:15):
sometimes like almost like apassport to get places. So we
decided to kind of blow up theseQR codes on these big out of
home billboards across theSingapore Metro. And it just
shows how it's shifted soquickly into such a different
realm for the QR code.
Definitely having theenvironment, I saw a QR code
made out of drones done forsomeone and you can scan your
(20:37):
phone was amazing. So I think Imean, again, as an experiential
agency, we are super passionateabout the fact that technology
shouldn't be replacing liveexperiences, it should actually
be used to enhance them. Sowe're going to go down a rabbit
hole now of AI, and obviously, alot of hype at the moment about
AI products. Do. Let's startwith you, right, because I don't
(21:02):
know what role it plays. But Iguess, let's talk about some of
the content you create. How areyou conscious of the AI behind
the platform that you engagewith? And the content that you
put out there, I realizedtypical questions. Maybe we
could just focus on, you know,the types of content being
created knowing what is popularon those platforms.
(21:23):
If you like Metaverse, you wantto talk about or you want to
write more? So what was the lastfew weeks meta versus another
question was coming up. So wewere having I was having this
conversation about AI right.
After I'd sent someone a profileI'd seen and I, I was swearing
that was a real person. It wasso detailed, there was a level
(21:46):
of humanity, in the skin tone,and the lines in the hair in the
eyes, which often I find islacking and out no matter how
good the representation is, orwhat you've created, I always
find that it's like will saydead in the eyes, right. And I
said it to a friend of mine. Andlike, they literally called me
(22:07):
up because they couldn't believeI actually thought it was a real
person. So for me, I mixed,because part of how I engage is
by being me, you know, and I'vealways believed that what has
made me will say different thansomeone else is how I do engage
(22:33):
with other people how I doconnect, you know that it is
important for me to see someonewhen I'm speaking with them to
listen, because I think that'simportant for a brand as well as
a person, right? So here all ofa sudden comes AI right? And it
is a limitless of what can becreated. I think it's again, I'm
all I'm all for evolution. Imean, this, this these
(22:57):
platforms, some of them, rightdidn't even exist 10 years ago,
let alone 20. Right, let aloneto sometimes are even talking
about QR codes, right that howit shifted because of COVID. You
know, so it's not I don't, Idon't have a strong opinion on
it. I think what I would hope isbefore it's kind of just thrown
(23:18):
out to the masses, that there'senough research done. There's
educational and educationalprocess that's put into place
because I think as positive asit can be. I can also I also
feel it can be very negative,particularly if all of what
(23:39):
we're here talking about isright how we connect with
people. And and because I lookthe way that I look, right
whatever be the great skinny,punted the skincare brand.
(24:02):
Right a little older, I probablyget five to 10 people DMing me a
day that their mothers gavesomeone that was using my
profile and give them money andthey'd fallen in love that so
and I get that I can't tell youhow often that happens. And for
(24:25):
someone who leads their life tobe as honest and forthright and
positive and loving andsupportive wherever to hear that
my image was used in such ahorrible way. I mean it crushes
me some days because they'llsend me that they'll send me the
(24:48):
the text between them and andthen it's gone on for a while
and other people get a littlesmarter they catch on whatever
so talking about that AI thefact to take it even and I have
to say my my video Once again,everyone wants now wants to
engage, it's not just stealimage anymore, they want the
person talking and talking orlistening the whole thing,
they'll even take my videos andmanipulate it. So that can
(25:10):
actually have a call withsomeone. So
that's the the slightly scarierside.
So the audience, I'm saying, sofor me, I think it could be a
wonderful thing, I wouldn't beafraid of it, I would just pay
attention. Sosticking on the wonderful point,
because I mentioned my brotherand sister in law, I mentioned
our colleagues in the office,you start off with a digital
(25:31):
experience that ends offhopefully, in a physical
meeting, when the right personcomes along. How does AI play a
part from you in in making thatjourney? most effective.
So we're continuing to monitorthe developments of AI. But what
I will say is that we havedeveloped a future using machine
(25:53):
learning called Privatedetector, which is available in
Bumble. It is a feature thatdetects any sort of lewd
imagery. So lewd imagery is thepolite way of putting it but
dick pics and inappropriatecontent is the other way of
putting it. This is where whenthat is sent through the
technology detects the image andwill blur the photo for the
(26:14):
recipient so that the otherperson on the other end has the
choice whether they want to seethe image or not. So I think
that our I'm sure there are manykind of, you know, darker sides.
But I think there are somebenefits into how we can
leverage machine learning, forexample, at Bumble to kind of
enhance user safety, and makewomen and you know, people who
tend to receive these imagesmore comfortable.
Yeah, that's great. I think itcan be used for good and bad, as
(26:37):
Eric said, and it's awesome tohear that you're using it in
that way. So I would be remissof me not to ask a question
about creators and influencers.
So apologies, Eric, okay,straight into it. We're seeing
more and more partnershipsbetween brands we work with, and
the partners that they select,and the creators that they work
with. Historically experientialwas criticized because it was
(27:00):
seen to be very expensive. Froma return on investment
perspective, you do this bigthing you hope people see you're
not sure, then PR came along,and it kind of blew it up around
that. Now we're seeinginfluencers and creators being
baked into the conceptsthemselves. You mentioned a
piece earlier around the TVshow. What else are you seeing
at the moment where creators areintegral, I guess, to the co
(27:23):
creation of the campaigns? Well,you know, I just did something
or attended something with Mehtaa few weeks ago. And what they
had done is they, they basicallyhad rented a warehouse space,
kept costs low, which again, Iappreciate certainly as a
producer, but also it becamevery raw, right? So you walked
in, and they invited 10,different creators, cooking
(27:45):
artists spoken word via contentcreator. And they all had their
little areas. So you literallycouldn't weave yourself in and
out and engage as long as youwanted, interact, you could talk
and the thing that I loved aboutit was, it was all different
that we're all together in thesame room. There was no
presentation, so to speak, youcould stay with one as long as
(28:07):
you want it, or you could kindof go by the other ones, and
then go, you can talk you couldactually you forgot something
that you could take away, whichI love a takeaway. But it felt
very natural, it's very organic.
And again, there was very littlemoney spent. And all 10 of them,
obviously posted, shared andinvited their followers to come
as well as meta did the exactsame thing. So people showed up
(28:30):
wanting to be there wanting toengage with each other, again,
whether it's a fan or someonethat they're inspired by, or
even just getting to know andit's also wonderful seeing the
creators together. They havebeen part of the planning as I
was talking to some of them,they you know, they said what
would you like to talk about? Orwhat would you like to do? And
so meta gave them the freedom todo that. So they participated in
(28:53):
what was going to be shared witheverybody amazing. It was a
very, it was a huge successof saw the hybrid experience
between the worlds. So from yourside, Georgie, have you worked
much in the way with creatorsand influences for sure.
I mean, an example recently, weenjoying our friends giving
event which I mentioned earlier,we had two wonderful women from
(29:15):
a podcast called The gigglysquad who are very popular with
Gen Z women. And I could notbelieve the excitement I kind of
had to act as kind of crowdcontrol to ensure that everyone
got their selfies, amazingpictures, but it just creates
such an additional layer to theexperience. And especially when
people may not be able to meettheir you know their heroes in
day to day life. It just givesthat extra layer of engagement
(29:36):
and also breaks the ice. Soyeah, big fan. We've
got a real life hero hereafterwards. If you want to say
hello to Eric, he's going to bearound for I know we're two
minutes over but I don't seethat fancy Lighting Limited.
Keep quiet. There's my light. Sothat's it, folks. last thoughts
anything that is coming up thatyou're looking forward to in the
experience space? One minute foreach of you
(29:58):
have to wait and see checkout.
Bye Well, events,there we go. Anything from your
side areaI'm working on. So I talked
about the new Perlman performingarts center downtown. And they
brought me in as much as becauseof my connection as a content
creator, but also to bring thecity of New York and make sure
that every story, every person'sstory, every person's voice is
represented, because they feelit's an opportunity and a part
(30:19):
of the city that hasn't had alot of joy centered around it.
So that's our focus. So we'relooking to look at different
activations throughout thesummer, and then we're opening
in the fall. So I hope you allcome pretty.
Well, we look forward to seeingsome of you afterwards for
either a real drink or some drydating upstairs. It's a trend so
(30:39):
we're fully engaged with that.
But um, thank you so much.
Thanks.
Thanks so much for joining me folks. Good to have
you here. I thought we could doa quick intro. You guys are much
more exciting than I am on theagency side. So let's start with
you give the guys a quickoverview. Oh, no ladies, first,
okay.
On Bumble women do you make thefirst moves? I guess that's very
Hi everyone. I'm Georgie cube. Iam the Associate Director for
(00:22):
brand for Bumble. I have beenwith the wider Bumble
organization for over six years,I've worked across three
continents, and most recentlyhave moved to New York to be on
the band team. So thank you somuch for having me today.
Great. Eric, over to you.
Hi, everyone. I'm Eric Crawford,Mr. Rutherford. I have a podcast
called not just pretty pictures.
I'm a senior producer with anexperiential company 1540. And
(00:43):
also, I am a ambassador for thenew Perlman performing arts
center that is just about toopen. In downtown New York.
I want you much more exciting tome. I'm Mike silver. I'm the MD
of ima. We're an experientialand content agency. Originally
from the Cape Town office, I nowhead up the New York branch. And
(01:06):
they are really good to have youfolks here. This is not quite
the graveyard shift. I thinkthere's another 30 minutes to
go. So good luck, whoever'sgoing next. But yeah, I look
forward to chatting to some ofyou at the cocktail hour, but
later. So folks, we're going tostart, we're gonna get a little
bit depressing, I got to getbetter and more exciting
afterwards, I promise you. Solet's talk about LockDown. To
begin with. This whole sessionis about getting digital. So
(01:29):
don't worry, nothing's gonnahappen. It's all gonna be
digital. But it's a mixture ofphysical and digital. So how
those two worlds converge. Beingfrom an experiential background,
we're seeing live events, moreand more have digital elements
incorporated into them either.
In Eric's world, from a creativeperspective, or even from a
creative tech perspective, withall sorts of weird and wonderful
I saw, this is a bit of a puntfor the guys outside, I saw a
(01:49):
machine that cleaned your phonewhile you watch an ad. So that
sort of stuff is prettyexciting. So COVID happened, I
must say this is a slightlybiased choosing Georgie because
my brother and sister in law meton Bumble, and our account
director made her partner so ifyou're single you out there
definitely recommend Bumble. Butum, let's talk about COVID.
Because if you were singleduring COVID, you know, it was a
(02:11):
challenge. How was COVID for thebread?
I mean, it's so lovely to hearthat your sister and her partner
on Bumble, so wonderful. Soobviously, I think so many of us
found ourselves in completelyuncharted territory, it
happened. So suddenly, Ipersonally was living in Mumbai,
and working for Bumble, India atthe time, and I think everyone
(02:33):
just did not know what to do, wevery quickly decided that we had
to obviously jump to attentionand really support our users. So
we launched a campaign calledstay fall, get close to think
about ways that we could stillbring our community together
during what was such anisolating and challenging time
for so many. It's reallyinteresting, we actually saw
around a 70% lift in audio andvideo chats in Bumble at the
(02:56):
announcement of the state ofemergency in the US, which I
think just shows how much peoplereally needed that connection,
especially if you're single orliving alone at that time. So a
really challenging time for somany people. But definitely, I
think a time that we couldreally be there for our users.
Brilliant, amazing. And and fromyour perspective of if I get
reincarnated, I want to comeback as a creator. It just seems
(03:17):
so glamorous. And you get loadsof free stuff. I'm sure it's not
that easy. But from your night.
So from your perspective, Imean, it was it was good for
business. Was it toochallenging?
Oh, I mean, I think you all cananswer that. Right? Was it good
for business? No. Was it goodfor humanity? No. Was it good
for the individual or culturalwherever the city again? It was?
(03:39):
I don't think it was good foranybody. I, you know, for me,
personally, you know, I rememberin the span of a week, I lost 10
jobs. Wow. When everyone goesinto lockdown, immediately had
one family member affected. Andthen obviously, it just began to
(04:02):
ripple out, right. And so Icertainly was faced with I mean,
what am I going to do? What areyou going to do besides being
disconnected from the world,your sense of purpose of waking
up in the day, whether it wasinteracting with your with your
colleagues interact, you know,doing a job creating something
you could do, you could donothing? You know, the UN in
(04:27):
that time, you know, I was luckyenough to have some people in my
life, some of our friends, andsome who I follow for
inspiration. Immediately theyleaned in how could they be
helpful? How could they be ofservice? How could they begin to
find a silver lining and whathappened both from a brand point
(04:47):
of view, but also just from asocial point of view? And so
what I tried to do and you know,I always look in anything that
I'm doing in my life, how can Ibe helpful? How can I be of
service if I'm working with abrand And how can I help the
brand? How can I listen to whatthey're looking for? So I was I
adapted that immediately intowhat I was putting out, you
(05:07):
know, and I had some contractsthat didn't go away. So what we
tried to do, you know, one thingtoo, and we were joking about
this, we're talking yesterdayand getting prepped, you know,
there are some people I don'tknow, if you remember, in some
of you, as a brand's may havebeen in that situation, you
still had contracts that youneeded that you were committed
to. And I think some brands werequicker to respond than others.
(05:31):
They weren't necessarily readingthe room, that phrase that we
hear over and over again. And Ithink that's one thing that
everyone learned from right, youknow, we are all connected, we
it is a smart audience. So, youknow, I even would out you know,
reach out to friends of minethat were still because they had
a commitment, and they, theywanted to support the brand, and
(05:51):
also tried to bring somenormalcy of what we all lost to
their daily lives. So they werestill posting in a bathing suit,
or you know, cooking a meal,prepping a meal or something
along that lines. And but whatended up happening was the
backlash that came, so theneveryone went into a reset,
myself included. So as brands,and I'm sure you all adapted
(06:14):
somehow, right. And again, wehad to figure out a way to keep
the lights on. So again, fastforward, so people start doing
that you start sending, youknow, a new collection to
someone's house to incorporate,like work from home. So you
start to see how it could bebeneficial to what we're all
going through, you know, and forme the reset, and I was already
(06:34):
leaning into this again, I Ialways like to joke, I'm an old
man and a young man's game,right? And I said that when I
came back to it, because I usedto produce events all over the
world. And then I did a pivotinto what's called an influencer
right? About seven years ago.
And I use the word I want to usethis. Listen
to this, it's an easy term,everyone has an understanding of
what was of what it is, it'scertainly adapted and evolved.
(06:58):
You know, you know, I think, afew years ago, it became this
absolute negative word, youknow, but I think that came from
it was, because we lost in this,I'll go back to kind of what I
feel, or hopefully has come outof the pandemic, you know, in
this reset, you know, it wassend, send stuff, pay people
stuff do so, well, what are youreally getting out of it, we're
(07:20):
all looking for a connection.
And when the pandemic happened,we're all forced to reset. And
to begin, hopefully, to begin toassess what really matters. What
really matters to you as abrand. What matters, certainly
to me as a brand partner, andwhat you're putting out there
because you are messaging youare affecting people. And so as
(07:42):
we began to adjust, and find away to reconnect with people to,
you know, to again, let's beginto interact, let's find new ways
to interact. You know, what Iwanted to bring through this is
still like, how, what is mypurpose in this? In working with
a brand? What is the brand'spurpose in doing what they're
(08:06):
doing? You know, here we arethree years later, which still
blows my mind. Because I again,we get memories that pop up,
right. And I recently had theseposts pop back up of me walking
alone, vulnerable sharing,because that's all I also felt
that was one thing and we'llpivot into one of the questions
(08:26):
we're going to talk about, toshare with what you're going
through. Because I think thegreatest thing, it to me, I love
social media, I think it's apowerful tool, it's a positive
tool. Many of us that grew upalone, you know, are trying to
find our tribe, so to speak,you're able to connect that way.
And so for me to work with abrand to be truly authentic, and
(08:46):
I know that word gets thrownaround. But to me coming out of
the out of the pandemic, thathelped a lot of people reset
what what, what is my authenticself? What is that brand voice?
And, and the public is smart.
You know? Was it I could talkkeep talking, I'm very,
(09:10):
I was actually gonna say youkeep saying reset. And one of
our dating trends we noticed atthe end of 2021, was about
recetas. So people truly decidedto take a step back and push
like the reset button on theirdating life. So I just the word
just triggered that me and I waslike, oh, that sounds really
relevant.
I was gonna say that. So also, Ithink Eric was touched on
normalcy and connections. Andthere was that terrible phrase,
(09:33):
if it's the new normal, it's thenew normal. But the reality is,
from a tech perspective, therewere a lot of new normals and a
lot of behavior changes thathappen for a business like
Bumble. How did you find thatcoming out of COVID? Because in
a way, COVID was a terriblething that led to loads of new
insights and understanding abouthuman behavior, and also
(09:56):
adoption of technology. How didyou find things coming out into
this? Oh, One world again,for sure. So I'm not sure if you
both agree. But I feel on apersonal level, I became a lot
more kind of intentional andselective with what I wanted to
do with my time, we'd had a lotof time to reflect in on who we
are and what we want. And so Ithink that that's a really
interesting thing that's beenreflected more widely in, in
(10:17):
what we've seen at Bumble. So weran a survey and we've actually
seen that people are looking formore intentionality in their
dating. So it was one of our topfilters used in 2021. This other
really interesting trends, sothe reset trend that I just
spoke about, but also thingslike power, PDA, you know,
people, I think it was like twoand three people are more open
(10:38):
to kind of public displays ofaffection. And that's partly
because I think there was theHollywood trend of PDA, but also
the rise of vaccination rates.
There was also a shift, I think,as well, you know, a lot of
people would looking inwardsduring COVID, dry dating, you
know, alcohol, lots of peoplestarted questioning their
relationship with alcohol. Andso people were more open to
(11:00):
going on a date that maybedidn't involve booze, which I
think is a really positiveshift. So we saw quite a lot of
shifts, actually, when it cameout. Yeah, some real real
positive changes in consumerbehavior, and just general human
behavior coming out of it. Ithink I wanted to kind of pivot
into obviously, we're talkingabout the digital world today,
which is difficult to spell. I'mnot even sure if it's accurate
(11:21):
up there. But um, let's talk nowabout COVID happened. Behaviors
changed. We've come out ofCOVID. I mean, I don't know
about you guys, you traveled orticket flights, I went to watch
a live event the other day, itwas that the ticket the sticker
price was at $900 to sit like anaverage seat. And I was
thinking, you know, good. Thiswas a gift for me. But I just I
(11:42):
think it's gone crazy. Liveexperiences the value of them.
from a brand perspective, I wantto touch them from two parts,
one from own brand perspective.
And the other from a, I guessamplification perspective,
because we spoke about you,Eric, almost as a media
platform. What does experientiallook like to you? What a live
experiences look like? And howhas this changed this new
(12:06):
digital normal been incorporatedinto the live experiences Bumble
do?
For sure. So I think for Bumble,rip IRL in real life experiences
have always been very much partof our DNA. It's something we've
done a lot of over the years. Sorecently, we've done that
actually quite a lot of events.
So we celebrated Friendsgivingwith Bumble BFF, which is one of
the modes in our app back inNovember, we had this insight
(12:29):
that if you don't have family orfriends in the city, it can be
an incredibly lonely andisolating time. So we're really
excited to bring a group ofBumble community together along
with influencers to host a hugeThanksgiving lunch in both LA
and New York. So we kind ofcollect people and advertise
that within our platforms, andthen bring them together to
(12:51):
celebrate that moment.
Brilliant,amazing. And from your
perspective, Eric, like, brandsare doing these types.
Friendsgiving I love that. Andalso, Georgie wouldn't tell me
before we try dating or not, wasits public PDA or power.
Learning all of it tonight,we'll be using that Lincoln from
tomorrow. But from yourperspective, Eric, so when
friends incorporate you intotheir experiences, what have you
(13:13):
noticed the change of thosebrand experiences taking place?
And then I guess from atechnology perspective, have you
seen anything where you'd belike, Wow, this is amazing. Kind
of convergence of the twoworlds?
Yeah, I mean, I'll give you acouple examples. One with a
company, I preusser with 1540.
You know, one thing that alsocame about during the pandemic,
right, we were stuck at home.
(13:36):
And we really became we became aviewing audience all over again,
we weren't we were watchingeverything on every possible
screen we could get our handson. And so when it began, and
this is probably about a I guessit was a year ago. You know, you
saw you know, we shut down wetalked on the call, you know,
the superstars that rose on ticktock right during the pandemic.
And because there was a rawnessthere was an authenticity,
(13:59):
because it felt like you weredropping into their lives. But
it didn't feel filtered. Whathad been kind of how Instagram
have kind of pivoted towards. Itfelt raw, it felt messy. It felt
like it felt like how you werefeeling at home watching them,
right. So obviously, you had afriend you're talking to, you
know, and besides, you couldshare like I'm watching this
show, I'm watching the show. Andyou know, one of the streamers
(14:20):
that we were working with onlymurders and that produces all
the murders in the building,which took off during the
pandemic. So they wanted toalmost thank their fans. And
because of my position both as acontent creator, but also as a
producer, we then began toformulate how can we recreate
that experience of what you'vewatched in the show and give you
(14:40):
gifts along the way, give yousurprises give you codes to to
interact. So we ended upproducing this fan activation
that we I mean, we it was freetickets for everybody. We took
over a ballroom in Manhattan andwe recreated the apartments of
the show. I don't know if everywas familiar with the show, so
(15:02):
that you as a fan could and wegave all these Easter eggs,
right? These surprises and wereally encourage you to whatever
you had been watching in anepisode, we would recreate
moments, you know, whether it'syou helping to solve the murder
and or opening up a closet, orgoing through a closet or
something along those lines, wemade it available. Again, we did
(15:23):
promotion, we had ambassadorstalking about it, but the fans
were so hungry, to engage witheach other. And the show, when
we released it was, again, allfree. So when we released the
slots, every slot was filled inseven minutes. And we did it for
three days. And it was eighthours a day. So what's happened
(15:44):
is everyone obviously into itagain, not that we're the only
ones that are doing it, but youyou We met that need we met and
you know, that ache to connectwith people, but in a very
polite, fun, positive, joyfulway, moving away from what we
had just gone through. And sowhen working with a brand, you
(16:05):
know, it's, you know, I just didsomething with a skincare brand
a few weeks ago. And, you know,I always in approaching My
presence will say and workingwith a brand. And in the
wonderful thing is when I dowork with a brand because I was
on that brand side for so manyyears, I understand the
(16:26):
importance of hitting thosetalking points of why they need
to be shared why someone feelsthey need to be talked about
right or hit. What I try to dois because working with me, and
hopefully what again, I'veleaned into this even more so is
it's got there has to be atruthfulness to it. You know, I
(16:49):
have always found it I hear fromeven my followers, you know,
they'll DM me though. Again,I've wonderful positive people
that I engage with. And I'm verylucky because I have some
friends that don't. But theylook for that honesty. They
don't they, you know, again,sometimes you're talking about
but they'd rather me say it inmy own words, because they'll
(17:14):
believe it more. And they trust,they will trust me and trust the
brand. So what I tried toexpress again, it's you can put
it in the caption but even that,I think what we've learned
during COVID is people weren'tdidn't want to read long
captions. I mean, most peopleweren't wanting to write short
clips of something. So again,trying to find a way. The other
(17:38):
thing I was gonna say is in foras for a brand, it's about
building those relationships,right? I would encourage brands
to build a relationship withmaybe it's 10 partners, and not
30. Because what you've createdis similar what you're doing a
bundle, you're bringing peopletogether, then the audience
(18:01):
begins to identify with thatperson. So then they actually
pay attention because you'rereally listening to someone
you're familiar with. And thatis something to me, I always try
to voice and when I'm speakingto someone or sharing or
whatever I'm writing. Sogoing back to this point around
like the technology piece. Ithink banana bread had its
(18:24):
moment during COVID. But so didthe QR code. brands were trying
to have the QR code use no onewas using it. We had done a an
event or an experience beforewhere you had tweeted. And the
more tweet received, the morethe rain came down. And as dance
floor was a brand was more aboutrefreshment. So people were
playing in the space of creativetechnology, as it must be
(18:45):
interesting for a digital brandor a digital product to then
create live experiences. Doesthe bread does the product get
incorporated into the eventitself into the experience? It
does. Sowe have we ran a series last
year called Bumble IRL, whichwas a kind of series of low,
basically very simple, effectiveevents for our community to
(19:09):
attend. So we wanted people tobe able to meet and date in real
life. So there was live music,there was bar nights, there was
even workout classes across 10US cities for us to just really
kind of get everyone backtogether again after COVID. The
way in which we incorporateBumble is it's pretty simple.
You need to have Bumble and youneed to show a QR code. So we
(19:32):
have a feature called a beaky,which means that you can
basically generate your ownpersonalized QR code within the
app itself. And that gives youthat access to an event or an
IRL experience. I have to say, Idon't know if you agree, but I
feel like this is personalexperience. But QR codes were
kind of a thing and then theybecame a massive thing
(19:52):
overnight. And I remember I wasworking on an out of home
campaign for Singapore and wewere aiming and firing about You
know what the role of the QRcode now that we are in a world
that is much more remote. And wedecided, because according to
our colleagues in Singapore,there was so much kind of
emphasis on the QR code asbeing, you know, a health check
you to get into bars, it was amenu it was it was, you know,
(20:15):
sometimes like almost like apassport to get places. So we
decided to kind of blow up theseQR codes on these big out of
home billboards across theSingapore Metro. And it just
shows how it's shifted soquickly into such a different
realm for the QR code.
Definitely having theenvironment, I saw a QR code
made out of drones done forsomeone and you can scan your
(20:37):
phone was amazing. So I think Imean, again, as an experiential
agency, we are super passionateabout the fact that technology
shouldn't be replacing liveexperiences, it should actually
be used to enhance them. Sowe're going to go down a rabbit
hole now of AI, and obviously, alot of hype at the moment about
AI products. Do. Let's startwith you, right, because I don't
(21:02):
know what role it plays. But Iguess, let's talk about some of
the content you create. How areyou conscious of the AI behind
the platform that you engagewith? And the content that you
put out there, I realizedtypical questions. Maybe we
could just focus on, you know,the types of content being
created knowing what is popularon those platforms.
(21:23):
If you like Metaverse, you wantto talk about or you want to
write more? So what was the lastfew weeks meta versus another
question was coming up. So wewere having I was having this
conversation about AI right.
After I'd sent someone a profileI'd seen and I, I was swearing
that was a real person. It wasso detailed, there was a level
(21:46):
of humanity, in the skin tone,and the lines in the hair in the
eyes, which often I find islacking and out no matter how
good the representation is, orwhat you've created, I always
find that it's like will saydead in the eyes, right. And I
said it to a friend of mine. Andlike, they literally called me
(22:07):
up because they couldn't believeI actually thought it was a real
person. So for me, I mixed,because part of how I engage is
by being me, you know, and I'vealways believed that what has
made me will say different thansomeone else is how I do engage
(22:33):
with other people how I doconnect, you know that it is
important for me to see someonewhen I'm speaking with them to
listen, because I think that'simportant for a brand as well as
a person, right? So here all ofa sudden comes AI right? And it
is a limitless of what can becreated. I think it's again, I'm
all I'm all for evolution. Imean, this, this these
(22:57):
platforms, some of them, rightdidn't even exist 10 years ago,
let alone 20. Right, let aloneto sometimes are even talking
about QR codes, right that howit shifted because of COVID. You
know, so it's not I don't, Idon't have a strong opinion on
it. I think what I would hope isbefore it's kind of just thrown
(23:18):
out to the masses, that there'senough research done. There's
educational and educationalprocess that's put into place
because I think as positive asit can be. I can also I also
feel it can be very negative,particularly if all of what
(23:39):
we're here talking about isright how we connect with
people. And and because I lookthe way that I look, right
whatever be the great skinny,punted the skincare brand.
(24:02):
Right a little older, I probablyget five to 10 people DMing me a
day that their mothers gavesomeone that was using my
profile and give them money andthey'd fallen in love that so
and I get that I can't tell youhow often that happens. And for
(24:25):
someone who leads their life tobe as honest and forthright and
positive and loving andsupportive wherever to hear that
my image was used in such ahorrible way. I mean it crushes
me some days because they'llsend me that they'll send me the
(24:48):
the text between them and andthen it's gone on for a while
and other people get a littlesmarter they catch on whatever
so talking about that AI thefact to take it even and I have
to say my my video Once again,everyone wants now wants to
engage, it's not just stealimage anymore, they want the
person talking and talking orlistening the whole thing,
they'll even take my videos andmanipulate it. So that can
(25:10):
actually have a call withsomeone. So
that's the the slightly scarierside.
So the audience, I'm saying, sofor me, I think it could be a
wonderful thing, I wouldn't beafraid of it, I would just pay
attention. Sosticking on the wonderful point,
because I mentioned my brotherand sister in law, I mentioned
our colleagues in the office,you start off with a digital
(25:31):
experience that ends offhopefully, in a physical
meeting, when the right personcomes along. How does AI play a
part from you in in making thatjourney? most effective.
So we're continuing to monitorthe developments of AI. But what
I will say is that we havedeveloped a future using machine
(25:53):
learning called Privatedetector, which is available in
Bumble. It is a feature thatdetects any sort of lewd
imagery. So lewd imagery is thepolite way of putting it but
dick pics and inappropriatecontent is the other way of
putting it. This is where whenthat is sent through the
technology detects the image andwill blur the photo for the
(26:14):
recipient so that the otherperson on the other end has the
choice whether they want to seethe image or not. So I think
that our I'm sure there are manykind of, you know, darker sides.
But I think there are somebenefits into how we can
leverage machine learning, forexample, at Bumble to kind of
enhance user safety, and makewomen and you know, people who
tend to receive these imagesmore comfortable.
Yeah, that's great. I think itcan be used for good and bad, as
(26:37):
Eric said, and it's awesome tohear that you're using it in
that way. So I would be remissof me not to ask a question
about creators and influencers.
So apologies, Eric, okay,straight into it. We're seeing
more and more partnershipsbetween brands we work with, and
the partners that they select,and the creators that they work
with. Historically experientialwas criticized because it was
(27:00):
seen to be very expensive. Froma return on investment
perspective, you do this bigthing you hope people see you're
not sure, then PR came along,and it kind of blew it up around
that. Now we're seeinginfluencers and creators being
baked into the conceptsthemselves. You mentioned a
piece earlier around the TVshow. What else are you seeing
at the moment where creators areintegral, I guess, to the co
(27:23):
creation of the campaigns? Well,you know, I just did something
or attended something with Mehtaa few weeks ago. And what they
had done is they, they basicallyhad rented a warehouse space,
kept costs low, which again, Iappreciate certainly as a
producer, but also it becamevery raw, right? So you walked
in, and they invited 10,different creators, cooking
(27:45):
artists spoken word via contentcreator. And they all had their
little areas. So you literallycouldn't weave yourself in and
out and engage as long as youwanted, interact, you could talk
and the thing that I loved aboutit was, it was all different
that we're all together in thesame room. There was no
presentation, so to speak, youcould stay with one as long as
(28:07):
you want it, or you could kindof go by the other ones, and
then go, you can talk you couldactually you forgot something
that you could take away, whichI love a takeaway. But it felt
very natural, it's very organic.
And again, there was very littlemoney spent. And all 10 of them,
obviously posted, shared andinvited their followers to come
as well as meta did the exactsame thing. So people showed up
(28:30):
wanting to be there wanting toengage with each other, again,
whether it's a fan or someonethat they're inspired by, or
even just getting to know andit's also wonderful seeing the
creators together. They havebeen part of the planning as I
was talking to some of them,they you know, they said what
would you like to talk about? Orwhat would you like to do? And
so meta gave them the freedom todo that. So they participated in
(28:53):
what was going to be shared witheverybody amazing. It was a
very, it was a huge successof saw the hybrid experience
between the worlds. So from yourside, Georgie, have you worked
much in the way with creatorsand influences for sure.
I mean, an example recently, weenjoying our friends giving
event which I mentioned earlier,we had two wonderful women from
(29:15):
a podcast called The gigglysquad who are very popular with
Gen Z women. And I could notbelieve the excitement I kind of
had to act as kind of crowdcontrol to ensure that everyone
got their selfies, amazingpictures, but it just creates
such an additional layer to theexperience. And especially when
people may not be able to meettheir you know their heroes in
day to day life. It just givesthat extra layer of engagement
(29:36):
and also breaks the ice. Soyeah, big fan. We've
got a real life hero hereafterwards. If you want to say
hello to Eric, he's going to bearound for I know we're two
minutes over but I don't seethat fancy Lighting Limited.
Keep quiet. There's my light. Sothat's it, folks. last thoughts
anything that is coming up thatyou're looking forward to in the
experience space? One minute foreach of you
(29:58):
have to wait and see checkout.
Bye Well, events,there we go. Anything from your
side areaI'm working on. So I talked
about the new Perlman performingarts center downtown. And they
brought me in as much as becauseof my connection as a content
creator, but also to bring thecity of New York and make sure
that every story, every person'sstory, every person's voice is
represented, because they feelit's an opportunity and a part
(30:19):
of the city that hasn't had alot of joy centered around it.
So that's our focus. So we'relooking to look at different
activations throughout thesummer, and then we're opening
in the fall. So I hope you allcome pretty.
Well, we look forward to seeingsome of you afterwards for
either a real drink or some drydating upstairs. It's a trend so
(30:39):
we're fully engaged with that.
But um, thank you so much.
Thanks.
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