Media analyst and research editor Audrey Schomer spoke with a cluster of brand meisters at the Variety Entertainment Summit at CES in January, tackling the strategies behind attracting fans to experiences and keeping them there.
NFL VP and head of content marketing Tony Isetta, Roblox VP of global partnerships Stephanie Latham, National Geographic VP of social media Tulani André, PepsiCo head of media strategy and investment Katie Haniffy and Mastercard chief marketing officer Raja Rajamannar all offered insights on how messaging and visuals can be constructed to encourage fan interaction, as well as original creations, across digital platforms and social spaces.
“On Roblox, we see 17 million friendships created every day, which is still a wild number to me,” said Latham.
On popular gaming and interactive platforms such as Roblox, brands can quickly build in-game universes around specific IP. This was the case for “Barbie DreamHouse Tycoon” in October, which followed the box-office success of “Barbie” the prior summer.
Per Latham, the experience constructed around Mattel’s IP “allowed players and users to create their own dream house,” which then became “a whole extension of interior design and a whole bunch of other things that wasn’t necessarily part of the initial piece.”
André also highlighted how fostering consumers’ own sense of control and collaboration with a brand is vital.
“Obviously, National Geographic has some of the best pictures you’ve seen in the world,” said André. “But everyone has a camera. Now everyone’s holding something in their hand that creates something beautiful.”
The ease of use of cameras within smartphones is something you wouldn’t expect National Geographic to be excited about, but André described how that’s simply an opportunity for the magazine and documentary brand to extend its own platform to consumers.
“We encourage people to share those moments,” André said. “We’ll be providing them [the] kind of inspiration to say, ‘here’s the way that you could get featured.’”
