Claim OwnershipBrands In Play
Subscribed: 0Played: 1
Subscribe
© 2026 Brands In Play
Description
Welcome to Brands in Play - The podcast where we explore immersive marketing and the people who are leading it.
60 Episodes
Reverse
Episode 60 of Brands In Play features a conversation with Mirjam Schuele, SVP of Marketing at Karl Lagerfeld, joining Nic Hill, Val Vacante and Gigi Casimiro to break down how one of fashion’s most iconic brands is navigating innovation. From early NFT drops that sold out in seconds to digital product passports and immersive campaign activations with Paris Hilton, Mirjam shares how Karl Lagerfeld is balancing heritage with experimentation and why you have already lost the audience if they thi...
Episode 59 of Brands In Play features an in-depth conversation with Charlie Fink, one of the earliest voices shaping the XR and metaverse space. Nic and Val unpack decades of perspective across immersive tech cycles, from early VR waves to today’s AI-driven storytelling. This week in the news: Epic Games announces major layoffs; Roblox introduces a controversial new ad policy; Minecraft expands into physical space with a theme park in London, and Pokémon GO data powers real-world robotics, ...
Episode 58 of Brands In Play was recorded live at SXSW, with Nic Hill on stage alongside Val Vacante, who hosting a panel on the future of play featuring Chris Down (EVP, Chief Design & Innovation Officer at Mattel) and Mitchel Berger Executive Vice President, Global Commerce at Crunchyroll. As discussed on stage, the role of a brand today is to bridge creators with audiences, aligning creative vision with real human needs, whether that’s escape, belonging, or emotional connection. In t...
Episode 57 of Brands In Play was recorded live at SXSW at the Red Thread X House, with Val Vacante joining Nic Hill on stage for a conversation with Chris Down, EVP and Chief Design & Innovation Officer at Mattel. Chris broke down how Mattel approaches extending brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels, UNO, and Monster High beyond the toy aisle and into connected play, collector ecosystems, gaming platforms, and broader culture. In this week’s news, Hamilton and Porsche integrate into Resident Ev...
This week, Nic Hill is joined by special March co-host Val Vacante for a conversation with Katie Pereira, Director of Conference Strategy at SXSW. The interview explores the ideas shaping SXSW 2026, with a focus on AI and human connection, the return of creativity as a competitive edge, fandom as a force in modern marketing, and the growing importance of immersive brand experiences that people can actually feel, remember, and respond to. In the news, Amazon Kills ‘King of Meat’ Just Months A...
Nic Hill and Aida Andersson are live this week in LA and they’re joined by Brian Ryerson, Senior Director, Digital Strategy at the USTA for a deep dive into how the US Open thinks about immersive platforms as more than a one-off activation. Brian breaks down why Roblox and Fortnite are fundamentally an audience growth play for tennis and how they earned internal buy-in by turning the US Open into a 52-week story. In the news, Matthew Ball’s State of Video Gaming 2026 • Hollywood...
This week on the show, Nic Hill and Aida Andersson sit down with Matthew Zanazzo for a deep dive into the state of advertising inside Fortnite and the broader UGC gaming ecosystem. Matthew, founder of Catalyst Studios, former Head of Fortnite at Gamefam, and host of the Creative Juice podcast has driven over 750M plays across collaborations with Epic Games, LEGO, Disney, Samsung, and more. Matt’s core message: success in UGC gaming is about understanding the platform at a native level or yo...
This week on the show, Aida Andersson and Nic Hill sit down with Joe Farren (Future Sport Co.), an award-winning sports innovation consultant who’s helped top sports brands translate immersive tech into real fan and commercial value. In the interview, we unpack Joe’s framework for integrating sport into immersive platforms, what drives loyalty (and what kills it), and why the next wave is less about “cool tech” and more about repeatable fan behaviors, scalable media assets, and measurable out...
This week on the show, Nic Hill and Aida Andersson sit down with Morgan Pomish, Senior Vice President, Head of Innovative Experiences at Digitas North America. We get into how strategy falls apart when brands start with “we need to be in gaming” instead of a real business problem. In the news, Twitch launches BloxFest, Verizon turns Fortnite into a Super Bowl moment, Disney+ releases the full High School Musical on TikTok and Brands ramp up hiring in-house storytellers to own narrative...
This week on the show, Nic Hill and Albane Prioux are joined by Leslie Shepard, Lead of Partnerships and Growth Marketing at Sam’s Club. In this conversation, Leslie breaks down how Sam’s Club thinks about gaming as an upper funnel growth lever, why Roblox integrations beat building a standalone world for their goals, and what she learned by running a portfolio approach across multiple titles. In the news, Bruno Mars partners with Steal a Brainrot on Roblox, Peaky Blinders enters PUBG Mobil...
It's EPISODE 50! Before anything else, thank you to everyone who’s been listening, watching, sharing, and building with us along the way. What started as a conversation has turned into a weekly ritual, and we don’t take that for granted. Your support is the reason Brands In Play keeps showing up, digging deeper, and pushing this space forward. This week on the show, Nic Hill and Albane Prioux sit down with Bastian Bergmann, Co-Founder & COO of Solsten and author of Press Play: Why Every ...
Episode 49 of Brands In Play is here and this week Nic Hill and Albane Prioux are joined by Charlie Melcher, founder of Melcher Media and The Future of Storytelling, and author of The Future of Storytelling. In the interview, Charlie breaks down the rise of “living stories", plus what this shift means for brand storytelling, experience design, and how marketers should think about impact, memory, and measurement in immersive formats. News this week: LEGO steals the spotlight at CES • R...
Brands In Play kicks off 2026 with a predictions episode. Nic Hill and Albane Prioux center the conversation around three questions brands are already grappling with: • Where people will spend time playing and socializing • Which monetization models hold up under real pressure • How creator-led economies are changing brand strategy. This week in the news, Warner Bros. leans toward Netflix over Paramount, SandboxVR scales globally, FIFA deepens its Roblox strategy and NBA star Luka Don...
This week on Brands In Play, Nic Hill and Albane Prioux are officially off for the holidays, so Episode 47 is a little different: we’re rebroadcasting one of our favourite podcasts, UNBOXING: Play and Profit for the Gaming Curious. Hosted by gaming-industry professors Laine Nooney and Joost van Dreunen. If you work in gaming, media, or brand marketing, this is the kind of macro context that helps everything else make sense: where players are moving, how platforms really operate, and why cert...
This week’s episode is a different one: For our final show of 2025, Albane Prioux and Nic Hill press pause on the news cycle and pull together the big ideas that shaped a year of immersive marketing on Brands In Play. No guests, no real-time review, just a recap of the sharpest moments from 45 episodes. From AR wearables moving into the mainstream (Snap Spectacles, Meta Ray-Bans) to the race between Roblox, Fortnite UEFN and Horizon to win creators and commerce, we trace how UGC platforms ma...
This week on Brands In Play, Nic Hill and Albane Prioux sit down with Karl Stewart, SVP of Marketing & Head of the Imagine AI platform at IGN, to unpack how 30 years of gaming data is reshaping brand strategy: from Batman, Tomb Raider and Marvel to Roblox, Fortnite and Gen Alpha. In the news, Netflix moves to acquire Warner Bros. film, streaming and games business, immersive OOH billboards steal attention, Meta signs multi-year AI content licensing deals with major news publishers,...
[NEW EPISODE ALERT] Episode 44 of Brands In Play Nic Hill and Albane Prioux are joined by Joe Condon, founder of SEG3, where we dig into how sports, entertainment, and gaming collide around next-gen fan experiences. Joe walks through why he built SEG3, how the conference connects IP owners, brands, and developers in the same room, and the three big trends he’s watching across UGC IP, licensing, and fandom-driven ecosystems going into 2026. In the news this week: Samsung launches its n...
[NEW EPISODE ALERT] This week on Brands In Play, Albane Prioux and Nic Hill unpack immersive holiday commerce in 2025. They cover everything from Target’s Alpine store makeovers and Walmart’s ambient-room shopping, to Amazon’s 3D “Beyond Rooms,” UGC gaming worlds and AI shopping assistants. We stress-test each one on whether it genuinely makes buying smarter and easier, or is it all gloss? Shop… or drop. In the news, ChatGPT Goes Shopping, Adidas Enters Minecraft, Quentin Tarantino Re...
[NEW EPISODE ALERT] This week on Brands In Play, Nic Hill and Albane Prioux sit down with Ron Friedman, VP of Mattel Future Lab. Ron outlines how Future Lab approaches innovation at scale: how Hot Wheels, Barbie, and Monster High are translated into digital environments without compromising brand integrity, and how data, creative instinct, collector behavior, and AI as “amplified imagination” come together inside their product strategy. In the news, Unity partners with Epic Games, Ama...
[NEW EPISODE ALERT] This week on Brands In Play, Nic Hill and Albane Prioux sit down with Matt Kidd and Lex Alexander from GETREKT Labs. They've carved out a rare niche, building tools, formats, mini-games, and interactive overlays that help brands show up natively inside livestream gaming culture. We unpack how they think about creator freedom, audience participation, API-driven outcomes, and what publishers are doing behind the scenes to get more value out of sponsored streams. In t...
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States