Brands In Play

Paramount’s brief for Scary Movie 6: “unapologetically inappropriate.” Pubity’s answer? A glass hotbox in Times Square, with Ghostface and the returning cast inside. The campaign generated more than 66 million views across Pubity’s own channels. This week on Brands In Play, Myles Chilvers and Nina Kammer from London-based social media publisher Pubity Group join Nic Hill and Matt Daly to break down the stunt, from spoofing Severance’s glass-box activation to securing last-minute permits. Th...

This week, Nic and Matt are talking about LEGO and PlayStation recreating a ’90s bedroom, Call of Duty letting Twitch viewers help solve missions in the real world, and Netflix and Walmart bringing Mattel, Colgate and Nongshim into a KPop Demon Hunters night market. Each partner has something to contribute, which makes a difference when you’re asking fans to spend time there. Best Buy is teaming up with IGN to give gamers something to come back for between hardware purchases. Domino’s is tyi...

Would you go to an AI art museum powered by a Large Nature Model (LNM)? We did! This week, Nic brings Matt along for a room-by-room account of his visit to DATALAND in LA. We cover L'Oréal's scent collars, an immersive rainforest, and a massive robot arm painting a masterpiece inspired by biometric visitor data! For anyone building immersive brand experiences, the question worth asking is: how do you make participation feel meaningful? DATALAND is pushing the envelope on that right now. Al...

Gaming IP is showing up in some pretty unexpected places this week, and brands are getting creative with how they use it. This week on the news, Nic and Matt kick off the week with Xbox building XP to push its franchises further into entertainment, merch, live experiences and brand partnerships. Rivian turned Ghostbusters into an in-car Halloween activation. Street Fighter took over Times Square. Balenciaga made VALORANT’s Viper its first digital ambassador. And Samsung is bringing Ro...

If there's one thing gamers hate, it's having their game interrupted by an ad. And when you're a brand trying to reach that audience, getting it wrong can do more harm than good. This week, Nic Hill and Matt Daly sit down with Bryce Showalter, who leads gaming at JBL and knows both sides of the conversation, having spent years as a professional gamer and streamer himself. We talk about how JBL is building its place in gaming through e-sports, Fortnite, Roblox, Overwolf and partnerships with ...