Brands In Play

In Episode 81: Mattel is building a game studio, Netflix is closing two, Sony launches a glossy PS5 campaign and the comments turn it into a protest over physical game discs. A viral hit born on Roblox gets officially licensed into Fortnite. Then Battlefield adds Top Gun and, against all odds, its players are actually into it.

Nic Hill and Matt Daly get into the common thread: gaming companies want more mileage from IP, but the audience still decides what belongs. When an integration respects the game, players accept it. 
When it doesn’t, the comments section takes over the campaign.

#BrandsInPlay #GamingNews #ImmersiveMarketing #fortnitefunny  #Roblox #Battlefield6 #TopGun #Mattel #NetflixGames #PlayStation 

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Co-Hosts:
Nic Hill -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-hill-6553873/
Matt Daly - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalymatt/

Producer / Editor 
Edward Regue -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-regue-%C2%A9-44b0421b2/

Website: https://www.brands-in-play.com/

#brandsinplay

Episode 80 of Brands In Play features Josh Pool, Partner Manager and Entertainment Lead at Xbox Media Solutions. Ever wonder how Xbox helps brands activate? Josh talks Nic Hill through Xbox’s work with advertisers, from Hershey’s and KitKat to Monster Energy’s Call of Duty partnership and Predator: Badlands. 

He explains how the team finds the right audience and builds campaigns around the way people already play.

EVERY brand has gamers as part of its customer base. The challenge is understanding where they play and earning the right to meet them there.

#BrandsInPlay #Xbox #GamingMarketing #BrandPartnerships #ImmersiveMarketing

Chapters:
Intro - 00:00 
Xbox Media Solutions Interview - 01:20

Follow Joshua Pool - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshrpool/

Follow Xbox Media Solutions - https://www.linkedin.com/company/xbox-media-solutions

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Co-Hosts:
Nic Hill -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-hill-6553873/
Matt Daly - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalymatt/

Producer | Editor 
Edward Regue -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-regue-%C2%A9-44b0421b2/

Website: https://www.brands-in-play.com/

#brandsinplay

Episode 79 of Brands In Play with Nic Hill and new guest co-host Matt Daly features David Sheldon-Hicks, CEO and co-founder of creative studio Territory Studio.

David takes us inside Territory’s work across Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Need for Speed and the new 007 First Light. He explains why a cutscene should never feel like filler, how Territory approaches game cinematics differently from film, and why forced product placement quickly loses players.

For brands, his advice is to get closer to developers and stop treating gaming like another media format. The interesting work happens when brands create something custom, strange and specific to the game.

Nic and Matt also cover GTA VI’s Netflix premiere, Payday’s move into Fortnite and film, a new movie campaign built as a playable Discord game, and the unofficial KFC UGC gaming content that attracted over 70 million visits on Roblox! 

#BrandsInPlay #GamingMarketing #BrandIntegration #AAAGaming #TerritoryStudio #GameDevelopment #ImmersiveMarketing 

Chapters:
Intro - 00:00 
Announcements - 02:19
News - 05:58
Live Nation | Livewire Interview - 21:50
Subscribe - 45:17

Follow David Sheldon-Hicks
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-sheldon-hicks/

Follow Territory Studio - https://www.linkedin.com/company/territory-studio/

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Co-Hosts:
Nic Hill -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-hill-6553873/
Matt Daly -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalymatt/

Producer / Editor 
Edward Regue -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-regue-%C2%A9-44b0421b2/

Website: https://www.brands-in-play.com/

#brandsinplay

Episode 78 of Brands In Play, hosted by Nic Hill and Ely Santos, features Anubhav Mehrotra of Live Nation and Ryan Dow of Livewire, who break down the strategy behind Music Festival Tycoon on Roblox.

The persistent game lets players build stages, book artists and create festivals of their own. Its latest integration introduces Lollapalooza as the game’s first real-world festival and CORTIS as its first featured artist.

As Anubhav explains, the team “built the fun before we added the fame.” They focused on creating a game people wanted to play before introducing major artists, festival IP and brand partners. The result is what Anubhav describes as a publishing strategy rather than a marketing strategy. An established experience that brands can enter without needing to build and maintain their own Roblox game.

In this week’s news, Nic and Ely also cover Disney opening its IP catalogue to TikTok creators, the privacy backlash facing Meta’s smart glasses, Netflix’s new branded mini-golf game and Apple’s reported focus on fitness for its future glasses.

#Roblox #GamingMarketing #ImmersiveMarketing #BrandedEntertainment #SmartGlasses

Chapters:
Intro - 00:00 
Announcements - 01:24
News - 03:00
Live Nation | Livewire Interview - 16:24
Subscribe - 41:16

Follow Anubhav Mehrotra - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anubhav-mehrotra/

Follow Live Nation Entertainment - https://www.linkedin.com/company/live-nation/

Follow Ryan Dow - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rrdow/

Follow Livewire - https://www.linkedin.com/company/livewiregroupintl/

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Co-Hosts:
Nic Hill -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-hill-6553873/
Ely Santos -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ely-santos-tech/

Producer / Editor 
Edward Regue -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-regue-%C2%A9-44b0421b2/

Website: https://www.brands-in-play.com/

#brandsinplay

Episode 77 of Brands In Play features a special rebroadcast from our friends at This Could Work https://www.youtube.com/@saylor_agency

Host Will Trowbridge sits down with Monica Austin, SVP and CMO at Blizzard Entertainment, to explore her career across Fox, Facebook, Netflix, Calm and Blizzard and the creative risks behind each move.

Monica also discusses why gaming IP is becoming the foundation for the next generation of entertainment franchises, the power of established communities and what brands can learn from serving fans who care deeply about the worlds they inhabit.

Watch / Listen to the full episode now.

Follow Will Trowbridge - https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-trowbridge/

Follow Monica Austin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-austin-07a9403/

Follow Saylor - https://www.linkedin.com/company/saylor-agency/

Follow Blizzard - https://www.linkedin.com/company/blizzard-entertainment/

Follow Us:

Co-Hosts:
Nic Hill -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-hill-6553873/
Brandon Iverson -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-iverson11/

Producer / Editor / Social Media Manager
Edward Regue -   https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-regue-%C2%A9-44b0421b2/

Website: https://www.brands-in-play.com/

#GamingMarketing #BrandStrategy #EntertainmentMarketing #BrandsInPlay