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Don’t doubt what you can see with your own eyes.
The revival of physical media and the skyrocketing value of elaborate consumer experiences is very real and emerging as an antidote to fears that AI is changing everything.
Top marketers and industry executives discussed these trends and other issues rocking the world of marketing and advertising on Oct. 7 in Manhattan for Variety’s Experience and Culture Summit: The IRL Advantage, presented by Outfront.
Keynote speakers for the day included multi-hyphenate media entrepreneursCharlamagne Tha God and Questlove.
Here’s an overview of the sessions. It all added up to a day packed with eye-opening business insights and great networking in a moment of massive transformation.
Trailblazers of the Experience Economy
This session features: Grace Kao, CMO of Snap; Jimmy Knowles, global head of experiential at Canva; Kelly Mahoney, CMO of Ulta Beauty; Heather Malenshek, CMO of Land O’Lakes; Emily Silver, CMO of Dick’s Sporting Goods; and Stephanie Paturzo-Swingle, head of commercial marketing for Instacart.
Knowles pointed to the growth of Canva’s annual Canva Create fan conventions as an example of how the importance of experiential events for brands.
“Experiential marketing has gone from being a line item in a marketing budget to being the strategy,” Knowles says. “That is a very strategic shift that we as brands are making right now. We’re not recipients of the brief any more; we’re writing the brief.”
Malenshek detailed how Land O’Lakes is stretching beyond its agricultural and dairy product roots to help bring contemporary perspectives on rural America to life. There’s a lot of misinformation that only exacerbates our culture urban-rural divide.
“We’re working with Imagine Entertainment and Ron Howard, who was a farm kid,” she says. “We’re not going to make movies. We’re trying to affect the writers, some of whom have never left the city of Los Angeles. It’s a long game and we hope over time to start seeing shows that are much more authentic to that area.”
A Conversation with Nick Brien
The CEO of Outfront did not hold back on his views about how AI is disrupting marketing in his conversation with Brian Steinberg, Variety’s senior TV editor.
“We are in the agentic age. It’s not just about agentic advertising and marketing. It’s about agentic commerce,” Brien says. “When commerce changes so significantly, brands are going to have to think about how they engage with humans and the way they reach bots and agents. It’s important to redefine our value proposition.”
IRL Advantage: Building Trust in an Agentic World
This session featured Aarti Bhaskaran, head of research, consumer insights and strategy for Snap; Jeff Greenspoon, CEO of Americas for Kantar; and Stacy Minero, chief marketing and experience officer for Outfront.
Marketers need to work harder than ever to build fan communities with genuine connections to consumers. Physical media helps in that process as research shows consumers trust a brand that “shows up” in the real world via billboards, et al. “It can be a location-based community or it can be community of interest that we can help brands tap into.” She called it a “force-multiplier” effect.
“We’re not going up against online media. We’re saying ‘Think about physical media, IRL media, as a foundation in a holistic media plan, an omnichannel media mix.’”
Bhaskaran says she sees this phenomenon playing out with the Gen Z consumers that she studies. “We call them the ‘Memento Generation.’ They value memories more than they do physical things. The discovery might start on social but the experience happens in person and then you share back on social and it creates this virtuous cycle of community,” she says.
Sports Gamechangers Roundtable
This session featured Patrick Arthur, CMO of the Washington Commanders; Jessica Ciccone, VP of brand and influencer marketing for the New York Jets; Radhika Duggal, CMO of Major League Soccer; Tim Ellis, CMO of NFL; Nilay Shah, senior VP of marketing and brand strategy for the New York Giants; and Sarah Swanson, chief brand officer for the Women’s Tennis Association.
Asked about the future of live games on TV, Duggal didn’t hesitate to offer her view that “it’ll be all about community building. Especially in the world of AI.” She pointed to the success that MLS teams had during the excitement around the World Cup tournament this summer. “Our clubs in local markets threw massive watch parties in partnership with Fox and FIFA. That was just a way to build community. That’s really the future of the game.”
Shah gave an example of how NFL teams are leaning on content and personalities to reach casual football fans. The Giants tapped veteran quarterback Eli Manning to host a digital interview series related to the team but featuring guests such as Michael B. Jordan and Caitlin Clark. The show has drawn 150 million video views in five years.
“We’re having to think about content that way. It can’t just be about what’s happening on the field,” Shah says. “It’s got to be about personalities and how are you driving that consumption.”
The Next Frontier of Experiential Entertainment
This session features Paul Caine, president of On Location; Christine Cassis, CMO of Twitch; and Josephine Vacarello, president of Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.
As echoed by many other panelists throughout the day, Caine emphasized that for today’s consumers, the experience is the thing that drives their purchasing and viewing decisions. It’s not a side benefit.
“It can be anything that you’re passionate about. Some people want sports, some want in music. People want access to experiences. There’s a big trend of speakeasies now. People want to get that secret behind-the-door thing,” he says. “Having that unbelievable dining experience — it transcends value of the food you have. It really comes down to your passion.”
Cassis added that Twitch viewers are “craving” opportunities for connection. That’s one reason why the Amazon-owned platform is giving more and more control to its power users.
“We’re letting our creators and live streamers really be in the driver’s seat, playing creative director and community advocate with the fandoms they’re creating and empowering every day on our platform,” Cassis says.
The City as a Canvas
Rafael Espinal, commissioner of New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, spoke with Variety’s Todd Spangler about the misperception that it is costly to lens in New York.
“The State of New York has made the [production] tax even easier to use on a much easier timeline,” Espinal says. He added that the city recently beefed up the credits it offers productions that do post work in the city. “We’re seeing projects that are shot in other parts of the world that are coming to New York to do post-production work.”
The New York native proudly declared that his top 10 list of best movies ever made is full of New York-set titles. He cited 2023’s “Past Lives” as an example. The 2001 Tom Cruise starrer “Vanilla Sky” and 1995’s “Die Hard With a Vengeance” are also a favorite as both have elaborate action scenes in iconic NYC locations. “Those movies excite me because it shows what’s possible” to shoot in New York, he says.
The Business of Fandom: NBC100 and the Power of Cultural Moments
This session featured Ice-T, “Law & Order: SVU” star; Mark Marshall, chairman of global advertising partnerships for NBCUniversal; Julie Scelzo, chief creative officer of Xfinity Comcast; and Rachael Zaluzec, CMO and senior VP of customer experience and brand marketing for Volkswagen of America; and moderator Savannah Sellers, anchor of NBC News Now and an NBC News correspondent.
The discussion centered on NBC’s extensive marketing campaign. But Ice-T stole the show with his reflections on working with none other than Taylor Swift to film the “SVU” spoof that aired last month on the Emmy Awards telecast, which was hosted by his co-star Mariska Hargitay.
“She was mad cool,” Ice-T says of Swift and her top-secret visit to the “SVU” set in New York.
“Taylor Swift has that energy,” he says. “She just knocked it out. I’m sure she could act in anything she wants to because she has that thing.”
