Happy Friday!
This week, Disney+ surprised us with its first experiment in livestreaming. The streaming service broadcast the 94th Academy Award nominations event live. Disney’s years of storytelling experience will enable it to bring a Disney lens to cultural moments and live events that are more commonly associated with cable TV. It will be interesting to see if, and how Netflix and Apple TV react to this move.
Also this week, both Alibaba, and fast-fashion brand Pretty Little Things unveiled virtual influencers. Life-like digital influencers like Lil Miquela have been around for a few years, helping sell products on social platforms like Instagram. With the metaverse fast approaching, it’s clear that no brand wants to be left behind, and brand-owned virtual influencers are baby steps towards a metaverse where commerce plays a big role, and digital clothes are sold to dress avatars.
While the virtual world of the metaverse is still a very separate environment to the real world, the lines are starting to blur, and there is a new hybrid world emerging. In this half real / half digital world brands need to tread carefully and ethically, with a respect for both worlds, in order to bring consumers along with them.
Until next week!
Snapchat is hosting a virtual concert starring Jennifer Lopez
And finally...
At Rerun, we are big fans of live music, so we are always excited to hear about our favourite artists performing live in the virtual world!
Snapchat recently hosted a virtual Bitmoji Concert with Jennifer Lopez and Maluma. Fans attended the event as their Bitmoji avatars on a different site using their Snapchat account, and just like in real life, fans swayed their hands in the air and danced along to the performance.