Brands In Play

Brands In Play is a finalist in the 5th Annual Signal Awards in Creativity & Marketing, and we’re also up for Listener’s Choice award. We need your vote. Please cast a vote for us before October 1! https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/shows/genre/creativity-marketing This week, Minecraft has been one of the biggest creator platforms in gaming for years, but Mojang and Microsoft have...

Artists are starting to face a lot of the same questions brands are. Where are your fans spending their time? How do you show up there without forcing it? And what can you give them value that goes beyond just another piece of content? Nic sat down with Connor Hachey, SVP of Global Digital Strategy at Virgin Music Group, and got into how his team is figuring that out across gaming and immersive ex...

Rockstar has started drawing the boundaries around its creator ecosystem, including restrictions on advertising, product placement and sponsored content inside mods specifically. Nic and Matt get into why Rockstar might be keeping such a tight grip on this from the start, and whether those walls eventually come down. Elsewhere, Pokémon has somehow made it to outer space. Apex Legends is taking a v...

Matt spent the week in New York at the IAB PlayFronts and GamesBeat ‘Brands & Games’ event, and one idea kept coming up: gaming marketing needs to get more boring. Not boring creatively. Boring in the way media teams understand it. Clear objectives, real measurement and an answer when someone asks, “What’s my ROI?” Nic and Matt break down why gaming still gets stuck in the innovation bucket, w...

In Episode 88 of Brands In Play IKEA put a walking, talking KALLAX shelf inside Skyrim and somehow it makes perfect sense. Nic Hill and Matt Daly get into how Candy Crush is using Shania Twain and Zedd and the very different ways Fortnite and Roblox approach IP on their platforms.  They also cover Duolingo’s Fashion Week stunt, SEGA’s new film adaptation with Netflix, and Nic’s biggest takeaways f...

“The algorithm doesn’t make or break a game. The game makes or breaks the game.” At RDC, Nic Hill sat down with John Ciancutti, Chief Growth Officer at Roblox, for a conversation about one of the hardest problems on the platform: helping the right game find the right player. John explains why Roblox has moved away from optimizing discovery around short-term signals and toward what it calls “lastin...

Episode 86 of Brands In Play covers another busy week of brands experimenting with gaming, IRL experiences and new ways to reach audiences. McDonald’s opens an immersive butcher shop in London to challenge perceptions around its food. WWE returns to Clash of Clans with a new campaign built around finding John Cena’s hidden base, while Dr. Squatch is putting $1 million into a nine-week audience cha...

You already use Canva to make ads. What if you could run them inside games from the same place? In Episode 85 of Brands In Play, Livewire’s Indy Khabra explains how its Canva integration lets marketers choose an audience, set a budget and launch ads across mobile games. The conversation covers targeting, brand safety and measurement, plus Indy’s argument for making gaming part of the everyday medi...

Episode 84 of Brands In Play features Red Bull’s Wings Cup, bringing EA Sports FC players into real-world football challenges. 7-Eleven teams up with Forza Horizon 6, while The Doux puts textured hair and self-expression at the center of its Roblox salon game. Nic Hill and Matt Daly also discuss Street Fighter’s playable YouTube trailer, Baskin-Robbins’ Genshin Impact collaboration, and a Rick and...

Episode 83 of Brands In Play features Joshua Rubin, writer of the Black Mirror Experience, on turning the series into a world you can walk into. Joshua joins Matt Daly to explain how the team preserved Black Mirror’s unsettling tone, made the VR headset part of the story, and used AI to give visitors an experience that gets personal. For brands building their own immersive experiences, there’s ple...

Episode 82 of Brands In Play features Nic Hill and Matt Daly covering a busy week of brands telling stories through gaming and IRL experiences, along with major interactive platform updates. Subway is giving ARC Raiders players in-game loot with qualifying meals. Adidas enters Toca Boca World with free sports items aimed at encouraging confidence, while DAISE brings its blind-box collecting mechan...

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 wan...

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 peo...

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 fil...

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...

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...

Episode 76 of Brands In Play explores why Discord is becoming bigger than gaming. Nic Hill and Brandon Iverson are joined by Adam Bauer, Vice President of Advertising Solutions at Discord, to discuss how the platform is connecting community, discovery, commerce, entertainment and play. Adam breaks down how Discord Quests reward participation, why brands need a clear reason to build a server and ho...

The billboard is no longer stuck to the ground. In Episode 75 of Brands In Play, Nic Hill sits down with Kevin Prince, Co-Founder of Heads In the Sky and SkyAd, to explore how drone technology is turning the night sky into a new canvas for brands. Kevin has spent his career chasing attention. Now, he is doing it hundreds of feet above Hollywood. From breaking Guinness World Records to bringing God...

Episode 74 of Brands In Play features hosts Nic Hill and Ely Santos as they break down the biggest stories shaping gaming, immersive media, and brand innovation before Nic sits down with Rory Byrne, Founder of the creative innovation studio LocationXR, to explore why the future of immersive marketing will be built around places people already gather. Rory shares why "the metaverse was a desti...

This week on Brands In Play, we're joined by gaming journalist, creator, and cultural connector Gerard "HipHopGamer" Williams for one of our most energetic conversations yet. We unpack why every company should have a gaming division, why relationships always matter more than follower counts and how brands like Chase are making a positive impact through their game marketing strategy....

This week on Brands In Play, Nic Hill and Ely Santos sit down with Chris Mann, SVP of RevXP at sports marketing agency rEvolution. Chris takes us behind the scenes of major branded activations with Chipotle and more, explaining why authenticity, community trust, and understanding gaming culture are now essential for brands. This week's headlines: • Meta launches its first smart glasses line b...

This week on Brands In Play, Nic and Ely sit down with Doddz, the AR artist and founder of Dime. From Disney, Nike, Amazon and beyond, Doddz breaks down how brands can use augmented reality to create experiences that feel like moments of magic. The conversation gets into smart glasses, AR fatigue, data capture, creative R&D, and why bad AR is usually the problem and not AR itself. In the news:...

Episode 70 is live! This week, Nic Hill and Ely Santos sit down with John Benyamine, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Moonrock, one of the top game marketing agencies.  John has worked on everything from Comic-Con activations and Fortnite tournaments to custom Minecraft worlds for Walmart and Samsung. He shares why the future belongs to brands that dive into the culture, rather than just...

This week on Brands In Play, we’ve got a packed house! First up, Ely Santos (Founder of Vibe Glass and host of the Metavertising Podcast) is joining us as our guest co-host for the whole month of June. Then, Nic sits down with Will Trowbridge, the Founder & CEO of Saylor, one of the fastest-growing creative agencies out there right now. Will drops some serious truth bombs on why you can't...

This week on Episode 68 of Brands In Play, Morgan Pomish sits down with Derek Dabrowski, SVP, Head of Cold Brand Marketing at Keurig Dr Pepper. After nine seasons of Dr Pepper’s micro drama series Fansville, Derek explains why most marketers kill great ideas too early, why consumers need consistency more than novelty, and why CFOs don't care about impressions, engagement rates, or video compl...