‘South Park: The Fractured But Whole’ Runs With Gassy Theme

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The new game South Park: The Fractured But Whole continues the saga of a kid surviving the strange and satirical world of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s hit TV show.

The special episode “Franchise Prequel” aired ahead of the game’s release to serve as a prologue to Fractured But Whole.

A sequel to South Park: The Stick of Truth, The Fractured But Whole parodies the world of comic book movie franchises and the formulas thereof, and the story picks up right where the last video game left off. To learn the story thus far, those who pre-ordered The Fractured But Whole received a free digital copy of The Stick of Truth for free through Uplay, PlayStation Network or Steam.

As with the TV show on which it’s based, The Fractured But Whole parodies real-life events, pop culture and celebrities. Trailers revealed comical jabs at Kanye West, Aquaman, racism, evil clowns, priests and more, creating hype around the game’s release through purposeful controversy.

Various editions of the game offer perks such as character figurines, lithographic prints, a Towlie game companion and unlockable costumes. The Amazon-exclusive Remote Control Coon Mobile bundle contains an app-controlled Control Coon Mobile—Cartman’s big wheel—South Park: The Fractured But Whole Gold Edition game with SteelBook and Season Pass subscription.

Ubisoft is separately selling collectible items like figurines and a “fart pillow” that makes fart noises when someone sits on it.

Ubisoft’s latest tale of kids getting into all sorts of mayhem features a game mechanic in which farting is used to do just about anything. From fighting to moving around, cutting the cheese is an important aspect of gameplay. To “complement” the demo experience at last year’s Gamescom, players were fitted with the Nosulus Rift—a device that blows fart smells into the wearer’s nose.

Even the game’s title is a jab at pop culture, as superheroes are pit against one another in films left and right. In The Fractured But Whole, Cartman proposes a film franchise based on their role-playing characters, but it splinters the group of children into two opposing factions, each wanting a franchise of their own.

The official South Park account capitalized on this rivalry on Twitter by asking fans to pick a side.

Ubisoft teamed up with YouTube channel The Yogscast to create the comedy superhero origin story “Incredible Bulk” in which Martyn Littlewood takes his love of explosives too far. The team hosted a Twitter giveaway as followers created superheroes for the chance to win a digital copy of The Fractured But Whole and a box of merchandise.

Other influencer marketing campaigns included streams with Funhaus Team, Mini Ladd and the contest “I Am The Fart,” which challenged gaseous users to submit their most epic backdoor audio to have it featured in the game. A trailer for the online competition parodies The Voice, in which three celebrity judges react and provide feedback for the flatulence flying in the air.

Data Offers Insights Into Fall TV Audience Drop-Off Behavior

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The fall TV premiere season is upon us, and the competition is fierce for audience attention. Convincing viewers to tune in to the premiere isn’t a problem for many of today’s top shows, but episode two doesn’t mean time off for marketers.

According to TV data company Alphonso, understanding who the most loyal viewers are and what else they’re watching could be the key to engagement throughout the entire season.

“The TV viewing experience today is more than just a ratings number,” T.S. Kelly, senior vice president of research at Alphonso, told AListDaily. “Measurement in the age of ‘Peak TV’ means tracking multiple screens and viewing environments for watching the same content, both live and delayed. A more granular view of behavior provides TV companies a better understanding of audience movements before, during and after live broadcasts as well as their constant shifts between networks and platforms.”

 

Fall TV Marketing Momentum

“As premiere week demonstrated, ‘appointment television’ is still alive and well,” said Kelly. “However, our data suggests the need for further promotional focus during the subsequent chase weeks beyond season premieres.”

Alphonso analyzed four top shows for the Fall 2016 TV season—Empire, Modern Family, The Big Bang Theory and This Is Us. In all four broadcast examples studied, 40 percent or more of Live +3 viewers of the premiere episode failed to return for the second episode. Live +3 ratings refer to shows that are watched within the first three days after the time they originally air.

“In some cases, we identified drop-off rates of 30 percent or more of premiere show viewers to subsequent episodes,” said Kelly. “While this does not always equate to parallel declines in program ratings, it does illustrate increasing viewer satisfaction with DVRs and OTT boxes as a means of adjusting media consumption. Mini-binges and the clustering of viewing occasions [are becoming] the more efficient and pleasurable viewing options to meet busy schedules.”

Don’t Change That Dial

The Walking Dead and American Horror Story managed to keep viewers coming back more often, with 2016 Fall TV drop-off rates of 27 and 30 percent, respectively. Tracking these top cable dramas, Alphonso wanted to figure out what else fans were watching.

The company found that loyal audiences of American Horror Story are at least five times more likely to keep watching FX, or at least stay within the horror genre across other networks. Loyal watchers of American Horror Story are seven times as likely to tune in to The Strain, for example.

Alphonso saw similar behavior from loyal viewers of The Walking Dead, with a heavy sampling of multiple AMC programs.

Lead-in traffic also helps keep viewers tuned in. For example, 59 percent of audiences watching the season premiere of The Big Bang Theory stayed to check out Kevin Can Wait in the subsequent timeslot. The same percentage of viewers from the Modern Family premiere stayed to watch Blackish after the show.

Think Digital To Avoid Drop-Off

TV is constantly competing with not only other programs but other forms of entertainment. To keep audiences engaged, Kelly urged marketers to remember not just what shows audiences are watching, but what they’re holding while they do it.

“Digital devices are ubiquitous in the living room,” said Kelly. “It’s more common than not for people to have a phone, a tablet or a laptop in hand or nearby while TV viewing occurs. And the commercial breaks are when these devices are being used the most. This near-constant change in viewer focus means marketers must enhance potential exposure not just by simply adding programs or networks to their TV campaigns, but by looking to messaging on all other devices in simultaneous use within the household. It also means refining placement within pods (first spot, last, etc.) as well as the timing of messaging and creative elements within the placements themselves.”

ROI A Major Concern With MarTech; Consumer Electronic Spending Plateaus

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ROI concerns are the largest motivators both for and against investing in marketing technology, research by Ascend2 found. Of the marketers surveyed, 69 percent claimed that increasing ROI was their primary objective for acquiring martech, while 44 percent responded that forecasting ROI is a challenge to acquiring marketing technology.

Other goals highlighted by respondents were improving efficiency (48 percent), improving decision making (40 percent) and garnering a competitive advantage (36 percent).

Spending on consumer technology appears to be plateauing, per research by the Consumer Technology Association. Their forecast for Q4 predicts only a 1 percent increase in revenue, to $96.8 billion. However, according to CTA market research director Steve Koenig, the number is no great cause for alarm.

“On the surface, it sounds pretty weak, but we saw 3.8 percent holiday growth in 2016,” Koenig said in an interview with VentureBeat. “That’s a tough act to follow. It’s hard to post 3 percent to 4 percent growth rates year after year.”

Though data collection is swiftly becoming more important to successful campaigns, the crowned king is currently creativity , according to a study by Episerver. Of the marketers surveyed, 59 percent claimed creativity is more important than data.

The largest four digital media companies will repeat their Q2 ad revenue growth, according to analysis by MoffetNathanson. Its research forecasts an average 25 percent increase in spending in Q3 for Google, Facebook, Twitter and Snap. This prediction comes despite worries for the future of the digital advertising space.

“We expect increased scrutiny in the US and EU, which could create an overhang that hinders prospects for further multiple expansion of these companies,” said Michael Nathanson, senior research analyst at MoffetNathanson. “That said, these issues likely had no impact on fundamentals in the third quarter.”

Piper Jaffray Companies has released its 34th semi-annual “Taking Stock With Teens” survey, which spending and brand preference trends among 6,100 teenagers across the continental US. You can find their infographic rundown here.

Overall, spending by teenagers dropped by 4.4 percent this year, with parental contribution to spending keeping steady. Teens are spending slightly less on video games, slightly more on clothing and substantially less on food, dropping by 8 percent. Of the top brands, Starbucks was the only brand to retain higher than 10 percent mindset share among both high-income and average-income groups.

Video ads may be the future, but interactive video boosts already impressive statistics. According to research by Magna, users spend 47 percent more time watching interactive video ads than noninteractive ones. Additionally, users, whether they watch the ad or not, find interactive ads 32 percent more memorable, and drive a ninefold higher purchase rate.

Virtual reality may turn around slumping interest in conventional television, according to a study by Ericsson ConsumerLab. Of the 20,000 consumers surveyed, 30 percent anticipated watching TV in VR in the next five years, 27 percent predicted an increase in watching 360-degree content and 25 percent predicted an increase in time spent watching video in general.

However, according to Ericsson, not everything is hunky-dory in TV Land. Twenty percent responded that they will not watch scheduled programming anymore, and 12 percent claimed that they will watch less on-demand content because of too much variety.

Research by Catalyst suggests that Amazon’s share of the digital advertising space will only grow in the near future: 63 percent of Amazon’s US advertisers plan to increase their budgets for the platform, while only 54 and 53 percent said the same about their Google and Facebook ad buys, respectively.

Despite this sizable figure, only 17 percent claimed that their Amazon strategy is fully developed, and 85 percent responded that they do not use all of Amazon’s advertising products.

The zero-UI space is small, but growing, according to Catalyst. Of those surveyed, 85 percent did not have a voice-enabled skill for Alexa, though 23 percent of that group said they planned to launch one by the end of this year.

EMarketer has released a new report on American media consumption, finding that US adults spend on average of 12 hours per day with major media. Their report breaks down the figure even further, with just under half of the time spent on digital media, and a third with television.

Since Snap unveiled its Maps feature, Axios found that the company has seen a 40 percent rise in Stories posts, stalling somewhat Instagram’s blitzkrieg takeover of new user share.

Axios research also found that 60 percent of Snapchat users create content on the app daily, and 20 percent engage with its AR features.

Social media may increase sales in the short term, but the uncareful use of the platforms can lead to permanently lower engagement, according to a study by Temple University.

Though their research was of a small sample size, the study found that while one firm’s social posts led to a five-point increase in sales, in the long term it saw a 300 percent increase in unfollows.

“The main thing brands should take away from this study is that they need to be careful,” said Paul Pavlou, co-author of the report. “There’s a tendency to send too many messages, because that short-term bump looks nice, but companies [need to] focus on the long-term effect. Otherwise, they’ll annoy customers, not only in the moment but in association with the brand.”

Digital ad sales are expected to outstrip their offline counterparts in the next three years, according to a forecast put out by MAGNA.

Revenue for online ads is expected to reach $84 billion this year, a 16 percent rise over IAB’s income report for 2016.

Additionally, MAGNA predicts that offline ad spending will shrink by 3.7 percent annually, while digital is expected to grow by 9.5 percent per year over the same period.

Riot Games Co-Founders Restructure Roles, Samsung CEO Retires

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Riot Games co-founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill announced changing their roles in the company to focus more on game development.

“When we founded Riot 11 years ago, we spent virtually every waking hour of the day (and night!) thinking about how to make League of Legends as great of an experience as possible,” they wrote in a blog post. “But this growth also meant that the majority of our time is allocated to ‘managing’ the company rather than focusing on creating incredible experiences for players, which is what we really love to do.”

Taking over their responsibilities will be CFO Dylan Jadeja, CTO Scott Gelb and president Nicolo Laurent. Their blog post also hinted at a new game from the studio, saying they look forward “to finally put the ‘s’ in Riot Games.”

Kwon Oh-Hyun, CEO of Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display, announced his retirement despite record-setting profits this year. The news comes after a major political corruption scandal and the arrest of Jay Y. Lee, the grandson of the company’s founder in August.

“It is something I had been thinking long and hard about for quite some time. It has not been an easy decision, but I feel I can no longer put it off,” said Oh-Hyun. “As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that time has now come for the company start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry.”

Oh-Hyun has served at Samsung for the past 32 years, starting out in 1985 as a semiconductor researcher. He will stay on until March 2018 and will not seek re-election to the company’s board of directors.

 

Millennial Esports Corporation has brought on Bob Reif to fill an unspecified executive position, claiming a general ramp-up of the company’s executive team as it attempts to drop the “start-up” moniker.

Reif most recently served as CMO for the Indy Race League and EVP for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Before working in the motor sports industry, he worked with the St. Louis Rams as their CMO and CRO for 12 years, helping the team grow from a value of $220 million to $3.5 billion.

Millennial Esports also announced the departure of its co-founder Chad Larsson, who plans to establish a new esports team franchise to partner with the company.

“With the unique confluence of events in today’s esports world, I have been feeling the need to reconnect with the aspects of esports that got me involved in the first place,” said Larsson. “With that in mind, I am already working on a number of new projects which will all hopefully in one way or another involve Millennial Esports.”

A+E Networks is reconfiguring its ad sales department, citing a plan to move “to a demo-agnostic, fully integrated, cross platform selling organization.” Amy Baker will lead a newly formed client strategy and insights team and Lance Still will lead The Bridge and The Build, the network’s internal content marketing agency and ad sales team, respectively.

According to a Reuters report, Disney plans to lay off 200 employees from several of its cable networks including ABC. The source however emphasized that ESPN would be unaffected. This is the second round of layoffs for the media conglomerate—Disney shrank its animation team by 250 positions in September.

 

Redbox has hired Jason Kwong as their chief strategy and business development officer. Previously, Kwong has worked at Fullscreen Media as senior vice president of strategy, program planning and acquisitions.

Paul Graham, Burberry’s vice president of operations, has joined Versace as their global CMO. He had been with Burberry as their vice president of engagement marketing since 2014.

Eighteen senior-level employees at the Staples Center, Microsoft Theater and LA Live have been promoted, including five new senior vice presidents. Laura Geery-Larson holds the new title of senior vice president of telecommunications and IT, Christy Castillo Butcher is now senior vice president of booking and events, Wade Loewe is now senior vice president of broadcast/multimedia productions, Matt Rosenfeld is now senior vice president of sales and Michele Kajiwara is now senior vice president of premium sales and services.

Netflix has poached Monique Meche from Amazon, hiring her as their vice president of global public policy, where she will lead the company’s efforts to comply with government regulations across the 190 countries it services.

Meche held the same position at Amazon since she joined the e-commerce giant in 2013, and before that worked at ArcelorMirral in Luxembourg as their vice president of government affairs and corporate social responsibility.

HitPoint Studios has a new president: Ariella Lehrer. The move follows an announcement of a multi-year development partnership between HitPoint and Legacy Games, a studio that Lehrer founded.

“After more than two years working in AR, we’re just starting to scratch the surface of what will be possible with these new platforms,” said Paul Hake, CEO of HitPoint Studios. “As technologists, we’re always striving to explore new ways to engage our audiences in meaningful ways. Ariella’s business and product savvy, and overall vision for our industry positions HitPoint to become a leader in AR, a burgeoning ‘new frontier.’”

Brian Mullins will be resigning as CEO of augmented-reality startup Daqri, to be replaced by Roy Ashok, the company’s current chief product officer. A founder of the company, Mullins will remain on Daqri’s board of directors for the forseeable future.

“Brian Mullins has built Daqri from an idea to an augmented reality leader with innovative products that are transforming everything from workplaces to the automotive industry,” said Greg Casserly, Daqri board chair. “We’re now entering phase two of the company’s growth, which will be characterized by product shipments at scale, a growing customer base and all the opportunities and associated operational complexities that brings.”

Ashok has worked at Daqri for two years, and was the company’s very first chief product officer. Before assuming the responsibilities of CEO, he will oversee the shipment of Daqri’s Smart Glasses later this month.

Nokia has laid off over 300 workers and cancelled its OZO VR camera, citing the industry’s “slower-than-expected” growth. The technology firm will instead shift its focus to its digital health and licensing operations, claiming it will “optimize” its investment in virtual reality.

Intel has shuttered its augmented-reality glasses manufacturer Recon, after cutting 30 positions from the unit earlier this year. It will still fulfill existing purchase orders for the AR goggles, but will not take any new ones.

Danny Sullivan has joined Google to educate the public on common search issues and take feedback on ways the company can improve.

“My title is still being determined, but the position will be to serve as a sort of public liaison for search,” Sullivan said in a blog post. “The goal is to increase the connection between those at Google who work hard on search each day and the public that depends on Google for answers.”

Sullivan is a long-standing search journalist of high regard, and retired from Third Door Media earlier this year. He has also held positions at the Los Angeles Times and Maximized Online, and published a book entitled A Webmaster’s Guide To Search Engines.

The Data and Marketing Association has announced four new members to their board of directors: Julie Bernard, CMO of Verve; Michael L. Iaccarino, chairman and CEO of Infogroup; John McDonald, executive vice president of DigitasLBi New York and Mike Nazzaro, CEO of Claritas.

“Working towards a shared vision, DMA and its board address the challenges and opportunities currently facing advertising, marketing, media and technology,” said DMA CEO Tom Benton. “It is this collaborative spirit which has carried DMA through 100 years of advocacy for a community which builds lasting relationships with consumers based on truth, results and trust.”

The board’s new elections come as the DMA announces its Data Standards 2.0 initiative, a collaboration on digital marketing best practices.

AdColony has appointed Tim O’Neil as vice president of performance advertising for North America, a newly created position.

“I’ve always admired AdColony’s SDK video platform and the results and scale I have seen it produce for developers,” O’Neil said. “The performance advertising market is booming, and AdColony has the technology, team and existing relationships to drive incredible results.”

Before joining the mobile-advertising platform, O’Neil worked at TUNE as their head of strategic sales, and prior to that held executive positions at Pocket Change and InMobi.

The Los Angeles Times has hired Lewis D’Vorkin as their editor in chief, after ousting several senior staff members in August.

“Lewis is one of the most transformational editors and digital innovators in the media industry and is exceptionally qualified to lead the evolution of the Los Angeles Times newsroom,” said Ross Levinsohn, LA Times publisher. “He knows how to build a competitive, sustainable media business with global clout while preserving the highest standards of journalistic integrity.”

Previously, D’Vorkin served at Forbes as their chief product officer, where he expanded the company’s native advertising options, introducing a branded-content studio known as BrandVoice. Prior to that, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and The New York Times.

Corsair has appointed Jason Cahilly to their board of directors in a non-executive capacity, signifying an increased focus on esports.

“This is an exciting time for the development of eSports and its players, who are only just beginning to gain the recognition they deserve as true athletes of exceptional skill,” said Cahilly.

Cahilly joins Corsair from the NBA, where he served as their chief strategic and financial officer since 2013.

Accenture Operations has tapped Nikki Mendonça for president of intelligent marketing operations. In the role, Mendonça will take advantage of predictive analytics to grow Accenture’s client base.

“Nikki is a proven business leader and digital marketing strategist and I’m excited that she will lead and help us to build our Intelligent Marketing Operations business,” said Debbie Polishook, group chief executive of Accenture Operations. “Her arrival comes at a strategically important time in building this capability as we continue to develop innovative solutions that combine platform, analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other core technologies to help clients enhance their marketing impact.”

Mendonça has worked in strategic marketing for a quarter-century, most recently as president of OMD Worldwide for the EMEA region.

The National Hockey League has hired Joseph Mangano as their senior director of national retail sales and marketing, where he will oversee the NHL’s retail relationships globally.

Sean Barror has joined Excel Sports Management as their first-ever head of property sales. He will lead the brand’s efforts to expand into third-party commercial sales. Previously, Barror served at WME-IMG as senior vice president of global partnerships.

Skydance Media has named Bill Damaschke as president of animation and family entertainment, a new position in the company. This comes after the March announcement of a partnership between Skydance and Ilion Animation Studios to produce multiple feature films over the next few years.

“In a very short time, Skydance has made a real commitment to the animation business by bringing best-in-class creative leadership teams into its first two fantastic feature projects,” said Damaschke.

Previously, Damaschke worked at DreamWorks for 20 years, rising to the position of chief creative officer. He oversaw the release of Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon, among others. Damaschke also oversaw production of the “Shrek The Musical” live theatrical show.

DreamWorks Feature Animation has hired Abhijhay Prakash as their latest chief operating officer, where he will focus on furthering the studio’s partnership with Universal Pictures in preparing for the release of How To Train Your Dragon 3 in 2019.

“Abhijay is one of the most respected executives in the Universal family, recognized for his integrity, business acumen and most recently for his invaluable contributions to Focus Features,” said Chris deFaria, president of DreamWorks Animation Group.

Before joining DreamWorks, Prakash held the same position at Focus Features, and prior to that served at Universal Pictures as executive vice president of film strategy and operations.

Several of General Electric’s vice chairs have announced their retirement, including Beth Comstock. She will be closing out a 27-year career at the company, having led GE’s Business Innovations unit, and additionally serving as the brand’s chief marketing officer. Also retiring are John Rice and Jeff Bornstein.

“We have relied on Beth to see around corners and lead us to new ideas and invention,” said John Flannery, GE’s chairman and CEO. “Her efforts to push GE into the future have been essential to GE’s growth strategy; including identifying the potential of the industrial internet and helping transform GE into a digital industrial company.”

The three vice chairs will stay on in their current roles until the end of the year.

After a The New York Times report revealed sexual harassment allegations against The Weinstein Company co-founder Harvey Weinstein, the company has announced Weinstein’s dismissal. This comes just days after Weinstein announced that he would be taking a leave of absence from the film-production giant.

According to a statement released by the company, this shift in action came “in light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days.”

Lance Maerov, one of the company’s board of directors, told The New York Times that Weinstein violated their code of conduct in the last week, but did not clarify any further.

Additionally, an anonymous source told the Associated Press that The Weinstein Company would change its name in the near future.

Roommate matchmaker Silvernest has brought on Barbara O’Connor as chief marketing officer, announcing plans to draw on social media influencers to market the service to baby boomers.

“Barb’s impressive background driving programs for some of the largest consumer tech and real estate companies in the country is exactly what we need at this critical point in our growth,” said Wendi Burkhardt, CEO of Silvernest.

O’Connor previously worked as chief marketing officer of Move, parent company to real estate websites such as realtor.com and SeniorHousingNet. Beforehand, she served at Yahoo! as its vice president of marketing, and held a senior-level marketing position at Apple.

Calvin Klein has announced that Jake Gyllenhaal will star in the brand’s latest series of ads for their Eternity perfume, alongside Liya Kebede.

The campaign will consist of both print ads and TV spots, and “will focus on ETERNITY Calvin Klein’s longstanding ideas of romance, love, intimacy and commitment.”

(Editor’s Note: This post will be updated daily until Friday, October 13. Have a new hire tip? Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.)

Job Vacancies 

Director, Marketing Razer USA, Ltd. Irvine, CA
Director, Marketing Sony Music Entertainment New York, NY
Brand Manager BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc. Santa Clara, CA
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Make sure to check back for updates on our Jobs Page.

‘RWBY’ Creator Shares Secret Behind Show’s Success

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You might not know exactly what RWBY (pronounced “Ruby”) is, but chances are you’ve seen the name or one of its colorful characters featured at video game and comic book events, particularly New York Comic Con (NYCC), which usually takes place a week before a new season starts.

The digital Japanese anime-inspired show that follows a group of magical monster hunters has grown a massive fan base, and it made its presence known on the NYCC show floor, where there was a RWBY megabooth accompanied by a panel held at Madison Square Garden.

Rooster Teeth, famous for creating popular digital content such as Red vs. Blue long before there were platforms for it, is ramping up its activities in perpetration for the October 14 premiere of Volume 5 on First, the company’s digital subscription platform. The studio has worked with Twitch to host a week-long marathon of previous seasons, and it also partnered with Fathom Events to bring the Volume 5 premiere to movie theaters days ahead of its showing on First.

Gray Haddock, head of Rooster Teeth Animation, told AListDaily that the list goes on. Rooster Teeth is also launching the behind-the-scenes mini-documentary series CRWBY along with the dedicated talk show RWBY Rewind to support the animated series, which are both exclusive to the First platform.

Furthermore, NYCC attendees had a chance to try out RWBY: Combat Ready, a board game that’s on Kickstarter, and BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, which is in development by Arc System Works set for a 2018 launch. The fighting game will feature characters from RWBY alongside those from the Persona and Under Night franchises. Fans in the UK will be able to try them this week, as the games will make their way to RTX London—Rooster Teeth’s own fan festival—on October 14.

As if that weren’t enough, Rooster Teeth is also preparing to launch the new mecha action show Gen:Lock, which is the first large-scale production the studio has done since the launch of RWBY. Love for the show has grown all over the world, even in Japan, where the digital show is localized for broadcast TV.

“What’s been really fun is that the fans’ energy seems to have a life of its own,” said Haddock, discussing how Rooster Teeth engages with fans during RWBY’s offseason. “They keep the show alive for us in the offseason through their art, cosplay, representing RWBY at conventions and writing fan fiction.”

However, that doesn’t mean that the show’s crew takes a complete backseat during the offseason. Haddock also said that RWBY Chibi, a Looney Toons-style comedy sketch show that features super-kawaii (super-cute) versions of characters, has also helped keep the energy going. He also said that Chibi provides a safe RWBY viewing experience for families and younger audience members.

“We were very surprised to learn how young the RWBY viewers are,” said Haddock, explaining how kids were either finding the show on their own or through a parent or sibling who watched it with them. As the main show’s themes mature with each season, RWBY Chibi offers a respite from its drama. Nobody dies, so fans can still find characters that aren’t on RWBY anymore.

As the show launches its fifth season, Haddock went into further detail about how new viewers were discovering the show.

“I still think there’s a lot of word-of-mouth. Friends who—once they learn that they know someone who hasn’t seen it—show it to them,” he said. “The show is being distributed in a bunch of different ways. We’re still on Crunchyroll and YouTube, and videos are starting to appear on sites such as Facebook. I think it’s also some of the ancillary activities. It could be the game on Steam, RWBY: Grimm Eclipse. Maybe they play this adventure game and realize that it’s based on a web series, then go to check it out. I think sometimes they see costumes go by at conventions. It’s crazy how far the RWBY brand is breaking into the mainstream. People go into Hot Topic, Target or Walmart and see RWBY products. The look of the show, with the colorful character designs and crazy title, hooks people in. They’re curious, so they look it up and start to watch.”

For a show that’s meant to attract more First subscribers, RWBY remains incredibly accessible. New episodes are shown on platforms such as YouTube and Crunchyroll a week after they premiere on First. Viewers who don’t want to be spoiled, or are interested in the platform’s social features, may be motivated to subscribe, but the approach still begs the question: why release new episodes for free at all? Or why not wait until the end of the season to do so?

“That is a question that our programming team at Rooster Teeth is constantly asking themselves,” said Haddock. “But I think because RWBY has been going on for so long, we want to make sure that decision is more of a conversation with the fans. There are so many people watching RWBY on their platform of choice that we don’t want to disrupt it so late in the game if we can avoid it. Some of the new shows might only live on First or on certain distribution platforms, but right now, the RWBY brand has taken on a life of its own because we keep investing in exposure.

Haddock said that, although Rooster Teeth may consider keeping RWBY behind a paywall or limit it to certain partner sites someday, the company’s current goal is still to get as many viewers as possible exposed to the show. That means erring on the side of broad distribution.

Volume 4 saw more than a million views per episode on YouTube alone. “We keep seeing an accelerated curve to the numbers,” Haddock said, meaning that episodes break a million views faster with each successive season, further demonstrating the growing enthusiasm fans have for the show. However, RWBY’s phenomenal success doesn’t set a roadmap for upcoming shows like Gen:Lock, which will have high expectations at launch.

“We’re all aware of the success that RWBY has brought the company, but you can’t design for that,” Haddock said. “I don’t know how you plan for the happy accidents that we had to have for RWBY to take off the way that it did. So, all we can do is not spend too much time thinking about that and stay focused on trying to tell a good story and have some cool ideas and big action. If we do our job right, and we get lucky, maybe we’ll have a chance to develop another show that people will be as happy with as they are with RWBY.”

Repeating RWBY’s success is no small feat, considering how the show’s rapid growth came as a surprise, even to its creators.

“With RWBY, we didn’t design for this level of success—we didn’t know that it would be what it turned into,” he said. “If someone told me five years ago, while we were working on Volume 1, that it was going to be running on Japanese national television as it is right now, I wouldn’t have believed them . . . It’s like asking, ‘how do you make a viral video?’ All you can do is do your best, love what you do, and keep trying to improve at it. Hopefully, there are people out there who like the same things that you do. If you make enough noise about it, slowly but surely, maybe they’ll find you, tell their friends, and the word-of-mouth keeps growing from there.”

However, that doesn’t mean that Rooster Teeth hasn’t learned a few things about growing digital franchises. One of the biggest lessons is to be careful not be too heavily invested in one streaming platform, as the fate of the brand may become tied to it.

“Rooster Teeth started putting content online before YouTube even existed,” said Haddock. “They’re used having their subscriber model, building their community, and making sure everyone enjoys spending time on the website.”

The company continues to invest in improving the First experience so that it offers features that Twitch and YouTube aren’t capable of. But at the same time, Rooster Teeth is following its own rule by continuing to spread its content out across multiple platforms.

“We want to go where the audience is,” Haddock explained. “If we can encourage people to come to RoosterTeeth.com, then that’s beautiful. But if the person prefers to watch on Netflix, Twitch or Facebook, then we will find a way to bring the content to them. If one of them goes away, then it’s all right. That platform winds down and we can go on to the next one.”

With RWBY growing across video games, clothing, spin-off shows, manga and more, Haddock explained what the core of the RWBY brand was that helped attract a global fan base.

“Storytelling with heart,” he said simply. “We want to entertain people and maybe distract them from what they’re dealing with in real life—telling stories that can energize them so they can go back to deal with things. I think we have very charming characters that you want to spend time with. Regardless of what show it is, you become friends with those characters and emotionally involved with their stories. As long as you’re doing that right, the audience will follow you.”

Square Enix Uses VR To Promote Japanese Comics

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Remi Draincourt, GM and R&D engineer at Square Enix Japan’s advanced technology division

Virtual reality and comic books are enjoying a very close relationship as companies such as Madefire bring the two together through its app and Oculus publishing a Marvel VR game. With the massive success of superhero-themed movies, it makes sense that fans will want to further immerse themselves into these fantastic worlds. But Square Enix Japan is taking a decidedly unique approach to VR with Project Hikari, which is designed to promote the company’s extensive library of Japanese manga titles worldwide.

With the massive success of superhero-themed movies, it makes sense that fans will want to further immerse themselves into these fantastic worlds. But Square Enix Japan is taking a decidedly unique approach to VR with Project Hikari, which is designed to promote the company’s extensive library of Japanese manga titles worldwide.

Hikari means “light” in Japanese, and the new experience is a synergy between two of Square Enix Japan’s different brands. Much of the world knows Square Enix as a video game publisher that’s behind the Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider franchises among others. However, the company also operates arcades and publishes manga books in Japan. With Project Hikari, users take part in a relatively passive experience, where the comic book panels are animated using video game graphics—complete with voice acting and music—and users are free to view the scenes from different angles.

Speaking with AListDaily, Remi Draincourt, general manager and research and development engineer at Square Enix Japan’s advanced technology division, explained that the project began almost two years ago. The platform, which is expected to launch in the early half of 2018, made its official debut at the New York Comic Con with the manga title Tales of the Wedding Rings, a romantic comedy about a young couple who must brave a fantasy world of demons and monsters before they can be married.

“What we’re trying to do is take the stories and visuals of manga, with its distinctive black and white look, and see how we can bring that into VR,” said Draincourt, explaining why Square Enix Japan chose to use VR to promote its manga titles instead of creating a straightforward game.

“We want users to actually enter the world of manga,” he continued. “With the paper format, users are free to flip through pages and looking at a traditional screen would be kind of the same experience. We could add some animation, maybe some AI, but the format would still be 2D. With VR, we can have true 3D. When you stand up, lean to the side or otherwise move, you can see details that wouldn’t be present on a manga page.”

However, there are still a lot of unanswered questions at this stage. Although Draincourt made it clear that the plan was to launch Project Hikari in 2018, he didn’t know what form that would take. Although there will be three or four episodes of Tales of the Wedding Ring to start, the development team is still deciding on whether it will be a standalone app or as part of a larger Hikari platform alongside other titles. Additionally, the team is still considering monetization options, what other titles to bring on board and whether it will create all original VR content for Hikari.

“Everything is on the table,” Draincourt explained. “It’s a new project, and the VR market isn’t that big yet, so the first goal for us is to see what we can do with existing Square Enix IPs. But we can extend that to all the IPs, including different products that aren’t necessarily Square Enix. Personally, I’d love to do a European, French-style comic book, or one day have an American superhero story with colors.”

Although Project Hikari is starting with episodic manga-inspired content, Draincourt said that there was room to expand the platform beyond comic books.

“Depending on the IP or client, we could also be talking about B2B,” he said, “with shorter and more intense experiences like VR rides, for example.”

Draincourt said that ideally, the team wants Hikari to be a new VR platform with different experiences and books slotted into it. As for why Tales of the Wedding Rings was chosen as the debut title, he said, “We had to start somewhere, and the creators of this IP were very open to the idea of VR and high-end technology. For us, it was the easiest way to start. VR isn’t that big of a market—it’s a high-risk area. So, we started with a creator that was willing to go with it.”

He also added Project Hikari is featuring manga instead of a Western IP such as Tomb Raider because it wanted to promote the platform using a distinctly Japanese-style property, considering that the publisher is Square Enix Japan. However, more action-oriented Western properties certainly weren’t off the table.

“There aren’t that many people who own VR devices and are into manga,” Draincourt admitted, “but we believe that this could be a new chance to grow manga. We released a prototype of the project at the Tokyo Game Show, and what was interesting to see was that a lot of non-gamers really liked our approach. In spite of it being VR, it is slow paced and very passive. You don’t have to be knowledgeable about game controls. So, it has a wider appeal than we originally thought.”

Tales of the Wedding Rings manga cover

The Tales of the Wedding Rings demo was shown at New York Comic Con using Oculus Rift headsets, but Draincourt said that it also works for the HTC Vive with a PlayStation VR version currently in development. He also said that Square Enix was interested in bringing the experience to mobile VR platforms like the Samsung Gear VR at some point, but the graphics—despite being in black and white—are quite sophisticated and will need to be optimized for mobile devices.

Additionally, the Project Hikari team is aiming for deeper interaction with the launch product. Draincourt explained that the Comic Con version had its interactive features stripped out to create a consistently timed experience to service people who were waiting on a line.

“Looking at the manga [in VR] won’t be playing a game, but they’ll be able to control the timeline by flipping the pages or staying on a specific frame longer,” said Draincourt. “That interaction is going to be in our product. We want users to be able to freely navigate and control the time. Deeper interaction like shooting or grabbing objects is also something we’re looking into, but this is a romantic comedy, so we don’t think it’s necessary for this type of storytelling. But we might include more interactive components for an action or horror type of manga.”

For the time being, it looks like a stripped-down version of the platform will be the main way people will first experience Project Hikari.

“We face the same problem as other VR titles, which is that it is hard to convey the experience on a screen or paper,” Draincourt said. “We need users to actually experience the game to understand how it feels. So, we’re going to look into more interactive ways for users to experience it. Maybe more demos or events, where the public can put the helmet on and try it.

“It’s a new experience for us and it’s quite experimental—taking the content from a 2D medium into VR. So, I hope the press and the public is going to enjoy it.”

Streamlabs CEO Explains Evolution Of Livestreaming

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Ali Moiz, CEO of Streamlabs

Streamlabs recently held its inaugural Expanding the Stream conference in San Francisco to focus on the emerging business opportunities in the livestreaming ecosystem. Founded in 2011, Streamlabs connects streamers with gamers through a suite of tools available on mobile and desktop that enables monetization and the company’s technology operates across all streaming services.

Ali Moiz, CEO of Streamlabs, told AListDaily that the streaming industry today reaches over 600 million monthly active users, which is up 230 percent from 2016. A deeper dive into that bucket finds that 86 percent of this traffic comes from streamers, not esports.

While streaming numbers are increasing (over 2 million people stream on a monthly basis globally outside of China), Moiz pointed out that the industry is already very healthy with over $3 billion in revenue expected this year.

“I think that’s going to double in the next two to three years, so we’re going to be looking at $6 or $7 billion as we see a lot of growth outside of gaming,” Moiz said. “People are going to discover that livestreaming is a really great way to grow an audience and build a fan following, particularly on YouTube, Twitter, Periscope, Facebook and Instagram.”

Streamlabs has found that its long-time viewers who signed up over 24 months ago spent an average of $81.10 in Q1 2017, which is more than the $22.92 average spend of new users who signed up within the first three months. That’s a per user increase of 4X, which he said points to an audience that will spend more money over time.

Streamlabs has paid out $200 million to content creators to date, and this year the company will pay out $105 million. Most of this revenue comes from microtransactions in the form of tips, but there are opportunities for brands within this streaming ecosystem.

Esports is a good example of how brands can be integrated into this global video audience.

“We have a lot of esports players that stream using Streamlabs during training on their personal Twitch or YouTube channel when they’re not playing in a tournament,” Moiz said. “We don’t have a product for teams or tournaments right now, but a lot of individual players from Cloud9, Immortals and Team SoloMid use Streamlabs.”

Moiz said esports is on the company’s list of priorities, but it’s a bit further down the line.

“I absolutely think that the hundreds of independent grassroots esports tournaments around games like Dota 2 and CS:GO need new sources of revenue and monetization, and right now the only sources have been sponsorships,” Moiz explained. “Our microtransaction model that works really well for streamers can be applied to tournaments and esports and create a whole new revenue stream for them.”

In the near-term, the company’s new software launch—which is free and works on top of the popular open broadcasters software streaming client—opens up new opportunities for brands and sponsors. The original platform wasn’t designed for consumers, so there was a lot of work required just to stream. Now that the process has been simplified, Moiz expects more desktop streamers to enter the space.

“By adding interactive features through virtual items that show up on screen like Snapchat-style face filters that are triggered by viewers, there should be even more engagement with the audience,” Moiz explained. “Streamers will be able to add things like stickers or even more data rich overlays like you see on ESPN, but offer an interactive element for the viewers.”

Moiz sees two things evolving, which will help the livestreaming business grow. On the one hand, esports is evolving into the traditional sports model with Activision-Blizzard’s city-based Overwatch League and Riot Games’ League of Legends, while traditional sports are solidifying esports endeavors like the NBA 2K ELeague and the NFL’s Madden Club Series.

“Similarly, livestreamers are also going to become a major category that displaces television. Things that will be more interactive are pre and post show coverage, which is already happening with popular shows,” Moiz said. “You can attract more people because this format is more interactive and more fun to watch. You can ask a question easily and see your name on the stream. Streamers are to the future of television as esports leagues are the future of professional sports.”

Moiz admits that television shows aren’t going to disappear, but rather the millennial and Gen Z audiences are allocating more time to online content. Livestreaming is becoming a larger part of that entertainment/free time bucket, and both esports and smart Hollywood companies and brands are already taking advantage of this shift, which will continue to evolve the ecosystem moving forward.

Brands Promote Breast Cancer Awareness With Message Of Power

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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and brands are giving back to the community through education, discussion and the sale of promotional items that benefit charity.

There is no shortage of pink-colored goods to buy and fundraisers to support. Here are just a few ways brands are taking a stand against the disease that affects about one-in-eight women in the US.

Estée Lauder: The Campaign

Twenty-five years ago, entrepreneur and cosmetics mogul Estée Lauder co-created the iconic pink ribbon, along with her company’s breast cancer campaign and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).

This year, the company has revealed a new design and message for Breast Cancer Awareness Month—a worn, tattered pink ribbon. The image is meant to represent “25 years of hard work, dedication and impact trying to cure this disease.”

Donning a ribbon isn’t enough for the brand, which has removed the word “awareness” from its annual campaign language. In a statement, the company said that breast cancer now has the global spotlight it deserves, so the campaign will now focus on ending the disease once and for all.

“I am continuously humbled and energized by the passion and care exhibited by our employees and the tireless dedication of our partners—whose work is getting us closer to a global cure each and every day,” William P. Lauder, son of Estée and executive chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., said in a statement. “As a company, our commitment has not and will not waver.”

Gap: The Power Of She

Gap has teamed up with the women of Recovery on Water—ROW for short—to design and promote the limited-edition sports bra “The Power of She.”

ROW is a Chicago-based rowing team that provides support and comradery to breast cancer survivors. The group gave input into the design of the “Empower Bra,” created for women recovering from mastectomies. Members of ROW are prominently featured in a national ad campaign for the athletic wear, and proceeds from sales of the pink “Power of She” bra will benefit ROW.

“Stories like the women of ROW inspired us to co-create the Empower Bra with breast cancer survivors,” Athleta’s website reads. “Each sister is a survivor and so much more, using the sport of rowing to be her strongest self, both physically and emotionally.”

WWE: Unleash Your Warrior

Returning for its fifth year, WWE’s “Unleash Your Warrior” campaign is a partnership between the popular entertainment company and cancer research and support charity Susan G. Komen. In addition to co-branded ring skirts, digital signage and turning the middle ring rope pink, WWE Superstars sport “Unleash Your Warrior” apparel during the global campaign. To date, the partnership has raised over $2 million for breast cancer research, according to the charity.

“This support is essential to improve the treatment and quality of life for the true warriors with this devastating disease, and we remain committed to standing side by side with Komen in the fight to end breast cancer,” Stephanie McMahon, WWE’s chief brand officer, said in a statement.

During WWE’s flagship TV programs Monday Night Raw and Smackdown Live, breast cancer survivors are brought into the ring to be honored as heroes. All proceeds of the “Unleash Your Warrior” co-branded apparel benefits Komen.

Rob Gronkowski Wants To Disrupt The Way Brands Work With Athletes

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Brands tapping athletes to be the face of their businesses has forever been a cornerstone of company marketing initiatives. In the early 20th century, baseball players helped sell a range of products from alcohol to tobacco, gum, gunpowder, soda and razors.

The role of the modern-day marketer-and-athlete relationship is not limited to sneakers and sports drinks anymore.

Big-box brands with even bigger budgets pay bounties to use athletes to connect with consumers—that is no secret. Players are tapped to be brand voices and faces from anything and everything you can imagine. However, as quarterback Cam Newton recently proved with his sexist comments, one slip and you immediately fall from good grace.

The competitive nature that carries athletes to conquests on the field assists to bring riches from brand courtships off of it. Athletes naturally want to invest the countless millions in spoils they’ve collected and wear the beret of a businessman. Some do so successfully, others not.

One of the most marketable athletes on the planet today is New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, a stellar player who has struck deals with the likes of Nike, Monster, Tide, Dunkin’ Donuts, DraftKings, SMS Audio and BodyArmor—just to name a few—throughout his career.

The two-time Super Bowl champion is now expanding his off-field exploits to Verizon’s digital network go90 as producer for Most Valuable Partner (MVP), a show that helps start-ups connect with athletes to bring celebrity and influencer endorsements and businesses together through an entertainment medium.

In an interview with AListDaily, Gronkowski says the series, which debuts its 18-episode second season Monday on go90, sits right at the center of the evolving relationship between brands and athletes.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have had quite a few successes in the endorsement world,” Gronkowksi told AListDaily. “I’ve always tried to form partnerships where fans will love the finished ads, but now I wanted to give them a behind-the-scenes look into how I find these partners, and also provide a forum for my fellow MVPs to find that next big deal of their own.”

MVP gives athletes like Melvin Gordon, Chuck Liddell, Andre Ward, Calais Campbell, Terrell Owens, Jay Ajayi, Julius Randle, P.K. Subban and Patrick Peterson a chance to meet start-ups Shark Tank-style and find deals they typically wouldn’t be able to elsewhere, all while showing off their business skills to viewers and letting them see the inner workings of how these deals get made. Athletes have the option of pursuing investment, brand ambassador-ship or simply passing.

The show speaks to the explosion in consumer interest in sports, marketing and the world of building start-ups, says Russ Axelrod, creator and executive producer of MVP and co-founder of production company Pitchmen.

“Consumers are becoming savvier than ever when it comes to the business world,” Axelrod told AListDaily. “Consumers have also taken a real interest in what athletes do off of the field, and we’re giving them an inside look at some of the most visible parts of our athletes’ business dealings. If a show like Shark Tank can take off when 99.9 percent of viewers don’t know the panel, imagine what we can do with a panel instantly recognizable by millions.”

Gronkowksi, known more in sports and pop culture for his All-Pro gridiron acumen and frat boy-like personality, believes there is a real consumer appetite for ­­­­the format that creates offshoots showcasing the world of celebrity ambassadorship in categories such as culinary, music and beauty because he says sports fans are just as savvy about business as they are with sports.

Contrary to overwhelming images of the Patriots player shirtlessly shotgunning beers and incessantly partying, Gronk is as savvy off the field as he is a star on it. The spike-smashing pass catcher also wants to show the more serious side to him that’s rarely seen during the offseason.

“While the most important thing for me is far and away football, my off-the-field passions and business dealings are just as fun, and will hopefully be with me much longer,” said Gronkowski. “I want to prove that I’m not just a football player. There’s much more to me than that.”

The 28-year-old admitted in his 2015 memoir It’s Good To Be Gronk that he’s saved every cent from his Patriots contracts and only spends money earned from marketing deals.

He now wants to spread a message with his story that brands can continue to innovate their marketing with athletes to leverage power, reach and connection.

“There are tons of ways to be more creative and have fun on digital—which if you know my personality, I love. I want to move past one-off campaigns. If we’re going to get in bed together, let’s make it a long-term thing,” Gronkowski says. “We’re having a lot more interaction with the teams internally, on a corporate level—as opposed to just their agencies and marketing people. It’s cool because we really get to know their business.”

Axelrod says brands are now open to allowing athletes to be more than just a face—but to be a true partner discussing strategy and investment.

“Athletes are looked up to as heroes of our society for their excellence in their sport, but also as kings of lifestyle as their salaries allow them to afford whatever they want in the world—so if they’re using something, it’s natural that their fans would want to as well,” he says. “You’re seeing people being brought in to have real conversations with the marketing teams. They’re weighing in on packaging, logos, flavors and even the marketing that they aren’t even a part of. There’s so much more to these athlete deals than just the ads we get to see as consumers—how the matches are made, how the deals are built and how the campaigns are created.”

Gronkowski says go90, which continues to grow its exclusive content library, is the perfect platform to partner with because it reaches the right audience and consumer—digitally active 16-to-34-year-olds who are both entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs.

“Young fans are pretty much consuming all of their content on their phones and computers, so it’s the perfect spot for us to reach them with a show like this,” says Gronkowski.

“These are the savviest consumers out there,” adds Axelrod. “They’re the die-hard sports fans playing more fantasy sports than ever. They have a keen interest in the business world. They’re the Instagram-and-Facebook addicts who see postings about endorsement deals. Given that viewer base, an insight into how these deals get made seemed like a perfect place for us to start.”

The days of athletes pushing products they’re lukewarm about are coming to an end Axelrod says because we now live in an obvious and transparent world led by social media.

“There’s no worse way to market your product than letting fans know the person you’re paying to use it won’t even use it. ‘How could you expect me as a consumer to pay for it if that’s true?’” he says.

Gronkowski, a former Madden cover athlete whose previous business ventures have hit the seas with a three-day cruise dubbed the “SS Gronk” says start-ups are changing the brand ambassador model because they’re more likely to give equity since they’re strapped on cash.

“There’s real upside for both of us. We’re in it together,” he says. “Sports is, and will always be, one of the more popular interests in our country. What I love about athletes is that we earn our cred with our fans through talent and hard work, and I think the fans respect that, which we can hopefully pass on to our brand partners.”

Madefire And Magic Leap Are Creating AR Comics

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Jon Middleton, chief revenue officer at Madefire

Comic books are truly coming into their own in the digital age, especially as they’re backed by platforms like Madefire. The platform specializes in digital comic books, particularly its signature motion books.

Madefire has also been on a hot streak lately, having announced partnerships with companies like Blizzard to create motion comics based on video games for IPs such as Overwatch, adding both DC Comics and Marvel Comics to its extensive library in two separate announcements, all topped off by Friday night’s New York Comic Con announcement that it’s partnering with Magic Leap for a new augmented reality experience.

“We’re going to be developing a series of motion books and comic books for the Magic Leap AR experience, using their lightfield technology to deliver interactive panel comic books with animation, sounds and possibly navigation,” Madefire’s chief revenue officer Jon Middleton told AListDaily at New York Comic Con. “You might be able to interact with your comics.”

Madefire will be one of the first launch apps for the Magic Leap platform. Although the experience is still in development, Madefire promises that comic panels may be viewed as 3D images that float midair, and users will be able to pin them to physical objects as digital wallpaper. However, much is left to speculation, as Magic Leap is notoriously secretive about its lightfield technology and when the AR headset will launch.

Middleton said that the exact level of interaction will be determined by the creators themselves on a book-by-book basis, and it plans to bring its entire library of graphic novels—including titles from Marvel, DC and Blizzard—to the Magic Leap platform. Original titles like Mono, a comic book about an ape-human hybrid secret agent created by Madefire’s co-founder and CEO Ben Wolstenholme, also almost certainly tops that list.

“Motion book technology adds a 2.5D plane, building a screen-by-screen and instance-by-instance moment, where you’ll be able to see animated comic book frames in front of you,” said Middleton, discussing how motion books fit well with AR technology.

At the announcement, Madefire said that it had been partnered with Magic Leap for five years.

“The companies have been friends for a long time,” said Middleton. “Both Madefire and Magic Leap are very much companies that started for a cause—very specific purpose development—on a mission where technology is a means to an end. Magic Leap wants to build a computing platform and change how people interact with technology, while we’re more geared toward story and building comic book universes as the myths of the 21st century. We’re developing a platform for different kinds of interactive comic books.”

In addition to AR, Madefire has also been building up its brand in the VR space—its VR motion books on the Samsung Gear VR platform were available for attendees to experience on the New York Comic Con show floor.

“VR is all-encompassing, and you’re interacting with the real world with AR,” said Middleton, comparing VR with the potential of AR. “Being that AR has you in real world, it adds a different element, where the book is more-or-less appearing in front of you in your daily environment. It’s a totally different experience in the way it makes you feel, how we can tell stories—even the physical experience of how you think about what you’re looking at is oddly different, since it’s not as all-encompassing as VR. It’s not an apples-to-apples kind of question.

“The more we can innovate with our technological partners, the better. There has been a lot of innovation in the digital realm, and we want to push that and develop a platform that allows for the comic book industry to grow.”

Multiple platforms are turning to AR, particularly Apple and Google. Middleton said that Madefire was also looking into mobile devices to create accessible augmented reality experiences.

“For us, it’s about bringing the comic book reading experience to as many places as people can consume it, whether that’s a technological platform, a hardware platform or just through geographical distribution. The big thing is getting the ability to tell these stories and get content out to these audiences to make them happy wherever they are.”

According to Middleton, Madefire describes itself as a creators-first platform, but it’s really all about the storytelling, making it the ultimate end-result product.

“We love creating it,” said Middleton, “but in order to get there, you’ve got to develop the technology for creators to tell stories. We’re really a creator’s platform.”