#42: Toys"R"Us Unveils First AI-Created Brand Film with OpenAI's Sora

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In This Article

Around the Block…

• AI: Toys”R”Us

• AR / VR / Visuals: Curry & Paxton

• Gaming / Metaverse: UEFA, Ally Bank / USGA

• Roblox: Walmart, Skoda, Universal Music Group

Chain Reactions!

• More Brands Entering Fortnite

• Walmart Continues to Innovate Around Roblox

Around the Block…

AI

• Toys“R”Us: First to Create AI Brand Film Using OpenAI’s Sora Tool

  • Toys”R”Us and creative agency Native Foreign became the first to create a brand video using OpenAI’s text-to-video platform, Sora (currently unavailable to the public). The video, which was premiered at a Cannes Lions event, took a few weeks to produce and is just over a minute long.

  • Source: Toys”R”Us Brand Film / PR Newswire (Toys”R”Us)

AR / VR / Visuals

• Curry & Paxton: Rolls Out AR Experience at Soho London Location

  • The British eyewear brand partnered with technology company Imerence™ to deliver an interactive shopping experience to visitors of their Soho London location. While browsing, shoppers can initiate AR visuals that provide storytelling, 3D visuals, and product details around the ‘Yvan’ frame.

  • Source: LinkedIn (Charles Wilders)

Gaming / Metaverse

• UEFA: Hosts EURO 2024 'Battle’ Experience in Fortnite

  • UEFA has teamed up with game production company Dubit to create a soccer tournament-themed experience in Fortnite. Players can compete by scoring goals and playing mini-games. UEFA previously released an activation in Roblox with Adidas, who also created a soccer-themed activation to celebrate international tournaments in Rocket League.

  • Source: Fortnite (UEFA EUROballer BATTLE)

• Ally Bank: Partners with USGA on $25K Competiton in Fortnite

  • Ally Bank, who has previously created activations in Fortnite, has partnered with the United States Golf Association (USGA) on a new experience called ‘Tee Time Speedrun’. Players could compete for a portion of $25K cash and prizes, including tickets to the 2025 US Open, by submitting their times into Ally’s Discord between June 20th and 23rd.

  • Source: Fortnite (Tee Time Speedrun) / Ally Arena

Roblox

• Walmart: Extends ‘Discovered’ Experience Beyond Roblox with AR

  • Walmart is expanding its Roblox experience by using AR to showcase digital products outside the platform. They’ve partnered with web-based AR company 8th Wall to create 3D visuals of items available through ‘Walmart Discovered,’ which can be viewed directly via a link or accessed by scanning Roblox gift card displays in Walmart stores. Walmart is also partnering with Roblox Loyalty brand Flaunt to create monthly quests and connect the AR experience to Roblox.

  • Sources: 8th Wall (Walmart Discovered AR Experience) / LinkedIn (Justin Breton) / Roblox (Walmart Discovered)

• Skoda: Refreshes Roblox Experience with Obstacle Course Games

  • The Czech auto and bike manufacturer has updated their Roblox experience ‘Skoda Bike Planet’, which originally debuted in 2023. The refresh includes five obstacle courses where players can follow traffic regulations, compete in time trials, and complete tasks. Players earn points that can be used to purchase a new bike.

  • Sources: Roblox (Skoda Bike Planet) / We Love Cycling

• Universal Music Group: Brings The Rolling Stones to Roblox

  • Universal Music Group has refreshed their Roblox experience ‘Beat Galaxy’ to feature music and content from the rock band. For a limited time, players can participate in a mini-game and win Rolling Stones’ UGC wearable items.

  • Source: Roblox (Universal Music Group Beat Galaxy) / Yahoo Finance (PR Newswire - Super Social)

Chain Reactions!

• More Brands Entering Fortnite

  • An observation of brand activations for the past 10 months: Fortnite integrations have been pretty uncommon compared to the steady flow of brands launching in Roblox and getting press around other innovative marketing tactics.

  • Sure, we’ve seen a handful of cool integrations (Nike, Marriot Bonvoy, Liquid Death), but I’m curious why they’ve been lagging when they have over 230 million monthly active players.

    • This could be due to the volume of work needed to develop and animate an experience and it being the early days of creative studios having structure and capacity to support these projects (an outlet that can expand creative and development capacity beyond what Fortnite itself can offer). Check-out an interesting article by Digiday on this topic.

  • It’s clear that Fortnite is increasingly emphasizing brand integrations; Fortnite made big moves in this area over the past seven months with its announcements of the Lego and Disney partnerships.

    • Additionally, I have noticed a growing number of brands in Fortnite these past few months. As more brands enter the game, others will follow, which additionally helps third-party creative studios gain experience developing brand activations for the platform.

• Walmart Continues to Innovate Around Roblox

  • Walmart isn’t slowing down! They continue to be a north star for retailers looking to create innovative shopping and engagement experiences for customers.

    • It’s clear that the company is supporting retail innovation with three leading-edge activations announced over the past two months (extending the Roblox experience with AR, launching their ‘Realm’ immersive shopping platform, selling physical items in Roblox).

  • I like how they are taking a closed experience (Roblox) and thinking of ways to bring its content to life outside of the platform (AR).

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