How brands can fit into new realities

She helped bring mega-brewer AB InBev into the metaverse with a Stella Artois project. She recently co-founded an entertainment company called Sixth Wall with actor Mila Kunis and other crypto/blockchain enthusiasts. In all her work, CEO Lindsey McInerney thinks about new roles for brands in new spaces. She sees Web3 as a way to bring creators and audiences closer together and envisions a place for brands to play authentically.

Matt Carmichael: In your previous role, you brought a massive brewer into the metaverse. Why?

Lindsey McInerny: If you abstract away the concept of beer from AB InBev, they’re really good at bringing people together to be entertained as sponsors of sport, media and entertainment. Zed Run are a premium sporting platform in the metaverse that’s a crypto horse-racing game. Stella [Artois’] consumers would feel like this was an interesting place for it to show up. It also felt like there would be value that we could inherently add to the community of Zed Run. The rest is history.

Carmichael: How do you balance early adopting with too early adopting?

McInerny: This is where brands are going be stuck right now. Sometimes you are so early that you miss a window. Either certain technologies aren’t there to support you through the execution of your idea, or consumers aren’t there yet. To be innovative is to keep trying.

Carmichael: Will virtual realities parallel reality?

McInerny: That’s where most of our minds are at. It's difficult to conceive outside of what you don't know. We’re likely to design things that reflect and resemble what we know. Even if you create a whole new world of flora and fauna, you’re still creating something that very much exists in reality. We will evolve to a point where a metaphor resembles nothing like reality. As we experience worlds that are less and less like the one we live in, that'll allow our minds to become a bit more elastic.

Carmichael: And will marketing itself change?

McInerny: A lot of what will happen in these worlds because of that parallel will actually be these old-hat marketing things. Because the metaverse will be the future of sponsorships, advertising, e-commerce, sports licensing — all these different things that marketers know how to do really, really well in reality.

Carmichael: How will brands make their way in?

McInerny: One of the big questions that marketers talk about, seem fearful of in some cases, is that all these technologies are so new. The good news is that while the technologies are new, you will do well if you hire people who know how to think in 3D. Bring in people who love video games, maybe even your own kids whom you’ve been yelling at to get off the Xbox for years. Those are the builders and creators of the future.

Carmichael: How does the metaverse move beyond a gaming world?

McInerny: Where it will start to diverge is where it leans into crypto and creates a digital economy that doesn't quite exist today. Your kids already get this. Young people care a lot about what they own digitally. As people spend more time in digital worlds and universes, they're going to care a lot.

Carmichael: Does the metaverse just become a big ad-based mall?

McInerny: This is one of my biggest fears: How do we not replicate some of the more terrible things that happened in Web2, where the business model was all advertising based. The tokenization of things presents a new business model that will be really interesting.

Carmichael: How do we make these spaces safe for everyone?

McInerny: What does this look like if we get it really right or really wrong? We need as many people at this table having these conversations. But there's a lot of jargon that is exclusive and used to gatekeep. A lot of people feel intimidated and aren't here having these conversations.

And second, we need to not be cynics. The metaverse will or won’t happen with or without you. If you think it's horrible or that you have a perspective that this could go wrong, rather than be cynical, let's talk, let's engage.

Carmichael: Finally, tell me about “The Gimmicks,” your current project.

McInerny: “Gimmicks” is trying to bring creators closer to fans and fans closer to creators. If you think about the way traditional film and television is created, it's usually behind a closed door. With “The Gimmicks” we’re allowing the audience to be part of the creation of the narrative. Every week at the end of the episode, the community who own gimmicks tokens and NFTs gets to vote on the outcome of the episode.