Overview
CES Tech Talk podcast, in its sixth season, features interviews with industry experts who bring you an insider’s look at what’s new and trending in the world of consumer electronics, and at CES. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe via your favorite podcast platform to get the latest. In episode 25, discover how creative firm Journey works with companies to boost their brand via metaverse spaces. Founder Cathy Hackl explains how and why.
More businesses are exploring the metaverse as a means to win and retain audiences and customers through deeply immersive experiences. When considering the best approach, they have an expert resource in Cathy Hackl, founder and chief metaverse officer for Journey. She discusses metaverse technologies, as well as opportunities for enterprises interested in extending their brands into new virtual worlds. Learn all about it in episode 25, Journey: Designing for Metaverse-Bound Brands, of the CES Tech Talk podcast series.
Takeaways
- The metaverse is not any single technology, or owned and operated by a single company; it isn’t strictly AR or VR.
- Journey worked with Walmart to create Walmart Land in Roblox with places that include the entertainment aisle, fashion aisle and electric aisle. For the holidays, Journey even added snow. At last check, the space – which launched in September 2022 – had received more than 7 million visits.
- Despite what many may think, the metaverse is about much more than gaming, which Hackl sees as the new shopping mall. She points out that gaming is often the entry point for metaverse denizens.
- Hackl has literally written the book on metaverse; her recently published title is Into The Metaverse: The Essential Guide to the Business Opportunities of the Web3 Era. She also hosts Adweek’s popular podcast, Metaverse Marketing.
They Said It
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Journey is a new design and innovation consultancy. We work to merge the physical and the virtual worlds…We do both: Work in the physical space, for example, TSX Entertainment, which is the first Web3 building, but we also do a lot of work in the virtual space. For example, we created the two Roblox worlds that Walmart launched last year.
Cathy Hackl (00:38)
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[Y]ou have to look at [the metaverse] as the next iteration of the internet. So, a more immersive, 3D version of the internet, a further convergence of physical and digital. It's about virtual shared experiences that happen…in virtual spaces. That could be in VR or it could be in gaming, but eventually will happen in the physical world as well.
Cathy Hackl (01:44)
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Journey at CES 2023
Journey was featured at CES 2023 via a session in the C Space Studio at ARIA.
Cathy Hackl, Founder and Chief Metaverse Officer, Journey
Cathy Hackl is a globally recognized metaverse executive and tech futurist who has worked with HTC VIVE, Magic Leap and AWS. She leads Journey's metaverse studio helping brands with metaverse/Web3 strategies, NFTs, gaming and virtual couture. Her team created Walmart Land and Universe of Play for Walmart in Roblox, and she produced Electric Fest, a virtual concert in Walmart Land. She styled Kane Brown, Madison Beer and Yungblud in virtual couture looks for the festival.
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