XP News from Elsewhere: November 12th, 2021

Justin Bieber brings Justice to the metaverse

The Hollywood Reporter: In the first piece of XP news, Justin Bieber partnered with the metaverse concert platform Wave for a live show on Nov. 18. Biebs’ movements and vocals will be captured in a studio, then translated into an avatar for the virtual show. Beliebers at home can interact with him virtually and even “power up” his avatar. Whatever that means. Artists like The Biebs and The Weeknd are investors in Wave, which is poised to be the leading next-generation concert producer as the metaverse becomes a hot new venue. And we’re keeping an eye on all of it…

Welcome back to the stage, Pop-Up Magazine

Ad Age: The critically-acclaimed live magazine performance is back on tour and sticking to its roots. Pop-Up Magazine (gasp!) does not live stream or record shows for later viewing, which leaves us with the age old question, if you went to a Pop-Up show and didn’t see clips on Twitter the next day, did it even happen? Check out their lineup and buy tickets here.

Niantic has a plan to keep the real world alive

The Verge: Meta already has plenty of competitors in the virtual worlds space — Unity, Epic Games, Roblox and more. But who’s challenging the metaverse’s eclipse of reality? Pikachu, er Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go, that’s who. Niantic just announced Lightship, an augmented reality kit for developers to bridge our real world with virtual ones. We are big fans of our current world and not ready for Ready Player One just yet, so we are bullish on AR.

Interactive Super Bowl ads suck (unless you’re a Zoomer)

Ad Age: According to The Marketing Arm, 70% of survey respondents would prefer not to interact or take an action while watching a Super Bowl ad. Except screaming “Wasssssup” at friends and family. On the flip side, ads like Cool Ranch Doritos, which incorporated AR dance moves from Lil Nas X during Super Bowl LV, make the youths — aka Gen Z — feel connected to a brand. Thoughts and prayers for the advertisers who are tasked with finding the middle ground here.

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