This fall, Warner Bros. Discovery gave fans of the Beetlejuice franchise the chance to see what the afterlife is really like.

In late August, ahead of the US theatrical release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, an “afterlife experience” opened up in Los Angeles, giving attendees the chance to immerse themselves in the world of the films. Visitors began their journey to the afterlife in—where else?—a waiting room, from which they were called to a window to consult with an afterlife caseworker and obtain an “Afterlife Passport” and a passport stamp. Once they gained entry, they were greeted by several interactive experiences, including a beauty salon called “Brush with Death” and a section for horoscope readings, according to Kathleen Wallis, VP of global themed entertainment at WBD.

The Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The Afterlife Experience, which ran through the weekend, marked the first time that Wallis’s team has “worked that closely with the theatrical [marketing team] on a project like this,” she said, and while WBD declined to share attendance numbers, Wallis described it as “a big success.”

“This is now a blueprint for future collaborations,” she told Marketing Brew.

WBD is one of several entertainment companies making continued investments in experiential marketing as a way to engage with fans and hopefully incentivize them to come back to movie theaters or to their televisions by strengthening their relationships with some of their biggest titles.

“You spend so much time investing yourself into these worlds and into these characters,” said Eric Lee, partner and CTO of Stagwell’s Left Field Labs, which worked with Amazon’s Prime Video on an experiential activation The Boys and helped market The Wheel of Time. “When you actually get to step into that world and engage in that deeper way in person, you really do see that moment of magic that it sparks for people.”

Continue reading here.—JS

Basketball and sneaker culture go together like shoes on feet. Major sportswear and sneaker brands like Nike, Adidas, New Balance, and Puma know it, and Foot Locker—the multinational retailer that carries them all—knows it, too.

“Basketball has been a huge part of our DNA and how we’ve gone to market,” Kim Waldmann, Foot Locker’s global chief customer officer, told Marketing Brew. “We’ve partnered on some of the most historic basketball sneaker launches, all the way back to 1985 and Air Jordan, so it certainly is a deep part of our history. That being said, we’re absolutely doubling down our investment as we think about…the next 50 years.”

Last November, Foot Locker became an official partner of the NBA, and last month it announced a multiyear deal with the Chicago Bulls that formally kicked off in October when the Bulls faced the Orlando Magic on their home court at the United Center in Chicago.

Bullish on basketball: Foot Locker’s basketball partnerships are part of a strategic effort to cement the brand’s association with sneaker culture, hook new customers, and connect with its existing base of shoppers, Waldmann said.

“They’re more likely to be young, they’re more likely to be multicultural, they’re more likely to play basketball, and they’re more likely to be inspired by the fashion of basketball,” she said. “So to me, that means that we’re going to continue to prioritize [basketball] as we think about our investments.”

Read more here.—AM

This will be an unpredictable holiday season, Mastercard warned in its holiday spending outlook for 2024.

Retailers will need to woo both the “value-conscious consumer” stretched by economic pressures, as well as the “confident consumer” who feels more easy to spend, Mastercard noted. That’s why finding unique and innovative ways to reach shoppers will be crucial.

Retail Brew sat down with Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, to do just that. Goldberg discussed ways in which retailers may serve as sources of inspiration to fend off competition during the busiest shopping season of the year.

What motivates customers to feel inspired while shopping? Inspiration is usually not need-based. There’s a cognitive bias that we call the “endowment effect,” that when you imagine your life with something that you didn’t imagine before, it becomes hard to part with that item…You have to decide: Are you going to have that experience that you just imagined, or are you going to give it up? It’s not a matter of deciding to acquire something. It’s now whether or not you’ll lose that dream you just created. That’s what inspiration is all about.

How can e-commerce platforms inspire customers through digital experiences? In general, I would say they don’t do it as well. E-commerce sites have gotten very good at, officially, letting you order stuff you already need, but they’re very bad at helping you discover stuff and create inspiration for stuff you didn’t know you wanted. What are the best examples? It’s retailers that are telling the story of their products in more long-form ways, like on videos on TikTok, instead of just on their product detail pages.

Read more on Retail Brew.—VC

Executive moves across the industry.

• Chobani has a new CMO: Jai Kibe, who joins from the consulting company Gartner.
• Nike chief legal officer Ann Miller has been appointed executive vice president of global sports marketing.
• Red Lobster tapped Larry Konecny, formerly of Maggiano’s Little Italy, to serve as COO.
• Papa Johns hired Jenna Bromberg, vice president of brand marketing and creative at Carter’s, as its new CMO.
• Gucci hired Givenchy alum Valérie Leberichel as SVP of global communications.