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Icebreakers with...Build-A-Bear CEO Sharon Price John
Our Tennessee Build-A-Bear Workshop turns 25 next year (feeling old?), and the brand has been growing up with its audience. In addition to browsing the typical heart-stuffed plush, customers can head to the age-gated section of Build-A-Bear’s site, The Bear Cave, and nab a Deadpool panda. So after buying 14 Pandapools, we caught up with Build-A-Bear CEO Sharon Price John to learn more about how the company known for its childhood mall magic has evolved. Chicken and egg question for you: Did you see increased interest from an older demographic and create more products for them, or did you create those products and the older demographic came? We started to see an expansion in interest [among older demographics] when we got closer to 20 years old. So five-ish years ago, there was a natural expansion. And that happens a lot in the toy industry. The key is how do you use it as a flywheel and not just a blip in time? As soon as we started to see the data, we started leaning in with more licensing, a little more edgy marketing, making sure that we were really appropriate online for digital natives. Because you want a bigger market. The kids market is hard. It’s always new customers. It churns all the time. It’s what we call a “leaky bucket.” Adult customers are a bigger market that buys less often but is more stable. Plus, it elevates you from a pop culture perspective. The in-person aspect of Build-A-Bear stores feels like such a big part of the magic of creating your bear. How have you dealt with that during the pandemic? We had to shift hard toward e-commerce. It was our only source of consistent revenue as our stores shut down. We had to furlough the vast majority of our organization and do what many companies did. That’s never simple or easy, especially when you’re a company that prides itself on adding a little more heart to life. But we fortuitously put a number of updates in place that we had already been planning. Buy online and ship to store, buy online and pick up in store, we completed a deal with Shipt for same-day delivery...so we were able to maintain a good cash flow. To your point, experience is a benchmark of Build-A-Bear, and it’s almost like we were experiential retail before experiential retail was cool. So how do we make sure our online experience has connectivity back to what we do in the store? For that, we created a Bear Builder Configurator that takes you through the process (pick your bear, pick your outfit, put a sound in), and you can do a heart ceremony. Zooming out to the toy industry, are you seeing any trends that we should keep an eye on? One is experience now that we’re on the other side. I think you’re going to see a pretty good horizon on that, on people re-engaging and getting out and doing fun things. Is there a particular licensed bear that’s been super popular? We don’t rank the products like that, but Baby Yoda’s a phenomenon, not just with us but across the board. Harry Potter as you might imagine is one of the biggest powerhouse licenses out there, and then most recently, we launched Animal Crossing: New Horizons. We looked into that because of so much social media saying, “Please, please, please make Animal Crossing.” This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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Make It Work: Somewhere on a Beach | ||||||||||
Giphy Make It Work is on a well-deserved vacation this week. In the meantime, here are 5 work-related reads…
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Into the Metaverse We Go
Epic Games When he’s not throwing spears or cloning Snapchat, Mark Zuckerberg dreams about the metaverse. “In the coming years, I expect people will transition from seeing us primarily as a social media company to seeing us as a metaverse company,” he said on Facebook’s earnings call Wednesday. He’s serious. On Monday, Facebook announced it was forming a metaverse product group to bring Zuck’s vision from science fiction to reali—er, virtual reality.
But what is the metaverse?Well, here’s the bad news: Not even the guy who popularized it can fully explain it. Venture capitalist Matthew Ball, whose writing on the metaverse has influenced Zuck and other tech thinkers, calls it a “successor state to the mobile internet” but stops short of slapping down an actual definition. He does, however, identify key attributes of the metaverse.
The backstory: The term “metaverse” first showed up in Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi novel Snow Crash in 1992, and was built upon by other science fiction thinkers like Ernest Cline, who depicted a version of the metaverse in his book Ready Player One. Metaverse philosophizing picked up during the pandemic, when people started hanging out in video games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Animal Crossing instead of IRL. And yet the metaverse is so tantalizing, so esoteric, that it could mean everything...and nothing. When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said this week his company was building “the enterprise metaverse” in reference to the company’s cloud-computing services, he was mocked on social media for indiscriminately using a buzzword. Some critics say that while the metaverse idea sounds cool, it may not be the logical next step in the evolution of social media. Others say talking about futuristic concepts could be a tool for Zuck to keep investors excited about the company’s deep investments in AR and VR...and distracted from its current antitrust battles. Bottom line: The metaverse won’t magically appear one day. If it does come into existence, it’ll be a decades-long process involving thousands of companies building the hardware, content, currencies, and other components that together constitute a metaverse. Just as Facebook conquered the internet, it wants to stake a claim in whatever the next version of that will be.
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Open HouseWelcome to Open House, the only newsletter section that will make you seriously consider buying an entire home just for the yellow bathtub. We’ll give you a few facts about a listing and you try to guess the price. | ||||||||||
Zillow In Clovis, New Mexico, a town 15 minutes west of the Texas border, a home exists with so much wood inside of it that you’d be able to dismantle it and sell it for parts if lumber prices go up again. But it’s got so much more than nicely finished timber:
How much for your ’70s dream house? Scroll to the bottom of the newsletter to find out.
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Just Click It1. How TV went from David Brent to Ted Lasso. (New York Times) *Don’t let your money slack off. This card recommended by The Ascent lets your money work hard, earning unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every day. Learn more and put your money to work here.* *This is sponsored advertising content |
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Meme BattleWelcome back to Morning Brew's Meme Battle, where we crown a single memelord every Sunday. Today's winner: Jill in Redmond, OR. Same vibes when we judge all your memes, tbh. | ||||||||||
This week's challenge: You can find the new meme template here for next Sunday. Once you're done making your meme, submit it at this link. We'll pick a new memelord for next week's Sunday Edition and provide you with another meme template to meme-ify.
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We think you should share the Brew. Not only is it a smart thing to do for your friends, it’s also the smartest way to get showered in free Brew swag and exclusive content.
Your referral count: 0 Click to ShareOr copy & paste your referral link to others: |
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SUNDAY 8.1.2021
TRENDING NEWS
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WATCH: Biden Threatens To Crush Economy With More Lockdowns
Biden: All Federal Employees Get Vaccine, Has an Ugly Surprise for Those Who Refuse
Liberal News Networks Ignore Assault, Robbery Of Ex Senator Barbara Boxer In CA
Democrat Infrastructure Bill Will Cost TWO TRILLION MORE Than They’re Saying
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| FOX Daily update ⋅ August 1, 2021 | |||||||
| NEWS | |||||||
My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell to pull ads from Fox News Who
will lose more sleep over this separation? Pillow salesman and
conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell says he's pulling his ads from Fox News, where ... MyPillow pulls ads from Fox over commercial linked to election-fraud claim - Atlanta Journal Constitution
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| Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate draws postal union backlash Good morning and welcome to Fox News First. Here's what you need to know as you start your day … Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate draws ...
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| California TikTok star, 19, dies after 'Purge' theater shooting Rylee Goodrich, 18, was also shot and pronounced deceased at the scene. By Paul Best | Fox News. Dad restrained as he confronts suspect in fatal shooting daughter in movie theater: 'Look at me!' - Fox News
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| Man accused of shooting intoxicated trespasser faces voluntary manslaughter charges Fox
News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on
Foxnews.com. A Tennessee homeowner was arrested and is facing
voluntary ...
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| Dave Rubin responds to Twitter locking his account over COVID 'misinformation' Author Dave Rubin joined "Fox News Primetime" Friday to discuss being locked out of his account right after tweeting a message about the latest ...
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| WH condemns WaPo, NYT for 'completely irresponsible' tweets hyping COVID spread among ... 'Unreal to not put that in context,' White House official Ben Wakana reacted to the Post. By Joseph A. Wulfsohn | Fox News.
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| No children, no vote: Fox News's latest asinine suggestion The brains trust at Fox
News recently debated whether the 'childless left' deserve the vote –
which shows that choosing not to have kids if still very ...
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| Australia beats Germany 89-76 to sweep basketball pool Fox
News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on
Foxnews.com. The wait needs to end now. Australia views this as its time
to finally ...
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| 10-year-old girl killed after rock crashes through windshield Fox
News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on
Foxnews.com. A 10-year-old Idaho girl was killed when a rock crashed
through the ...
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| UNC emails show long debate over tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones, who took job at Howard ... Fox
News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on
Foxnews.com. The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill has released
hundreds ...
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Johnny Depp Wins Motion To Force ACLU To Reveal Whether Amber Heard Paid The Millions She Promised After Divorce
People Wondered Why D.C. Mayor Delayed New Mask Mandate Until Saturday. Now We Know Why.
Maher Torches ‘Woke’ Culture: ‘This Is Called A Purge. It’s A Mentality That Belongs In Stalin’s Russia.’
WATCH: Nancy Mace Gets Texas Democrat Who Fled State To Admit IDs Are Needed For Adult Life
Olympic ‘Medical And Science Director’ Says ‘Everyone Agrees Trans Women Are Women,’ Praises Trans Weightlifter
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| [TRAGEDY] - 57 People DEAD - Horrific Emergency Situation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| [HAPPENING NOW] - White House UNDER INVESTIGATION - New Details Made Public | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![FBI Agents RAID His Home... [Full Details Here]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj8fNaUf4TvFXezRfE5VO1E-KSmVP78Nhq65sZLlkux1RoipwQHTDv7cbFuR4O0UVMhsgzBDjy9lPqyAzzFpyImiHFXuc-IiB8synqJukbKRB_8tOx4QD1dEl94i08e14rj11ZhZ-CrTxzR8ayexpB-rUn1LvTvpeo0lWfGDS8GCMD5uAI9elH98Y1bfBMnhi-1hGScaB0A=s0-d-e1-ft "FBI Agents RAID His Home... [Full Details Here]")
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