This is Bloomberg Business Wait inside from the reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus global business, finance and tech news. The Bloomberg Business Week Podcast with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck from Bloomberg Radio.
All right, everybody, we have a great guest if you come out to LA Yes, it's so much about the content business, the studios and all the good stuff like that. But you know, it's also known for some iconic sports teams La Lakers, La Dodgers, La Rams, just to name a few sports too. Is such a muse in terms of creating content here in the United States and really globally. And our next guest knows a lot about that. She's part of the La Rams Inner Circle. She was in
an earlier session here at screen Time. It was called perfecting your Partnership Strategy in the world of So I got to.
Catch a little bit of it.
You did.
It was great. Good to have you with us this afternoon. Jennifer Prince. She's chief Commercial officer for the La Rams. She's on site here at Bloomberg screen Time in La all about commercializing La Ram's content business, helping connect the NFL team to a larger media landscape of social media, TV and film. How are you?
I'm great, Thank you for having me.
I was the session. It seemed like it went really well.
It was very dynamic, It went well, and it possibly could have gone on another thirty minutes.
I always feel like all of these, right, they're just such great discussions, and I think about the sports world generally, it is such a great no joke, It is such a great news in terms of creating content. How do you think about it. You've got players, You've got teams, You've got lots of stuff going on.
Yeah.
So, sitting in the center of LA we have an incredible team, an incredible brand. This brand is global. We have fans everywhere, and we get to play in Sofi Stadium, which is a beautiful meca of what sports and entertainment and technology and that intersection is. And so we get to really lean into all of the assets, from the football players to the team, to our coach, everything on
the field to them. Thinking about our brand and the way that we present ourselves and how we work with partners to reach our fans, our future fans, and really creating this intersection.
What's the thing that really moves the needle. That's something happens, you post something you know, and it's just like it just blows up.
Yeah.
So football first, right, anything.
Football from the game or any of it.
Any highlight, any moment not only on the field, but also the arrivals and the you know, the talks with coach after the game, all of it, it all, you know, resonates with fans and it gives access. And so that access point is really what does well our fans, even naysayers, like to hear what coach has to say, whether we win or lose, and how he motivates the team and keeps the team moving. So I would say, like the football.
First, Silly me, I thought she was going to say Taylor Swift So well, how much? So we have to ask how can we be out Let's.
Be real, like were you guys? Can we have our Taylor Swift moment? Like was it frustrating a little bit? Or like oh my god? Because so much attention right has been on you know, tailor or trailer as they call it.
So how do you think about that?
Yeah, so, really the NFL is having a moment right when you think about the fan base and everyone who rallies around football, and then you think about that future fan and you think of that younger female demo and how to reach them. I mean, this is a moment and it's not like Travis Kelsey needed any help. He will be a Hall of Famer. He's incredible on the field. But the two of them together, it's a phenomenon. It's something that is really impacting ratings to Jersey sales.
Are you guys seeing following? Are you also seeing an impact of result?
I think just the overall consumption and who's watching and who's leaning in. We all need to lean into this moment. It isn't happening in our team right or within our family, but we still get to capitalize on what it means for this fan base to be so ripe and present at this time, Which are young females.
Are you telling a member of the team like, hey, you know there's a popular singer.
That's like she's well, I think about he's not available?
Do you know what?
I think about the old Hollywood studio system, right, and they would link actors and actresses together just so that their pictures showed up, just to create some momentum. I know, I know, I know who's saying right.
We don't know?
Well, you know. It brings up an interesting point about the presence on social media that these players have even before potentially signing with a pro team. How do you work with the players who have this direct connection to make sure that, look, what they're posting is something that aligns with your own values.
Yeah, so listen, I've spent nine years at Twitter years ago to come, and so everyone has a personal life, Everyone has a point of view, and those who are notable can use their voice and carry their voice in all the right ways and also can make some right and left turns. It isn't my job specifically to work with the players and player marketing. That's our CMO. We
have teams of people doing that. But we have a really great team, I would say have incredible players who are not necessarily leaning into things that they shouldn't be and we like when they're using their voice that helmet off who they are as people going through their journeys, their paths. Everyone has a story, so we like for them to tell their own story. But it's always something just to keep our eye on. But we have those who are well behaved.
I and if not, they probably get reminded to be well behaved.
Don't we all need that occasionally?
Who is it that you like to take meetings with to figure out how do you best, you know, kind of leverage your brand.
Yeah.
So we have over one hundred partners and we don't just want to create volume and scale around these partnerships. We like to partner in deep, meaningful ways. We like to say we partner with purpose. And so when we're talking to brands right the existing brands that.
We have from Sofi to Toyota and Pepsi to Verizon, we have so many incredible brands and usually those want to leave it lean into us who are doing sports marketing, want to reach a future fan base with us and reach our existing fan base in meaningful ways with surprise and delights and offers and access.
Like I talked about, what's.
The read that you're getting from your partners right now? In the economy. We love talking to people like you because you see where the money's going. You see how much money is going to a certain places. We're not going exactly. What is the read on the economy that you see from your purchase chief commercial officers?
Yeah, so you know, we have the benefit of sitting in Los Angeles and we are working typically with not only heads of marketing, but those in the region who are looking to increase sales produce outcomes with us. So we like that we are a bridge and a conduit to providing outcomes. So it's not just the upper funnel fun stuff in terms of marketing with brands. It's also
getting down to metrics and measurements. So coming from a world that was highly measured, I ensure that my team has all the right partnerships in place with vendors so that we can provide outcomes. And so when we hear from a brand that they're doing incredibly well with us, we dig into that what does that mean? And we want to make sure that we're marching with our brands to the outcome.
So anybody pulling back though because of the economics.
So you know what there are I was going to say, so the few categories right that are having a harder time is whether it's crypto or some mortgage finance interest rates, Like the things that are present right now that you're more familiar with. Those are the categories who are at times having to either readjust or realign, commit, but commit in different ways and at different levels.
All Right, you're in an elevator with somebody really matters more important than us, and they said, give me thirty five forty seconds on Twitter?
You know Twitter, this company? What do you say?
You were there for eight years? Vice president? Don't eat up her time on content partnerships? What is it?
Eat up time time?
Listen?
I worked at Twitter. We were priding ourselves on being this megaphone to the world and really where public conversation could happen. We did all the right things. I left December of twenty one, a long time ago. What Twitter is now, it's just take going on to be x. It has a little different meaning the way that they're leaning into product innovation and no comment really other than I had incredible years there and miss those that I worked with.
Do you still use it?
I do.
I'm not posting as much or tweeting, or it's not tweeting, it's posting coming and so I'm but I'm consuming for sport more than I'm talking about myself.
Yeah, it's a different world me too. I found myself backing up. What a pleasure, Thank you so much, So enjoyed. I shit you Jennifer Prince. She's chief commercial officer for the La Rams. On site at Bloomberg screen Time in Los Angeles, I have Carol Masser along with Tim's Stanevik. Don't go anywhere More to come from screen Time Here on the West.
Coast, you're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from three to six Eastern Listen on Bloomberg dot com, the iHeartRadio app, and the Bloomberg Business App, or watch us live on YouTube.
You know, going viral can be good or it can be bad.
I feel like it's more often bad and good.
Well, anyway, a discussion here at screen Time was kind of all about this. It was entitled Viral Lessons, and it included top creators of social content. We have one of them with us, Drew A. F Walow is TikTok, creator and host of the comment section. Welcome, Welcome, and thank you for joining us.
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
We are excited to have you here.
And it is right viral, Like you know, it can be such a great thing and then it can be rough.
How do you think about it?
Do you ever think about when you're doing something like, all right, I'm gonna get a.
Lot of craft for this.
I mean, yeah, for my niche in particular. Absolutely, I a lot of feedback.
Yeah, my feedback is one way to put it.
Yeah, feedback is definitely one way to put it. I built my business off the shoulders of men who hate me, so i'd call that a win from women women of color, and I think it's been a it's been a real, like consistent barrage of hate for so long now that I think it's just white noise to me, specifically from misogynistic people in general.
But when you started, what did you think about what you wanted to do?
I mean when I first originally started, I just started telling silly stories that made me laugh and made me giggle, and so some people started kind of relating to it, and then I had one video that really took off, and then it kind of just snowballed into this crusade, which I'm happy to carry out and I have been.
For a long time now.
But yeah, it was never anything I thought was gonna happen, although now I'm glad it has.
So when you when you carry it out, I mean it's not without its own challenges. You've been yeah, you've been blocked, You've been banned, yourn has been shut down. Absolutely, how do you get past those things?
I mean, I think I just like even when I lost my TikTok account four times, I got locked out of it, and it was when I was like on a real growing like growth spurt, like I was growing like one hundred thousand followers every other day, and so I got banned twice first, then I got signed, then I got banned two more.
To why why did that happen?
Mass reporting, which is an issue that I've talked to TikTok about too, which helps. It helps to have you know, a team. I think me getting a team really helped in that you.
Have like a direct line to TikTok. Now I have a rep.
I think most creators do who are verified, they have some sort of contact person that they can reach out to if they have any issues at all. And once I got my contact person, I think it really kind of helped. Also, getting verified helps too, it helps legitimize you in the eyes of the app.
And also true algorithm.
You know, we're in this era of like trying to figure out so much social media out there, and there's misinformation, there's really problematic information, there's dangerous information, and yeah, there's opinion and entertainment. What do you think is the fine line here?
I mean, I think for my particular niche there is really no other side. You see bigotry platformed openly and publicly, so I respond to it accordingly. I don't give them a chance to defend themselves because I don't really want to hear why you feel so bigoted and felt it was funny to platform it and perpetuate and uphold all these different forms of oppression. I don't need to hear
the other side because I've seen it for myself. So I feel like for my content particular, I like to describe mine as like it's a real one way street on my platform, Like I see what you say. I don't give you a chance to defend yourself. I make fun of you publicly, and since we're all joking, let's all laugh together.
I love to laugh, so I guess I guess my question is we love to laugh too. Is it working? Like I know it's working for you professionally, and you've built an amazing following. You're among the people on TikTok with the most followers, I mean, what eight million? At this point? Is it working to do you think? To make the space safer, to make the platform safer. But does it deter these guys?
Yeah to an extent, Yes, for sure. At one point I felt like I did too good of a job of cleaning up those streets of TikTok because.
I couldn't find anybody.
But I don't think it necessarily gets rid of it entirely. I don't think that I could never have that kind of impact. I think what it does is it instills a very real fear that other people who sit lower on the oppression ladder experience every single day, not just on social media. So they experience that all the time. That fear is very real of being attacked. And so the men that I choose to stitch have never felt that way before. Now it's instilled a fear in them.
If you do do it, there is a chance I will find it and I will talk about it. So they have to decide for themselves whether or not that's worth the risk, and some of them decide it is, and some of them decide it isn't. So I would say it definitely has made a difference. I wouldn't say it's gotten rid of it entirely. I mean, I think that would be crass of me to take credit for getting rid of a subject, because that's not true by any stretch.
Oh it's still out there, Yeah, for sure it is.
And I think my bigger goal though, is not necessarily to get them to stop. It's to empower all the people that they hurt all the time.
Well, this is where I want to come to because people come up to you, right listen, and people who don't have the voice that you do, and.
I'm sure they're yeah, absolutely a little.
Bit about that, like the feedback you get from just I hate to say normal people, but yeah, who don't have platforms.
I mean, it's it's one of the few things that makes me emotional, like when it comes to my TikTok journey. But it's also one of the few things that makes it worth it because you know, I laugh and joke all the time about you know, getting hate from men, because it is true. It's silly in a very superficial way, but in a very real way. There's a very real danger that has come with me doing this for a living like it's posed a very real threat to me and my family.
These are about security, yeah.
Overall, because you know, when biggots are bigots, they get so angry that sometimes they want to kill you because they see your content. So it has posed a very real threat to me and my family in a lot of ways. I've taken extensive, extensive precautions and measures to protect myself and my family, but it is at risk
I had to make peace with. So you know, when I hear testimonies from people who have used my content in a very real way, like they've put it into their lives in a way that has made a huge difference for them, it makes it worth it. I like hold that those kinds of stories so dearly when I feel like I can't do it anymore, because it does get really hard at certain points dealing with the very
specific niche that I find myself in. So I mean, I've heard many different stories, like from women who are in their fifties who got a divorce because they've been watching my content. I've heard testimonies from trans women who told me my content kept them on this earth longer than they planned to be. So I've heard many, many different stories that have made me very aware and confident that it is impacting in a very positive way.
You realize the power of it.
Yeah, absolutely, rue, this is Bloomberg. We follow the money. We want to know about some money.
Do you think ten year yield is going to go?
You know you came here with It's not just you. You have a team. I mean, like I'm looking at it doesn't make sure afterwards. This is your full time job. Yes, talk to me about you know, the money behind this, the brand deals that you have. Please share and share some numbers if you can.
You. Oh, yeah, I mean I have a pretty extensive team as of right now. I have like I have an agent, I have a manager, I have a lawyer. I have three publicists. I have a stylist. I have a hair and makeup artist. I actually have two managers. Yeah, two managers, and you know the list goes on. I have lots of Like I work with people at Spotify, I work with people on my book. I have, like, you know, very very expensive team, which I think it just it takes a village right to run something like this.
I could never do any like even half of the things I have done just by myself. So I'm very grateful for a team. But yeah, I'm very lucky to have worked with many different brands that.
I put A team is expensive.
Yes, yeah, for sure.
I mean they're expensive, but it's all about I think, what's worth it to you? Right, So the only way I get bigger opportunity is by hiring experts. And I'm not not too proud to admit that I don't know everything about this business.
So yeah, I mean, sorry, it's.
Like they're listening.
You know who they are?
Just thirty seconds.
When you think about working with a brand, what's going to be top of mind? Is it about the financial composition of it?
Or is it also who they are? Just really quickly, I.
Mean, I think finances play a huge role, for sure. Obviously I'm a business and I have to remember that we're a business. But at the same time, I think as long as their ethos matches mine, and they understand my platform and agree with it and feel empowered by it or feel like it needs to be spread even larger, I think that's really all.
I focus on.
Well, congratulations and for willing to make the fight for people who don't have a voice out.
Thank you so much.
Really cool stuff.
Thank you.
Drew Afwalo, a TikTok creator of course and content creator should say and host of the comment section. Joining us here at Bloomberg screen Time.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Catch us live weekday afternoons from three to six Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, the Bloomberg Business app, and YouTube. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
We got a great guest with us this afternoon, Laura Miles, President of Entertainment and Technology at the thirty five billion dollar market cap and gaming giant EA. You also might know it as Electronic Arts. She knows this company well. She was a former COO and c chief Studios Officer of EA as well. She's with us right now at the Bloomberg screen Time event here in Los Angeles. We're in sunny Hollywood.
How are you.
I'm great? Hello, Thanks for having me. Thank you. What a great event it is.
Yeah, what do you get out of something like this?
I just I love the cross section of technology, media and then just the conversations that are happening. So the presentations are awesome, but the richness comes from the you know, getting a cup of coffee and having interaction in exchange with people. I just did to talk about gaming and it was great to hear people from nonprofits that are very passionate about education and how gaming can contribute to that. And I don't know if I would have had that.
I don't know if I could have organized that or have you know, planned that conversation. So it's great, it's great to be here.
It's so funny.
It's a very bloomberg ish kind of thing where we all kind of have to like run into each We don't have to, but we just do.
But it's amazing that you're like, oh, I didn't.
Know you was doing that. Like maybe happy accidents, right, yeah, great.
Happy accident tell us about your world and when you are thinking about I mean, actually, let's go to the big story.
Let's talk about soccer. Okay, can we go there first?
Sure?
In terms of this long term relationship that you guys have with FIFA and now you're you're doing your own thing. Was that a complicated, difficult switch to do.
It's been it's been years in the making, and it was such a great time for us, given shifts that we're seeing in the industry, shifts we're seeing in technology, it was a moment for us to say, hey, gosh, can we really create our own brand? And you know, Ea Sports Football Club. It's such an the idea and concept of it's such an inclusive idea for players and partner we have with clubs. We have nineteen thousand athletes
in the game, and so it's remarkable. And where the industry is headed is you think about games now as platforms and in the case of E Sports FC, we have a mobile game, we.
Have online game.
In Asia, we have the HD premium game, and they're all about this big ecosystem. Hundreds of millions of players in this and they play multiple versions of the game, and they socially connect and they create together and they watch games together. And so that's really the future and
what we're seeing in the industry. And when we think about electronic arts, we also have Battlefield, the SIMS and Apex and Skate and so you apply this model of this connected ecosystem, these massive online communities, we see that that's a really important direction for our growth and where we're headed.
But this game, I mean FIFA's legendary one of the best selling series in the world, more than three hundred and seventy five million copies sold, versions in twenty different languages, and for people who are just catching up. And there's a great article and the great in this week's edition of Bloomberg Business Week. EA and FIFA were not able to come to a licensing agreement, So this year it's not called FIFA anymore. It's called EA Sports FC twenty four.
How do you make sure that consumers of the game, people who are new to it as well, know that this is the next iteration of what last year was called FIFA.
Are they already well, you know, we launched the A Sports FC twenty four a few weeks ago and we are so thrilled with the reception of the game. And keep in mind, the game is everything that it was Again. We have nineteen thousand athletes, over three hundred clubs and partnerships, So when players in Liverpool show up, their club is there, their athletes are there, and that's what's really meaningful to them.
That was super important that we maintain that integrity of the experience and so and we were also able to innovate in the game with some really great technology and really realistic soccer experiences and animation and with the players.
And so I think it's amazing when you guys get so specific on details in of whether it's how there's shorts.
Move like I know our story in Bloomberg Business, we talks about it.
But it does say something about the attention to detail so that when somebody is playing, it's like being at a real it's advan.
It's about realism and yeah, and having and having that expression. And I am a soccer player on the you know, on the pitch, and so I think that that's that's what players really really look for. So yeah, we're we're really proud of of where it's landed, how the game is received by players right now, and where we're headed. That's the exciting thing. Again, these connected communities are massive, So what.
Do you do with that?
Because you know, when we talk about connected communities, I think we go to the traditional social world, right and we think about those communities better or worse. Tell us about that community and what's the power of it and where else you can go with it.
You know, the idea about play, clearly, games are about play being and playing games, right and as we continue to think about our design and our innovation, we really want to extend the modality of experiences for players. So creation in games is also significant right now, really big, creating your own objects, creating your own modes so your friends can come play.
And then the next.
Modality is watching that and so people can record and create short form videos and then broadcast that. And then to your point, the social connection around all of that is what is really meaningful, and that's the flywheel multiplier effect of engagement. We have billion people spend billions of hours in our games every year. It's remarkable how much time people spend with us. We'll launch a game and will they can come back and play it every day a whole course of year. We used to launch twenty
thirty games a year. We launched maybe seven or eight now, but we launch four to five hundred life service updates a year, and so we're there for players with events and seasons and content and just keeping the game alive. And to your question about social engagement, having those components, having those events and having those shared experiences super important for the social engagement.
Keep going back, yes, exactly, now it's new or what's going on.
Where's the growth happening for EA right now? Is it with the same people buying more games, playing these games more or are you successfully bringing more people into gaming.
It's both, I would say so first really meeting the gen Z gen Alpha motivation and need through creation, through self expression, through sharing content, and then that social connection around that's super important for us to hit that key motivation of the of that generation of those players. And then I would say that players as well, spending more time in our games is also another area of growth
for us. So we look at, you know, continue to expand our tam having you know, bringing new players into experiences, whether it be through new gameplay modes, new brands, new franchises. Apex has been a huge success for us, and that's been a great game for younger players. And then and then just having more content for players. Our SIMS game SIMPS four right now is about ten years old, and
we just we continue to put out content. People just continue to spend even more and more time so new players address large addressable markets, and then just more time I'm in the games are really critical.
All right.
This may be a little weird, but you know, coming off a bar Go there, Go there.
And I know that's been a big conversation here, but I do think you know, folks are saying, nobody would have thought they've talked about a Barbie movie forever. Finally happened and it was a really huge success. And so I think anybody who owns any kind of toy property is like rethinking. So how do you guys think about? Okay, now, where's another avenue that could be a great content creator for gaming?
Where do you go? What do you look for? What kind of trending or you know, innovators or TikTokers like, yeah, who is it or what is it that you look at?
Well?
The beautiful thing about where we are right now as an industry is that as we looked to our players, I mean again this idea about creative self expression and creating sandboxes and tools and frameworks for them to create experiences, I think it is it's been phenomenal to see what people create and how they engage with our tools and our worlds.
And so we've been inspired.
By you could just keep kind of playing, yes completely, and.
We're super inspired by how people think about things, and you know, in ways that are very unexpected and how they engage and interact in our world.
Microsoft is trying to pull off a huge acquisition at after I don't know if that's happening. So what does that mean for you being sort of among the last you know, quote unquote independent publicly traded game studios if this deal goes through, not like we're like a lawyer and m and a exactly.
No.
I think it's well, first of all, I think it's it's it's amazing. Actually it's I mean that this will be one of the largest tech acquisitions in the US history, I believe, and the fact that it's about gaming is remarkable to me, and it just punctuates the significance of our sector and what gaming is to technology and needing entertainment.
So I think it is.
I just think it's interesting and really positive for the perception of But.
What about your relationship with Microsoft? Then what happens.
We will maintain of the strong partnership and then they're very they're important partner to us, they have a meaningful platform, and of course they're on they have PC as well, and so we will we will maintain a strong no concerns, no, no concerns. I mean, I think that it seems like all the things they've gone through to get to this point.
The government's concerned exactly several different governments.
Are they are, and they seem that there seem to be a lot of a lot of things they're putting in place.
But like a lot of the technology world, right, it's complicated, like these relationships and you have them, but you compete, and that's just the state of the world, right, And it's and.
It has been that way, and to your point, it is getting more complicated, that's for sure.
Yeah, But again, I.
Just it's it's fascinating to see where gaming is going to go in entertainment and the role that gaming can have. I mean, we again the engagement model that we have relative to linear content or for streaming. I think that but the bundling of content in the future is going to be meaningful partnerships that we can have with with media and entertainment companies and technology companies in the future. So lots of conversations, oh, but there always have been, right,
there always there always have been partnership conversations. And I would also tell you that making games is really hard, as evidenced by several large companies that have invested billions of dollars that have.
Tried, and you could do it, but to do it really well, you to do.
It really well.
We've been in business for forty years and it's it is. I think it's the highest form of entertainment media that exists, and so it's it's very complicated and very hard to make great games. So yes, there is interest and.
Can you just dig a little bit into that, because the Bloomberg story in the magazine kind of gets into that. Like just creating you know, whether it's face or or the shorts moving like you would expect it to do. I mean can take a long time, right coders, and so.
Of iteration, the iteration yes, in game engines and AI is going to play a pretty meaningful role for us in content creation. How so the you know, the way we're looking at it. So AI has always been part of our company.
I mean, if you go back.
Even nineteen eighty eight, Madden had twenty two players on you know, little AI players on the field. So we are an AI native entertainment company and always have been. And we're looking at AI in a way of optimizing what we currently have. So we know that AI can optimize tools and workflows for our developers and so our players as well as they're creating things. And also AI is going to help us expand content. So we talked about there are three point four billion players in the world.
They on average, they spend four to five hours a week with us, and so there's you could have all developers in the planet and not develop all the content and metal demand that exists. And so AI, I think, is going to play a meaningful role to help our creators expand content and creation. And then of course it can be very transform transformational.
Can I ask you who's a typical gamer? Because it's because it's massive.
And the amount of time people are spending on your platform. Who is your I ha to say average gamer, but who is your typical gamer?
Well, and I love this question because of three point four billion gamers by the end of this year that we project, I'm close to fifty percent are women. That's what I had and so I just and so I love that. And mobile devices are incredibly significant. I mean, there are mobile devices everywhere in the world, so we can reach all corners of the world. So that's the beautiful thing about it. I don't know if there is a typical gamer.
And that age age.
Is there a typical age? Nope?
No, I mean that's we had when we you have people that are you know, gen xers and played games. They play a signific amount of console games that you may have Jen alphagen Z playing on PC and mobile.
So it's just it's it's quite perfect. It's it's an incredible place to be.
What is your favorite game that is non made.
By E A World of Warcraft as I played, I played many years.
Yes, Hey, what is your favorite game that is made by E A.
Command and conquer It Alert.
That's amazing. You are allowed to have favorite children a lot I do.
I do.
I play less probably than I have. But I play a lot of mobile games now because they're so accessible. I travel a lot, and so that's it's great too.
U Plus it's working when you're playing games.
And it's working.
You got research. It's R and D exactly.
Really interesting stuff. So love it and thank you for finding some time for us. I know, thank you for having me. This is really fun, Laura, so appreciate it. Laura Mieli, she is president of Entertainment Technology. Did I say the name right?
Yes? You did.
Okay, we like to get it right, of course at Electronic Arts. Joining us here on Bloomberg Business Week, I'm Carol Masser, a long with Tim stand back.
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It's all about this, really talking about the content creators where they're getting kind of their ideas from. And we've seen athletes, we've seen TikTokers, we've seen you know, executives all coming.
Together, sports culture, business, entertainment, the future of content. Also covering all of these issues, the new issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek. It it's out now, it's on newstands, it's online at Bloomberg dot com, slash BusinessWeek, and it's on the Bloomberg terminal. I got it in my hands right now. It's all about the conversation we've been having at screen Time from Disney's Bob Iger and his next act to struggles that EA is having in Life after FIFA.
So let's get to it, because right with us is the two individuals have put this all together the new issue of Bloomberg Business you repegan, of course, he is BusinessWeek's senior editor and of course the editor of the magazine, Joel Weber. So when did you guys start thinking about I mean, this has.
Been a big event.
Months, but you know, I think that there's some really important ingredients here and we wanted to think about some of the stories that we felt like would be imperative to have in this issue.
There's a couple.
I think, what was the first idea?
You're like, got to do it, you know, I think to talk about Disney in this context was a really important one one hundred year anniversary for the company. Things have not gone especially well since Iger's return, and so to make sure that we had a moment to talk about what Disney and what an effort there can look like and the challenges it speaks to such a lot of the turmoil that is.
Gripping the industry right now.
I think as everybody tries to find what a profitable growth strategy can look like, and obviously this was a place where he helped put it on a certain trajectory. And then things have kind of changed when he left and he has to come back and kind of you know, have this second act and a strike that has not gone his way.
Like, there's a lot of.
Interesting elements of tension there, Brett, What else did you feel like had to be in a screen time issue?
Can I just say to what was really cool is that has come up so much so many of the conversations.
That's the defining element of like how do we how does this industry in this in business models find a way forward?
Right?
I would say that, you know, even bigger than excuse me movies is gaming, of course, so we were fortunate to be publishing around the same time that Ya's new soccer game came out and talk about time. Yeah, for anyone listening, they know that FIFA, the game, sorry, the game formerly known as FIFA is like, you know, the biggest game in the world. Basically you basically refer to it as Ya's you just call it. Everyone knows what you mean. And they decided not to well, there was
a disagreement about the renewal. It was let's say it was complicated, and so it was life after FIFA became a really big story because even bigger than Hollywood is gaming. I mean, it's it's absolutely massive. So the opportunity to look at the biggest, one of the biggest franchises in all of gaming and to figure out, how does a company that was so reliant on a name, what do they do in their post FIFA era and how do they still claim that top spot?
You want to give that away? What do you do?
Well, that's the question that the article asked.
Yeah, the article basically says, well, you just rename it, call it EF.
You know, we had a great talk earlier today with Laura Miele. She's president of Entertainment Technology at EA. We spent a lot of our conversation asking her this question. She's optimistic about it, though she thinks they can pull it off.
It's it seems likely that she's probably right they I mean, one of the things I thought was so cool and interesting about the article is the amount of time that they spend dealing with things like the players shorts. We talk to her about that, so, like, I feel like they're they're spending a lot of time on things that are really important to the people who play these games, and as long as they keep doing that, I think they gamers will probably be okay with not having the work up.
There just is this incredible image in that story showing FIFA in what was it, the nineteen nineties, Yes, right next to a picture of FIFA today, And it's incredible to see. You know, each year it's incremental, but when you look at it thirty years apart, Yeah, it's mind blowing.
Yeah.
Well, and those shorts and the way they wave are going to blow your mind now, right.
You know.
The other thing I learned that I thought was really interesting about that is that I talked to Alyssa Thompson here, who's on our Ones to Watch list. She's a forward four Angel City here in LA. She's also a member of the national team. She's in the game, right, And there's this whole other thing that's happened is that it's always been men in the game, and now all of
a sudden, women are in the game. And you think about what that changes for girls growing up, where they can play or boys, they can.
Play as anyone they want in the game.
It just speaks to the reach that video games have always had and like it can get bigger still, right, That's that's an impressive thought.
The Ones to Watch you actually talked about it a little bit here last night. Talk to us about those individuals and what you guys were looking to do and who you wanted to how you figured out who you wanted to single out.
Bred Yeah, so I mean I think you know we're talking about Hollywood. What does Hollywood always look for?
What's next?
Or yeah, who's the next big thing? Then the next big star. So we said about, you know, months and months ago, trying to figure out, well, who do we want to draw people's attention to, so that you know, you can be at a cocktail party and you can say, well, you know that person is a big deal, but you should really be paying attention to so and so so
Alyssa Thompson a great example. I had a nice conversation this morning in studio with Brooke Michael Caine, who is basically looking at how the concert going experience can be bought into the year twenty twenty three. Like people going to concert, it's basically been the same experience fear twenty so outside of the.
Sphere right, which is its own thing.
Is but that is not that is a not really it's hard to replicate that.
Maybe they can do in the UK.
Maybe maybe but that's really relies on a residency model. So I wanted to get her take on, like, how can we just improve this experience a little bit? Like so she's literally working on things like how to direct people to the shorter beer line, how to help people with parking, how to get them a better seat if
they are have already seen an artist live. So we're looking for people who are thinking about the big questions of tomorrow and sort of answering them now in part, but hopefully in a year down the line, two years in the line, but a fuller answer.
The other one I really liked there was the the guys who are trying to transform DC. All right, so it's like we've seen what Marvel could accomplish. It was it's been like a twenty year just incredible, not even twenty ten years.
You're talking to d C comics.
Comics, Yeah, yeah, yeah, watching drama.
Yeah, we see, we can't we can't help.
There are some things beyond our capabilities. But what what these two guys have are going to do? There is going to be one to watch because we saw a Marvel universe unfold and what these what they have the potential to do with DC? Is to kind of reboot the other side, and we're gonna have these big comic book wars, I think.
And it's really interesting because they're now coming out this at a time when we're starting to see some fatigue in this universe. The movie cells are recently for Marvel have been a little bit down. So you know, how do you basically try to do what they've done in an era where people have already been through five, ten, fifteen, twenty twenty five to thirty movies?
Right?
A lot? Right?
How do you come in now and try to make it feel vibrant and fresh?
I have an idea.
Oh go ahead, Jo, There's just one more story I think we have to talk about too, which is.
Can I just say way to fix it? Taylor Swift?
But will Yeah, there's that.
You know, we'llcome back to her later.
I think in every event at the screen toime the name Taylor Swift and Beyonce. But you can't three words that you can't have a screen time without so bts. Obviously, this amazing band, Global Reach put K pop. I think just as a became a household word, but they didn't do it on their own, right, Brent and and the guy who actually made them has a new thing.
Right because the O didn't know about BTS. They're on pod right now.
Right, So BTS not just to make sure we're confusing her audience, not ones to watch clearly.
Already is that I've been watched.
Many have been watched.
Many have been watched. But yes, the so, the the the mogul behind BTS. His name is Bong. He even at their height when they were, you know, selling out arenas all over the world, Like any good executive has to start thinking about life after. You know, this man and all boy bands go through cycles. There isn't a boy band you can name that didn't have a huge peak and then a huge valley. So what is his
next act? So he's kind of trying to do a multi prong strategy, and we had Lucas Shaw and so he can sort of look at this strategy for the magazine. So they're trying to build basically a music tech company. They've launched an app that they hope will better connect fans and bands, and the other thing they're doing is in La they have a they're basically trying to put
together a new BTS. But it's gonna be a girl group, and they're drawing in people with women from basically all over the world, So they have people from Brazil, Sweden, China, US all here, all trying to be the next big girl band.
So they've got that going on and that tryouts are underway.
Tryouts are underway. They've already eliminated I believe you get voted off the island. It's there's a Netflix documentary about it that will air next year. They are basically voting people off the island and people can vote so on so wea versus you know that can vote through Weaverse and YouTube and TikTok and they are solely eliminating people. And they are going to eventually form a group, and then this group is going to record an album and tour.
And he's hoping that they can export this model basically to other cities so they can say, okay, this is it's called Dream Academy, and the IPE they can take Dream Academy and say, let's do Dream Academy. I don't know Berlin, Let's do Dream Academy, sell Paula like, they're just going to try to export this model once they have it down. That thinking is, hey, this works we'll just replicate it.
We'll see, Hey, Joel, Well go ahead.
Oh, I just I think that is like such an amazing experiment because we've seen how how a band like this you create it right, and it can hold pop culture for five plus years and drive it.
Yeah, it's interesting because you know, you were talking about this movie that Taylor Swift is coming out with and Beyonce is doing one, and I ask.
Who is this tailor you speak Tyler is Swift?
Yes, perhaps you've heard of her, Carrol kind of a big deal. I was tagging at Brooke Michael Kaine this morning and I said, you know who else could do this?
The third band she.
Mentioned was Black Pank, huge, huge K pop band. She's that's the only other one she thought could do this, So there actually is a tie in there. And you know, I think that they're hoping this they this new band can rise to that level.
But you think about creating a model like this right where it becomes its own franchise, and you can not only do it once, but you could replicate that again
and again. You basically create your own little engine. And I think that's a really interesting thing and it speaks to you know, let's let's properly bring it back to Taylor, you know well, and like it shows what fandom looks like now and in pop culture, it's like you can have that relationship with an artist in a way that I don't think we've ever quite seen it happen like this.
I mean, it's one thing when you think back about what the Beatles were able to do in that moment in time, but like there's an intimacy now that I think, especially with Taylor, where she like turns her vulnerabilities into like business success, right, and you know, we have this story and the issue, but what she's basically done by re recording her own albums to make sure that she retains those rights because she didn't like how that naive
was going. It's like she she's not done with that yet, right, And everyone listens to that new drop, and her fans will do everything for her, go to the theater or go to the concerts where tickets are upwards of one thousand dollars. And now like AMC has to like release the movie a day early because they were also that we already right, that's yeah.
It is kind of fascinating though that you're right, Taylor has come up in almost every talk I've heard. But the flip side of that coin is whenever it looks like she's about to pioneer or new model that other people think, oh well, let's just do that, who'll say Taylor can do it because she's tailor sweating. I mean that, So don't get ahead yourself. Don't start thinking that you can do a you know, a concert of what any other band and they'll sell out movie theaters.
Joel I wanted to say it's a screen time issue, but a story about bonds snuck into the hood. Okay, yeah, actually it's actually a super fascinating story. Did there's a couple if you guys have an editor or where, Yeah as well?
Yeah, look, we we have to talk about everything in the world, I mean, and look like we we'd be remiss to not talk about what's happening in Israel too, right, But you know she has also come up a lot in the financial markets, what's happened in fixed income and bonds. It's like, look like this bond again again. Thing turns out it's really bad. And that story is about this goes back two hundred and fifty odd years. People haven't seen it be this back for a really long time.
You should have seen the face of Drew A.
Wallow and we said, so, where do you think the ten year is going to go? Yes, when we're just kidding, Joe Webber, Brettbeacon. It's a great new issue of Bloomberg Business Week. It's a screen time issue.
I'm brother Marca, a journal. How about you let me drive?
Oh no, no, no, no, please gone.
And drive, honey, please, I'll do the gravel.
Let's wat I want to drive.
It's a good question.
This is the drive to the Globes dot com.
Think we'll buy around yold it on Bloomberg Radio.
All right, everybody just got under eighteen minutes left in today's trading session. You are listening and watching Bloomberg Business Week live on the West Coast at Bloomberg screen Time.
Tim Steneviek and Carol Massive.
That's me, that is you.
What a fun conversation with Drew Wallow.
Yeah, it's really good, really cool stuff. Hey you know who else is on the West Coast?
Yeah?
Yeah, Russ Gerber. He's president CEO of the Santa Monica based Gerbert Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management. I've had about two point three billion dollars in assets under management. They've also gotten actively managed advisor shares gerber Kawasaki ETPP. It's been around for a couple of years. It's got a market cap about seventeen million dollars. Ross joins us this afternoon from Santa Monica. Ross, how are you.
I'm good. I heard you're in LA and you didn't come by and say hi.
I know, and you know I was in Sana. I was in Santa Monica last night. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. But next time we're here, come visit us in person.
I well talked to us about the market environment and what's what's interesting for you at this point, is it is it a little bit challenging?
Yes and no.
You know, I actually like this environment because I think the FED is well over, Donnette. So you know, we were seeing peak rates in here, and we haven't seen the economy roll over. The economy continues to be strong, and so we're expecting a much better than expected earnings report for Q three here, and then as we move into Q four, you know, once again, I think the economy is pretty solid here. So you know, if the FED really gives us more clarity and backing away from
this constantly rising interest rate bearish hawkish talk. I think it would really be a great potential environment for the economy going into next year.
So, you know, I'm bullish.
I like this.
It's one year anniversary of when the bull market started. Technically we're up nicely since then, and I expect that to continue over.
The next couple of years.
Yeah, but Ross, you said that the FED you think has overdone it. I mean, do you think they've overdone it to the extent that something out there is going to break?
Well, the biggest risk to me is commercial real estate and who owns the debt on commercial real estate because that, you know, has a secular change with offices not being very popular among the youth, on top of a tremendous amount of overbuilding and leverage. So you know, as bonds mature, you know, with interest rates of two to three percent and need to be refinanced, especially in the real estate sector now at eight, nine, ten percent rates, I mean,
these will all go into default. So so the damage the FED is done hasn't actually been felt yet in the economy. It's going to take years because they froze the real estate market with such a rapid increase in rates, and so we really won't know how much damage and who will really fall. But we've seen it in companies like Hudson Pacific Properties, which owns a lot of real estate here in LA and the stocks down, you know, seventy five eighty.
Percent really being in commercial real estate.
So you know, I think the fed's caused a lot of damage to the economy and it'll take years to fix it.
Ross.
Something we always talk a lot about is Tesla with you. I believe it's still the top holding in your fund and you you know, we've talked about the car itself, we've talked about the individual Elon Musk of course behind Tesla, and we've talked about the company.
And I'm assuming you still like it. You like the car.
What was interesting here at screen time we're walking into the event and it's kind of a whole experience and as you walk in, you're passing some really cool cars and that includes some other evs like the BMW EV and it's just a reminder that you know, a few years ago, Elon kind of had this space, certainly the high end EV space to himself.
It's a different game today. You know what what changes your.
Mind, if anything ultimately about the company.
And the car.
Well, you know, to start off with what you started with, I one hundred percent agreed. You know, even my partners here at GK have diversified. So one of my partners has the I seven and the other one another one has a Rivian now, and so we park next to each other, my plaid next to the I seven, next to the Rivian.
Uh it's I think it's the RS one And they're.
All great cars, you know, Like I really like the Rivians, and in La, the Rivian is becoming like what Tesla was as like the cool higher end car to own, and Tesla is I think, are now priced the same price as Prius, and I think people look at the model why much more like a normal like Preus kind of car, which is good and bad you know for Tesla's brand.
So you know, as Tesla moves forward, they have to.
Accept that the competition is actually exists now and is pretty good, and it is affecting their sales.
I don't think there's.
Any doubt, but you still think it's worth owning. It's obviously a big holding. You're still in for the long.
Run, Oh absolutely. I mean, you know, one must look at Tesla as the whole. So we're going to sell.
Almost two million evs this year, and we're going to launch the cyber truck hopefully any day, and the cyber truck will be, you know, an incredibly impactful vehicle and also helped sell other Teslas as well, so we will see an increase in production going into next year. And then the three other businesses that Tesla I'm super excited about.
One being charging. They are the dominant player in charging.
There is nobody even close to them in charging, and they will like have probably a monopoly on charging in this country maybe globally. Then you have energy storage, which is like this massive opportunity and it's been super helpful in La and Texas. For example, in California have had you know, benefits from putting in battery storage and keeping our grid you know, solid during a really hot summer.
And then the third is full self.
Driving, which you know, actually yesterday I saw a Waymo car driving next to me with no driver and that's the first time I've seen a Waymo car not having a driver. In Santa Monica, in heavy traffic area where I use full self driving, and I was actually fairly impressed that it was doing this because, you know, quite frankly, it's dangerous. You know, there's a lot of people around, a lot of a lot of kids walking around, so you know, full self.
Maybe got lost way, you know, from from the bay. Yeah, maybe got lost on the way from the bay.
I don't know.
I mean it was I'm just talking about honestly.
So yeah, I think full self driving is a real thing.
There.
Did you move away?
No, I got closer. I wanted to. I wanted to like watch it work through it was.
I was right by the pier where it's like kind of crazy, so but I was turning, so I didn't get to actually see it navigate through some difficult stuff.
But it did.
Nobody got run over. So full self driving is coming, whether it be Weimo or Tasla. You know, a lot of people think this is much farther away than it really is, but it's it's not.
Okay, Ross, we onlyave up with thirty seconds left. But just give me some comments on the ETF, which you came on our program a couple of years ago. When you launched it, I was surprised to see it's only got about seventeen million dollars in assets in it right now. What's what's holding me back from bringing more in?
Well, you know, we started at the top of the market, so that was no great timing, you know thing, which is really typical actually starting ETFs, because you get everybody wants you to do it when you're at the top of your game, right, And then we went through a very difficult year, so our perform it kind of sucked in year one. In our second year we sort of started really making back funds and moving forward into this
calendar year, we've had a pretty good year. So I think we just need growth back and people will invest in the ATF, you know.
Yeah, so appreciate it. Listen, ros Garber, thank you so much. Yeah, the fund is up about thirteen percent so far here in twenty twenty three.
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