From gaming with friends to investing in real estate, there are a lot of things you can do in the metaverse. Now, there is yoga and meditation, too, after lifestyle and activewear company Alo Yoga set up a virtual sanctuary on the Roblox gaming platform.
"Alo will jump at any opportunity to share wellness, mindfulness, and movement with people wherever they are," said Alyson Wilson, Alo vice president of brand and innovation.
The sanctuary, where users can participate in classes through Alo's on-demand fitness platform Alo Moves and earn virtual apparel, has been popular. More than 15 million people have visited since its launch in February.
Brand partnerships are nothing new for Roblox, which has teamed up with brands like Gucci, McLaren, and Vans among others. Monetization of brand experiences can mean big bucks — Roblox paid out its developer community more than $538 million in 2021. But for brands like Alo that choose not to monetize, there are other benefits.
"Brands are seeing an engagement on our platform that they haven't seen anywhere else. You can really have this two-way conversation with your audience," said Christina Wootton, vice president of global brand partnerships at Roblox.
An estimated 50 million people per day come to Roblox worldwide. Over half of users are over 13 years old, with the fastest-growing demographic being 17 to 24-year-olds.
"What's really neat about Roblox is we're able to reach out to people who maybe haven't been able to find us on their own, maybe people who aren't in yoga studios, who aren't in their own practice, and maybe haven't even discovered meditation yet," Wilson said.
The Tony Awards on Sunday lured 4.85 million viewers to CBS, its largest broadcast audience in six years. CBS says Monday that Nielsen data shows the telecast — hosted by “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo — scored a 38% increase over last year’s 3.53 million viewers. That’s the largest audience for the Tonys since 2019, when the telecast that year nabbed 5.4 million viewers and “Hadestown” was crowned best new musical. The latest version also had to compete with the second game of the NBA Finals, between the Thunder and Pacers,
After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple tried to regain its footing Monday during a developers conference that focused mostly on incremental advances and cosmetic changes in its technology.
Six weeks before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel last December, Luigi Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and expressed that killing the executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming."
Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson once clashed on the court in the 2001 NBA Finals, but now the basketball legends are joining forces to revive the Reebok brand they helped make iconic.
Midea is voluntarily recalling about 1.7 million of its popular U and U+ Smart air conditioners because pooled water in the units may not drain fast enough, leading to mold growth.