Month: June 2022

To explore the background, responsibilities and potential future of this new variety of CMO, Digiday spoke with one of the few professionals who is unequivocally qualified for such a role: Cathy Hackl, the co-founder and chief metaverse officer at the innovation and design consultancy Journey.

Hackl entered the metaverse business long before the term entered the zeitgeist last year. Prior to her time at Journey, she had stints as a VR/AR expert and futurist for companies such as HTC, Oculus, Magic Leap and Amazon. But her most convincing qualification for the role might be her bona fide connection to metaverse users: she’s the mother of three metaverse-native kids, including a 10-year-old who runs his own Roblox business.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

How did you become the chief metaverse officer at Journey?

I’ve been in metaverse-related industries for over eight years; I worked at HTC Vive as a VR evangelist during the company’s partnership with Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One; I went over to Magic Leap and worked there as an enterprise strategist for two years. Obviously, the chief futurist at Magic Leap at that time was Neal Stephenson, who coined the term. Then I went over to Amazon Web Services, then eventually left to create Futures Intelligence Group, which is a metaverse and Web3 advisory for brands and companies trying to enter the space, which was acquired by Journey at the end of last year.

When I created Futures Intelligence Group, I decided, “I’m the CEO, the founder, but what am I really doing here?” So I chose the title chief metaverse officer. One of the reasons I use that title is to start a conversation around who is going to handle the metaverse — what does it mean? I think the people that are going to manage metaverse initiatives need to have a variety of skills, but what I have seen is a lot of debate around it. But I do believe someone in the C-suite is going to have to manage this, and I personally believe that it’s not only a marketing thing. This goes beyond that. When I got acquired by Journey, I said that my title was non-negotiable — you’re buying a metaverse company here.

So you anticipate that more companies will be creating this position, or one similar to it, in the near future?

Yeah, and I think you’re already seeing it. Does it have to be called chief metaverse officer? I don’t know — every company is going to find what feels more comfortable to them. That being said, a couple decades ago, if you asked someone about a chief digital officer or chief content officer, they would have been like, “we don’t need that, that’s ridiculous.” So I think things evolve, but someone within the org will have to manage some of the things that come with the metaverse.

What are the most important qualifications for a chief metaverse officer?

I’m very strategy-driven, very business-focused. That said, I have vast experience in several of the technologies: virtual reality, spatial computing, augmented reality, cloud computing. So I feel that the people that are going to fill these roles are going to have, on some level, a technical understanding of the enabling technologies. Some are going to be stronger maybe on the AR and VR side, some are going to be stronger on the Web3 side, some might be stronger in gaming, but there does need to be some understanding of the current tools.

Which sectors do you anticipate will hire more chief metaverse officers in these early days?

Fashion is where I’m seeing a lot of this start to happen. They’re going to come from gaming, they’re going to come from AR and VR, they’re going to come from Web3. What differentiates someone that can lead this function is being that connector, that translator of sorts between the technical and the business side.

Will we start to see Gen Z and Gen Alpha metaverse natives leapfrog the corporate ladder to occupy this type of role?

Why not? Sometimes, the smartest person in the room might be the youngest person. I’m not going to say that a 15-year-old is going to become a chief metaverse officer, but I think that there are going to be certain things that the Gen Zs that are coming into the workforce are going to understand on a very different level. My son’s first concert was Lil Nas X in Roblox — it wasn’t at a stadium, like you and me. He speaks about that in the first person: “I saw Nas, I was there.” To them, it’s not about the physical world and the virtual world. Everything is real, it’s just different. Gen-Alpha’s reality is very blurry.

I’ve got a Gen Z/Gen Alpha, and then I’ve got two Gen Alphas, and it definitely changes my perspective. I see how they engage with these technologies, what they’re experiencing, how they’re creating, how they’re world-building, what gaming means to them from a social and identity perspective. So it informs a lot of what I do, and a lot of what I do is for them because I want to create a better future for them.

“You cannot use social media to take a political position, criticize or attack a candidate, or express personal feelings about an outcome or ruling. (If you notice a newsroom colleague posting inappropriate comments, immediately alert your supervisor.),” the company stated in the email. The email also told journalists to “refrain” from liking or retweeting posts “that could appear to indicate support for any side or group.”

Gannett’s journalists are guided by the company’s “Principles of Ethical Conduct,” which are “echoed throughout our social media policy,” a Gannett spokesperson said in an email. While some media companies publish their social media policies publicly, Gannett is one of the news organizations that only shares its guidelines internally. 

The reaction to the memo was swift. Twitter threads cropped up dedicated to arguing the concept of objectivity. While most major newsrooms have guidelines prohibiting journalists from taking a political stance – due to the idea that perceived bias could damage a news organization’s credibility – the guidelines become murkier when the issue at hand is one of civil and human rights. Similar tensions were brought up when journalists openly supported the Black Lives Matter movement and joined protests against racial injustic in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

Gannett employees that spoke to Digiday under the condition of anonymity said they felt disappointed by the way the company handled the situation. 

“Basic statements like ‘women deserve equal treatment under the law’ is not a political opinion. It’s a basic factual thing,” said one Gannett employee.

The employee wished the company had sent the memo at a different time, such as earlier in the week, rather than when employees were reeling from the news of the SCOTUS ruling. “It just seemed poorly timed, in my opinion,” she said.

“Instead of saying we should keep our personal feelings to ourselves, I feel like since we want to show our diversity and be proud of it we should encourage people to thoughtfully talk about how we’re humans and how that helps with our coverage because of our experiences,” a second Gannett employee said.

“We’re not going to tweet out ‘Fuck SCOTUS’ – it’s more like ‘this happened to me and this is important to me and it’s harmful to my healthcare,’” said the second employee.

Since Friday, the topic of Gannett’s social media policy has been raised in certain committee and group meetings within the company, according to the Gannett employees. Some employees were told to directly email Gannett’s vp of standards with feedback, the second employee said. Various ERGs are also having discussions about the policy, providing a space for employees to share their thoughts, the first employee said.

Despite the internal discussions surrounding Gannett’s social media policy, there are “no changes to the policy that are imminent,” the Gannett spokesperson said. The spokesperson continued, “we are listening to the concerns of staff and working to find opportunities to provide additional guidance surrounding notable moments in time (such as Dobbs / Roe v. Wade).”

“If there is an appropriate time to provide more guidance to our policy based on feedback we will make the decision to amend the guidelines,” the spokesperson added.

Both employees felt these discussions and the ability to share feedback with Gannett’s leadership was one benefit of the hoopla of last week. It could help lay the groundwork for improvement and nuance in the future handling of these situations, they said.

The second employee referenced a column USA Today’s editor-in-chief published a few days before the SCOTUS ruling, on her mother having an abortion in the 1970s.

“It wasn’t saying ‘I disagree with the ruling,’ but it was expressing a personal account of how this has affected her. The way our policy is worded makes it hard to discern what is acceptable to post like that, vs. what’s not,” the staffer said. Coworkers and a number of those in the newsroom’s leadership at Gannett are “welcoming of our experiences and how they help us,” which the employee said can be confusing to reconcile with the social media guidelines. 

Gannett was not alone in reiterating their social media guidelines to employees after the SCOTUS ruling fell.

Axios and The New York Times also reminded staffers about the company’s social media policies last Friday, and the importance of refraining from sharing stances that could be perceived as biased. On Thursday, The Daily Beast reported The Washington Post had updated its social media guidelines, urging Post journalists that they “should not feel compelled to engage or broadcast on social media platforms, except for those whose roles explicitly require it,” and to not use social media to “air personal grievances.”

The company also plans to donate ad space in all 26 states where abortion is likely to be made illegal, according to OKCupid Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Hobely, which could add up to a dollar amount “in the hundreds of thousands to millions” worth of free ad space. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some backlash. Some users have given negative reviews or had trolls send emails or comments, but Hobely said the criticism doesn’t bother her, adding that the app isn’t for everyone.

“If we can pave the way but get punched around along the way, that’s fine,” she said. “We don’t care.”

By using a survey feature within the app, OKCupid gathered user opinions about abortion-related topics. For example, 94% of nonbinary people, 75% of women and 62% of men who responded said they wouldn’t move to a state where abortion was illegal. OKCupid also found Gen Z users are 73% more likely than Gen X users to move out of a state where abortion is illegal but just 12% more likely than millennials.

Hobely said executives at various companies she’s spoken with over the past three weeks are looking for data and case studies “to be louder and bolder” on the topic of abortion. She recalled a conversation with someone who asked why OKCupid has been pushing so many to sign the Don’t Ban Equality — a coalition of hundreds of businesses that have spoken out against restrictions on reproductive rights — explaining that executives putting their names on something is “the first step.”

“You want to drive a fine balance,” she said. “You don’t want to use this and exploit the cause for growing your business. On the other hand, what I know is that if I were single, I do not want to even see your profile if you don’t support this issue. It’s a real thing that we might deal with if I might meet you on an app and we get pregnant.”

OKCupid first began partnering with Planned Parenthood in 2017 by creating a profile badge for users who want to show their support to the organization. The dating app offered to donate $1 to the organization for every person who used it, which led to a 2017 donation of $50,000. When Texas passed legislation last year to further restrict abortion access in the state, OKCupid debuted a new pro-choice profile badge and donated another $50,000 to Planned Parenthood after promising to donate $1 for every person who used the badge.

Along with in-app actions, OKCupid has also addressed abortion in its marketing outside of the app by putting ads in New York City’s subway system. (The company also tried running a pro-choice ad in Austin, Texas, during South by Southwest 2022, but Hobely said billboard owners with available space wouldn’t allow the message.)

Marketers at various companies are frustrated, according to Hobely. Some are upset that their companies aren’t supporting them despite having helped sell various products for years. The question is how to go from being angry to drive action.

“Marketers are an interesting way to look at this because I think what many of us have done for years is sell your products,” she said. “And now you’re telling me if I get pregnant and it’s ectopic and I’m still at six weeks, I’m going to go home and die from that? Take your lipstick.”

As an educational tool, TikTok has also been effective. Hobely said some content on the app unrelated to OKCupid’s efforts has focused on abortion clinic defenders in various states while others have posted advice on how to spot undercover police at abortion-related protests. Although that content hasn’t been created by OKCupid, some influencers have posted videos about the dating app’s pro-choice efforts even without being paid. The way Hobely puts it, TikTok is the platform for people who want to say something, explaining that “all these kids are power marketers with the way they package something on Roe or on non-binary or on transitioning.”

Another campaign gaining traction on TikTok in the past week with abortion-related content is Amnesty International. Last week, the international human rights organization released a new film called “The Land Of The Unfree,” which turned “The Star-Spangled Banner” into a more somber and eery version as an “elegy for women’s rights.” The film, directed by Nicolina Knapp, ends with the message “You’re not free when you can’t decide your own future” and had millions of views on TikTok in the first two days with more than 1,000 users that have posted their own reaction videos.

“I think American corporate work, compared to European, feels quite safe with choices that are fear-based rather than what best serves the creative agenda,” Knapp said. “… Protecting abortion rights is an American issue and a woman’s issue, American brands need to take up this mantle. The question is which brands will have the courage.”