iHEART’S NEWEST MARKET: THE METAVERSE

Get ready to “hey, buddy” in a digital world. iHeartMedia has partnered with Super League Gaming to bring advertisers into the metaverse. They’re also collaborating on something called iHeartLand, which will apparently house a variety of virtual spaces and experiences.

Super League’s team of experts eat, breathe and sleep high-tech gaming, content streaming and e-selling and seem thrilled to bring the mainstream media giant into the Matrix-esque frontier.

So far, Super League has injected its ad-tech tools into more than 150 million “brand-safe” games in Roblox, a popular world-building platform. The company also has its tentacles in Minehut, the largest free Minecraft server-host community. As everyone from twenty one pilots to Lil Nas X has already drawn huge crowds to gigs in Roblox and the likes of Steve Aoki and Charli XCX have played festivals in Minecraft—the same platform Disclosure used to roll out their latest album and a gamified world—a deal like this was really only a matter of time.

“Generation Z does not distinguish between physical and digital worlds, moving fluidly between the two in their daily existence,” Super League CCO Matt Edelman declared, adding that “iHeartMedia has been a defining brand at this very intersection, combining digital and physical content experiences.” Said Chairman/CEO Ann Hand, “iHeartMedia gets it. They’re not messing around. They know that the metaverse is not a passing fad. It’s here to stay.”

iHeart EVP of Digital Distribution and Platform Partnerships Jessica Jerrick noted that her team will be introducing immersive experiences and competitions this year. “We’re thrilled to partner with Super League to create new and compelling ways to connect our brand partners to passionate fans in our virtual spaces and beyond,” she said.

When asked if us HITS folk would be able to access this metaverse thing from our office’s communal 2008 Blackberry, a representative did not immediately reply.