It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas as NBCUniversal ramps up its shoppable content offerings ahead of Black Friday and the winter holiday season. The company is launching a livestreamed shopping series and augmented reality retail space.
Built on technology such as the company’s One Platform ad offering and its NBCUniversal Checkout functionality, the two primary shoppable properties will guide consumers through interactive buying experiences.
“Across our platform, audiences come to us to be informed and entertained and now through our commerce capabilities, they will also be inspired to buy,” said Josh Feldman, chief marketing officer, NBCUniversal Advertising and Partnerships, noting the media company’s “embracing [of] global commerce trends.”
The media giant’s push into e-commerce and shoppable content mark the latest step in its pursuit of expanding its retail offerings, many of which were highlighted at its One21 developer conference earlier this year. It has similarly moved toward interactive advertising, asking viewers to vote for ads and rolling out on-screen QR codes and other technology.
Going live today, the first of the company’s new shoppable offerings will take the form of the Virtual Bravo Bazaar, an augmented reality-based online store for “Bravoholics” to buy merchandise from their favorite shows and “Bravoleb brands,” according to a statement from NBCUniversal. It will run throughout the year.
Created with Obsess, a virtual store platform that has partnered with existing retailers from Coach to Sam’s Club, NBCU’s Virtual Bravo Bazaar is designed as a luxury foyer with clickable portals to branded shops full of products showcased on “The Real Housewives,” “Below Deck” and several of the network’s other titles.
Regardless of the brand or product, the entire Virtual Bravo Bazaar shopping and checkout experience is contained within the AR platform—there’s no linking to third-party retailers’ sites.