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NBCUniversal is forging ahead with its live commerce ambitions as the 2021 holiday shopping season ramps up.
The broadcaster’s cable brand Bravo is today taking the wraps off an interactive virtual shopping mall with rooms dedicated to various network series like Below Deck, Southern Charm, Summer House and The Real Housewives franchise. Called the Virtual Bravo Bazaar, the interactive shopping platform—which rolls out today—has on display dozens of items for sale, ranging from furniture and other home décor to apparel like bathing suits and athletic wear.
The expansive store, which is powered by the virtual commerce technology company Obsess AR, allows shoppers on mobile, desktop and laptop devices to peruse different collections of virtually displayed items tied to Bravo’s various shows and brands, as well as items sold by brands founded by current and former Bravo personalities.
Many of the Virtual Bravo Bazaar items will also get another big promotional boost on Black Friday, when Bravo will test out another shoppable experience: a live show on Instagram hosted by curve model and TikTok influencer Remi Bader. That series, called Impulse Try with Remi Bader, will debut on Instagram Live and will allow shoppers to tune in, ask Bader questions about merchandise in real time and see items for sale.
Three half-hour-long episodes of Impulse Try with Remi Bader will be released on Nov 26, Nov 27 and Nov 29 and will be available on Instagram Live, Facebook Live and Xfinity’s live stream. Viewers tuning into the livestreams, which will center on style, personal care and home décor, respectively, will be able to purchase the products natively while still watching the program, either directly on the device they’re viewing from or through a link they send to themselves using their TV remote.
Women’s apparel brand Adore Me and home furnishings retailer WayFair have signed on as sponsoring partners.
The following day, the episodes will be available on NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock, with additional advertising for featured brands shown through pause ads and other Peacock ad formats. Additionally, each episode will air at least three times on linear during paid programming slots on Bravo.
Both experiences are powered through NBCUniversal Checkout, the company’s native shopping platform.
Building out One Commerce
The interactive shopping mall and the new live series, which NBCUniversal executives shared today at a press event in Manhattan, is emblematic of the ways NBCUniversal continues to build out its ecommerce business, which is aimed at tapping into the company’s audience base and getting fans to buy items they are interested in.
The efforts build on groundwork and testing that the company has been working on for several years, including shoppable ads on linear TV which it started testing in 2019. Since then, the company has built out a retail marketplace and continued working on its One Commerce platform, which ladders up into NBCUniversal’s One Platform ad offering that aims to be a one-stop-shop for marketers and brands.
“We realized there’s no point trying to bring audiences to a commerce platform,” Evan More, NBCUniversal’s vp, commerce partnerships, advertising and partnerships, told reporters.
“Instead, we’ve focused our energy on binging commerce directly to consumers in every piece of content.”
The company has been focused on figuring out ways to reduce friction for consumers by making it as easy as possible for them to hit “buy.” It’s also centered on attracting performance marketers, who traditionally spend big on social and digital platforms like Instagram and Facebook. The company has created more than 250 pieces of shoppable content across a dozen different brands, including Telemundo and the Today show, and NBCUniversal’s retail partner network now counts more than 200 brands as members.
Finding other Bravo connections
As NBCUniversal has built out its commerce efforts, it is able to tap into its Bravo personalities—which the company calls Bravolebrities—not just for the audience draw, but for the marketing dollars that they are sometimes bringing to the table. Several current and former Bravo personalities looking to promote the brands that they have founded are turning to NBCUniversal to market their goods, including former Real Housewives of New York cast member Jill Zarin and Shahs of Sunset star Reza Farahan, both of whom will highlight their wares through the Impulse Try with Remi Bader episodes.
“Advertising is expensive,” said Zarin, who owns the home furnishings line Jill Zarin Home and, along with her daughter, Ally Shapiro, runs the mask and accessories line Jill & Ally. “I get the benefit of [NBCUniversal] targeting my people. Me, I think I am targeting my people, but I spent a lot of money on advertising and it’s not always working for us. So I am really happy to be here.”
