Alan – and XRIgnite -- isn't the only XR shepherding game in town! Samantha Wolfe -- who co-authored Marketing New Realities with previous XR for Business guest Cathy Hackl -- drops by to share her own insights on how best to help brands, businesses, and campaigns venture into the XR minefield, and come out the other end unscathed.

Alan: Today's guest is Samantha

Wolfe, managing partner at we are PHASE2. Samantha is a marketing and

branding strategist, focused on making "never done before"

a reality. Sam is a co-author of the book "Marketing New

Realities: An Introduction to Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Marketing, Branding, and Communications," and is a contributing

author to Charlie Fink's book "Convergence: How the World Will

Be Painted With Data," with a chapter focused on augmented

reality for brands. She also runs the largest marketing and branding

Facebook group focused on VR, AR, and MR, which has over 2,500

members. She's a board member of the New York VR Expo and South by

Southwest Pitch, and has been on the judging panel for the Games of

Change Festival and the AWE Auggie Awards. To learn more about

Samantha, you can visit samanthagwolfe.com or wearephase2.com.

Samantha, welcome to the show.

Samantha: Hi, Alan. Good to be

here.

Alan: It's so amazing to have

you on the show. We've known each other for a few years now, and we

keep seeing each other at different conferences, and it's always fun.

I think the last time was AWE, but before that was CES. This year we

got to hang out in a glass booth; almost like a fishbowl in the

middle of CES.

Samantha: I think our picture

went up on Fox News or something like that.

Alan: Oh, did it really?

Samantha: Like, the two people

in the middle of the glass booth for VR Voice. And we had such a fun

conversation. I think Bob Fine was a little taken aback about how

excited the two of us got together. So I'm excited for this

conversation!

Alan: [laughs] This is gonna be

a great conversation. And for those of you who don't know, Bob Fine

runs a wonderful podcast called VR Voice, so you can check that out

as well. Samantha, you're the managing partner at we are PHASE2. So,

talk to us a bit about what is we are PHASE2, and what are you guys

doing? And then we'll just have a conversation around the wonderful

marketing opportunities that virtual and augmented reality afford.

Samantha: Absolutely. The way I

like to talk about we are PHASE2 is that we are about marketing with

and for emerging technologies. We help companies who are in the

emerging tech space be able to market and communicate what they're

doing, but we also have companies who want to market to and with

those emerging technologies. So if you're an advertising agency or a

brand who says, you know, "we want to do something really

innovative," and want to integrate -- whether it be AR, VR, AI,

IoT -- into what you're doing, that you could come to us and we'll

help you through that process. Or if you're like, "You know

what? We need some developers to help work on this campaign that

we're doing." We'll work with you as well. The other thing I've

said is marketing emerging technologies and emerging technology

marketing.

Alan: Emerging technology

marketing. I get it. So--

Samantha: It's both ways.

[laughs]

Alan: Are you talking about

virtual/augmented/mixed reality, or are you guys also diving into

artificial intelligence and machine learning and IoT sensors and that

kind of stuff?

Samantha: Yes. It's basically

anything that touches emerging tech in marketing. I end up being more

of the subject matter expert when it comes to VR and AR. But Jennifer

Usdan McBride -