How Vans and Roblox CMOs are Shredding through the Metaverse

Do brands have a place in the metaverse? On our first episode of Season 2 of MTM Visionaries of 2023, we hosted Barbara Messing, Chief Marketing & People Experience Officer at Roblox, and Kristin Harrer, Global CMO at Vans. They share about their thriving partnership and why they are seeing massive success. In our conversation, they discussed the value of metaverse, choosing the right partners, knowing your customer, measuring success, and the power of living your brand in new, exciting lanes.

FOLLOW US!

• Find us on LinkedIn & Instagram

Transcript

Shredding Through the Metaverse with Roblox and Vans

[00:00:00] 

[00:00:02] Nadine Dietz: Hello everyone. , I'm very, very excited about today's episode, which is our first visionaries of 2023. It is my great pleasure to have two incredible ladies that I'm gonna bring on in just a few moments to talk about how they are shredding through the metaverse together.

 We have Barbara Messing here who is the Chief Marketing and People Experience Officer at Roblox and Kristen, her, the global C M O Vans. Before I bring them on just a couple of notes for. 

 I wanna thank our partner, the Wall Street Journal, and our parent company 24 7 for supporting visionaries. , for of you who don't know, 24 7 or marketers that matter. Marketers That Matter is a community of marketers who come together to support one another, sharing best practices and great tips.

And 24 7 is a talent company who helps build out great teams with marketers and creatives. So with that, it is my great, great pleasure to welcome Barbara and Kristen to join me here.

[00:01:00] Okay. Hello Barbara. And hello Kristen. 

[00:01:02] Barbara Messing: Welcome. Hi. 

[00:01:03] Nadine Dietz: Hi. Hi. So we have so much to cover today. It's, uh, super exciting. I, I also have to tell you, I love the title Shredding Through the Metaverse, like, like that's the only way to do it, right? You know. So, uh, we're gonna hear more about your journeys from two different sides of the equation, but working well together.

But,, before I, I start with my questions around the metaverse and what your cool things are that you're doing. Let's hear a little bit about each of you, your background, cause you both had really exciting career journeys. Kristen, how about we start with you?

[00:01:35] Kristin Harrer: Hi everybody. My name's Kristen Harrer.

 I lead the team that leads marketing for Vans. Before I was at Vans I worked for a number of different major, uh, I would say global iconic brands, before. , I was a lawyer before that. I was an advocate of people, um, in, in a different sector. So I'll, I'll get more into that maybe later in the conversation, but at Vans, um, you know, [00:02:00] my job is to set the vision, the strategy, and really drive not only global planning, but global execution, uh, across retail, brand and digital for the brand.

Um, I'm after consumer connectivity. I'm after brand heat, and I'm after creating demand is really what my focus is. That's what the job description would say on paper. What I really do, my real job is to guide Vans into the future by coaching and supporting. The marketing team at Vans that really is gonna turn the vision that I articulate, uh, with the executive team into a reality.

So I really view the, the biggest part of my job as a coaching job, um, and finding the right talent to come work for Vans and, and to make this brand, sustain this brand as the global icon that it is. Um, and when I started, one of the things that we were really focused on is looking at, um, our overall brand positioning.

You know, Vans is a brand that's been around for 55 years. And [00:03:00] so we dug in and we, we thought, you know, after Covid, where are we? Um, so we've been doing a lot of brand positioning work and we're at a place now where the marketing team at Vans is ready to ignite and Roblox has been part of that journey.

So that's me. . 

[00:03:13] Nadine Dietz: I love that. Not only are you ready to ignite, but you're responsible for brand heat. I'm gonna remember those words, uh, long after this session closes down. And speaking of heat, you already got a question coming in, so we'll, we'll tackle that in just a moment. So thank you, James, for that. Uh, we'll be right back to you on that one.

But Barbara, let's hear from you. Tell us about your exciting journey and what you're up to now at Roblox. 

[00:03:33] Barbara Messing: Yeah, so, um, like Kristen, um, I have worked, um, for some amazing brands, , leading marketing. So that's been really fun. I came actually up through product, , in tech. So then I was a general manager and then I ran,, marketing as a C M O.

So I've had a really fun journey in tech, uh, through. The past like two decades, which is amazing to think about that. And also like Kristen, I actually have a law degree that I never practiced. , so I was sort of [00:04:00] one of these, um, unexpected marketers. I always say when I was in high school, I didn't even know what marketing was and I don't think I even knew in college what marketing was.

So it's really fun how you end up where you are and you find, um, the things that make you happy as you, as you sort of live your career and, and have new experiences. 

And today I run marketing communications and people experience at Roblox. And, that's an interesting role because I span sort of engagement across all of our different important constituents, including, , our employees at Roblox and future employees as well as our creators and developers and our consumers.

Partners and potential partners. So we think of it as a, a whole ecosystem of how we, reach and engage and educate and inspire around Roblox. And Roblox, as you know, has been around a while. So like Kristen, one of my first, , things we led is really thinking about how do we communicate to the world what Roblox is.

Roblox has a lot of love, , and history with millions of [00:05:00] people who have been on the brand for many years. Um, but as we continue to evolve and the platform continues to grow, we really, um, sort of broadened what Roblox means to people and it's really a brand, um, re-imagining the way people can come together.

And so all the work we're doing is really helping bring that, vision to life. I love that. 

[00:05:19] Nadine Dietz: I love that. And, you know, I. I don't know if I should be nervous right now because you're on my left and my right, both of you. And I'm bookend by ex-lawyers. I'm gonna try not to show my, my nerves here. . 

[00:05:29] Barbara Messing: I never practiced, so You're good.

[00:05:30] Nadine Dietz: Okay. Alright. Alright. That's good. 

 Well, okay, so let's, let's do this because I think, um, Roblox is probably very familiar to many, but also unfamiliar to others. And some of us, like myself, um, live vicariously through my 13 year old stepson who's on it all the time.

Um, but tell us a little bit more about Roblox Barbara, just so we can be grounded in, in what that looks like. Who are your users and what matters? . 

[00:05:56] Barbara Messing: So Roblox is a platform. Um, we are a [00:06:00] 3D social platform and we have, um, 60 million people come every day on Roblox. And they are hanging out together. They're building together, they're creating together, um, and they're, and they're chatting and having fun.

And so Roblox really is a whole range of experiences created by our incredible creator community. And we essentially create this platform that enables, um, those creators to build these incredibly, um, immersive 3D experiences. And we have a whole set of wonderful users who come to Roblox and they create an avatar and they come into Roblox with their friends and they can go from experience to experience and create and explore and, and have fun.

And so, That's what Roblox is. And Roblox, although is known, um, for many years as being a place where kids like your nephew, um, like to congregate are actually, um, over half of our users are now over 13. 13 plus. And our fastest growing segment is 17 to 24 [00:07:00] year olds. So Roblox is like an incredibly vibrant community and we're really, um, finding that it's really attracting people of all ages.

[00:07:09] Nadine Dietz: Wow. That's amazing. I had no idea. This new segment that's growing 17 to 24. Wow. Um, amazing. Well, actually, Kristen, I mean that, that might explain why you decided to get involved in Roblox, uh, as you skate into your virtual playground. Like you were one of the first to really pioneer, uh, how to actually leverage Roblox, but as you said, it's only part of your media mix, and so you had to make decisions as to where that fit in your portfolio.

Tell us a little bit about why you decided to make that move and how you consider Roblox as part of your overall marketing mix? 

[00:07:42] Kristin Harrer: Absolutely. So if anybody out there is familiar with the Vans brand, um, and I think especially if you've been close to us for as long as we've been around, uh, 50 plus years, you know, then that the magic of the Vans brand has always been sort of on the ground in real life with consumers, [00:08:00] um, and.

It's funny, I started at Vans about a year and a half ago, almost two years ago. Um, and I share actually an office wall over here, um, with the founder's son, Steve Van Doren. And it's what Steve Van Doren calls, he likes to call it lovingly hand to hand combat. It's like being on the ground, flipping burgers with people, um, and that, you know, was alive and things like Warped Tour that we did earlier on.

Now, everything that we do in house of Vans, so we really like to be live and in person with people. when Covid happened, um, like every brand on the planet, we had to think about new ways of interacting with the people that love us. Um, and also like a new way to like fill our soul in in a way, you know, how are we gonna connect with people on, on the daily if we can't be at House of Vans live for a period of time?

And so I challenged the team to think about, well, where are they? Where are consumers spending their time? If they're not at house advance, if they're not at the skate park, like [00:09:00] what are they doing? and, um, that's where the Roblox idea was born. And then that's where we reached out to the team. Um, I said at the beginning, just in my intro when I joined, one of the things that we focused on at at Vans was just kind of rethinking our overarching brand strategy.

And we partially had to do that. , you know, because of Covid. I think Covid had a really profound effect, obviously on all of us, but also on people who are shopping a brand like Vans. So we really had to recalibrate kind of our mission, our vision, who we wanna be in the world, the impact that we wanna have on the people that love us, but also on culture.

And what we're shifting from is this idea of pure creative expression, the act of creating something to this idea of creative exploration. So literally, , whether it's personal, creative exploration, trying on different hats, figuring out who you wanna be day in and day out, or if it's a longer term kind of journey, we wanna be part of that with people.

And it's because that's what Vans gets credit for. We get credit for being super authentic, [00:10:00] kind of no matter what. And we think that that's the role that we can play in people's lives. So that said, enabling this idea of creative exploration, um, and having fun while you're doing it is super central to.

and Roblox 1000%. You just heard Barbara talking about it shares in that mission. So it was a no-brainer for us to work together. Um, We also really wanted to make sure that we worked with a partner that could bridge the gap between virtual and real world fashion. Um, and, you know, make kind of that, uh, sort of trying different personalities on at the speed of culture real for people from a fashion perspective, but also from a sports, um, accessibility perspective.

And so that level of inclusivity was also something that the Roblox platform brought to our partnership. And it's, it's really. Excuse the sports pun. It's been a home run, . 

[00:10:53] Nadine Dietz: I love that. I love that. And yeah, I'm gonna come back to you in a minute, Kristen, and, um, dig in a little bit, uh, per James's [00:11:00] question, because we were talking about the marketing mix and your overall, uh, perspective on where you invest your time.

James had asked how you think about, um, events, um, and sponsorship of events. So we'll come back to that in just a. , because I do wanna go back over to you, Barbara, for a moment. As you think about, you know, the success that you've had in partnering here with fans, there are a lot of brands who haven't actually even stuck a toe in the water yet, or kind of trying to figure out how to get involved or what, what's something easy they can do?

Like how do you see your portfolio of brands working within Roblox? And I'm sure, I'm sure it varies across the board. . 

[00:11:36] Barbara Messing: Yeah. Um, so I think the incredible thing about Roblox is you think how big the, the, the user group is on Roblox, right? Really many brands can, um, have a place on Roblox, and the really, the question is what they want to, um, how they wanna engage with their, with their audiences or with their consumers.

And so Kristen, obviously, they really had a specific goal in mind and thought about [00:12:00] how and where their their fans were already playing and being and creating. And also this, this notion of the sort of the mindset of fans of Roblox and fans of Vans and how they think about creation and fashion. And so I think that's a really good example because, , it really hits sort of the authenticity of the partnership.

And when I think when a brand comes to Roblox and really thinks about who are our audiences on Roblox and how am I gonna authentically engage with them and what are the things they're gonna wanna do with my brand, and what is that special relationship we have with our, with our fans? I think those are the brands that really get Roblox.

And so, um, one thing, uh, Kristen was saying was about, um, the notion of creation. It's really important to think about this audience that's on Roblox, so. We just did a survey, um, around metaverse and fashion, and we released a trend report, and one of the things that really stuck out was [00:13:00] 40% of Gen Z, um, would rather have a digital item than a real world item.

And digital fashion is as important how you represent yourself, um, digitally online. In Roblox is more important than how you represent yourself in the real world or just as important, basically. And so I think that's just really interesting insight around how important your identity is on a platform like Roblox.

And so your idea that you can, you can create your avatar to look the way you want and express yourself and be you, whatever that you is, is super important to Roblox. Um, the other notion is that like you share, you share your brand. people they co-create with you. Um, so I think brands that really sort of open it up and like are open to that playfulness, I think do well as well.

But again, because it's a platform and there's so many types of folks on it, there, a whole wide range of brands can be very successful. Um, I think. Beyond Vans. I mean, ALO Yoga is one where, um, they had a goal to authentically, um, [00:14:00] engage and, and create these, uh, meditations. And I think they had a goal of inspiring a million meditations and they drove nearly 10 million meditations and 17 million visits in just three weeks.

And so, That's something when you think about Roblox, you think like, oh, people are gonna come and meditate on Roblox. But it's really around being there with your friends and tapping into something that, again, is a real world thing. But if you don't think of real world versus virtual, it's sort of seamless.

Then doing a meditation in Roblox is very natural to, to many people. Um, but then we also have some more traditional things where you can um, you know, build something together. I know people. Do pizza parlor games or, uh, my daughter was just telling me how she had fun all weekend. Um, basically do a cleaning game, uh, with her friends and having fun doing that.

Um, and then even we have virtual concerts and, you know, we just announced, um, That N F L pre is doing a pre-game show [00:15:00] with Sweetie, and so there's lots of really fun things happening on the platform all the time. But I guess my guidance is that brands should just get on there, check it out, start playing, seeing what's going on, and they can see there's just a whole range.

Of experiences like as big as the world on Roblox today, and there's a bunch of ways to engage. I can just really quickly say there's like three quick ways. The first thing is you can sort of start by items. You can sort of create avatar items and start sort of playing there, which is sort of the lightest touch wave of getting in.

then you can do like a short-term experience, which is more like an activation, and you can do that within somebody else's experience. And I know Kristen has experience sort of with that and maybe can talk about her experience there. And then the last thing is a persistent experience, which is, you know, you're, it's an always on experience and you're maintaining it.

Um, I think the best way for folks who are not familiar to think about, Looking at Old World is like internet, right? If you have a website, you have to maintain your website, right? You have to like make [00:16:00] sure the links are working and you're updating it and you're, you know, putting in new content. So it's sort of the same thinking, right?

It's a persistent thing that you're just gonna constantly invest and make better. And, um, really think about ways to engage, um, your audience in future audiences. 

[00:16:14] Nadine Dietz: I love that. And speaking of investing, I just got a couple more questions and Matt actually, um, asked a question about how to measure success when you were investing in new things.

Um, and related also to what James was asking about event sponsorship as part of the mix. Kristen, how do you think about like where you invest and what did you learn along the way, um, that might have changed how you think about things like now, next new, right. What, what goes into which buckets and where do you really accelerate?

Yeah. 

[00:16:44] Kristin Harrer: I just, I, I'm gonna answer that question. I think I just wanna hit like, uh, double time on something Barbara just said. I think one of the things that, um, anybody who's interested in getting on the platform really needs to embrace is just this idea of fun and [00:17:00] experimentation. Another reason why the partnership has worked so well is that really is the core of who Vans is.

We play, we play. That's, that's what we're here to do. We wanna make things fun for our consumers. And I think you. Essentially when we launched our partnership with Roblox, we've just been sort of playing together, building this completely immersive vans world, um, for the last, you know, almost two years. So I, I think that's, um, one of the most important things that you can keep in mind, uh, in terms of investment.

So, I know no one can answer this question. I'm gonna ask you a rhetorical question. Somebody tell me the best 32nd ad you've seen in a while. No one can probably answer that question. Doesn't mean ads are irrelevant, but I do think it means that you have to think really differently about brand spend. Um, and so do 32nd ads cut through to the consumer that you're trying to serve.

do films cut through, do partnerships cut through. And for us it really comes down to [00:18:00] listening to the voice of the consumer. Who are you trying to serve? Who's your brand gonna be most relevant with, and where are they spending their time? And so the way that we think about the portfolio and making investment decisions is, is, you know, for us, um, building a partnership like this squarely sits in the brand spend part of our portfolio.

How do you measure brand? , right? Mm-hmm. age old question. There's a lot of different ways to measure brand activity. You can anchor it into your brand health tracker, you can anchor it into consumer sentiment, and the consumer sentiment is bespoke to the platform that you're doing the brand spend on. So when we think about measuring, um, our activity on Roblox, we're really proud of the fact that in January, 2023, we've had more than 90 million visits.

90 million, uh, and over 12 million hours played on the Roblox platform. Yes, that deserves applause. It's pretty amazing, um, that our reach has been that broad. Um, and then the other thing that we're really proud of is [00:19:00] the positive user experience rating. So, uh, and Barbara can speak to this probably better than I can, um, but essentially are the consumers that you're driving to the platform enjoying themselves.

Do they like spending time there? Is it sticky? And do they wanna come back? And our positive user experience rating since the day that we launched on September 1st, 2021, has been 94%. Um, so when you talk about tangible ways to measure brand activity, that's pretty tangible. I think it speaks for itself in terms of what consumers like.

The other thing that we look at is, you know, what, what products are consumers interacting with on the platform? So, of course we've seen a lot of interaction with just our, our classic silhouettes. So the skate high, our slip board, slip, slip on, uh, and our checkerboard bands, you know, all of the classic silhouettes that everybody knows and loves, do really well on the platform.

Our iconic checkerboard. outside of being on our shoes also does really well. So you think about hats, you think about backpacks like checkerboard, [00:20:00] everything all day long. We also, um, recently launched, um, in partnership with the platform, uh, checkerboard makeup. So when you talk about like a platform where you can engage in some pretty deep self-exploration and like try on different personalities, try on different outfits, literally every day.

There's just fun things that you can do with things that are iconic IP for the Van's brand and the checkerboard makeup. Checkerboard faces is one of those things. And then we get like some wacky stuff like we, we play around and um, we, again, we try to bring like the in real life vibe that we have on the ground in at House of Vans and at some of our events into the platform.

So things like you can walk around Vans World and Roblox with a pigeon on your shoulder. that's deeply connected to our history and our heritage and our founder. You can get a stack of waffles, hat, right? Like just weird things, um, that we can inject into the experience that's very vans. And then we also do things like in, um, in platform or in, in, uh, vans, world partnerships.

So [00:21:00] we recently partnered with the North Face, who's one of our sister brands. At VF and we did a winterized experience with North Face. We launched a limited number of items that were only available for a certain amount of time, and it was one of the highest performing capsules of the year. So, you know, when you think about measurement, um, really think about where you're gonna invest your brand dollars and where your consumers are spending their time.

And you measure that in the traditional ways and you also measure that in new ways, and it gives you, in indications on. You know, what parts of your business are gonna be interesting outside of the platform as well. Um, so hope that helps. 

[00:21:37] Nadine Dietz: Yeah. Well, and thank you for that because I, we've gotten two more questions on similar things, like how do you choose where to invest?

This is such a hot topic, especially now. when people have to do more with less and measuring the health of your brand. We have a lot of material out there for folks who wanna dig really deep into that. Um, but thank you for sharing your point of view. Yeah. Um, very, very helpful and hopefully, uh, I hope I say this right, [00:22:00] uh, Carrie, Kari, that answers your question on what a home run means, uh, for vans.

So, and thank you Maria for your question as well. Um, Barbara. , you went through your background very quickly and uh, you forgot to mention a couple of big stops along the way that you made and I find it so fascinating because I've known you for a long time now.

 Um, but uh, you went from CMO of TripAdvisor, before that you were at Hotwire mm-hmm. to CMO of Walmart. Mm-hmm. . And now, C m o plus with all these extra responsibilities you have at Roblox, like it is, it's like how completely different are all those worlds? Like tell us a little bit about what you, what really attracted you, uh, for, for Roblox and.

you know, why you made the decisions to move from TripAdvisor, Walmart, Roblox. That's quite different. 

[00:22:52] Barbara Messing: Yeah. I always, um, look for, uh, different things. Uh, but there are some consistent things as well, which is, you know, it always has to be a [00:23:00] brand that I'm really excited about. Like, I have to feel like a personal connection and excitement to telling the story of that brand and, and, and, and thinking about.

how can I help, uh, you know, bring something new to the brand or engage with their consumers in a new way. Um, and so I always look for like, what is the interesting challenge or how can I can, how can I do something exciting there? And so all these places I've worked, I've been lucky enough to work with incredible people at each place.

Um, you know, just, I think one thing that's been wonderful is just the talent, um, in the marketing world we have today and in our agency partners, like there's just amazing. Brilliant people to work with. And in all those places, that was a blast. Um, and I also think like, what is the underlying purpose of the brand?

And these are all very purpose-driven brands. I mean, TripAdvisor brings happiness. You know, travel is like this moment of just joy and anticipation and, um, other worldliness that comes to people. And even if they're not on a trip, they're getting joy of thinking about travel. And Walmart's a great brand, you know, which is just [00:24:00] bringing.

you know, families, you know, access to things and, uh, that has a wonderful, you know, live better, has always been save money, live better, which is fantastic. And then Roblox is really around bringing people together and, uh, it's very visionary and it's sort of like wonderful to be here, here at this stage because it's really a combination of just like deep consumer insights, but also like the revolution that is happening.

Going from where we were, um, with like 2D and internet to where we are today with 3D platforms. And, um, it's just been amazing and I feel very lucky to, um, just be working in tech at this really exciting time and especially at Roblox. 

[00:24:42] Nadine Dietz: Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. And, uh, Kristen, I mean, gosh, like equally exciting list of brands you work.

Whether it's Vans, dollar Shave Club and Samsung, Nike. But you were also not only just a lawyer as well, which we found out earlier today, [00:25:00] um, but you were at, uh, widen and Kennedy, you were a consultant, like you've been agency, consulting, brand side. Like how did you make your choices along the way? 

[00:25:09] Kristin Harrer: Yeah. I have been an athlete my whole life.

I grew up in the Midwest. Um, I have an identical twin sister. Competing in sports was something that was kind of like, uh, in my life from a very young age. I always had a teammate around. Right? Um, and so I, I played sports in college. I wrote my senior thesis on Title Nine. I started my career very early doing activism for girls and women in sport.

And, um, Similar to what Barbara said, I'm a very purpose-driven person. I'm a mission-driven person. Um, one, the greater impact that I wanna have on the world, um, is to continue to open up opportunities for girls and women in sport. And so I've let that sort of guide my decisions, um, and, and, and my career path has really opened up from there.

But the decisions come from here. and, um, so yeah, so very early on, I, I went from a life of [00:26:00] doing advocacy and going to law school to really having an honest conversation with myself about one that I like being on the legal side of things and two, Um, did I feel like I was having the kind of impact at the speed that I wanted to have, the impact and the part of culture and the part of the world that I wanted to have the impact?

And the answer was no sitting on the legal side. But if I thought about flipping over onto the marketing side and to really listening to the voice of the consumer, what consumers wanted, the impact could be much greater and much faster. And so that really changed everything and, um, I've made decisions that were congruent with that.

Um, as my kind of guiding vision for my life and who I am. I've also made decisions about collecting skillsets that were ultimately gonna help me be a better marketer, um, which led me to take some different roles along the way. , but ultimately the reason I'm at Vans, um, and in the role that I'm in right now is because all of those things have kind of come together in one, one role.

So I have the appropriate skillset to [00:27:00] do, to do this job, and it also happens to sort of squarely be in my wheelhouse of driving access and opportunity for girls and women in sport. I don't think many people know. Unless you're a deep, um, kind of follower of action sports, the action sports category, but Vans has sort of always been on the front lines here, um, from prize parity to women to just providing access to girls and women around skateboarding and communities all over the world.

Um, it's very congruent with who I am. Um, and, and I'm, I'm glad that this is, this is where it's led me. So that's my story. Well, I, I certainly 

[00:27:36] Nadine Dietz: thank you for all your efforts there. Um, I'd be, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that we lost a, a really important part of our CMO community this last weekend.

Who is as passionate as both of you supporting women and girls across the globe. And, uh, I really do thank everyone's efforts here because it's, it's really, um, important and still very needed. So thank you. Um, and [00:28:00] sadly, uh, we did lose Elizabeth Charles

. We are unfortunately now out of time. Uh, but , I can't let you go without some final words of wisdom.

This is the first episode of visionaries. Um, and, uh, you two are our first two visionaries of 2023, and I can't imagine what more exciting things you have to think about for the future, cuz you're already kind of living the future. But, um, if you wouldn't mind closing us out, Barbara, I'll ask you first and then Kristen.

So Barbara, what is exciting you about the future and what you see coming down the. . 

[00:28:31] Barbara Messing: Um, well first of all, I just wanna acknowledge Elizabeth Charles and just say, um, she was a person who led with kindness and building community and beyond being a brilliant marketer. Um, and I think, you know, for me, I, I think what's important is, um, Leading with kindness building community.

And um, you know, I think Kristen started by saying her most important role is building her team, or one of her most important roles. And I [00:29:00] think, um, not only do I wanna continue to focus on, helping people grow, but um, I also wanna focus on continuing to build the community both on Roblox, but in our broader, , marketing community.

 Anyhow, I just want to acknowledge that and, you know, my condolences to everyone. . 

[00:29:16] Nadine Dietz: Thank you, Barbara. Appreciate that. Um, how about you, Kristen? 

[00:29:20] Kristin Harrer: Yeah. Um, what am I excited about? Um, I, the singular thing that I keep coming back to is just that I really feel that for the first time in the history of the world, people have felt more comfortable being their true selves now than ever before.

Um, and that is like, I. Historic level of human openness and vulnerability that we've really not seen before. And if this is where we are now, think about where we're gonna be 20, 50, a hundred years from now in terms of people just being open with each other and being willing to really figure out who they wanna be in the [00:30:00] world and the impact they wanna have on the world.

Um, And so I feel optimistic about that and about what future generations are gonna bring to our society along those lines. And on top of it, I'm really optimistic about how Vans is positioned and, and in, in, in light of that, we are a brand that gets credit for being our authentic selves no matter what.

And I just hope that as we move into the future, 50 another, 50 years from now, maybe Vans is still going to be kind of going on that journey with people. Um, Helping them be who they really are. So thank you Nadine, for the time and for inviting us. It's been great. Yeah, thank you both. 

[00:30:40] Nadine Dietz: I really appreciate you being here and thank you for sharing all your incredible ex experiences and tips.

It's been so helpful for me to, to hear what you guys have been up to. So thank you so much. You bet