Hey folks!

Today’s edition is number #52 of The SEG3 Report, and that means it has now been one full year of us (at least trying to!) dissect the big marketing & technology developments across media, entertainment, games & sports.

Thanks to all of you who have joined us along the way - we hope it’s been scratching your innovation itch…

Right - onto today’s instalment:

Contents: Edition #52

• Booking.com’s use of AI to drive discovery & personalisation

• Lincoln City FC appoint entrepreneur-in-residence to spearhead Innovation Lab

• Discord Launches SDK to Power Social Infrastructure and Communications for Games

Booking.com’s use of AI to drive discovery & personalisation

Booking.com has integrated OpenAI's large language models (LLMs) into its platform in an attempt to revolutionise the travel discovery and planning process. The collaboration enables more intuitive and conversational interactions, allowing travellers to receive personalised destination recommendations and itineraries based on natural language prompts.

Why You Should Care

TL;DR: OpenAI & Booking.com went from identifying the challenge, to launching a hackathon and having a working prototype all within 10 weeks. That speed to market is somewhat unheard of from a corporate perspective. But it’s already paying dividends; with increased engagement, less customer queries and faster decision making for customers. This process can, should, and is going to be replicated to help fans in their discovery of new content, sports events or games.

In full: I’m always fascinated to see how other industries are leveraging technology, and this launch from OpenAI & Booking.com caught my eye as a great example of how AI is likely to be integrated to improve discovery and personalisation across our industries in the coming months.

So, what does the AI Trip Planner aim to achieve?

Simply, Booking.com want to meet customers earlier in the search process to help them discover alternative travel options.

In our world, sports fans, movie enthusiasts and game players all face a wealth of options on a daily basis of what to watch/play, what event to attend on, what to spend their money on etc.

And too much choice often leads to paralysis, or a return to the norm. Who hasn’t ended up rewatching their favourite series for the 7th time (shout of Suits) after trying to find something new and giving up?

And this is where Booking.com are leveraging AI to help guide their customers through the discovery process, capturing their intent from conversation, and guiding them towards under-utilised travel options if their intent suggests there could be a potential fit.

And this has changed the customer journey quite significantly, with it now evolving to drive:

Earlier engagement, which leads to ↓

More understanding of their customers needs, which means ↓

They’re able to make better recommendations of their available inventory, meaning ↓

Customers have more awareness of options meeting their specifications (with more personalised upsell opportunities), leading to ↓

More utilisation of inventory year round, resulting in ↓

Growth 🎉

For any owner/creator of content, games, live events etc - it feels like having a companion that can shift the user experience from being transactional (and onerous from a consumer perspective) towards being conversational (and more personalised) is going to become the norm - not necessarily driven by the industry as a whole, but by consumers who interact with companions in one-setting beginning to become expectant and accustomed to them doing the heavy lifting.

Another thing worth acknowledging here is that this whole process from ideation to hackathon to prototype delivery was just 10 weeks, so in just over two months they were able to deliver:

• Increased engagement: The AI Trip Planner has kept users on the platform longer as they explore personalised itineraries.
  

• Faster search: Smart Filters have made it easier for travellers to find specific results, reducing the time spent on search.
  

• Fewer customer support contacts: Property Q&A has lowered support volumes with more accurate in-app answers.
  

• Higher booking confidence: Review summarisation has helped travellers make faster decisions with less uncertainty.

And if that isn’t a process to take inspiration from on how to solve business challenges with emerging technology, I don’t know what is!

Want to learn about the latest marketing & technology developments driving content, brand and business innovation?

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Lincoln City FC appoints entrepreneur-in-residence to spearhead Innovation Lab

Lincoln City Football Club have brought in an Entrepreneur-in-Residence to oversee their recently launched Innovation Lab.

The Innovation Lab’s remit is to drive creative thinking and developing new initiatives that enhance fan engagement, strengthen commercial partnerships and position the club as a leader in the local area and wider English football.

Why you should care?

TL;DR: An Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) certainly isn’t the usual job title you find at a top-tier football club, never mind the third division, but the introduction of an innovation lab, and now an EIR, certainly differentiates Lincoln from the pack. Having someone internally focusing solely on accelerating, and even potentially incubating new businesses, can give Lincoln exposure to some of the latest and greatest products and technologies, which can not only help them improve their fan experience, but also help them build a unique innovation narrative which they can take to new sponsors.

In full: Impartiality aside for a moment, I love to see initiatives like this. Something completely different that puts innovation at the forefront.

For those of you who may not have come across an EIR before, in essence, the role tends to focus on:

• Advising Startups

• Evaluating Investment Opportunities

• Building New Ventures

All of which goes hand-in-hand with Lincoln City’s recent launch of their innovation lab, which aims to focus on finding solutions to improve 5 key business pillars, these being:

• Smart Stadiums

• Sustainability

• Esports

• Fan Engagement

• Sports Science

A few thoughts on why Lincoln’s innovation approach is very smart:

1) Differentiation

Sports teams may think their propositions are unique, but if you’re sponsor side, most pitches tend to be a variation on a theme - with similar numbers, narratives and assets, it makes it hard for a sponsor to put together a business case for why sponsorship of one over the other would be preferential.

Therefore, clubs need to have something they can hang their hat off of; an identity, an ethos that they can use to shape a story and stand out from the crowd. A combination of these things can mean even lower league clubs can punch well above their weight from a commercial perspective.

A good example of this is Forest Green Rovers, who have an authentic sustainability story. Their roster of partners includes global brands like DPD, Oatly & Quorn, who have been attracted by the clubs unique proposition, and are most likely investing well above the going-rate for a club of their level.

With that in mind, I certainly think that Lincoln City launching the innovation lab & hiring an EIR can replicate this but with global technology businesses that are looking for interesting ways to tell their innovation story through football.

2) Exposure to start-ups and new revenue opportunities

More teams and leagues are waking up to the importance of being at the cutting edge, and the opportunities that either investing in or incubating startups can give to their businesses on and off the field.

I wrote more about the investment and incubation opportunities for sports brands in Edition #31 (which you can read here) when discussing the English Football League’s Innovation Lab.

Here’s to hoping this isn’t the last innovation lab launch we see in 2025 (I’m sure it won’t be!).

Discord Launches SDK to Power Social Infrastructure and Communications for Games

Discord has launched the Discord Social SDK, enabling game developers to embed Discord's social functionalities, such as friends lists, cross-platform messaging, voice chat, and game invites, directly within their games.

These features are accessible to all players, regardless of whether they have a Discord account. The SDK is compatible with C++, Unreal Engine, and Unity, supporting Windows 11+ and macOS, with plans to extend support to consoles and mobile devices.

Early adopters of this integration include big hitters like Tencent Games & more.

Why you should care

TL;DR: Discord are returning to their gaming roots, and focusing in on what they’ve been known for - being the place for socialising whilst playing games. The SDK should prove popular with game developers who can turn to Discord as the home for conversation within their game, and with a Discord account not a necessity to have access, the reduction in friction should see Discord and their capabilities introduced to a new wave of users for potentially the first time.

In full: Gaming has always been social, but until now, communication has mostly happened through separate apps like Discord, WhatsApp or party chats on consoles. I vividly remember switching between multiple platforms, chats and apps depending on which group of friends I was playing alongside and their preference…

With the launch of Discord’s Social SDK and making chat/voice a native part of the game itself, Discord are making a big push to put themselves back as the primary channel for gamers to socialise through.

But by allowing game developers to now use the Social SDK in their games, it’s indicative of a bigger trend - one where socialising is no longer an add-on to games, but a core part of its attraction.

So whether you’re in gaming, sports or media, a key thing to remember is that todays audiences want to interact without friction. They don’t just want to watch a game; they want to talk about it. They don’t just want to play; they want to share the experience with friends.

And the platforms that integrate social features seamlessly will be the ones that win long-term, with Discord taking a very good first step with this launch.

In other news this week…

• McDonald’s launches Minecraft themed Happy Meals: read here.

• Oakley & 100 Thieves team up for first-ever gaming signature eyewear: read here.

• EA Sports offers $1500 for student athletes to appear in College Football 26: read here.

• Netflix launches closed alpha for MMO game, Spry Fox’s Spirit Crossing: read here.

• Eli Roth teams up with Sui & Republic to tokenise equity in Horror production studio: read here.

• Pokemon becomes partner of Indian Super League: read here.

• Call of Duty & Dr Squatch team up for themed products: read here.

• Alpine F1 launch loyalty program, RISE+: read here.

• Universal Music Group & Heat bring Lil Wayne to game developers: read here.

• LEGO & The Pokemon Company to launch themed sets in 2026: read here.

• Mentos launch ‘Fizzooka’ weapon on Fortnite: read here.

• Publicis Groupe & Adobe expand partnership to bring Adobe Firefly to creative & personalisation processes: read here.

• SEGA to open first official store in Shanghai in May: read here.

• Coinbase become Official Crypto Partner of Cronulla Sharks: read here.

• Square Enix to discontinue services of web3 game, Symbiogenesis, in July 2025: read here.

• HP share article on ‘How Gen Z are reshaping the world through technology’: read here.

• Walmart launches Minecraft server, Skyward: read here.

• KOCCA announces grants to promote cooperation between Korean webtoon companies and foreign creators: read here.

• Warner Bros. Discovery launches multiview for March Madness: read here.

• DFL & Korea Football Association sign MOU to grow Korean football: read here.

• Bobby Hundreds named VP of Creative for Disney Consumer Products: read here.

• Invisible Universe launches Invisible Studio to accelerate creation of short-form animated content: read here.

• Football Australia pioneers gatekeeper broadcast model: read here.

• Sportradar acquires IMG Arena: read here.

Working on anything cool, or have a press release you would like us to cover? Send it in for the chance for it to be covered in next week’s edition!

That’s all for now folks - thanks again for reading the latest edition of The SEG3 Report and we’ll see you next Tuesday for more on the intersection of culture & emerging technology!