Obsession viewers probably don’t want to live in Bear’s apartment permanently, like his victim Nikki is forced to in the film—but what if they could live in it for just about seven minutes?

The new horror movie, distributed by Focus Features, hit theaters on May 15, racking up an impressive $108 million in its first three weeks at the domestic box office on a reported $750,000 budget, per Forbes. The plot follows main character Bear, a hopeless romantic who makes an enchanted wish for his childhood friend Nikki to fall in love with him, leading to much darker consequences.

Directed by YouTube filmmaker Curry Barker, the film’s initial online response has been, well, obsessive. But even before the movie had positive internet reviews to bolster its critical praise, Focus Features was stoking online engagement on Discord, where users could solve a puzzle set in Bear’s apartment and engage with the story details themselves, all in about seven minutes.

“You’ve got this massive audience playing [on gaming platforms],” Joshua Kornblit, EVP of marketing at Focus Features, told us. “[They’re] highly engaged, global, spending tons of time in these environments, and in doing so, we have this opportunity to immerse them in our stories.”

It’s not the only gaming activation that Focus Features has rolled out recently. For upcoming historical drama Pressure, a film based on a true story that follows the 72 hours before D-Day, the studio also partnered with Sawhorse Productions and Genesis Studios to create a custom Fortnite: Pressure game map.

Despite the difference in genre, both titles lend themselves to game adaptations because of the story elements that naturally work on each platform, Kornblitt said, and content designed for the gaming world can allow for deeper attention than other ad platforms.

“A normal film campaign, you’re running ads wherever you can,” he said. “In this case, we’re living in these environments where they already are and allowing fans to interact with us.”

Continue reading here.—JN

AI tools are getting even more expensive.

The Gemini app will now charge users based on a “compute-used model” that takes into account chat length, features used, and prompt complexity, the company announced at its annual Google I/O event in Mountain View, California, in May. It’s a departure from the daily prompt limits it previously used.

It’s a response to the staggering cost of providing AI to so many users, and the latest change affecting how major AI companies are charging for their products that could have broad business effects.

• Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot product is transitioning to usage-based billing this month;
• Anthropic’s Claude Enterprise made a similar switch in April.

As the cost of AI tools continues to climb, many brands and agencies are keeping an eye on how those changes could impact their budgets, according to brands and agencies that Marketing Brew spoke with. Some are also strategizing around how to charge their own clients for AI services they use in their work for clients, even as they seek to balance the value of leveraging AI internally with rising subscription costs.

The focus comes amid an increasingly public conversation about stomaching the cost of using AI tools at companies. Uber COO Andrew Macdonald recently said in an interview that high AI costs due to token consumption were becoming harder to justify.

Read more here.—Jasmine

Loyalty programs have long been a staple for many retailers, but for the value-driven shopper today, they are more important than ever.

Per new research from LoyaltyLion, 91% of respondents said that being part of a loyalty program drives them to make repeat purchases from the same e-commerce brand.

The survey, which included responses of 2,000 US consumers, also found that shoppers enrolled in retailers’ loyalty programs on a weekly (58%) and often daily (15%) basis.

According to LoyaltyLion, the average member consumer is part of more than three e-commerce loyalty programs, and that doesn’t even include supermarkets or coffee shops.

Age was a differentiator, with younger shoppers seemingly more closely tracking these programs. Consumers between the ages of 25 and 34 logged into their memberships about 15.6 times per month, while those over 55 logged in just 7.6 times.

“Consumers love loyalty programs,” Charlie Casey, CEO of LoyaltyLion, said in a statement. “They want to engage with them, they’re actively looking for ways to earn rewards, and they’re increasingly choosing brands based on how good that experience is.”

Read more on Retail Brew.—Jeena

On September 30, Marketing Brew Summit returns for a day of insightful keynotes, candid panels, and networking with the marketers shaping the future of the industry. Come for the fresh ideas and sharp strategies. Stay because someone finally explains the trend everyone’s been pretending to understand.

Executive moves across the industry.

• Chloé hired Gucci alum Valérie Leberichel to serve as CMO.
• OpenAI hired a new CMO for its business unit: Colin Fleming, formerly of ServiceNow.
• Smashburger hired Kate Savelli, formerly of Bagel Brands, to serve as CMO.
• CNN hired Peacock marketer Anna Frost as head of marketing as part of a broader structural change unifying its brand marketing and growth marketing organizations.