[00:00:00] Phillip: And welcome to Future Commerce, the podcast at the intersection of culture and commerce. I'm Phillip.

[00:00:04] Brian: Oh, and I'm Brian.

[00:00:06] Phillip: I have to ask you, Brian. What's your favorite time?

[00:00:10] Brian: My favorite time? Actually, this is not a lie. It has always...

[00:00:16] Brian: This... this...

[00:00:16] Phillip: Is a joke. It has... You're messing with it.

[00:00:18] Brian: You know? I'm messing with it. This is real though. This is true. It has always been 11:11.

[00:00:24] Phillip: That's a terrible segue.

[00:00:26] Brian: It's real. It's a real thing. You didn't know the answer, and it actually... I've always had a thing for 11:11. I think this is amazing.

[00:00:33] Phillip: I have to tell you, I wanna take... I... if I went back in time and I got, like, in a time machine, I remember where I was on 11:11:11. That was a very memorable day for me. But no. No. No. Make a wish, because today we're to talk a little bit about, you know, all the things that are happening in the world. I think it's the perfect intersection of commerce, culture, community, content, celebrity, because today we have the person to help break it all down for us at 11:11 Media. That's, of course, Paris Hilton's next generation media company. And he is the senior vice president and head of commerce and audience at 11:11 Media, where he leads the commercial initiatives and revenue growth across the company's consumer product portfolio. Welcome to the show, Adam Domian.

[00:01:21] Adam: Great to be here. Thank you for having me.

[00:01:23] Phillip: Yeah. I'm glad to have you. What's going on at 11:11 Media these days, and how are you all making an impact with Paris and all of her various pursuits?

[00:01:33] Adam: Yeah. So as you said, we are a next gen entertainment company at the center of culture and commerce, bringing together content, community and commerce. We have a lot going on. Paris always has a lot going on in her world, and our job and my job is really to figure out how do we, you know, harness everything that she wants to do, everything happening in culture today, storytell around that, and bring people into the fold. And so we have a ton going on across the business, but specific to my world, which is really about commerce. And I love, by the way, the parallel here because we talk a lot about connecting culture to commerce, which I know you all... you know, that's your tagline and what you all care about. So love that we're here today, but that's a lot of what I do. So we're building new businesses from scratch. We have a massive portfolio of products that we can get into later, but really it's about storytelling around those, finding ways to get in front of consumers, and, you know, tell those stories.

[00:02:35] Phillip: That's so cool. We're obviously... you know, our audience is very senior. They care a lot about how they're piloting their organizations into all of this change. We've heard a lot about, yeah, social commerce, the taste discourse, AI in our organizations, and agentic. I'm sure these are all things on all of your minds, but not very many folks have the, you know, the, I'd say, the taste making ability, the celebrity power that you have at the helm behind, you know, Paris' name. But I'd say very few people have the kind of street cred and the operator power that you have. You spent time at Unilever, Target. At M13, you have venture capital experience in your past. Give us a little bit of the, you know, your operator experience and some of that you bring to bear in the commercial side of the operation for the media brand.

[00:03:31] Adam: Yeah. So, as you mentioned, I have a pretty lengthy career across consumer and retail, so started my career at Target. I'm a big retailer here in The US, of course. And for me, that, you know, that was pivotal because it really taught me about consumer psychology and getting people to buy things that they didn't know they needed, and really taught me about the, you know, retail truth and what is shelf worthy and how do you get real people to buy physical products in a store. And then I spent a good part of my career at Unilever, so big consumer products company, and really there it was about crafting, you know, at a global scale. So taking big billion dollar brands and growing those, you know, bringing them across the globe, and really those brands and that business is about endurance, so spanning generations of consumers. And then I spent the last couple of years at M13, which is an early stage venture capital firm focused on b to c and b to b businesses. And there, it's really... my time there was about b to c velocity, so how early stage brands use capital and creative and speed to punch above their weight that the Unilever brands might not have. But what I was excited about in joining 11:11 is really 11:11 affords me the opportunity to do all of that. It brings together for the first time sort of this really strong cultural zeitgeist in Paris' audience... relationship with her audience... brings together this flywheel of content, commerce, culture, community in a way that I haven't seen elsewhere, and most of those other brands are trying to create, but we have that in spades. So I'm able to leverage all of that to then do a lot of what I love, which is figuring out how do you engage consumers, how do you engage audience, and provide them value. Whether that value is a physical product, whether that is a concert, whether that is, you know, a new album, that's really what we're spending our time thinking about.

[00:05:31] Brian: That's so cool. Yeah. Audience first. I love that. And it's such a modern way to build a brand. And, you know, a big part of audience is social right now. Social commerce is sort of... it's been around for a long time. I remember when I first kinda got going and people were like, I don't know how to do this, but it's... it's become a much bigger thing, you know. And even with that, like, social commerce still lags behind a lot of other countries in the world, UK, Southeast Asia, and others. And so, you know, when you're going to build direct to consumer experiences across things like TikTok shop and Amazon live and so on and even, like, DMs and group chats and things like that. What are you seeing that sort of makes you excited about the opportunity that's still ahead, and where do you think the American consumer is sort of going on this front? What's the approach?

[00:06:25] Adam: Yeah. I mean, a lot to unpack there. I think we're all... the exciting thing is we're all learning at the same time. I think at 11:11, we have the luxury of having a global sort of view of things. We have a fairly large global business of products. But you're right, like, you know, The US in many ways lags behind some of the other... certainly Southeast Asian... company... countries. But I think, you know, that's not necessarily because of tech. It's... I think for, you know, a lot of what we see is it's consumer trust and consumer habit. So retailing in The US has just been different. So consumers are coming from a different place than in many of these other countries, and so it's a consumer education thing. So what I'm most excited about and sort of bullish on and what we see is, you know, things like certainly TikTok shop, you all see the stats every day of the GMV that's flowing through, particularly beauty and accessories and sort of discretionary purchases there, like real commerce is happening. So that's super exciting. I think platforms like Talk Shop Live and, you know, other formats like DMing, we're testing with as well, DMing at scale in... in transacting via DMs on social platforms.

[00:07:44] Adam: I think that's where we see a lot of bright spots around conversion rates, around LTV. And so all of these platforms, I think for me, it's, you know, The US market has a lot of runway, which is very exciting, and I think we just need to figure out how do we declutter this space because today for me, it feels like a lot of, you know, a lot of brands are coming in in different ways, but in some ways it feels cluttered. So I think cleaning that up for consumers, building that trust for consumers, by the way, that when they're transacting in these environments that it's, you know, their data is safe and so on. But I think, you know, a lot to be excited about. I think why we're stuck, as I said, or not actually stuck, but a little bit further behind is just like, we were as American consumers trained by going to Walmart and Amazon, which were very price led, very commodity sort of experiences, right? And so I think bringing in that entertainment piece, the education piece, all of that is just very exciting, and I think huge opportunity ahead.

[00:08:49] Brian: So cool. Yeah. I think you're right. Social commerce is... it's interesting that trust in in platform is just growing. And so I think with some of the improvements that TikTok has made to their shopping experience and sort of the guarantees they have and the way that they're sort of culling and curating. It seems like some of that trust building is happening native on the platform. But also, I feel like the trust that the brand brings... that Paris brings with her brands, and that that also allows you to enter into some of these new spaces or places to sell that you wouldn't... you wouldn't be able to without that level of trust that she already has with her audience. Right. How does that sort of audience connection play into picking up some of these emerging channels?

[00:09:47] Adam: Yeah. We, I mean, we spend a lot of time thinking about that, engaging with our audiences, our audience across platforms. I think for us, though, there are a couple of things that we look at. So one is, you know, where is the... not only where is the audience, but where is the audience already converting attention to behavior or action. Action. So that's, you know, that... as we were talking about TikTok, I think is a nice example of that, where it went from sort of social platform to people actually taking and then it was, you know, people discovering products but transacting on Amazon or elsewhere, and then it became actually transacting in platform. And so I think that's, you know, one of the signals that we look at as we think about, you know, building or entering spaces. I think certainly where Paris' point of view and her sort of her approach is a genuine sort of an advantage or value add versus any other voice. And then, you know, certainly for us, it's also where does the economic model give us permission to invest in those spaces. And so we're continuing to explore, you know, across the board, but we're... as you said, and I think rightfully, like, the fact that she has this twenty year relationship with certainly her audience, but, you know, general public as well, just gives us that, you know, brand affinity and that trust that allows us to at least have a foundation on which then we can build relationship with folks.

[00:11:24] Phillip: It's so funny because when you think about, you know, the way that that trust is built today, it does happen in such a plurality of channels, because it has to happen in so many different places. And, you know, we've talked about this for many years, Brian. I think in 2022, 2023, we were talking about the, not just the faceting of brand voice, but maybe the fragmenting of brand voice into different channels. You have to show up in TikTok one way, Roblox another way. Right? And that expectation, if taken to its logical, and it's... you know, you might... luxury houses might be playing there today, but can they sustain that for the next ten years, twelve years? Like, what does that consumer grow up expecting? What I think is fascinating is when you have someone like Paris who is... who they are everywhere because you know who they are, and they come with a singular voice. Is that too simplistic of a definition, or does Paris take on a different, you know, role in, say, Cooking with Paris on Netflix versus the, you know, a scavenger hunt on Roblox? So break it down for me a little bit on how that, you know, fascidization might play out in a traditional brand versus how Paris, you know, shows up in all of these other channels where, you know, the brand is being activated. Mhmm.

[00:12:53] Adam: Yeah. No. I love this question. I think there's some nuance though to it as well. So I think, you know, for Paris in particular, I think she is a unique person in that she does have so many... as we all do, I guess, as humans... have so many sides to her though. And so there's, you know, the public persona that many of us grew up with that, you know, in many ways was a character, that she was playing and put out there that was sort of the pink and sparkly and bubbly sort of influencer. But there's also CEO Paris that I go to Bentonville and, you know, meet with Walmart execs, and there's the designer, and there's... she is a multifaceted person. And what these various platforms allow us to do is lean into those different sort of sides of her even though it's... you know, the consistent thread is she is the same person. And, you know, TikTok allows us to have a little bit more fun and allows her to have a little more fun and show that sort of playful side of her and certainly, you know, a lot of, you know, content with her children. LinkedIn is, you know, CEO Paris, and, you know, Instagram is certainly a little bit more polished and speaks to that audience. Part of it's just what the audiences that she's built on those platforms and their expectations, but part of it is the just nature of and the expectations of those platforms too. But I think the core is she is the same person across those, and it just allows us to lean further into sort of different aspects of her life.

[00:14:32] Phillip: The brand as it's being... you know, as you're coming up with all of these extensions, these are owned brands now, not just licenses. I think that that's something to... you know, let's unpack that a little bit because the... there's an era in the past where, you know, the licensor is... was the sort of default for celebrity... Yep... activation. Right? And now we're in celebrity CEO mode, and, you know, I think you've already mentioned that, you know, that's one way Paris shows up. She's the majority owner of Parívie, the skincare line. But give me a little bit more of the breakdown of her role in driving those long term partnerships and moments.

[00:15:16] Adam: Yeah. So we... and, you know, for us, we're viewing it as a portfolio sort of approach. But just as you said, I think there's the historical piece that, you know, in the nineties, nineties, February... it was very much a licensee licensor model, and part of that was just industry norms. Part of that was, you know, standing up a business was very expensive and difficult to do back then, certainly today as well. But for many reasons, it was sort of licensee, licensor kind of model, which, by the way, we have a significant business leveraging that business model, and there are significant benefits to that for us as well from a cash flow standpoint, from a brand standpoint. We're in, you know, every Walmart across the country. We're on, you know, 400 SKUs on Amazon. So there's value to that in addition to the cash flow in terms of brand equity and being in people's homes and being in front of them in store. But what we're balancing that with today and going forward is, you know, more equity based businesses that, you know, Parívie is our first example of that where 11:11 and Paris are the majority owner of that business. And the benefits of that are, you know, enterprise value driving.

[00:16:38] Adam: So the economics of those types of businesses are very different than licensee where, you know, licensing relationships usually get a payment upfront before you even sell a product, and then you get a percentage of that into perpetuity. Whereas, you know, equity based businesses, it's just like any other startup where you're actually investing significant capital at the beginning with the expectation or the hope or, you know, the idea that you'll make a more significant return on that in the future when there's some sort of exit. But what it requires is, you know, capital upfront, much more time, many more resources, and, you know, likely a lot more work on the part of the celebrity or the owner to make that a reality. So we look at it as, you know, as I said, both... have both models, and you know, there are iterations of it in between by the way, but you know, all of them play a role in our portfolio, and it's just looking at what are the opportunities that we have an outsized right to win, and that we see sort of a moment to scale and a moment to sell at some point, and then deep dive into those for areas to actually build businesses.

[00:17:52] Phillip: What...

[00:17:53] Brian: I think is really interesting about this is, you know, the ownership model, it seems like you have a lot more control versus the license model. And there's a level of, like, strength of brand that you bring when you own things. It feels more authentic. It feels like you can fix things if you feel like they're not right. Whereas handing it over, while it might be beneficial monetarily upfront, could actually be extremely brand erosive if the company doesn't get it right. And so the math might be a little bit different. It might be a slower return on investment, but the payoff in the end could be a stronger brand overall. And it seems like that's what Paris is sort of betting on herself. I... which I sort of... I love that. And, you know, and one of the reasons that Paris can do that, it seems to me, is that she's actually bringing things to the business. It's not just her cultural impact. It's not just her media savvy. It's her ability to sort of play multiple roles. But I would love to hear from you, Adam. Like, how do you see her adding that real value and in the process of sort of betting on herself, betting on her future, betting on her ability to execute and on your ability to execute. What does she bring to the table in that process?

[00:19:15] Adam: Yeah. No. And you're right. Like... and it... look. We are fortunate that our license... we have very strong and collaborative licensing partners that, you know, we work very closely with to make sure from a brand equity standpoint and just position within market that, you know, they're happy, we're happy. And so we're fortunate that we have great partners in that space. But as you say, you know, owning the business and being closer to the business just affords us and affords Paris the ability to have a little bit more control. So to your question, you know, for Parívie, as an example, she is fully, you know, integrated into that business, all the way up from product development. So she was in the labs with the chemists from day one, and by the way, product development on that entire business took two and a half, three years, and she went through iterations and iterations and gave real feedback on what she liked and didn't like about the product. So she's able to be, you know, hands on and bring her just, you know, knowledge of the category of what she thinks her audience will want, what is differentiated from everything else that she's used. You know, so that's one example, all the way through to, you know, activating and going to market.

[00:20:36] Adam: So, you know, as an example, we... and she just hosted, you know, a big event at Coachella for Parívie. She's boots on the ground, very integrated, inviting her friends to, you know, experience the brands and amplify in a way that, you know, we're just not able to do with other business models. And then, you know, I think there's also some qualitative pieces too where it's like the founder equity and energy that comes with, you know, being integrated and having your fingerprints on it and getting the feedback loops, by the way, of, you know, hearing what... what her audience is saying, getting the reviews, us having access to the, you know, not to get tactical, but the Shopify data, you know, at any given time to see actually what's happening with the business. Like, she loves that and understanding what's working and what's not working and, evolving then whether it's our communications or approach or visual ID from there. So I think just being more absorbed... having the opportunity to be more absorbed in the business just amplifies and accelerates sort of her work in the business.

[00:21:45] Brian: Well, I think that really speaks to Paris' sort of, well, early work as sort of an influencer. It's more than just celebrity. It's more than just, your typical, like, put my stamp on this. My cultural influence is all that you need. It's a creator. She's a creator, and she's actually... she has taste that she believes in. I think that and also it's media and network. I think this is really interesting about media companies right now. There's like a blend of media and the network you have. And when you bring those two things together, it actually even... it's sort of a, you know, one plus one equals three sort of moment where you're getting, you know, both sort of the audience, but also your direct network impact brings their audiences as well. And so it's such a strong play when you actually have sort of the chops and, she, you know, is such an innovator, and leading sort of leading the charge on that move from influencer to creator pipeline.

[00:22:55] Phillip: My... I think my question, Adam, is, you know, there's folks that are listening right now who probably execute tactically every day. Their strategy is, well, we love using creator. We love using influencer. Not all of us have a celebrity star power behind us. You know, when you execute on, you know, with social commerce, your playbook probably looks a lot different to others. What do those playbooks look like when you're executing for, say, Parívie? And does that differ a lot from the strategic, you know, execution of, say, you know, another skincare brand who might be trying to seed product to other folks, that are trying to execute through, say, TikTok shop? Yeah. Because you have a different lever to pull than others. Mhmm.

[00:23:44] Adam: Yeah. And, I think part of the, you know, part of the benefit, and as I said earlier, part of the thing that I love about 11:11 is that we have Paris and her sort of cultural pulse and her network and all the... everything that comes with it... Mhmm... as an asset to these businesses that we're building. But... and it... so certainly, it's an accelerant. All of that is an asset. But there are, to your question, there are just traditional playbooks that we're, you know, operating as well. So we have a whole affiliate strategy on TikTok just as everybody else does. We're able to bring in Paris to do TikTok lives paired with, you know, other people, and certainly everybody doesn't have that. But we complement that then with, you know, 300 other affiliates that are actually doing the selling on the platform just as any other brands might engage with those people. Same playbook at retail, for example. So, yes, I might have, you know, Paris to bring to a meeting with Amazon execs or Walmart execs, but, you know, we still have a sales force that needs to go and sell products in and create displays and, you know, manage the e comm business, for all of those platforms as well. So, you know, in a lot of ways, you know, 80% of it is running a traditional playbook as a traditional sort of, you know, e com brand might. But I do have, you know, the added benefit of Paris as... getting the flywheel going or an accelerant or connecting dots or making introductions in that way certainly is a benefit to all of our businesses.

[00:25:22] Phillip: I'm like... I'm just imagining Paris in the office every day. Like, she's in the office every day. She's firing up the lives. And these are sorts of things that I think is... of how culture is reflexive, circular. Right? Things come back around... the, you know, the viral marketing campaigns from, you know, yesteryear have come back around now, and I think AI is... we can thank AI for some of that. I saw a write up in Adweek, about the... a new campaign, that Paris has been part of, on the historic, bikinis and burgers marketing formulas. How is... you know, what is the take at 11:11 on AI? Where are you guys employing AI, if at all, to, you know, help either drive creative or help drive productivity within the organization? Is that something that you are looking into?

[00:26:16] Adam: Yes. Absolutely. So we are, I would say we're probably AI forward as an organization. Part of this is, you know, we have, our sister company is M13, which is a venture capital firm investing in a number of AI companies. So we get first look at a number of them, particularly commerce companies that I'm assessing every day. And so across the organization though, we're certainly AI forward, and we're leveraging it in a lot of ways. So as a creative organization, we're exploring how we, you know, leverage it, a, operationally for when we're creating, you know, when we're producing, whether it's visual or audio mediums. Certainly, Paris' likeness, we're exploring how we leverage AI to replicate that and scale her likeness. But for us, you know, I think the interesting thing is all these, you know, and it may be a little bit more relevant for the business or the folks that listen to this is, you know, I think there's opportunity for the next couple of months, like arbitrage opportunity around this, but, like, everybody, every e comm business should be, you know, employing it and will be. And so for me, it's like coming back to Paris, the interesting thing is when everybody's leveraging, then it... there's a moment of parity there. And so how do we as creatives, how do we as marketers, how do we as, you know, commerce leaders, then how do we differentiate? And I think part of that in the luxury of having Paris in our ecosystem is sort of the cultural instinct in the texture and the humanness of it, I think will become differentiator and accelerant at that point leveraging, you know, AI certainly to scale. But I think we're, you know, bringing it back, we're leveraging all kinds of e comm platforms, e comm AI platforms, to run our business, scale our business, but I think there's still need for sort of the culture, and being in culture to differentiate.

[00:28:30] Phillip: There's that Val Kilmer movie that's coming out, Brian, that we're going to see more of the name, image, likeness, for celebrity that's gonna be used in an AI capacity. If supposedly, that particular film had, you know, Val Kilmer and the state of Val Kilmer's blessing, I think we're gonna see a lot more of that. And to your point, Adam, it's about scale. Right? You can't... one thing about human beings, we don't scale very well. You can only be in one or two places at a time. And so I think... I think also as people are thinking about, you know, legacy too, I... we... you know, how do we... do we take what we've built and the impact and the cultural impact that we've made and potentially project that into the future? And, artists have been able to do this for a long time. If you look at what the estates of, like, Keith Haring or Basquiat have done, there is a definite commercialization that, you know, I've seen a lot of critiques about, but the commercialization has led to more people appreciating the art over time. And so, when you look at what the impacts and potential of AI are, I think we're going to see a lot more people looking at it the way 11:11 is. I think that's really interesting and innovative. Yeah.

[00:29:51] Adam: And look, also, you know, along those lines, brings in new generations of people, brings in really interesting experiences too. So the idea of, you know, how is there a world... the answer is yes... where, you know, Paris can interact with, you know, other celebrities, her idols who, you know, have passed away or are no longer here, but like how can they... leveraging AI, sort of like how do we create a consumer experience where they can experience those two people together, or multiple people. So I think it just unlocks some potential too that is exciting for consumers and audiences.

[00:30:29] Brian: I think that's such a good point. Yeah. Several years back, I wrote a piece about replica sneakers and whether or not they were dangerous for the, you know, the sneaker manufacturers. This is at the height of the, you know, sort of the boom. And one of the things I kinda discovered, and this is actually... it's something I've sort of been toying with for years, but where does the value of art actually come from? And I think it really is connection to the creator of the art... creators of the art. And you think about the opportunity to connect with more people, like, and give them deep... like, more connection through that likeness, you know, I think that that will eventually point them back to wanting, like, deeper connection to Paris. And that's where that in person, like, very human element comes as well. And I think you... you were really smart to call that out and see that as part of the value right now. That in person connection or, like, deeper, more like a... like tighter or a more physical viewpoint is actually part of this chain that's that's maybe starts with the likeness. And so I like that you're going after both angles and what the value is.

[00:31:53] Phillip: That's, I think one one last, little tidbit there. Something else to be thought of too is how many folks in this world have as much of their life captured... over so much of their life captured on tape and film. Right? And so very few people could, you know, have that, afforded to them. Right? There's, you know, so many episodes of The Simple Life that you could go draw from. And it's... I don't know. For those of, our listening audience who have not seen Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, there's, like, a capability of archive footage that could be repurposed to recontextualize things against a modern era that we just don't have or we never thought about in prior... in prior eras of media culture that we can do now, and technology affords us the ability to do that. I think that that's really incredible. And if we can commercialize that for a new generation to find, you know, ways to interact with that, the way we participate in culture is through commerce. It's just true. Adam, this has been such a pleasure. What are the strategic focus points for 11:11 over the next year? We've seen everything. We've talked about everything that you've done. What do you see... this convergence of content and commerce, playing out now that, brands need to be media companies is becoming a popular turn of phrase?

[00:33:14] Adam: Yeah. We... I mean, I'm very excited for the next, you know, year or two years, as this, you know, this world, AI, commerce, culture, everything converges and everything changes. But for us, you know, priorities, we're continuing to scale our businesses either that we have brand partnerships with, or that we own, or that we license, but finding new ways to engage with consumers and bring, you know, those brands to life with our audience and the broader consumer base. I think... you know, relative for specifically this audience, I think agentic commerce is certainly a space that we're excited about in figuring out how do we leverage Paris, how do we leverage Paris as curator in that space to continue to drive interactions with brands. And then... you know, leveraging all of our media and storytelling to drive impact, and so lots of projects out there, but just continuing to learn alongside all of your listeners, you know, what is working, what's not in terms of driving, you know, culture and commerce.

[00:34:21] Phillip: Adam, it's been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining. I wish you the best of luck. I think it's really, impressive, very innovative, what you all are up to. And, hey. Next time, we'll have to have Paris come drop by.

[00:34:32] Brian: Yeah. For...

[00:34:33] Adam: Sure. We love it. Thank you for having me.

[00:34:35] Brian: Yeah.

[00:34:35] Phillip: Yeah. And, thank you all for watching this episode of Future Commerce. If it sparked something for you, we'd love you to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and wherever you subscribe to media. And if you wanna bring Future Commerce into your world, you can do so by grabbing our new book. It's called Strata, futurecommerce.com/strata. And, hey, we talk a lot about the celebrity culture and commerce and culture in the book. You wanna know what's happening in the world? Pick it up. Futurecommerce.com/strata. Remember, commerce shapes the future because commerce is culture TM. We'll see you next time.