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Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of office
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hours with the professor. As always, I'm your host, William
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the professor Kahless. And let's get right into this week's story
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that I picked out. McDonald's has designed the perfect gaming
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chair. The key features of this gaming chair are obviously
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McDonald's branding and colors. Seems like the leather or the
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finish on this chair is greaseproof. I guess that's
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cool. There's an integrated burger warmer. And then there's
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these armrest things that you can click on and off that are
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designed to hold some specific McDonald's menu items. And
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overall, don't get too excited. Guys, you can't buy this yet,
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because overall, they're only four of these made, and they
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were basically only given away either to streamers, or I think
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there was a competition winner. So why did I want to talk about
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the McDonald's gaming chair? Because I think my take on this
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is interesting. And my take is, this does not go far enough. And
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by that, I mean, you know, and I've said this before, and I'll
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say it again, I think there is real potential in gaming
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accessories as a licensed category, think about the Xbox
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fridge that you know, blew up and eventually was produced as a
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real mini fridge that you can buy. I think brands need to stop
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thinking about sort of gaming accessories, as just pure
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straight up PR plays like this clearly was and begin genuinely
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exploring. It is a licensed category. And I get for
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McDonald's, this was probably a very effective PR promotion. I
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mean, they basically sort of put labels on for chairs, and they
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got a ton of news coverage from it, right. Like people talked
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about it, it was an interesting story. But there was a reason
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news outlets are giving this coverage. It's because I
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actually think as silly as this chair sounds, there might be a
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market for it. You might be surprised how much people have
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an affinity for a brand when a customer has affinity for a
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brand, where in how they want to show it. And if there is a
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something in their daily life that they use frequently, a
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branded version of that can add real value. So as ridiculous as
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it might sound, I think McDonald's branding on a gaming
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chair could work. I admit, I wish the gaming chair features
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were a bit better thought out, you know, it bugs me that
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there's this vision that gamers are still literally eating Big
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Macs, while they're playing League of Legends like come on.
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We don't need like, that's just not how people use gaming chairs
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or play today at all. But nonetheless, I think the the
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intent remains and the idea remains that this could work as
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a broader category. So overall, I give the story of B. I think
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it's a great PR play by McDonald's, good for them. But
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as I said, I wish this was more and I wish that brands like
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McDonald's that are big and significant. We're taking gaming
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accessories more seriously as a potential license category. So
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that's everything for this week's office hours with the
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professor podcast and I hope you'll join me next week when we
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cover more exciting news stories like this, so stay tuned.
