This Hololabs deep dive gets tactical. Brett Gaylor of Hololabs and the team at One Net Marketing walk operators step-by-step through the launch playbook behind Abyss: Vault’s “Rebellion First Wave” — a coordinated worldwide premiere weekend — and hand over the entire kit: distribution plan, social and ad creative, Facebook events, email sequences, media releases, and film-style marquee posters. Bob closes with a practical explainer on Meta’s new ad algorithms. Part 1 covered the game itself and the theme-park thinking behind it.

Key Highlights

• 00:08 – 05:28 | The Setup
  • Bob’s frame: studios spend years building a game, then operators “launch” it by turning it on in a launcher — the entertainment industry knows better.
  • Brett recaps Hololabs’ themed-entertainment pedigree: Mario Kart’s AR ride runs on 300 synchronized computers and delights 60,000 riders a day.
• 05:28 – 11:21 | Why Abyss: Vault Exists
  • Breaking the zombie-shooter cycle: designing a co-op game for amazement, admiration, and we-did-it ecstasy.
  • Playtesting every Friday in a dead mall storefront turned Immersive Lab — 70+ public testers, ages 10 to 70, 20% first-timers.
• 11:21 – 17:52 | Lessons from Indie Film
  • Brett’s RiP! A Remix Manifesto: open-source screenings and community events instead of waiting on distributors.
  • Nicole’s Amplify Her purple carpet: event-ize the release and the audience becomes your marketing force.
• 17:52 – 29:53 | The Rebellion First Wave
  • A coordinated worldwide launch weekend: three competition categories, ten hidden objects, winning squad names graffiti’d into the game forever.
  • Making the venue feel like a premiere: marquee posters, photo corners, a $50 printable backdrop, hand-painted 3D-printed trophies.
  • Bob’s commitment ladder — money, time, energy, identity — and why dressing your squad in red, green, or blue anchors the memory.
• 29:53 – 44:19 | Inside the Operator Kit
  • The Google Drive: branding, key art, trailers, press resources, an operator launch flow, and a four-week distribution guide.
  • Ready-made social carousels and video ads — all editable in Canva; Facebook event templates that get venues into things-to-do calendars.
  • Email sequences and the FOMO window: over half of bookings land in the last 24–48 hours.
  • Micro-influencers over celebrities: the local blogger with 5,000 engaged followers is the one who fills your venue.
• 45:03 – 53:42 | Bob’s Operator Reality Check
  • “You’ve got to do all of this” — the playbook is what running an LBE business takes.
  • Influencer timing: bring them during the launch weekend when the crowd’s there, and negotiate for the raw footage.
  • Poster swag, signed limited editions, and the step-and-repeat.
• 54:03 – end | The Meta Ads Masterclass
  • Meta’s new GEM + Andromeda algorithms: stop micromanaging audiences, optimize for conversion, and feed the machine creative diversity.
  • AI tools inside LEXRA for generating ad creative at scale — 10–15 ad variants in an hour.

🎧Notable Quotes

“It goes money, time, energy, identity. Identity is the highest level of commitment.”
— Bob Cooney on why dress-up works (24:12)

“You can kind of Bob Ross it — it’s your happy little tree.”
— Nicole on adapting the launch flow to your venue (27:43)

“This is what you have to do to be successful running a location-based entertainment business.”
— Bob Cooney on the playbook (45:24)

“There is no one-size-fits-all marketing approach. These are frameworks, and every market and every company is going to be a little bit different.”
— Bob Cooney (50:29)