5-16-2022 – Here’s what’s new and what caught my eye this week:
Media Revolution (still) on Display at Newfronts: Congrats to IAB and my friend John McCarus after another successful round of Newfronts. McCarus invented them back in 2008 when he was at Digitas and my old company Revision3 helped out with livestreaming and more. Designed to reflect and upstage TV’s upfronts, they celebrated the emerging world of creator-first media. We’ve come a long way from trying to legitimize “UGC” for advertisers (sort of – see next story). Media expert Mike Shields says the NewFront battle this year was between connected TV and mobile video. Troy Young puts it all in perspective with his more nuanced view of today’s media world as a huge meat grinder – mashing everything up into a spicy sausage of entertainment.
With TikTok It’s 2011 All Over Again: Recent research from Double T shows that TikTok ads complement traditional TV campaigns, part of a strategy to convince big brands to add incremental TikTok spend to traditional ad buys. It’s a smart approach, but we’ve seen this rodeo before. Back in 2011 YouTube released almost the exact same study to encourage brand advertisers to consider YouTube’s new ad products as a TV extension. 11 years later YouTube IS television. I expect TikTok to follow a similar path. Also, TikTok just coined a new term for UGC: CGE (Community Generated Entertainment). Yes, I just threw up in my mouth again (HT to M. Navarra).
In the Metaverse, Creators Will Lead Again: Want to know how the Metaverse will really progress? Keep your eyes on the creators, says BEN CEO Ricky Ray Butler. I agree, but instead of manufactured creators, the true auteurs of this new media are likely playing Minecraft and Roblox right now and graduating from middle school. For a more data-driven view, check out Wunderman Thompson’s latest research and case studies looking at how things have changed even in the last 8 months. Still having trouble describing what the Metaverse is? You are not alone, 85% of the population can’t define it. a16z to the rescue! And if you’re wondering how it’s going in Meta’s Metaverse, Protocol has a great interview with Mark Zuckerberg.
QUIBIS:
- Have we reached peak trend?
- Studios lean into TiKTok.
- Everything you always wanted to know about Twitter Bots (but were afraid to ask). Also, what does “on hold” even mean?
- Reed Duchscher’s Night launches a content studio, hires YouTube Originals lead.
- Forget 999 true fans – you’ll need one more to score a Link-in-Bio on TiKTok.
- Great tips from legendary investor and founder Dan Rose on surviving tough times.
- Best Instagram Hashtags today.
- Mr Beast slams music industry for draconian copyrights. Maybe he should use Breakr instead.
CRYPTIS:
- This diary of an NFT Junkie published last Friday is interesting. However it chronicles a few days in early April. I wonder what his day looks like now?
- Exhaustive analysis of the world of Social Tokens – worth a read.
- Where do we go from here? Six mid-year Web3 predictions from a top VC
- Crypto’s Failed Promise
Learn How to Build a Roblox Empire at VidCon this June: Not only am I sitting down with Roblox Chief Product Officer (and ex YouTube and Xbox exec AND board member of the NYT) Manuel Bronstein to explore the future of Roblox, the metaverse and creators, but we’ll be joined by AMAZING creator Megan Plays to talk about how she’s leveraged her creativity to build a Roblox-based empire that includes multiple channels, a game development studio and much more! Get your tickets to the industry track now, before they sell out.
Tip of the Week: These tips come from Jake Thomas, who writes the CreatorHook newsletter. Check out his 10 easy headline hacks and get clickbaiting today! I can personally attest that the use of “weird” and drafting off of holidays works.
What We’re Watching:
- Hank Green nails it again – this time taking on Instagram.
- It’s a YouTube jubilee! 6 Teens pick who goes to Coachella
- Notion is crushing it on TikTok. Watch and learn.
See you around the internet, and feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested, and if someone forwarded this to you, you can sign up here!
Jim
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