Browser Wars

Edition #457

The Browser Wars are upon us, Olympics are here – what brands can and can’t do & Netflix Stories.

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I’m a sucker for the Olympics, so it’s no surprise a brand activation made the cut this week. Kind of looking forward to seeing what else we get through the games.

Long time readers might remember the last Olympics how we spoke on the brand guidelines around the Olympics, worth taking a peek at this years guidelines. They’re very diligent with brands, to make sure they’re not inferring an official affiliation. 

Netflix on earnings also shared more on their gaming strategy. With 80 games in development under the Netflix Stories umbrella.

It is interesting, to think about how this extends the value of the IP, but if you go back, you have a story that goes viral, someone options the book, then the movie/documentary, and maybe even the game. The rewards for an original content IP concept continue to go up. 

This week we also had Google’s change in direction on third party cookies, seeking to get the approval of the CMA. The gist of the proposal is to let users opt in to third party cookies and manage their own privacy settings.

Arguably, this is a better product solution (pending actual execution) and gets us to the same destination anyway.

The Browser wars are in a state of game theory, with Apple dragging everyone along. The risk for the others of being disrupted by a competitor browser is too big, to not coalesce around similar principles. It kind of begs the question, is there a territory Google could take with Google Chrome that Safari couldn’t? 

But the big ‘what if’ a friend posed to me, is do consumers really care? Have they moved on? My sense is in the US, maybe less so (in general) but certainly outside the US there appears to be more awareness. As a straw poll of one.

But the US collects so much data, and hacks or leaks mean your data is endlessly out there. And given there’s so much data, and a huge population I can see why maybe folks are less concerned about a small part.

When you see stories like Wired, where the Pentagon used ad tracking to track people, that’s something that gets on the radar. Government use of this data is what would really change the narrative in the US. 

The right lens on privacy is what is good for the customer is also good for me in the long run. 

Notable stories this week

• How Time reworked its studios division amid a content spending pullback.
• [Cartoon] Brand storytelling, showmanship and salesmanship.
• How media companies can succeed in podcasting: Slate’s secret.
• Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now thanks to AI deal.
• BeReal is facing a user mutiny after its new owner brought ads to the app.
• Taboola introduces Taboola for Audience, an AI-powered technology for publishers.
• Netflix’s advertising business is boosting profit margins.
• Harnessing the combined power of active and passive attention to drive business outcomes.
• Google’s privacy shift on third-party cookies sparks concerns of Apple-like control. And Google to kill cookies with consent.
• 6 ad companies accuse Pluto TV of exploiting programmatic auctions.
• Biden spurns traditional media, avoids leaks by quitting race online.
• Arc browser is getting native ad blocker, tracking prevention and more.
• Spotify posts record gross margin, profit and cash flow.
• Twilight of the hegemon.

Deals/M&A

• Teads M&A rumors are framing up with a deal to merge with Outbrain.
• Travel publisher Lost In acquires BuzzFeed’s Bring Me! franchise.
• Elly Analytics raises seed round.

Campaign of the week 

• The Ralph Lauren Polo Bear floats down the Seine River.

View all 2024 best campaigns.

Smartest commentary

• [On third party cookies] “We now believe user choice is the best part forward there and we’ll both improve privacy by giving users choice and we’ll continue our investments in privacy enhancing technologies”. –Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google.
• “Twitter is a kind of trade-off: When I use it, I’m more plugged-in to rapidly shifting waves of sentiment, and less able to think clearly, deeply and independently.” –Ezra Klein.

Datapoints of note

• Podcasting accounts for a whopping 50% of Slate’s advertising revenue.
• Currently, 45% of new member sign-ups are for the ads plan, up from 40% in April.
• Netflix has 80 games in development.
• Google’s reCAPTCHA has used $6.1b in labor.

Events

• Attention Happy Hour, next one coming up in September. .

View all 2024 datapoints of note.

That’s it for this week.