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Category: Commentary

Commentary; our thought leadership, newsletter notes and long form pieces.

Zeal

Edition #412 On Disneys zeal for creating too much content, MrBeast & Puck raises $10m. Our thoughts go out to anyone affected by the fires in Maui. This week I answered a few questions for Attention Matters, thanks to Matt for pulling it together. Stories index a bit more towards streaming this week, with the recent earnings. But it is summer so things are a bit quieter for a few more weeks. The Paramount commentary was good,… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
August 11, 2023

Brandformance

Edition #411 TikTok’s brandformance, static posts, Idris Elba and have you seen the Cheech & Chong ads? This week from a train, going through the longest tunnel in Europe – Gotthard Base Tunnel. We’ve had a lot of earnings recently, Alphabet, Meta, Uber. And it seems optimism is up for the second half of the year. At least when it comes to advertising. Uber, now profitable, has expectations of exceeding $1b/year in ad sales in… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
August 4, 2023

Mindshare

Edition #410 Kids versions of sports events, TikTwitter & Alf is making a comeback? First edit from an airport in a while! Last week I mentioned the Twitter thing, where Elon is using attention to measure the success of the app. And also, there was an eMarketer on how if you look at Metas share of attention vs its spend, marketers should be assigning a lot more to Meta! Kind of Mary Meeker vibes. And I… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
July 28, 2023

Barbie

Edition #409 Because isn’t everything Barbie this week? On Threads, will it make it and something from us. Been a couple of weeks between notes – with school ending and then a family break – I am about. In fact from the other side of the pond this week! As always, a lot has happened. Last week I shared a little PDF I created – mainly after enough people asked me about it. It’s called the New Growth… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
July 21, 2023

Preparation

Edition #408 WordPress.com launches paid newsletters, the origin of the newsletter and what does the hype from Cannes mean? I had thought with much of the vocal folks of our industry in Cannes, that the news would stop. But, as they say the news never stops. Last weeks note hit a snafu, if you missed it, read up here on Speed.  WordPress launched their Substack competitor or rather features to help with it. You can imagine… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
June 23, 2023

Speed

Edition #407 Would you purposely slow down your customer experience? This weeks note on going 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds, creator-led marketing and what skill is most in demand. I’m planning a holiday with family, and I do not mind, getting a good rental car. I love driving but live in the city with no car :(. So I’m perusing the options and find the Cupra Formentor, what a name! Formentor. It sounds formidable. And even… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
June 16, 2023

Spatial computing

Edition #406 How our industry can’t help but appreciate how Apple does things, podcasts have been around 20 years! And Twitch pulls back on its new branded content guidelines. Spatial computing. How could I not have a newsletter this week and not mention spatial computing and Vision Pro. You just can’t. Well you can, but too late now. I did like, Facebook tried to land this space, with Meta and metaverse. And Apple comes along, and pulls it… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
June 9, 2023

Preference

Edition #404 On why some investors get a preference, Yeti & Vox and Substack spam. Back after a bit of a break. Last week Vice filed for bankruptcy. There’s been a bit of unpacking what happened. A lot of the reasons can be explained by bad capital allocation, but that’s a little too easy. Last year they did over $600m in revenue, so why has the music stopped now? It seems Vice are unable to make their… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
May 26, 2023

Outcompete

Edition #403 On beating TikTok, AI content, google helpful content changes and the uncanny valley. I liked Tim Hwangs framing on the TikTok situation, the aim should be to outcompete it. Yeah, if you don’t like it and have a better product, yes, bring it market, do a better job, lift the standard, engage folks more. And this is what Artifact is doing, it’s not just a Pocket or an Instapaper, it’s adding community and now… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
May 5, 2023

Spotify strength

Edition #402 Spotify goes from strength to strength, brands want in Apple News & Time removes its paywall. You might wonder why I dive into the odd earnings report, I like to keep up to date, but it is where meaningful changes have to be shared with the market. Also analysts prod, and ask questions, ignoring the answers just seeing what they ask tells you something. During earnings week, they tend to dominate the news, so other stories… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
April 28, 2023