Out and about

Getting out and about is fun. Those first few reconnects after covid. What I’m seeing is that more senior people are off to conferences, juniors are off to meetups and everyone else is somewhere in-between. Now it used to be the juniors would go to the conferences to hang and learn and really absorb the industry. So it feels like a bit of a disconnect, that the remote working when everyone comes back, only seems to agitate.

This then feels like opportunity, to bring both groups back together. Which is where marketing teams can help, creating events that whole teams can come to, whether that’s affordability, style or event, or just subtle positioning. The old StartupWeekends, the UnConferences, the hackathons.

What does this have to do with content & media? Well, it’s where we’re all going to meet the next new partner for that project. Or that new collaborator. Whether someone will challenge our thinking. Which I think is a good thing.

• Sharethrough launches its first green media products.
• How this TikTok creator makes $20k/month.
• BBC to launch BSP in partnership with Vuulr, a marketplace for licensing their shows.
• European Baby Brand Bugaboo makes its first US-focused social media and content play.
• Hubspot is pushing into video.
• Spotify CEO teases major push into audiobooks.
• 12-Step Brand and Content Framework. Google Slides link.
• Another Google Slide deck, Brand Building on Social Media.

Deals/M&A

• Tom Brady & Michael Strahans, Religion of Sports raises $50m.
• CreativeX raises $25m Series B.
• PepperContent raises $14.3m to enter US.
• Contentoo acquires Contentbox.

Campaign of the Week

• DinoTracker from Department of Prehistoric Wildlife, as part of Jurassic World launch. @DinoTracker on Twitter.

• ^ Extending this to native placements across publishers would be the kicker in the execution of this strategy.

• [On TikTok] “This creates a spiraling effect that welds people — especially young people — to the platform for hours. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for decision-making and impulse control, but this part of the brain doesn’t fully develop until the age of 25. Surprise: Kids can’t stop watching TikTok.” –Scott Galloway

Datapoints of note

• Sheryl Sandberg grew Meta’s revenue from $272m in 2008 to nearly $118b in 2021.
• TikTok had 22.6 trillion minutes of attention last year. Compared to Netflix 9.6 trillion minutes.

That’s it for this week.