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There will be a little bit of a hiatus for two weeks as I travel down under.
One big thing
I admire the cheekiness and creativity of Juan, remixing vines on YouTube, to continue making money from the content. Permissions here are a problem. But for an enterprising mind, there are lots of ways to pursue your passion, on your own terms. Most of us in this newsletter are in the industry weeds but it is pretty neat that the internet has enabled this.
Add to your Pocket or Instapaper: http://money.com/money/longform/vine-compilations-youtube-collab-payouts/
As I’m writing, Disney has announced Disney + at $6.99/month. Arriving in November. That’s the lowest (ad-free) price point. And surely will put pressure on Apple’s entry price. I would not discount the sell-through of a ‘family friendly’ option in a world where Netflix isn’t and YouTube is questionable. Apple and Steve Jobs were inspired by Walt Disney and their values align on family friendly content. I predict Disney will be a premium partner in the Apple TV stack.
Notable stories this week
- Pandora’s CEO makes the jump to Conde Nast, from new school content company to old school with a desire to change.
- Snap has re-excited the market in the past week, this Twitter Thread from @TurnerNovak gets in to it. Related: Snap has been racing ahead to build for a post-mobile world.
- Lexus is buying its branded content direct.
- Using Amazon Prime to distribute branded content. And more from The Drum on the economics behind it.
- Who is and who isn’t ready for the end of the programmatic ID era. “There may be a positive twist for publishers if the industry moves to content and quality. It could shift money away from the long-tail to premium content producers.”
- Chrome to soon embrace lazy loading iframe. If not in view, won’t load. Has implications on all those unviewable ads you aren’t seeing.
- TMobile reminds us that new destinations for content are arriving every day with T Vision, their own set top box. Which actually sounds good?
- AdYouLike brings the story format to the open web.
- Oppenheimer Funds’ Leonor Palao on driving content with data and AI. Don’t miss the nice Nudge mention. ?
- Ad Tech, keep calm and carry on. Sizmek represents a $65m domino in a $104b industry. Not ideal but maybe not the subprime crisis.
- [Long read] The transmedia approach to brand storytelling.
- [From us] An interview with marketing whizz, David Berkowitz.
Deals/M&A
- Great Hill Partners acquired Gizmodo Group and The Onion from Univision. Rumored price of >$50m per Peter Kafka.
- LiveRamp acquires dutch consent management platform Faktor.
Campaign of the week
- Patagonia’s new documentary Artifishal.
- Accenture on WSJ, From Me to We: The Rise of the Purpose-Led Brand. A simple but nice touch on this piece is the LinkedIn embed, putting a face to the authors and building the profile of the very experts Accenture wants to.
- Submit your own and view the best campaigns of 2019.
Smartest commentary
- “My prediction for an under appreciated media story for the next few yrs: Amazon’s gonna 1) buy a lot of TV networks 2) create a lot of ad-supported channels in Prime Video (and/or a new free streaming app 3) use its enormous data horde to target TV ads and 4) make *ungodly* $$$” –Joshua Benton, NiemanLab
- “If consumers engage with a brand’s content, then they’re engaging with the brand.” –Lon Otremba, CEO, Bidtellect
- “Advertisers will need to enhance their efforts with branded entertainment, brand integration or other content-related initiatives on their own, and explore other alternative media and marketing strategies,” –Brian Weiser, Global President of Business Intelligence, GroupM
Datapoints of note
- Premium, ad-free and ad-limited SVOD services account for just under 10% of TV consumption among all audiences.
Events
- Brand Film Festival is coming up in New York & London. A weirdly cool thing for the industry.
- Digital Content NewFronts – 4/29-5/3, New York, New York.
- C3 – 5/6-5/8, New York, New York.
Thanks,
-Ben
Measurement and intelligence for content-first brands.
Nudge is built by marketers and aims to serve brands investing in content-based media, across any category, looking to illustrate ROI, generate deep performance insights, and save time.
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