AGENCY WORK HIGHLIGHTS

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Ad Vendors / Platforms

• TikTok has launched a new content series called ‘The Roundup’, which aims to showcase some of the most interesting and successful brand campaigns in the app. The first 8-page issue looks at creator-led campaigns, and includes a range of interesting insights, notes/case studies on some of the more successful examples of brand/creator partnerships. (TikTok)

• This could go under platforms, OTT, or retail, but it's potentially big news impacting how consumers interact with one of the world's largest retailers and video distribution channels: starting 19 January 2022, Amazon will no longer accept Visa credit cards issued in the UK. (Amazon)

• Snapchat has launched multi-format ad delivery globally, allowing advertisers to purchase all video ad formats in a single ad set. (AdWeek)

• Yelp debuted two new ad products as an extension of its Yelp Audiences ad platform: Sponsored Collections and Seasonal Spotlight Ads. Sponsored Collections enable brands to showcase local businesses based on common themes, such as consumer products being served at nearby local restaurants. Seasonal Spotlight Ads help drive in-store traffic for brands with multiple locations by providing Yelp users with information about new products, promotions, or seasonal deals via carousel ads. (Ad Week)

Cinemas / Theatrical

• Canadian cinema giant Cineplex has yet to reach pre-pandemic box office levels, but did shrink its Q3 loss as Canadians returned to the movies. Overall Q3 revenues were $250M vs a year-earlier $61M, as theater attendance rose 430% to 8.3M patrons. (THR)

• MoviePass cofounder Stacy Spikes has bought back the company from bankruptcy court, and hopes to relaunch it next year. A new site (iwantmoviepass.com) has been created for the relaunch. (Insider)

• No Time to Die has become the top-grossing Hollywood movie of the pandemic era at the international box office, after finishing November 15 with $558M in ticket sales, eclipsing the $549M earned overseas by F9. In North America, the James Bond pic crossed the $150M mark with a worldwide total of $708.6 million (it hit premium VOD last week). (THR)

• Netflix changing the way it reports its in-app top 10 lists, and will supplement those local lists with a website showing top titles in more than 90 countries. The rankings will now be based on the total number of hours viewed for a given title, rather than Netflix’s previous standard of a two-minute sample. (THR)

• The Australian box office has sprung back to life, thanks to No Time To Die’s delayed opening - Australia was the last major market to debut the film - which recorded the highest opening weekend of pandemic-era. (IF)

Festivals / Awards

• Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul won all six categories in which it was nominated, including best documentary, at the 2021 Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The film features footage, largely forgotten and unseen for 50 years, of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, featuring Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder and more. (THR)

Live Entertainment / Attractions

• US Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) has renewed his call for tighter regulation on Live Nation Entertainment in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy. He said “for over a decade, Live Nation and its Ticketmaster partners have held absolute power over the live events market.. Live Nation should be broken up so they might focus on people as much as they do on profits.” (TicketNews)

Retail / Lifestyle / Travel

• All eyes in retail are on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), the biggest shopping events of the season. 62% of consumers said they wait for these big seasonal sales to do their holiday shopping. However, allegiance to a specific shopping weekend is likely to wane, as more than half of consumers believe the same deals will be available throughout the holiday shopping season. This year’s extra-early promotions, designed to spur consumers to get ahead of supply chain challenges, will only contribute to that perception. (Morning Consult)

  

• American travelers are split on their comfort with seeing maskless people in travel ads. While 30% are comfortable with it, 37% are uncomfortable, while the remaining third are neutral. Something to keep in mind when marketing to inbound travelers… (Destination Analysts)

• As global supply chain issues persist, Amazon and Walmart are in a pricing battle to offer the lowest costs. A new study shows that Amazon offers the lowest average price among major online retailers, but that Walmart is quickly narrowing the price gap. The data also found what else the data found Target became 15% more expensive than Amazon on average, and specialty retailers (like Chewy and Home Depot) are keeping prices close to Amazon's. (Insider)

OTT / Streaming

• According to a new Hub Entertainment Research survey of 1,604 adult U.S. broadband users, 40% said they signed up for a subscription streaming service in order to watch one specific movie or series. That number is up from 34% when Hub conducted its Conquering Content survey in 2020. And among those consumers who signed up just to watch one show, 70% of them stuck with the SVOD after they finished watching the series or movie. (NextTV)

  

• DAZN, which is in the first year of its three-season exclusive Serie A rights deal in Italy, is facing a backlash over its recently-announced account sharing technical changes. Chief among them is a feature which prevents two different devices simultaneously streaming content if they're not using the same IP address. Upset fans say this violates the streamer's own TOS, and consumer lobby Aidacon has announced plans to file a complaint with the national communications watchdog. (Digital TV Europe)

• Peacock launched on Sky in the UK and Ireland on November 16. At present, the focus is on the platform’s content rather than the SVOD itself. The says “thousands of hours” of content will be made available to Sky and NOW customers at no extra cost, including several Peacock originals. At present, there have been no announced plans to rollout Peacock as a standalone streaming service within Europe. (Digital TV Europe)

• According to Digital TV Research, Disney+ will add 140M subs from 2021-2026, to take its total to 271M. Netflix will add 53M subs in the same period for a 2026 total of 275 million. While Netflix will be in the lead in 2026, the research firm estimates Disney will take the lead the following year. (Digital TV Europe)

• Three key takeaways from Hub Entertainment Research's 2021 Conquering Content Study: 1) Streaming's advantage as the home for favorite shows continues to grow; 2) exclusive content remains a strong driver of new signups; 3) FAST viewing has become mainstream. We've uploaded the public version of the report to Box here if you want to check it out. (Rapid TV News)

Podcasts / Audio / Music

• Spotify will acquire the audiobook distribution company Findaway as it seeks to scale its catalog and creator tools in a similar fashion to its podcast offerings. (THR)

• Warner Music Group reported net income for its fiscal 4th quarter rose from $1M to $30M. They also posted a 22% increase in revenue for the latest quarter, ended on Sept. 30, to $1.38B, with growth in both recorded music and music publishing operations. Digital revenue jumped 19% in the period to $926M, also thanks to emerging streaming platforms, such as TikTok and Peloton. (THR)

• Spotify has added podcast ad buying to the self-service ad channel. The maximum length for an ad is 30 seconds for pre-rolls and 60 seconds for mid-rolls. Spotify also recommends that the scripts are conversational, with a slow cadence and well-timed pauses. Spotify podcast ads do not have banners so your CTA should be concise and conclusive. Also note that Spotify podcast ads will be a skippable ad format for users. (Spotify Ads)

Social Media

• Slow Ventures, a VC firm, invested $1.7m in YouTube personality Marina Mogilko in exchange for 5% of her creator earnings over the next 30 years. Slow Ventures and its fellow investors don’t start taking back a percentage unless she’s making good money—in the range of “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” (Vice)

• A bipartisan group of US House lawmakers introduced the “Filter Bubble Transparency Act,” which could force social media platforms to allow users to use their services without algorithms that filter or prioritize the content users see. The bill joins similar legislation proposed in the Senate, indicating lawmakers continue to have Big Tech in their sights. (eMarketer)

• The social networks with the most monthly Gen Z users are Snapchat (42.0M), TikTok (37.3M), and Instagram (33.3M). This pecking order will persist through 2025, but they'll grow at different rates. TikTok will pass Instagram to claim the No. 2 spot in 2021 and continue to close the gap with Snapchat. Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Reddit also have relatively large followings; their reach will grow steadily as Gen Z ages out of popular teen platforms. (eMarketer)

  

• Snapchat’s newest advertising product allows brands to purchase all video ad formats in a single ad set, enabling advertisers to optimize their campaigns toward their central objective. Multi-Format delivery includes all of Snapchat's video ad formats, including Snap Ads, Story Ads, Collection Ads, and Commercials. By enabling multi-format delivery, Snapchat's ad-ranking system will determine where to fill inventory for an advertiser's given campaign budget, goal, and selected formats. (Media Post)

Video Games

• India is the world’s top market for mobile gaming in terms of downloads across Android and iOS. In the first half of 2021, Indian players installed 4.8 billion games, or one in every five installed globally. (India Times)

• Xbox and Gucci teamed up to create a special and very, very limited Xbox Series X console. Only 100 of these bundles were created, each costing $10,000, and they sold out almost immediately after their release last week. This Gucci-branded Xbox Series X has the GG pattern laser-cut into the console itself. Billed as an "evolution" of the original Gucci Rhombi design from the 1930s, the initials not only represent Guccio Gucci's initials but also stands for "Good Game." Two customized Xbox Wireless Controllers were included, complete with the House Web's blue and red stripes. (Gucci)

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