AGENCY WORK HIGHLIGHTS

• Check out these recent Knowledge Posts by agency leaders. Shai Goller, SVP of Creative Solutions, discusses the importance of considering your audience and key factors to examine including location, values, voice, and more. Melanie (Mel) Wills, our new VP of UK Partnerships, emphasizes the power of partnerships, examining how a well-executed partnership can drive results throughout the entire funnel.

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Ad Vendors / Platforms / Data

• Australian Q3 OOH revenue increased 44% YoY to 245M, down 1% from 2019. (Media Week)

• Meta will introduce more places for brands to advertise, including on the Explore page of Instagram, within Facebook Reels and on creator pages. (AdWeek)

• Mobile is driving US entertainment digital ad spend this year, growing 19% YoY. (Insider)

  

• GumGum and Frameplay will partner to deliver in-game ads, letting advertisers amplify brand messages across gaming content. (GumGum)

Awards / Festivals

• Disney's Encanto swept the 37th annual Imagen Awards but was closely matched by several wins from Hulu’s Love, Victor. (Variety)

• Ellie Goulding received her 17th BMI honor, winning the President’s Award at the 2022 BMI London Awards. (Variety)

• Matilda will open The BFI London Film Festival, marking the first time in a decade that a family-friendly film has opened the festival. (Washington Post)

Cinemas / Theatrical

• Smile earned $22M in its debut weekend across 3.6K US theaters to top the weekend chart. Nearly 70% of viewers were between ages 18-34. (THR)

• Tarzan could one day return to theaters. Sony picked up the rights to the film and wants to do a “total reinvention” of the character and intellectual property. (THR)

• US movie ticket prices have increased by 20% since 2019, for an average price of $11. (IndieWire)

• The 2022 US box office has seen $5.6B gross as of the end of September, more than in all of 2021. (Variety)

  

• Bruce Willis did not sell the rights to his face for future films, though deepfake technology was used to create the actors face in a recent commercial. (BBC)

Gambling / Casinos

• Nevada casinos will likely see another record revenue year. Statewide gaming totals are 14% above 2021’s record year of $13.4B. (CDC Gaming)

• Over 75% of Esports bettors in Asia are between the ages of 18 and 25, and about 64% of bettors bet exclusively on Esports. (Yogonet)

• About 45% of US consumers think there is too much promotion for sportsbooks, and 11% think online gaming companies care for their customers. (Casino.org)

• Star Entertainment has been declared unfit to hold a casino license in Queensland and will have to explain why it should continue to operate. (The Guardian)

Live Events / Attractions

• Nearly a third of consumers purchasing bundle tickets aren’t taking part in all the experiences offered, but they have higher overall satisfaction than those who choose à la carte experiences. (Colleen Dilen)

  

• David Blaine debuted his first-ever residency, DAVID BLAINE: IN SPADES, at the Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas. (Broadway World)

• Following the news of its departure from Broadway, Phantom of the Opera brought its first over-100% capacity score since 2017. (Playbill)

Music / Audio / Podcasts

• Apple Music released its 100 millionth song, which is more songs than YouTube, Spotify, and Amazon Music have in their catalogues. (AP)

• Though podcast listener growth has slowed YoY, it's expected that over half of digital audio listeners will be podcast subscribers next year. (Insider)

  

• Warner Music Group will collaborate with OpenSea to let select WMG artists build and extend their fan communities in Web3. (WMG)

• Spotify acquired Kinzen, a company that has helped it identify harmful content on the platform. (Reuters)

• From August '21 - August '22, 53% of tweets about music in the US were written by users under 25. (Twitter)

  

Crypto / NFT / Metaverse

• The installed base of VR and AR headsets is predicted to surge from 50M in 2022 to 100M+ in 2024. By 2027, the number of metaverse devices in use could approach 250M. (Digital TV Europe)

  

• OpenSea will let users submit bulk NFT listings and purchases, up to 30 items in a single transaction. (Coin Telegraph)

• NFT sales on OpenSea fell for a fifth consecutive month in September, nearing the same level as July 2021. (Reuters)

  

• Charlie Puth hosted his album release party in iHeartLand where he performed songs and answered fan questions. (iHeart)

OTT / Streaming

• YouTube is asking some users to upgrade to its premium tier to watch videos in 4K. It’s unclear if the change is part of a limited test or if 4K will become a premium feature. (Tech Crunch)

• It's predicted that 60% of Netflix subscribers will be on the ad-supported tier by 2027, and a quarter of its revenue will come from advertising. (Digital TV Europe)

  

• Due to the popularity of the show, Disney+ is releasing a lost episode of Bluey that it banned for jokes about flatulence. (Bloomberg)

• In its second week on the Netflix Top 10 chart, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story became Neflix's ninth most-watched English-language series of all time. (Variety)

• Peacock has reached 15M subscribers and now has an average revenue per user of $10. (THR)

• In Indonesia, Netflix and Disney+ are trailing local streamer Vidio as the most popular service in terms of consumption. (Bloomberg)

• US Fire TV users can now watch free, ad-supported content without any subscription. Amazon added new content across sports news, cooking and travel, as well as movie and TV trailers from IMDb. (Tech Crunch)

Retail / Lifestyle / Travel

• Amazon launched a new shopping portal called Amazon Access that's designed for shoppers receiving government assistance. (CNN)

• The majority of US adults are not interested in or familiar with shopping via livestream or video. About 17% have made a purchase this way, and only 6% do so regularly. (Insider)

  

• TikTok is partnering with TalkShopLive to bring live shopping to North America. The development comes after TikTok's in-house experiments with live shopping in the UK earlier this year missed sales targets. (Financial Times)

Social Media

• Twitter is rolling out the ability to edit tweets to Twitter Blue subscribers in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. (The Verge)

• Twitch will begin testing Elevated Chat, a new way for its users to boost their chat messages on the platform. (The Verge)

• Instagram is letting some creators add more than one link to their bio without a tool like Linktree. (Insider)

• Meta will shut down its newsletter platform, Bulletin, by early 2023 as it shifts its focus to “building a more robust creator economy.” (The Verge)

• Twitter launched a new feature lets users combine text, photos, videos, and GIFs in a single tweet. Content added will show up side by side or in a grid. (The Verge)

Video Games

• Two years after its launch, Playstation 5 is getting a native Disney+ app. (Streamable)

• Almost 75% of women wish more female characters in games looked like women in real life, and 62% of women feel misrepresented in gaming. (AdAge)

• About 12% of gamers globally have tried playing a Web3 game, and 15% of gamers are interested in doing so. (Coda)

Live Sports

• Sidney Crosby is the most popular player among US NHL fans, with 49% having a favorable opinion of him. (Morning Consult)

  

• MLB will launch a dedicated FAST channel in Europe via a partnership with the SportsTribal platform. (Sports Pro Media)

• The NBA app now has a For You vertical video feed featuring highlights from games, NBA-related shows, content from influencers, and content from partnered channels like Bleacher Report. (The Verge)

• ESPN has deployed a new global creative brand identity for its NBA coverage, as well as the WNBA and G League. (AdWeek)

Interesting Campaigns / Creative

• The New York Mets are taking over the 7 train for the playoffs, placing ads on the platforms in Grand Central and Hudson Yards as well as on 7 trains themselves. (AdWeek)

  

AND NOW THE GOOD STUFF

• The UK government published its national AI strategy, which outlines its long-term vision for the technology and its impact on society.

• Rodney Brooks, the creator of the Roomba, throws cold water on the idea that AI will surpass human intelligence in the near future.

• A unique look behind the curtain at how one VC fund increased returns.

• How Peloton uses design and gamification to keep people on the exercise platform.

• If you think gentrification is about new coffee shops and high rents, you are missing an essential aesthetic element.

• Watch out for the Trisolarians! Scientists might have found the first-known planet orbiting three stars at once.