AGENCY WORK HIGHLIGHTS

• Our creative and media teams promoted the launch of Illuminarium's newest IP, SPACE, in Las Vegas and Atlanta. In addition to digital media, they ran a :30s spot on the side of the 100K sqft. Las Vegas Resorts World hotel, and to amplify reach even further, ran display ads in Las Vegas Magazine, ads on Kre8 mobile billboards, and custom digital display creative throughout the Harry Reid airport in Las Vegas. In Atlanta, they wrapped kiosks throughout the city and developed screens within the digital displays of the kiosks where visitors could get information on things to do around the city. Overall, their efforts drove 12M+ impressions.

  

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Ad Vendors / Platforms / Data

• Reddit added new features to its Ads Manager including a new live chat element for ad-related queries. (Social Media Today)

• Though down from 2019, worldwide experiential marketing spend has risen by 11% YoY to about $75B in 2022. (Media Post)

  

• US advertisers spent $115M on clickbait sites between January '20 and May '22, about 10% of their overall marketing budgets on average. (Marketing Brew)

• FuboTV saw a general increase in CPMs for campaigns using The Trade Desk's UID 2.0 identity platform, with a 62% increase in ad spend and a 25% increase in ad impressions. (Marketing Dive)

Awards / Festivals

• Bad Bunny topped this year's American Music Awards nominations with eight nods, while Beyoncé and Taylor Swift were the most-nominated female artists. (THR)

• Choreographer Anthony Van Laast will serve as creative director for this year's Olivier Awards, which will take place April 2nd at London's Royal Albert Hall. (Playbill)

• Next year's Sundance Film Festival will include a 25th anniversary edition of Slam and an uncensored director’s cut of The Doom Generation. (Deadline)

Cinemas / Theatrical

• Hours after it pushed back the release of Blade, Disney announced it will open Dune: Part Two two weeks early on November 3rd, 2023. (THR)

• Paramount's Smile took the top spot at the US box office for the second week with $17.6M, while Sony's Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile debuted in second place, earning $11.5M. (AP)

• Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will be first Netflix film to play at all major UK cinema chains. Odeon, Cineworld and Vue will play it from November 23rd-29th. (Screen Daily)

Gambling / Casinos

• A coalition of gambling companies led by DraftKings and FanDuel is pulling back on advertising for a ballot measure to legalize online sports betting in California. (WSJ)

• BETMGM will operate a retail sportsbook at Cincinnati Reds Ballpark after sports betting goes live in Ohio on January 1st. (Casino.org)

• PointsBet launched a new betting content hub within its mobile app which includes both livestreams and clips. (Yogonet)

Live Events / Attractions

• Disney raised the price of Genie+, its "fast pass" for rides at theme parks, by $5 at Disneyland and as much as $7 at Disney World. (USA Today)

• Netflix will open a Stranger Things pop-up store at L.A.’s The Grove, featuring limited-edition merch and a life-size Vecna. (Variety)

• Green Day and Blink 182 will headline next year's When We Were Young Festival, which takes place October 21st at Las Vegas Festival Grounds. (Pitchfork)

Music / Audio / Podcasts

• TikTok parent ByteDance may soon expand its Resso music-streaming service to 12+ global markets to disrupt industry leaders like Spotify. (WSJ)

• Spotify laid off 38 employees from its Gimlet and Parcast studios and canceled 11 Spotify Original podcasts. (Gizmodo)

• Warner Records and Probably Nothing created a Web3 record label called Probably A Label. It launched with 5.55K passes which sold out immediately, and holders will soon receive an exclusive drop from Diddy. (Digital Music News)

Crypto / NFT / Metaverse

• Google selected Coinbase to take cloud payments with cryptocurrencies next year when it starts letting customers pay for cloud services with digital currencies. (CNBC)

• Meta’s Quest Store hit $1.5B in total revenue to date. More than a third of its 400 Quest titles have grossed $1M+ in sales, and 33 titles surpassed $10M. (Tech Crunch)

• Meta's newest VR headset, Meta Quest Pro, will be available for purchase on October 25th for $1.5K. (Oculus)

• Meta has partnered with Microsoft to bring Teams, Windows apps and games to Quest devices as part of its vision to let users create, communicate and collaborate in new ways. (Tech Crunch)

OTT / Streaming

• Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is now Netflix’s second most popular English-language series of all time, with 205.33M hours viewed the week of October 3rd. (Variety)

• After debuting eight original holiday movies in 2021, BET+ is rolling out 10 more original titles beginning November 3rd. (Variety)

• Netflix selected Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify as its first independent ad measurement partners to give advertisers assurance that ads will run where they are supposed to and according to industry standards. (AdAge)

• Over half of US consumers do not share a streaming subscription with anyone, while 26% do share but do not pay. (CRR Research)

  

• In 2023, Paramount will launch a selection of Pluto TV FAST channels on its free streaming service, 10 Play, as an initial step in introducing Pluto TV in Australia. (Mediaweek)

• Netflix's "basic with ads" tier will launch with 4-5 minutes of ads per hour at a cost of $7/mo in the US. (THR)

Retail / Lifestyle / Travel

• More than half of rewards card users in the US plan to redeem points or rewards for travel this year, with 30% planning to do so in November or December. (Morning Consult)

  

Social Media

• Snapchat is bringing parental controls to users in India a couple months after it debuted Family Center in the US. (Tech Crunch)

• Snapchat released an AR lens that lets users try on Halloween costumes. Users can then share snaps and complete purchases without leaving the app. (AdWeek)

• Twitter is asking some users to confirm their birth date before viewing sensitive content to prevent users under 18 from viewing inappropriate material. (Tech Crunch)

• About 9% of BeReal’s active installs on Android launch the app daily, far behind those of Instagram and TikTok. (Tech Crunch)

  

Video Games

• Google released Chromebooks made for cloud gaming to deliver a better experience for gamers who don't want to purchase expensive hardware. (CNet)

• Gaming revenue is expected to grow 50% to $300B in 5 years thanks to younger gamers (ages 13-17) who spend about 40% more in video game environments than with any other form of media. (Venture Beat)

• FIFA partnered with Roblox to create FIFA World, a space for fans to engage with each other, earn rewards and collect virtual items through games and challenges. (FIFA)

Live Sports

• Twitter will show MLB live segments and highlights via @MLB, @BleacherReport, @BRWalkoff, @ESPN, @MLBonFOX, and other accounts. (Forbes)

• A third of US NHL fans are fine with corporate ads on jerseys, while 1 in 5 believe ads on jerseys is wrong regardless of who the corporate sponsor is. (Morning Consult)

  

• Almost 90% of US soccer fans are comfortable watching matches via streaming, more than NFL fans and general sports fans. (Streamable)

Interesting Campaigns / Creative

• WhatsApp conveyed a message on security by using the architecture of the building it occupies as a 3D billboard in London's Piccadilly Square. (The Drum)

  

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.