AGENCY WORK HIGHLIGHTS

• Our integrated Kimmel Cultural Campus team is wrapping work on WAITRESS, which opened recently at the Academy of Music. One of many campaign highlights was to capitalize on Pi Day (3.14) with a huge burst of publicity generating events, including a “Best Pie in Philadelphia” contest on Good Day Philadelphia. The Pi Day efforts lead to one of the highest one-day single ticket sales in the Broadway Series history at the Kimmel, with more than $32k in sales. The momentum has kept going with more than 15K tickets sold grossing more than $1.1M, more than 155% of the client’s goal. The show is expected to deliver almost a half-million dollars more than originally projected.

  

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Ad Vendors / Platforms / Data

• Roku is now able to replace traditional linear TV ads with targeted ads in real time through Dynamic Ad Insertion. AMC Networks, Crown Media, Paramount and Discovery are on board for the beta program. (AdWeek)

• TheSkimm has extended its newsletter to the weekend, with a new edition publishing every Saturday morning in an effort to continue engaging its subscribers beyond the traditional workweek. (Digiday)

• Nielsen will be acquired by a private equity consortium in a deal valued at $16B. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2022 and remains subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. (Marketing Dive)

• Australia’s OOH sector has rebounded strongly, with Q1 media revenue up 26% on Q1 2021 and almost back to pre-pandemic levels. (B&T)

Awards / Festivals

• Jon Batiste was the big winner at the 64th Grammy Awards, taking home five categories, including album of the year for "We Are," while Bruno Mars and Anderson. Paak's Silk Sonic won four trophies, including record and song of the year. "Drivers License" singer Olivia Rodrigo won three awards, including best new artist. (Yahoo)

• The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical took home the Grammy for best musical theater album at the Grammys, marking the first Recording Academy win for a project that began on TikTok. (The Verge)

• The Oscars’ telecast has now jumped to 18.4 million total viewers, a 69% increase in viewership compared to last year, when just 10.9 million people tuned in. Ratings were also up about 90% in the 18 to 49 demo (compared to a 2.31 last year). (Yahoo)

• A date has been set for this years Emmys. The 74th Emmy Awards will take place on Monday, September 12th at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. (Yahoo)

Cinemas / Theatrical

• Americans’ comfort with going to movie theaters increased 3 percentage points from last week to 59%. The public’s comfort with going to the movies has increased 15 points since the beginning of the year. (Morning Consult)

  

• UK cinema admissions dropped to 44M in 2020 as the pandemic hit. They rose to 74M in 2021, and experts are projecting 2022 admissions to reach around 140M. (Screen Daily)

• Following the explosion of livestreaming, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain has negotiated seven principles with the three theatres which it hopes will inspire best practice in digital broadcast. One of the principles says playwrights do not have to grant the digital rights in their play if they don't want to. (Broadway World)

Gambling / Casinos

• MGM Resorts is partnering with NFT company Yellowheart to launch Las Vegas' first-ever NFT-enabled live performance experience for world-famous dance crew Jabbawockeez' newest production, TIMELESS. The limited NFT collection are available until April 30th. (YogoNet)

• Palms Casino Resort will reopen on April 27th. The Las Vegas resort has been closed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. (Eater)

• Canadian media giant BCE has announced a deal with FanDuel to enhance its TSN sports network with betting-focused content. (Yahoo)

Live Events / Attractions

• Ye, AKA Kanye West, will not perform at Coachella this year. He was supposed to headline the festival April 17th and 24th. The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia have replaced Ye. (USA Today)

• Bitstop, Miami’s oldest bitcoin technology company, is sponsoring and exhibiting at the Bitcoin 2022 Conference from April 6-9. The company will also unveil its next generation NFT ATM. (Yahoo)

• Audience for the March Madness finale grew 4% over last year’s championship. The 2022 NCAA tournament overall increased its viewership by 13% over 2021. (Bloomberg)

• Snoop Dogg, Billy Eichner and Mindy Kaling have joined the lineup for Netflix's 11-day comedy event, Netflix Is a Joke: The Festival. The festival comprises more than 250 live shows, be spread across 30 Los Angeles venues between April 27 and May 7. (LA Times)

• Dave & Buster’s is planning to buy family entertainment company Main Event for $835M. (WSJ)

Music / Audio / Podcasts

• Spotify is testing a new discovery feature for podcasts, a tab specifically for podcasts at the bottom of the screen right next to the search button. As it currently stands, it's a pretty sparse page meant to introduce you to new podcasts. (The Verge)

• OEG, owner of Grand Ole Opry, has sold its stake of $293M to Comcast-Backed Fund Atairos. NBCU will help Opry Entertainment Group grow its media and entertainment profile in a deal that valued the company at more than $1.4B. (THR)

• Amazon is increasing the price of its music streaming service beginning May 5th. Amazon Prime subscribers will have to pay $8.99 (£8.99) a month or $89 (£89) a year for access to Music Unlimited, up from $7.99 (£7.99) and $79 (£79) respectively. (The Verge)

• “Batman Unburied,” a thriller podcast series delving into the dark recesses of Bruce Wayne’s psyche and featuring classic Batman villains, is set to launch exclusively on Spotify worldwide May 3rd in nine languages. (Variety)

• iHeartMedia is purchasing the rights to roughly a dozen NFTs to create a new NFT-based podcast network. The podcasts will be hosted by voices that portray various NFT characters from collections like Crypto Punks. (Axios)

• Podcast download growth for the 52-week period from 3/29/21 - 4/3/22 was +50% across all Podtrac measured podcasts. Download growth was +62% for Business, +61% for Comedy, +47% for Society & Culture, +109% for Sports, and +49% for True Crime. (Podtrac)

NFT / Blockchain / Crypto

• A hacker stole over $600M from Axie Infinity's Ronin Network. Experts attribute the attack to human error and social engineering rather than any fault in the blockchain technology. (Business Insider)

• Chipotle will return to Roblox to launch Chipotle Burrito Builder, a simulation that will allow players to roll virtual burritos and earn the brand's in-experience currency, Burrito Bucks. Burrito Bucks can be exchanged for entree codes. (Marketing Dive)

• Adidas is launching the first personality-based AI-generated avatar creation platform. Users can design an avatar through the online Ozworld experience and use it throughout all metaverse platforms. (Marketing Dive)

• Interim CEO Howard Schultz held a town hall meeting where he said that Starbucks was “going to be in the NFT business” by the end of this year. (Geek Wire)

• ESPN is partnering with Tom Brady's Autograph to sell NFTs based on the ESPN+ series 'Man in the Arena: Tom Brady,' which will also begin streaming on Hulu and Disney+. (THR)

• UK Chancellor asks Royal Mint to create an NFT in an attempt to show the UK at the cutting edge of technology. (The Guardian)

• Rio de Janeiro will allow real estate tax payment with crypto starting in 2023. (Coindesk)

OTT / Streaming

• Subscription OTT will account for 20% of 2022 sports rights spend in the EU Big 5 - UK, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. (Ampere Analysis)

  

• Fueling HBO Max's expansion, it will be a growing slate of international originals. By 2023, HBO has plans to deliver around 40 originals in Europe. (THR)

• The second season of "Bridgerton" is smashing Netflix viewership records, logging 251.7M viewing hours over the past week. The previous record was 196M hours attributed to Inventing Anna. (Indie Wire)

• Hulu has added SharePlay which will allow users to stream content with friends and family around the world via FaceTime. (Streamable)

• Disney has announced that Disney+ subscribers are now able to save on stays at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels beginning July 8 through Sept. 30 of this year. The offer will allow subscribers to save up to 25% on rooms in Orlando during the peak summer months. (Streamable)

• Peacock has hired away our former colleague Shannon Willett from Netflix and Brian Henderson from Hulu to lead global marketing and programming, respectively. (THR)

• About 46% of streaming consumers feel overwhelmed by the ever increasing number of platforms and titles available to them, which can make it tougher to find specific titles in a specific place. That said, they have no plans to cut back. (THR)

• Amazon’s Prime Video app is now available across Foxtel’s set-tops in Australia, joining Netflix, ABC iview, SBS on Demand and YouTube. (Mediaweek)

• FuboTV has stopped offering its $64.99 starter plan. Fubo has announced that it will move existing users of that plan to its Pro plan, at $5 more per month, starting May 1. (Media Post)

• AGM client AMC Networks will take shoppable ad opportunities out to the marketplace as it looks to drive commerce in TV. AMC will debut its first shoppable experience during the digital series, "Show Me More: Killing Eve," a behind-the-scenes companion for the show, in collaboration with Hunter Boots. (Ad Age)

• Peacock will become the exclusive home to a new Major League Baseball game of the week on Sunday mornings. Beginning May 8th, Peacock will live stream an NBC Sports-produced baseball game for 18 consecutive weeks, and each game will feature NBC Sports-produced pregame and post-game shows on Peacock. (MLB)

• The British government has decided to sell Channel 4. The government’s decision comes despite overwhelming opposition from the UK’s production industry. (Deadline)

• Discovery will soon be using EDO, a TV analytics company, as a “preferred behavioral measurement partner” to measure ad campaigns. Discovery will also use EDO search engagement data in Discovery Engage, an advanced advertising platform, to optimize media plans. (Media Post)

Retail / Lifestyle / Travel

• Colgate used Eye Square's new Ad to Cart tool for real-time ad testing to see what mobile ads are most effective in encouraging shoppers to add the new Keep toothbrush to their cart. The tool displays ads across Amazon, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and asks users to simulate a purchase in the category of the ad they were exposed to. (Marketing Dive)

• U.S. comfort with going to a shopping mall has now reached a new pandemic high of 71%. (Morning Consult)

  

• JetBlue offered $3.6B to purchase Spirit Airlines, which said its board plans to review the "unsolicited" bid and "respond in due course. (NY Post)

Social Media

• Instagram released several new features including a new option to quickly reply to a DM directly from your feed without having to go into your inbox. Users also now have the ability to send song previews and conduct polls in group chats. (The Verge)

• Snapchat introduced a new feature that makes it easier to share YouTube videos within your snap or story, letting you bypass the process of copying, pasting, and attaching the video as a link. The feature is available on both Android and iOS. (The Verge)

• A day after Elon Musk bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter, he officially joined the board. Some worry about the regulation implications of this. (Engadget)

• ByteDance Ltd., the parent company of TikTok, recently scraped user content, profile pictures and other personal information from Instagram and Snapchat without users' consent and posted the content to Flipagram, its predecessor to TikTok. (Yahoo)

• Twitter has added a new feature, Interactive Text, which presents messages in a larger, bolder typeface compared to regular tweets and can accompany content like a video post. Oreo, Bud Light and Wendy's are experimenting with the format. (Marketing Dive)

• Twitter has confirmed that it is working on an edit button which would let users change tweets after they have been posted. (Tech Crunch)

• Snapchat has introduced an ASL Alphabet Lens that significantly expands the American Sign Language learning experience using SignAll's AI technology to recognize hand gestures. (Engadget)

• Facebook is adding the ability to post Reels from third-party apps, introducing a “Sharing to Reels” integration, which will make it easy for people to share video from their apps directly to Facebook. (Tech Crunch)

• Pinterest is banning misinformation about climate change from its platform. The new policy, announced on April 5, applies to both user-generated content and advertising. (Quartz)

• Meta is reportedly exploring creating virtual currency, referred to as "Zuck Bucks" by employees, for the metaverse to drive more revenue, as well as attract and retain users. (Financial Times)

Video Games

• On May 2nd, Coke is releasing a new flavor designed to evoke the flavor of Pixels, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Byte. To promote the new flavor, Coke partnered with gaming organization PWR on a Pixel Point Island in Fortnite where visitors can hunt for hidden treasures, play mini-games and participate in other activities. (Marketing Dive)

• Frameplay, an ad platform for video games, is introducing a new metric called Intrinsic Time-in-View to help brands measure the the amount of attention ads get in video games. The goal is to make gaming a more reliable platform in brands' media mix. (Ad Age)

• A new Wordle-style game recently launched called High Score Day, which tests how much players know about their favorite video games. The game shares five different video game screenshots each day, and the objective is to guess as many of the featured games as possible. (NME)

• Lego is partnering with Epic Games to build a metaverse for kids. The virtual world will be based in Fortnite. (The Verge)

Interesting Campaigns / Creative

• Nike recently celebrated Air Max Day with a 3D billboard in Japan. The innovative campaign has had a huge reaction on social media. (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.