AGENCY WORK HIGHLIGHTS

• Partnerships and Client Solutions worked with WildBrain’s Strawberry Shortcake over the past 18+ months to generate awareness and viewership for the all-new YouTube series “Berry in The Big City” and for various associated initiatives, including licensed product and games. Highlights include:
  - A Fruitastic Takeover at Retail: A first-of-its-kind promotion, three produce brands – Sunkist, Naturipe, and Envy Apples - came together to take over the produce aisle at grocery and big-box retailers across the country. The program received exposure from outlets including License Global and Licensing Biz magazine.
  - Berry Fun for Everyone: The team secured several additional promotional partners to reach families in their everyday lives, including Challenge Butter (their first-ever partnership), Pinkberry, Dippin’ Dots, Snip-Its Hair Salons, Zolli-Pops, and Little Debbie. With millions of units of on-pack exposure, consumer experiences, paid media, and organic support, these programs are generating significant value for the client and their launch campaign. Toy Book Magazine featured the partnership announcements.
  - Baking A Better Place with Friends: Inquisitor Master promoted the new Strawberry Shortcake Roblox game to her 9M+ YouTube subscribers, incorporating a gift with purchase offer and game demos, totaling 34M views. Nine parent influencer campaigns, featuring families with daughters aged 3-6, utilized content around themed baking parties to reach 5M+ fans. See samples of the campaigns here and here.
  - Scent-sational Holiday Season: Strawberry Shortcake helped out over the holidays with a brand-themed wrapping station at one of the U.S.’ most highly-trafficked malls (Tysons Corner in DC Metro). The in-market event was promoted via paid media (local TV, radio, etc.), mall signage and digital support, local influencers, and more.

  

• The Partnerships team has secured promotional partners for the Theatrical release of Downton Abbey: A New Era. The team obtained 9 major deals that provided a variety of promotional exposure for the May 20th release. Partners include Barnes & Noble, Butter London Nail Polish, Harry & David, The Langham Hotel Pasadena, Reeds Jewelers, Sunday Riley Skincare, The Republic of Tea, United Card Events by Chase, and Viking Cruises. The legacy continues with all things Downton as themed fruit baskets, nail polish & skincare kits, a collection of premium teas and jewelry, as well as a Downton-themed afternoon Tea at The Langham Hotel in Pasadena hit the marketplace. These partners are already a big hit with the Downton community and helped to create a lot of buzz in preparation for opening weekend.

  

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Ad Vendors / Platforms / Data

• Marketers are excited to advertise in immersive digital worlds. About 93% of media buyers are planning to buy some in-game ads by 2025. (The Drum)

• YouTube unveiled a new solution for marketers to set limits on ad frequency. With this solution, advertisers can expect to see a 5% reach per dollar increase when managing connected-TV ad frequency on YouTube. (Variety)

• US ad spending increased for the 14th consecutive month, rising 4.3% YoY. Digital media continued to expand faster than traditional media, making up 56% of total ad spend in April, up from 51% in 2021. (Media Post)

Awards / Festivals

• The 95th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023, the earliest it's been held since 2020. (THR)

• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is returning to pre-pandemic rules of eligibility, deciding films must premiere in theaters to be eligible for next year's Oscars. (Deadline)

• On June 16th, YouTube will host its second Beauty Festival complete with a shoppable livestream experience featuring exclusive product drops coming from partner brands like Glossier and Lancôme. (THR)

• Olivia Rodrigo was the biggest winner at this year's Billboard Music Awards, winning seven awards including top Billboard 200 album. K-Pop group BTS won three awards, more than any other group or duo. (Billboard)

Cinemas / Theatrical

• Netflix is considering releasing some movies in theaters with an exclusive theatrical window of 45 days. That's longer than the window Netflix has typically given the movies it releases in theaters. (Yahoo)

• In an effort to win over consumers, AMC Theaters is investing $250M to bring Cinionic’s laser projectors to 3.5K of its US auditoriums by 2026. Laser is considered a step-up from digital projection, offering brighter pictures and a crisper image. (CNBC)

• Cinemark saw Q1 revenue of $461M, an 304% increase YoY and better than Wall Street estimates of $447M. Admission sales led the revenue growth at $236M, above analysts’ estimates of $232M. (Barrons)

Gambling / Casinos

• India plans to introduce a 28% tax on online gambling. The tax would be applied to the chips that are bought prior to gambling at casinos, not on individual transactions. (Gambling News)

• UK online gambling revenue dropped by 1% QoQ. Total gross gaming yield (GGY) generated online in Q1 was £1.2B, and the overall number of spins or bets placed in the quarter was down 2% compared to the previous quarter. (Casino.org)

• Australian slot machine manufacturer Aristocrat has reported operating revenue of AU$2.75B for the six months ending March 31st, a 23% increase from the previous six months. It's also accelerating the implementation of its ‘build and buy’ strategy to scale in online Real Money Gaming. (Gambling Insider)

Live Events / Attractions

• Top Gun: Maverick got a five-minute standing ovation at the Cannes premiere. Tom Cruise also received the honorary Palme d’Or. (Deadline)

• Meta has unveiled a creator villa at the Cannes Festival that will host up to 300 content creators over two days at the Palais Bulles. The venue will give creators hands-on experience with hardware such as Meta Quest 2 and Ray-Ban Stories. (Variety)

• The annual summer event showcasing EA's expansive catalog of games, EA Play Live, will not take place this year due to timing conflicts. (Games Radar)

Music / Audio / Podcasts

• Podcast creators will soon be able to automatically upload their premium shows onto the Apple Podcasts app instead of having to publish it episode by episode through Apple’s platform. (The Verge)

• Universal Music Group has partnered with Limewire, now a digital collectibles marketplace, to bring NFTs to a wider audience. UMG artists can now offer audio recordings, audiovisual content, backstage footage and any artwork and images as NFTs on the LimeWire marketplace and sell them directly to fans and collectors. (UMG)

• Wear OS users can now use the YouTube Music app to stream music over Wi-Fi and LTE. Users can also add the app as a widget for quicker access to recently played playlists or YouTube Music’s browse page. (The Verge)

NFT / Blockchain / Crypto

• 24% of marketers plan to launch a campaign in the metaverse in the next year. Of those who have metaverse activations in the works, 39% say they are trying VR or augmented reality (AR) experiences and 17% are attempting an NFT promotion. 67% of marketers who are delving in the metaverse are committing a quarter or more of their marketing budget on these efforts. (Martech)

• Chipotle unveiled a new mixed-reality ad with the Colorado Avalanche NHL team. Displayed on the Jumbotron, the spot depicted a Chipotle-branded Zamboni bringing out a massive burrito bowl onto the ice. (Marketing Dive)

  

• Cryptocurrency exchange FTX is launching stock trading capabilities for its US customers. It will offer “hundreds of US exchange-listed securities, including common stocks and ETFs,” including fractional shares in certain securities. (Tech Crunch)

• Robinhood plans to roll out a new crypto wallet focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) for customers who want to participate in the crypto economy. Users of the entirely separate Web 3 wallet will be able to lend, stake, and buy NFTs. (CoinDesk)

OTT / Streaming

• Netflix is planning to roll out live streaming which it would use for live voting for competition series and talent contests. Another potential application would be live streaming events such as its "Netflix Is A Joke' festival. (Deadline)

• Disney+ announced that it will be producing and developing nine shows in Australia, which will be released in 2023 and cover documentary, lifestyle/factual and scripted categories. (B&T)

• When its ad-supported tier launches, Disney+ will only run four minutes of ads on movies or shows that last an hour or less. It also won't run ads that may have adult themes, such as alcohol or politics, and it won't run ads from entertainment competitors either. (The Verge)

• Amazon Freevee now has a dedicated Apple TV app. The ad-supported service was previously available on Apple TV within the Prime Video app only. (The Verge)

• Streamers like Netflix and Disney will now have to reinvest at least 4% of their Swiss revenues into local content production after the Swiss voted to pass the ‘Lex Netflix’ law which would compel streaming services to provide funding for local content productions. (Digital TV Europe)

• Netflix has laid off about 150 primarily US-based employees as it works to cut costs after its slowing growth. (Tech Crunch)

• The largest pay-TV providers in the US lost about 1.95M net video subscribers in Q1. Top cable providers, including Comcast and Charter, had a net loss of about 825K video subscribers alone. (Leichtman Research)

• Fox Sports is creating a 24/7 World Cup FAST channel on Tubi and making every match available on-demand to bolster its 2022 FIFA World Cup coverage in the US. (The Streamable)

• HBO Max and CNN will both air former CNN+ programming. Shows moving to the linear CNN network include “Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico” and “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.” (Tech Crunch)

• Nearly 3 in 5 US adults favor ad-supported streaming services over costlier ad-free options, and 59% of Gen Z adults indicated a preference for the lower-priced ad-supported streaming option.

  

• As part of its initiative to prioritize shorter content, YouTube will now highlight the “most replayed” parts of videos in its web player and mobile apps. (The Verge)

• More long-term Netflix subscribers are canceling their subscriptions. Users who have been with the service for more than three years accounted for 13% of cancellations in the first quarter of 2022. (The Verge)

  

• HBO Max was responsible for 1% of total TV usage for the month of April, enough to break it out of the “other streamers” category in Nielsen's Gauge snapshot. Top individual streamers were Netflix (6.6% of all TV usage) and YouTube (6.1%). (THR)

• Netflix is introducing a new “mystery box” feature that’s intended to help kids discover new shows, similar to the “Play Something” button. There will be a sparkly icon with a question mark in the favorites row of a kid’s profile, and when they click, they will be randomly shown a new kids show. (The Verge)

Retail / Lifestyle / Travel

• Marriott launched the Marriott Media Network, an omni-channel ad solution for marketers. The network, available in the US and Canada initially, will carry inventory that spans Marriott’s owned channels, including display, mobile, video, email and digital OOH. (Marketing Dive)

• Mastercard launched a program that lets retailers offer biometric payment methods, like facial recognition and fingerprint scanning. Users would be able to authenticate a payment by showing their face or the palm of their hand instead of swiping their card. (CNBC)

• Later this year, YouTube will release a new shopping feature allowing creators to redirect viewers during a livestream to a brand’s YouTube channel, letting the two channels to co-host a single livestream. (THR)

Social Media

• Twitter and Paramount have extended their multi-year global agreement to Australia and New Zealand, giving viewers access to digital content experiences around Paramount ANZ’s biggest live events, shows and franchises from the company's Australian portfolio of brands. (AdNews)

• Link-in-bio platform Linktree has revealed a set of new features that will allow creators to showcase their NFTs and “build a community around ownership," including an NFT Gallery feature where users can add the URL of an OpenSea collection to generate a preview. (Tech Crunch)

• TikTok is testing a new feature called "Branded Missions" that allows nano influencers, users with as few as 1K followers, to be paid for certain types of videos outlined by brands. (AdWeek)

• TikTok is working on new features for livestreaming, including games to help streamers engage with viewers, a “treasure box” gifting experience, and a shopping experience allowing viewers to browse through products from a livestream. (The Verge)

• Instagram is testing a new “Following” tab for Reels in India, mimicking the layout of TikTok. The new tab provides yet another way to scroll through videos in different categories. (Social Media Today)

Video Games

• Gap will launch a virtual, purchase-free experience in Roblox. The Club Roblox Boutique is designed to resemble a Gap Teen store and includes a fashion show mini-game called Style Stage, juice bar and photo booth. (Retail Dive)

• TikTok is testing mini-games on its app in Vietnam ahead of a “major push” into gaming. It hopes ad-supported games will boost revenue and increase the amount of time people spend on the TikTok app. (The Verge)

• 100 Thieves has officially announced plans to develop its own video game, Project X. Not much information has been released about the game, but 100 Thieves did name influences including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Gears of War, and both Halo 2 and Halo 3. (Game Rant)

Interesting Campaigns / Creative

• Cheez-It produced “sonically-aged” cheese for its crackers with help from Pandora. The resulting Cheez-It x Pandora Aged by Audio crackers will be available on CheezItHQ.com starting May 26th.

  

• The LA Chargers released their promo video ahead of the next season - as an anime.