AGENCY WORK HIGHLIGHTS

• Our Experiential and Specialty Event Field Teams produced a booth at KidzCon 2022 for DreamWorks from July 15th-17th at the Anaheim Convention Center. The activation featured elements for three major DreamWorks Animation TV shows: Gabby’s Dollhouse, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight. Families took photos with Bumpy, Po and Gabby via interactive photo experiences, and kids were able to make crafts, play games, and enjoy a performance by Gabby and her dance troupe. The client was so pleased with the activation at KidzCon 2022 that some activation elements were incorporated in a Dreamworks influencer event at the Lombardi House which featured celebrity guests Audrina Patridge and Yris Palmer.

  

INDUSTRY UPDATES

Ad Vendors / Platforms / Data

• Apple will soon display ads on app pages and in the App Store tab. Ad buyers won’t be able to target specific apps for these ads, but the ads will be relevant to the app they’re shown under. (The Verge)

• Instagram will capture ~3x the influencer marketing spend compared to TikTok this year, with $2.23B spent on the platform compared to $774.8M spent on TikTok. (Tech Crunch)

• Apple is building a demand-side platform, according to recent job postings for roles that will “drive the design of the most privacy-forward, sophisticated demand side platform possible." (Digiday)

• TikTok has partnered with Adjust to create a guide on how to approach TikTok ad tracking and analytics with Apple’s new tracking parameters and data-privacy policies in mind. (Social Media Today)

• Wranga and Disney Star India partnered to conduct their ‘Responsible Digital Citizenship and Online Safety’ study which assessed the proficiency of young internet users and identified their preferred mode of learning. (The Print)

Awards / Festivals

• Disney topped the Golden Trailer Awards nominations, picking up 85 across its various brands. Apple TV+ was close behind with 50, followed by Universal Pictures with 48, Netflix with 43 and Amazon with 32. (Variety)

• Laura Poitras’ opioid epidemic documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is set to screen as the centerpiece movie at the 2022 NY Film Festival. (THR)

• Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning will co-host this year's CMA Awards, which will air on November 29th. (People)

Cinemas / Theatrical

• Everything Everywhere All at Once became the first A24 film to pass $100M at the global box office. Since March, it's made $68.9M in the US and another $31.1M internationally. (Collider)

• The share of US adults who said they enjoy superhero movies dropped 5 points to 59% from November ‘21 to July ’22. Meanwhile, the share who do not enjoy superhero movies jumped 5 points to 41%. (Morning Consult)

  

• Top Gun: Maverick became the 3rd highest-grossing film in Australian box office history, bringing in over $85M since its release. It ranks just behind Avatar ($115M) and Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens ($94M). (Flicks)

Gambling / Casinos

• July Macau casino winnings totaled $49M, a 95% decrease YoY. With the region on lockdown for much of July due to Covid, gaming activity was low. (Casino.org)

• Online gamblers in Spain spent 4% less last year compared to 2020. The number of active online players also decreased by 1% YoY. (Casino.org)

• The FanDuel brand will be applied to the sportsbook at Boyd's Fremont Hotel Casino in Vegas. The company’s odds will also be used on bets placed there. (Casino.org)

• MGM Resorts has filed trademark applications for NFTs and virtual assets including hotels & casinos, slot machines, concerts and clothing, which could be used in the metaverse. (Yogonet)

• Victoria, Australia is introducing new measures that will force Crown Resorts to change its business model. Among the new measures are forced loss limits on electronic gaming machines at the casino. (Casino.org)

• In New South Wales, Australia, a cashless gaming trial is commencing in an effort to combat money laundering and reduce gambling harm. Cashless payments must be used for all club services, including for play on electronic gaming machines. (Lexology)

Live Events / Attractions

• TwitchCon San Diego will not require masks or vaccinations. Many streamers have expressed outrage, saying they no longer feel safe attending the convention. (The Verge)

• Live Nation saw an estimated 33.4M fans across 12.5K events during Q2. It sold an estimated 139K tickets through Ticketmaster, a 26% increase QoQ. (THR)

• Travis Scott will launch his Road to Utopia Experience as a Las Vegas residency. The experience will be housed at Resorts World Las Vegas’ Zouk Nightclub starting September 17th. (Complex)

Music / Audio / Podcasts

• Spotify is separating its play and shuffle buttons for Premium subscribers. It will roll out individual buttons to replace the combined button in the coming weeks. (The Verge)

• SoundCloud will lay off roughly 20% of its workforce citing recent changes in the economic landscape. (Pitchfork)

• Ticketmaster and TikTok are partnering to launch a feature that lets users buy tickets through TikTok. It will also let users search for events and add destination links to videos. (Tech Crunch)

NFT / Crypto / Metaverse

• VRChat has a user-built virtual, to scale Kmart consisting of working scanners, scannable items, a PA system and more. The 3K+ people in the Discord server occasionally roleplay working there. (Fortune)

• Tiffany & Co. is dropping 250 limited edition NFTs, each priced at 30 ETH ($50K). The collection, NFTiff, will be available exclusively to CryptoPunk NFT holders, giving them access to a handcrafted necklace of their Pixelated punk in addition to the virtual version. (GQ)

• Starbucks will soon unveil its web3 initiative, which includes coffee-themed NFTs. It plans to share the details at its Investor Day event on September 13th. (Tech Crunch)

• The average price of metaverse land has fallen in recent months. In Q1, the average price for a parcel of land costed as much as $15K, compared to about $3K in June. (The Information)

  

OTT / Streaming

• Netflix lost 30 Rock at the end of last month. All seven seasons transferred over to Peacock July 31st. (Streamable)

• Over 20 Texas towns have taken Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ to court for alleged unpaid municipal franchise fees. The Texas Public Utility Regulatory Act requires video service providers to pay a franchise fee of 5% if the service delivers content through cables that lie in the public right of way. (Streamable)

• FuboTV has laid off staff in the US as it takes a ‘conservative approach to growth.’ (Business Insider)

• Pluto TV will launch two new free streaming channels, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! Hosted by Alex Trebek. Each channel will have 250 episodes for viewers to stream for free. (TV Insider)

• Sling TV lost 55K subscribers in Q2, dropping total subscribers below 2.2M. The company cited high churn following seasonal sports activity as the cause for the decrease. (Tech Crunch)

• Paramount+ added 3.7M subscribers in Q2, ending June with over 43M. Total subs added would have been 4.9M if it had not been for the removal of 1.2M Russian subscribers due to the Ukraine conflict. (Tech Crunch)

• Warner's upcoming DC film, Batgirl, was shelved despite it being deep into postproduction ahead of a planned HBO Max release. (THR)

• Six Warner Bros. movies were removed from HBO Max in July, including Moonshot and Superintelligence. All of the films were labeled as “Max Originals.” (Variety)

• Lionsgate saw its number of global streaming subscribers for Starz rise to 26.3M in Q2, a 57% increase YoY. (THR)

• In Q2, Warner Bros. Discovery added 1.7M subscribers between HBO, HBO Max, and Discovery+, bringing its combined subscriber total to 92.1M. (THR)

• AGM client, AMCN ended Q2 with 10.8M subscribers, up about 1.3M QoQ. The growth was driven in part by the AMC+ premium streaming bundle launch in Spain and strong content offerings. (THR)

• HBO Max and Discovery+ will merge into a single streaming platform beginning Summer 2023. Warner Bros. Discovery hopes the merger will cut churn given “there's something for everyone in the household.” (Variety)

• Australians are increasingly turning to local streaming video platforms. Nine, ABC, Seven and Stan were all among the top 10 most downloaded entertainment apps as Netflix slipped into fourth spot after Disney+, Amazon and TikTok. (The Guardian)

• Netflix continues to be the market share leader in Spain and LatAm, holding about 25% in each key market, while Disney+ is growing the fastest. (TTVNews)

Retail / Lifestyle / Travel

• Airbnb saw more than 103M nights and experiences booked in Q2. Its revenue jumped 58% YoY to $2.1B, helping to drive the company’s most profitable second quarter to date. (CNBC)

• US consumer spending on foreign travel was 89.3% higher in June than at the beginning of the year, and spending on air transportation was over 40% higher. (Business Insider)

  

• US domestic airfares booked now for fall travel are 25% cheaper than they were in the spring. The average fare could drop as low as $289 roundtrip before rebounding in October and November. (CNBC)

Social Media

• Twitter is running a test that lets those who download the Twitter iOS app read tweets and follow up to 50 users without an account. Users will also be able to search for tweets, explore news and trending topics, and get notifications. (Tech Crunch)

• Twitter is testing a feature that lets users see how many times any user tweets per month. The count is publicly displayed on a user's profile next to the all-time tweet count. (Tech Crunch)

• Pinterest launched a new iOS app called Shuffles for putting together collages using photos, image cutouts and other animated effects. The app is currently in an invite-only status. (Tech Crunch)

• Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature to focus on Reels. Users will not be able to host any new or scheduled live shopping events after October 1st. (Tech Crunch)

• Twitter is re-organizing Spaces by bucketing audio rooms into topics. It's also working on a personalized audio digest. (Tech Crunch)

• Twitter released a new feature called Location Spotlight that puts business information like physical location at the top of the business’s Twitter profile page. (Media Post)

• Reddit is expanding its live audio chats to desktop and adding a “live bar” to the top of the app that highlights conversations happening in real time. (Engadget)

• Instagram is expanding its NFT features to more than 100 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas. Users can include NFTs in feed posts and messages. (Engadget)

Video Games

• US consumer spending on video game products fell by $1.78B in Q2, down 13% YoY. Microsoft and Sony both reported revenue declines in gaming YoY. (The Verge)

• Patrón launched a virtual experience on Decentraland called Summer Made Sensational: A PATRÓN Pop-Up Series, which features various cocktail-themed quests and virtual venues to explore. (Marketing Dive)

• Gaming claimed 60% of blockchain activity in July, a record high, with unique active wallets reaching almost 1M daily. (Coindesk)

• Activision Blizzard reported a Q2 net revenue of $1.64B, a decline of $700M YoY. It experienced setbacks just about everywhere besides mobile gaming. (Washington Post)

Live Sports

• Wimbledon attracted a record number of attendees during the 2022 championships despite missing sales targets by 25K. The All England Club posted a total attendance of 515K, the most in Wimbledon’s 145-year history. (The Ticketing Business)

• The NBA has taken a minority stake in AGM client QuintEvents as part of an expanded deal that makes Quint the league’s official experiences provider. (Sports Pro Media)

• 2022 NFL ticket sales are already up 5% YoY, and the league is confident it will set a new record for gross ticket revenue for the third consecutive season (excluding 2020). (Sports Business Journal)

• 23 out of 30 MLB teams are seeing a decline in attendance this season, representing a league-wide decrease of 6.4%. This will be the fifth consecutive non-pandemic-restricted season with declining attendance. (Axios)

  

• MLB teams with increased YoY attendance, the Marlins and Padres for example, are drawing fans with offers and promotions. The Miami Marlins have rolled out five new single-game ticket initiatives this year, which have accounted for 12.8% of all single-game tickets when offered. (Sports Business Journal)

• Streamers from Amazon to Disney+ and Peacock have all recently snagged exclusive sports licenses. Still up for grabs is the NFL Sunday Ticket, which allows viewers to watch out-of-market football games. (Indiewire)

Interesting Campaigns / Creative

• The Twitter account for Scarlet Witch updates posted a tweet featuring four blocks of media that, when opened, show snapshots from the show. (Twitter)

  

• In a new video called “Finally, Tito’s in a Can,” Tito's pokes fun at hard seltzer by promoting a new Tito’s product that lets people make their own canned seltzer: an empty, reusable 16-ounce insulated can. Net proceeds from the can, which is priced at $20, go to nonprofits Tito’s supports. (Eater)

  

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.