Lab Weekly - 04/21/2023
Snap Partner Summit recap; plus, the latest news on Meta, Netflix, and Apple, along with some cool stats to know
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What Brands Need to Know from Snap Partner Summit 2023
Snapchat maker explores new frontiers in live events and generative AI while doubling down on local discovery and AR commerce. Read now to learn what the key announcements mean for brands.
In case you missed it…
A New Era of Branded Blockbusters Is Upon Us
From Super Mario Bros to Barbie, many tentpole movies now double as vehicles for brand storytelling and myth-making. Is brand storytelling moving onto the big silver screen a logical step in the evolution of content marketing?
Generative AI’s “iPhone” Moment, and the Monetization Dilemma
Generative AI has our attention, but can it find the right product-market fit & path to monetization at scale to sustain its momentum?
New Travel Inspirations & The Rise of Zero-Worry Travel
After the chaos of the past few years, replete with natural disasters, political unrest, and, of course, a global pandemic, travelers are now looking for new places for inspiration and prioritizing brands that provide a worry-free travel experience at every step of the journey.
Meta Offers Discounts & Adds AI Features To Win Back Advertisers [The Information]
Meta is in a morale crisis lately, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the company is looking to win back brand advertisers by offering some nice perks, such as discounts of reportedly as much as 25% for those willing to spend a certain amount testing different ad products on Reels, its TikTok-rival feature on Instagram. The company also announced that it aims to use generative AI in creating ads for different companies by the end of the year.
Previously, Meta has claimed that early successes with AI tools had helped offset the billions in lost ad revenue due to Apple’s privacy changes taking effect last year. But some marketers have reportedly expressed concerns over being forced to relinquish too much control to Meta. Perhaps the sudden 180 turn points to a certain level of desperation at Meta, as it confronts the beginning of the end of its duopoly with Google over digital advertising (which we explored more in the first trend of our Outlook 2023 report).
For advertisers looking to test and explore the short-form video format, this is obviously a good deal. In the short term, this move could help Meta woo back some ad dollars and sustain its revenues. But in the long run, steep discounts alone won’t be enough to restore Meta’s business to its former glory. And Zuckerberg’s big bet on the metaverse may take longer than he expected to pay off.
Related: Meta announced new features for Reels to make it easier for creators to find top trending songs, hashtags, and topics [TechCrunch]; Adobe Firefly's new AI tools aim to cut down drudge work for editors [Engadget]
Apple Offers High-Yield Savings To Its Apple Card Holders [CNN Business]
This week, Apple finally made good of its announcement from last year and launched a savings account for Apple Card users. Powered by Goldman Sachs, whose Fintech stack also powers the Apple-branded credit cards, this new Apple Card Savings account will allow users to deposit Daily Cash rewards into a 4.15% high yield account with no fees, which is a notably higher interest rate than most savings accounts.
So far, Apple has been rather quiet about this launch, choosing to bury the option to open a savings account within a drop down menu for Daily Cash in its Wallet app. But, given Apple’s status as a leading consumer brand that often sets the bar on consumer expectations, this new offer will likely put some pressure on other financial service brands and credit card companies to offer similar products in order to compete.
At the end of the day, Apple obviously doesn’t want to become a bank, which is why it is partnering with Goldman Sachs, but it does want to offer more services that will lock in users in its ecosystem, and banking is certainly one of the stickier services that rewards long-term loyalty.
Related: Goldman Sachs considers sale of fintech unit GreenSky, pulling back from retail business [Reuters]; Apple HomePods can now listen for your smoke alarms [The Verge]
Netflix Canceled ‘Love is Blind’ Livestream After Technical Issues [TechCrunch]
Following its first livestream event in February that went off smoothly, Netflix hit a snag this week with its second live event, a reunion show of its dating reality series Love is Blind. Originally scheduled for Sunday evening, the live event was delayed more than an hour due to technical difficulties. Netflix apologized to viewers and said it is recording the event for later broadcast.
Live broadcasting is a new capability for Netflix, but it is now a key capability for any modern streaming service interested in getting into live sports or other types of events. The SAG awards, for example, will be streamed live on Netflix starting next year, after Netflix acquired the broadcast rights in January. Curiously, the 2023 SAG Awards was live streamed in late February via Netflix’s YouTube channel, indicating that Netflix was not confident of its own live broadcast capability. With many of its streamer rivals recently starting to incorporate live sports content into their services, this recent snafu, along with the SAG broadcast being offloaded to YouTube, suggests that Netflix may have some technical catching-up to do in this regard.
Related: Netflix reveals new timeline for its password-sharing crackdown [CBS News]; Netflix to end its DVD-by-mail service in September [NPR]
Snap shared that Snapchat has doubled its monthly active users in India from 100 million in 2021 to 200 million this year. In addition, Indian users’ time spent on Spotlight grew 175% YoY in 2022, per report by The Economic Times.
A recent Deloitte survey found that young consumers are “dividing their time between video games, user-generated content (UGC), and traditional entertainment,” which is having an impact on streaming services. The survey found that subscriber churn among streaming services for Gen Z and Millennials is 57% and 62% respectively over a six-month period. YPulse’s Media Consumption report data also shows that social media is the number one place young people watch video content on a weekly basis, over streaming services
In new JustWatch research data seen by 9to5Mac, Apple TV+ remained responsible for 6% of the streaming platform market share in the US during the first quarter of 2023. In the latest ranking, Netflix is now in second place with 20% of the market share, coming right behind Amazon Prime Video with 21%. Another impressive growth was that of Paramount+, whose market share increased from 4% to 7%, overtaking Apple TV+.
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to our Group Director Josh Mallalieu!
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