Lab Weekly - 05/03/2024
The rise of video podcasts, Plus, the latest news on Walmart x Roblox, Amazon-backed Anthropic, and more
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The Rise of Video Podcasts
The recent surge of interest in podcasts on YouTube has made it the top platform for podcast consumption in the U.S., overtaking both Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Here is what the seemingly paradoxical format tells us about the state of the podcasting industry.
In case you missed it…
Meta’s AI & VR Strategies Are Aligning At Last
Meta has had a busy fortnight between launching the Llama 3 models and opening up its VR platform Horizon OS to third-party manufacturers, to bringing Meta AI to its smart glasses. At last, Meta is aligning its VR strategy to its open approach to AI, and it paints a fuller picture of the type of long game that Zuckerberg is playing.
Kids These Days: What Marketers Need to Know About Gen Alpha
As the children of Millennials, these digital and AI natives burst onto the scene with a unique sense of humor, attitude, and slang, reshaping where and how brands seeking after a younger audience conduct their campaigns and craft their media strategies.
What's Old Is New Again for Hollywood
Is the streaming model broken? Instead of an ad-free, cheaper-than-cable, on-demand viewing experience initially promised by the streaming revolution, we're now being treated to a gradual revival of features typically associated with linear TV, such as ad-supported viewing, procedural shows, and so on. Is Hollywood truly out of ideas? Or is this what the audience wants?
Walmart And Roblox Are Teaming Up To Make Virtual Ecommerce A Reality [Digiday]
Previously, the Walmart-created Discovered experience in Roblox, which debuted late last year, only allowed players to buy virtual items for Roblox inside the game. This week, Walmart is taking it to the next level with an expanded pilot program that will allow players from age 13 and up to buy real-life goods in Roblox and get them shipped straight to their doorsteps.
Walmart is starting small with just three items (a tote bag, a steel tumbler, and a pair of wireless headphones) at the moment, and the purchasing process is still fairly standard, with a traditional checkout flow where you put your name, your address, and your credit card information, and that’s all powered by a Walmart API. Some future integrations could be made to improve the checkout experience, but I suppose the friction is deliberately retained in order to deter reckless spending by minors.
Interestingly, Walmart also collaborated with three Roblox creators to come up with the digital counterparts of the aforementioned three physical items it is selling, thus facilitating a true sense of hybrid ownership that is important to this audience segment.
Also worth noting is that Roblox will start selling video ads targeting users 13 and up following trial testing with partners like Walmart and Warner Bros. Pictures. Roblox notes that the Gen Z age group makes up more than half of its 71.5 million daily active users. As a digitally savvy demographic that is increasingly challenging to reach through conventional, two-dimensional media channels, it is important for brands to experiment with emerging ad products in immersive gaming environments like Roblox or Fortnite to gain a foothold.
Related: ‘Godzilla x Kong’ activates Roblox’s first immersive movie trailer [Marketing Dive]; Walmart takes on Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods with a new premium brand [WSJ]
Amazon-Backed Anthropic Launches iPhone App [CNBC]
Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI chatbot, is quickly emerging as a strong third-party candidate in the “OpenAI & Microsoft vs. Google” AI arms race to commercialize LLM-based AI. Launching a free-to-download iOS app is a good way to extend its audience reach, and so is the launch of a business tier. The company confirmed in a recent press release that some of its clients using Claude include Pfizer, Asana, Zoom, Perplexity AI, and Bridgewater Associates.
Anthropic has claimed the most capable of the new models, Claude 3 Opus, outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini Ultra on industry benchmark tests. It will be interesting to see if it can leverage the financial backing of Amazon (and Google too) to stake out a claim in the fast-moving generative AI market. Finding a more differentiated business model other than selling enterprise subscriptions may be needed for that, since there’s no beating ChatGPT on name recognition at this point.
Related: The FT asked workers in animation, advertising and real estate to test rival AI systems that create short clips [Financial Times]; Meta’s ‘set it and forget it’ AI ad tools are misfiring and blowing through cash [The Verge]
Warner Bros. Discovery Jumps Into Data-Driven Ad Business With Olli [The Hollywood Reporter]
As the ad industry prepares for a post-cookie future, where first-party data will be key to attribution, Warner Bros. Discovery introduced Olli, a proprietary first-party data platform, called Olli, that will power a new data-driven video ad offering, Aiming to offer marketers a centralized platform for planning, activating, and measuring against advanced audience segments across platforms. Olli will reallocate inventory in the planning phase, moving some away from heavy linear TV viewers and toward digital and streaming to help balance reach and frequency. IPG Mediabrands is set to start testing this new tool in the third quarter of this year.
This new tool comes at a time when media companies are under pressure from Wall Street to transform their streaming services into performance channels. Traditionally, it’s been harder to earn a profit in streaming because there’s less ad inventory compared to linear TV, although that is quickly changing. With Olli, brands can be empowered to optimize their ad campaigns efficiently. Keep an eye out for WBD’s upfront presentation, which will take place on May 15.
Related: Roku is bringing even more brands into Roku City [Marketing Brew]; Fubo drops Discovery networks and blasts WBD for abusing its power [The Verge]; MeTV Toons Channel, a new national TV network featuring Bugs Bunny and other WBD content, to launch in June [Variety]
Situational Awareness:
Instagram’s updated algorithm prioritizes original content instead of aggregators that repost content from others [The Verge]
While it is understandable that this move would play well with creators, It will be interesting to see how it plays out for the user experience, as some of those aggregating accounts reposting curated memes are quite popular on Instagram.
Dave & Buster’s to allow customers to bet on arcade games [CNBC]
Dave & Buster’s entering the vice economy by adding mobile-based betting was not on my 2024 Bingo card, and it is interesting to see how the experience-driven restaurant chain is digitizing its customer experience via gamification.
New themed stays are coming to Airbnb [Gizmodo]
With Icons, a new category of lodging available in Airbnb’s app, the company is expanding beyond the “Uber for hotels” business model and getting into the experience economy by selling themed stays “inspired by major icons in music, film, television, art, sports, and more.” A great place for brands looking to dip into experiential marketing.
The Rabbit R1’s first software update addresses its dismal battery life [The Verge]
It is interesting to see that many tech companies are now borrowing the same “release first, patch later” strategy used by video game developers to beat their competitors to the market.
Google Phone starts rolling out ‘Audio Emoji’ [9to5Google]
A fun way to make your reactions heard — in tandem with the continuous rise of voice messages.
OpenAI introduces "Memory" feature for ChatGPT Plus users [The Decoder]
Careful what you tell ChatGPT – it might just remember what you will regret divulging later. Jokes aside, this is a great new feature for users to have a more personalized experience with ChatGPT, which will help to bridge the AI trust gap.
TikTok Shop now has more than 500,000 U.S.-based sellers just eight months after its Stateside debut, the ByteDance-owned company shares. The global TikTok Shop base now includes more than 15 million sellers worldwide.
Sources say that Apple has cut 2024 Vision Pro shipments to 400K-450K units, vs. a 700K+ market consensus, and US demand has “fallen sharply beyond expectations,” as market analyst Ming-Chi Ku reports on his Medium blog. Still, that number is higher than the original expectation of 200-250k units of US shipments at launch back in February.
The top 25% of U.S. adults on TikTok produce 98 percent of all publicly available content, and a typical user posts infrequently, if ever, per a new survey by Pew Research Center.
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 Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy, at chelsea@ipglab.com.
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