Lab Weekly - 06/09/2023
Apple WWDC recap; plus, the latest news about OTT and gaming, along with some must-know stats on digital marketing and innovation
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WWDC 2023 Recap: Apple Sets Its Vision for the Future of Computing
What brand marketers need to know about Apple’s new “spatial computing” device, as well as other announcements from WWDC
Outlook 2023: Southeast Asia POV
Southeast Asians are moving away from the legacy of global influences and are carving a more definitive path for themselves in response to significant shifts in digital adoption behaviors
In case you missed it…
Retail 2023 Trends: The Comeback of Suburban Retail & Pop-up Stores
No, retail is not “in distress”; it is in transition to figure out a new path forward
Social Media In Flux: Existential Threats and Generative AI’s Impact
Key questions about the future of social media that brand marketers should keep a close eye on
Lessons from an Unusual 2023 Upfronts Season
The WGA strike has had a major impact on this upfront season — here’s what it says about the future of the media industry
Amazon Plans Ad Tier For Prime Video Streaming Service [WSJ]
The biggest story this week — besides the Apple announcements — was the panic around the profitability of the streaming model prompted by this widely-circulated Vulture article, in which Hollywood insiders discuss the end of the so-called “Peak TV” era as the streaming services cut back their content spending. It’s almost like Amazon heard the chatters and decided to jump into the fray with a move to add an ad-supported tier to Prime Video. Of course, Amazon already runs a FAST channel with Freevee, but there’s still plenty of Prime-exclusive content that Amazon is not monetizing through advertising on Prime Video, with some buzzy titles that could draw in more advertisers.
This move makes perfect sense considering the structural changes happening in the larger landscape, where the de-facto duopoly of Google and Meta in digital advertising is being eroded by other tech and media companies. Amazon’s ad business has seen significant growth in recent years, despite a general slowdown in digital advertising. The online retail giant’s advertising services unit brought in $11.6 billion in sales during Q4 of 2022, marking a 19% year-over-year increase. Granted, the majority of those ad sales are from ads that merchants buy to appear when you search for things on Amazon.com. But this push to juice more ad revenues out of its streaming business certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Related: Messi’s move to MLS is a big deal for Apple TV+ [The Verge]; Dungeons & Dragons Reveals 24-Hour Streaming Channel Plans [Gizmodo]; SAG-AFTRA votes to authorize strike, potentially joining WGA on picket lines [CNN]
WhatsApp Launches New One-To-Many “Channels” Feature [The Verge]
WhatsApp has launched a new feature called Channels that allows accounts to send one-way broadcasts to followers in the form of "text, photos, videos, stickers and polls." Users can find channels in a new tab on the app called Updates. That area shows Status and channels you decide to follow, separate from regular chats and group chats.
This is a significant update because it adds a one-to-many communication channel that is more typical of social media platforms rather than a messaging app like WhatsApp. (Although, with most social media platforms having added DMs to their list of features, that line has been blurred.) And if you think this feature sounds very much like how Twitter works, you’d probably get why this feature is being introduced now. In a leaked memo, Elon Musk said Twitter is now worth about $20 billion, a sharp 55% drop from what he paid to acquire the company six months ago. Coupled with the upcoming Twitter competitor/clone from Instagram, it seems that Meta is full-pedal vying to create a Twitter alternative that can scale by piggybacking off one of their established apps, be it Instagram or WhatsApp.
Related: A look at the upcoming text-focused derivative of Instagram, codenamed Thread [The Verge]; Popular third-party Reddit app Apollo will shut down on June 30th due to Reddit’s new decision to charge for API access [Engadget]
Salesforce Unveils Generative AI Tools For Marketing And Commerce [AdAge]
Salesforce unveiled two new tools that use generative AI technology to help brands deliver ads to consumers and customize and unify their shopping experiences. Marketing GPT is designed to help brands create more effective ads by generating new ideas, copy, and visuals. Commerce GPT is designed to help brands create a more personalized and seamless shopping experience by generating product recommendations, personalized content, and customized checkout flows.
Developed in collaboration with Google and powered by first-party data from Salesforce’s Data Cloud, these two tools mark another big step towards integrating generative AI tech into enterprise services. For marketers eager to explore the productivity hack powered by AI, these Generative AI tools can help brands to create more effective ads and personalized shopping experiences more quickly and easily.
Related: Meta plans to put AI everywhere on its platforms [Axios]; Instagram is testing its own chatbot similar to Snapchat’s My AI bot [ZDNet]; Priceline is partnering with Google to develop a custom generative AI chatbot that will launch this summer, following rival Expedia’s partnership with OpenAI [Reuters]
The last report from CIRP showed that 15% of new iPhone buyers in the US are coming from Android. While iMessage’s blue bubbles are often cited as a driving force for iPhone adoption, interestingly, that was the least cited reason for switching. The top reason was actually an issue with the Android experience. Over 53% of respondents said they moved to iPhone because of problems with their Android smartphone, a new study by CIRP revealed.
Local television news audiences are outpacing subscription streaming, reports TVB, in a study that compared total viewing of nearly 5,000 programs on six SVOD services with local news programs in five markets. In each market, local broadcast TV news had 8-12 times more adult 18+ viewers than the streaming platforms combined, the report found.
Amazon’s third-party marketplace sales continue to grow faster than first-party sales, and its marketplace makes up a growing share of sales on the platform. In 2022, the marketplace accounted for nearly 87% of Amazon’s retail ecommerce sales growth. eMarketer forecast its marketplace sales to grow by 11.3% in 2023 and 12.9% in 2024.
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 (josh@ipglab.com)!
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