Lab Weekly - 06/10/2022
Highlights from Apple’s WWDC event; New podcast episode recapping WWDC, Plus, our analysis on the latest news and stats roundup
Hello! This week, it’s all eyes on Apple. 2022 WWDC brought plenty of announcements to chew on. Let’s dive in!
Apple’s 2022 WWDC Event: Must-Know Highlights for Brands
Over its nearly 2-hour keynote session, the iPhone maker announced at a rapid speed a slew of new features. Overall, customization and shared experiences emerged as repeated motifs, popping up across various OSs, underscoring Apple’s quest of making its user experience more personal, social, and, as always, frictionless. As Apple products continue to command global consumer attention and shape digital behavior, brands that wish to stay ahead of the innovation curve know that the WWDC announcements often offer a sneak peek into the future.
In case you missed it…
How Brands Are Building Lifecycle Loyalty
The loyalty playbook is being rewritten in the digital age, and smart brands would know how to leverage new touchpoints and tactics for engaging consumers past the point of purchase and build a long-term relationship. Katy Geisreiter, our senior manager of strategy, walks us through what brands should know about building lifecycle loyalty, backed with the results of our 2022 Futurecaster survey.
The State of the Creator Economy
As new creator tools and features continue to pop up during the Newfronts week, we dived into the latest data from our proprietary Futurecaster survey to glean some fresh insights on the state of the #CreatorEconomy, along with some best practices that brands can tap into.
The Intersection of Creator Economy and Retail Transformation
With the ascension of social commerce and the collapse of the purchase funnel, creators are playing an increasingly important role in product discovery and consideration. Savvy creators are increasingly leveraging the increasing number of social commerce tools and marketplaces to monetize their content and drive purchase, forming the basis of community-driven commerce that will rewrite the rules of engagement and conversion.
Episode 140: Apple 2022 WWDC Recap
This week on Floor 9, co-hosts Adam and Ryan recap the must-know highlights from the 2022 WWDC keynote that Apple gave on Monday. From new lock screen UI design to new Apple Wallet features, Apple demonstrated continued commitment to creating seamless user experiences, with a newfound emphasis on customization and shared experiences. Innovation-minded brands know that Apple’s WWDC announcements often offer a sneak peek into the future, and we hope this episode will help you better understand the new features coming soon to millions of consumers.
As always, you can find Adam on Twitter @adamjsimon, and Ryan on LinkedIn. Follow the Lab on Twitter @ipglab and on Medium for our latest insights.
Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening!
Apple Financing Will Handle The Company's Forthcoming "Buy Now, Pay Later" Service [Bloomberg]
As more details come out about Apple’s BNPL service announced during its WWDC keynote on Monday, it is notable that, instead of partnering with a bank, like they have done with Apple Card, an Apple-owned subsidiary, Apple Financing, will oversee credit checks and make decisions on loans for the service. This move signals Apple’s ambition to bring more of the infrastructure for its financial services in-house, which puts the iPhone maker more directly in competition with a variety of fintech and financial service companies.
Recently, popular BNPL services like Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay have come under scrutiny from government regulators over the potential risks they pose to consumers. Customers who use these services are reportedly more likely to overdraft, with some struggling to pay off the loans. So it is significant that Apple’s taking on the loan approval part by itself, instead of relying on a bank partner. Perhaps it is also a cautionary move to have more direct control over the approval process so as to protect itself against potential regulatory troubles down the road.
Related: The ugly economics behind Apple’s new Pay Later system [The Verge]; Cinema-goers in the UK can now use iPhone to verify age for restricted films [9to5Mac]; Apple and Major League Baseball announce July “Friday Night Baseball” doubleheader schedule [Apple Newsroom]
Clubhouse Is Losing Talent And Steam [Protocol]
The gradual decline of Clubhouse, and, by extension, the social audio space, continues this week as the breakout app of early 2021 saw a slump in user growth and retention this year. Protocol reports that between January and May this year, Clubhouse has seen 3.8 million installs globally, compared to 19 million installs during the same period last year, an 80% decline year-over-year.
Live social audio is not doing too well on other platforms either. Twitter is reportedly shifting focus away from Spaces, despite just recently launching a Super Followers-only Spaces option for creators as an additional monetization tool. Spotify recently rebranded Greenroom as Spotify Live and integrated live sessions into the main Spotify app. Users will be able to live streams from podcast hosts or musical artists on the main Spotify app, via their creator pages on the platform.
All these developments just reaffirmed that social audio is a format, not a platform. As the buzz dies down, one can imagine that many Clubhouse originated broadcasters will eventually shift to podcasting and live-streaming on other more established platforms like Spotify and Twitch, which both offer better monetization potential and broader audience reach.
Related: Spotify Greenroom rebranded as Spotify Live [Variety]; Twitter launches super follower only Spaces [Social Media Today]; Twitter testing new conversation thread button for Spaces [9to5Mac]
YouTube Brings Shopping To Shorts With Glossier Challenge [Marketing Dive]
YouTube starts to monetize its TikTok competitor Shorts this week with a Glossier campaign where singer Kehlani, along with 100 other creators, challenges audiences to follow her lead and create makeup reveal videos using Glossier’s new eyeliner product. As part of a shoppable campaign test, each video will have the #WrittenInGlossier hashtag, which connects the viewer with Glossier.com to buy the new product.
Shoppable content is nothing new for YouTube, and I’m surprised to see it took them this long to extend it to Shorts. Over the past year or so, rival platforms Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat have all launched some form of shoppable livestreaming. Now, 40% of ad executives said shoppable video ads are a standard part of their media mix, while another 35% are in a “test and learn” phase, according to a recent IAB study. Going forward, with YouTube now offering similar ad units, we can expect more ad buyers to incorporate shoppable video ads into media plans.
Related: TikTok users can now rock Memoji-like avatars in new update [9to5Mac]; Instagram is testing a TikTok-like full-screen feed [The Verge]
The number of Americans who play video games has declined slightly in 2022, likely due to the phasing out of pandemic-oriented lockdowns, according to a new report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The ESA’s new data, released this morning, shows the U.S. gaming population at 216 million, compared to 227 million for 2021. Other notable stats from the report include:
The 2021 figure is still an increase from early 2020’s 214 million.
The stat is based on people who play video games at least one hour per week.
The latest U.S. census figures, from July 2021, put the country’s population at 332 million.
At Your Service
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!
If you liked this edition of Lab Weekly by IPG Media Lab, why not share it?