Lab Weekly - 07/01/2022
Charting the ongoing web3 use case debate; how brands can step up to support reproductive rights; Plus, our analysis on the latest news and stats roundup
Hello, if you live in the U.S., Happy July 4th weekend! If not, big congrats on not having to suffer through a terrible week of news like we did… Anyways, on with this edition of Lab Weekly!
Charting the Ongoing Debate on Web3 Use Cases
Blame it on the looming economic downturn, the music seems to have stopped at web3 party this month. With market confidence in crypto and, by extension, web3 technologies clearly shaken, the web3 skeptics suddenly gained a lot more traction over the past few weeks, especially around the questioning of the legitimacy of the use cases that web3 proponents believe blockchain will unlock.
How Brands Can Step Up to Protect Reproductive Rights
From reviewing data practices to vocally supporting the right to abortion in brand messaging and internal policies, there are many ways brands should take a stance in post-Roe America. Our own Katy Geisreiter, senior manager of strategy, proactively wrote a timely and insightful piece about how brands can step up to support reproductive rights and protect sensitive data. An abridged version of this piece was published by Campaign US.
In case you missed it…
The Long, Winding Road to Web 3.0
For all the buzz around “web3 technologies” in the media and tech world in recent years, many still seem confused about what the term actually means. Is it just another word for blockchain-powered networks, or is it something related to the metaverse? In this week’s original article, our Director of Client Service Ben Hone breaks down the past and present of web3 tech.
The Arrested Development of Virtual Reality
On Facebook’s push for its Oculus headsets, why VR is still nowhere near where it should be as a media channel despite the metaverse hype, and what it will take to get there eventually.
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.
Niantic Is Making An AR Game Called NBA All World [The Verge]
Pokémon Go maker Niantic is creating a new NBA-themed AR mobile game that will encourage players to explore their neighborhoods to find some of the league's stars such as Chris Paul, Steph Curry and James Harden to shoot hoops with. After matches, players can “recruit” the NBA stars they found to their own team to battle with other players. Polygon notes that you can also improve your squad with items you find out in the wild at places such as sporting goods stores and convenience stores.
It is interesting to see Niantic essentially taking the underlying game mechanics of Pokemon Go and applying a new coat of cultural IP layer over it to create this new game. Maybe that is a winning formula for AR mobile games at this stage — finding a cultural phenomenon that has enough loyal fans who are willing to wander around outside for it. The Pokémon fandom drove its initial success, and now it is betting that the NBA fans can recreate the magic.
Related: Niantic cans four AR projects and cuts jobs as it struggles to recreate Pokémon GO magic [9to5Mac]; Niantic's Campfire social AR app rolls out for 'Pokémon Go' players [Engadget]
HBO Max Adds Movie Preview Ad To Ad-Supported Tier [Axios]
One year after HBO Max rolled out its ad-supported tier, it is now debuting a new ad format designed to eliminate the unwelcomed disruptions of commercial breaks during a movie. Mimicking a theater-going experience, this new “movie preview” ad units will allow studios and entertainment brands to run full-length trailers ahead of films that will otherwise play uninterrupted.
As more streaming services start to embrace the ad-supported model, more unique ad units like this need to be developed to help optimize the streaming experience rather than simply replicating the 30-second or minute-long spots common on linear TV. Freed from the constraint of the programming grid and timetables of live TV, the media industry has gained a lot more interactive toolkit at their disposal to create more interesting ad formats suitable for the streaming era.
Related: HBO ramps up marketing campaign for the Games of Thrones prequel with AR app [AdWeek]; Netflix confirms an ad-supported tier is really, actually happening [The Verge]
Snapchat Adds Paid Subscription With More Features For Power Users [The Verge]
Snapchat has launched a subscription service for its power users. For $4 a month. Snapchat Plus will grant users access to "exclusive, experimental and pre-release features," which at launch include the ability to change the app icon, see who re-watched a story, and pin a friend to the top of your chat history as a BFF. Some of those features, like BFF, will remain available only to subscribers, but others may eventually cross over to the main Snapchat app for everyone.
With increasingly fierce competitions among social platforms, and Apple’s ATT features hurting direct-response ad business that social companies rely on, smaller companies like Snap and Twitter are in a tough spot. They have built their businesses as an ad-supported free service, but now the pressure to monetize existing users has led to the launch of Twitter Blue, and now, Snapchat Plus. As with any free service adding paid subscriptions, Snap will need to be careful with its messaging so as not to alienate its user base that may be wary of the prospect of more features and functionality being eventually put behind a paywall.
Related: Sweetgreen launches digital feature to reward customers for meeting goals [Marketing Dive]; Telegram’s paid Premium tier is coming later this month [The Verge]
There’s a new Twitch viewer record, and it happened during a boxing stream. Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos Garatea (who goes by “Ibai” on the platform) hit a peak of more than 3.3 million concurrent viewers during a boxing event he hosted over the weekend, according to Twitch.
The supposedly distributed ownership in the web3 world is surprisingly concentrated. By analyzing the distribution of ten major DAOs’ governance tokens, Chainalysis found that, across several major DAOs, less than 1% of all holders have 90% of voting power.
Generation Z is the largest demo group when it comes to social commerce. However, according to new research from Emplifi, they are not satisfied with their experiences. They found that 70% of Gen Z respondents do not feel that they are undergoing an excellent customer experience when completing purchases on social media. By platform, Emplifi found that younger age groups gravitated toward Instagram (65%) and TikTok (51%), while Facebook was more popular among Generation X (76%).
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?