Lab Weekly - 07/15/2022
Decoding Netflix’s recent woes & moves; Plus, our analysis on the latest news on the Emmys, Instagram, and Reddit’s entry into NFTs, as well as must-know stats roundup
Hello! Welcome back to another summer edition of Lab Weekly. This week, we’ll turn our scrutinizing gaze towards Netflix to examine its recent woes and moves, and what they tell us about the OTT landscape in 2022, just in time for the Emmy season — which we’ll discuss in the news analysis section, along with news from Instagram and Reddit that further boost the creator and web3 economy, respectively. Let’s dig in!
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Learnings from Netflix’s Recent Woes & Moves
For years, Netflix has been held up as the poster-child for the cord-cutting movement and the market leader in the streaming wars. Yet, recently it seems to have hit a snag after years of unbridled growth and global expansion. By examining the global streamer’s recent woes and moves, our content manager Richard Yao aims to decode the shifting dynamics in the OTT space, and predict what may be coming next to the entertainment industry.
In case you missed it…
The Future of Entrepreneurship
In order to find a viable path to success in the increasingly chaotic environment, entrepreneurs and small business owners will need to embrace the disruptions and innovations that digital technology brings, and smart financial service and B2B brands will need to adapt their products and services to better support them.
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.
Apple TV+ Scores 52 Primetime Emmy Nominations [9to5Mac]
One tangentially related piece of news I didn’t get to work into this week’s original article on the OTT market is the announcement of 2022 Emmy nominations that were announced on Tuesday, so let’s talk about it here. The usual suspects and expected nominees more or less made the nomination list — with the exception of This is Us and Black-ish, two consistently nominated network shows that aired their final season and got entirely ignored this time around. Sorting by networks and streaming services, HBO once again leads the pack with 140 nominations, followed by Netflix with 105 nominations and, in a distant third, Hulu with 58 nominations.
Notably, coming off its big Oscar wins earlier this year, Apple TV+ continued its awards momentum and overperformed with 52 total primetime Emmy nominations. This marks a substantial increase over the 34 nominations Apple got last year, representing the continued expansion of Apple’s library of original TV shows. Apple should be particularly pleased with the reception for Severance, which now gives Apple a solid entrant in the prestigious drama categories, after already cracking comedy thanks to Ted Lasso. All in all, it would seem that Apple’s “quality over quantity” content strategy is working pretty well. Industry recognition is crucial to Apple’s ad-free streaming service aiming for prestige, and it will also be important for its larger Apple One bundle to create award-winning “must-see” shows.
Related: Apple lead runner for $3 billion NFL streaming deal [Apple Insider]; Apple TV+ announces August schedule for free 'Friday Night Baseball' games [iMore]
Instagram Now Lets Creators Publish Feed Posts Just For Their Subscribers [The Verge]
In what seems to be the new “gold rush” for social media companies to come up with new monetization tools for creators, Instagram has launched a new Subscriptions feature that lets creators publish feed posts that are only visible for paid subscribers. Instagram Subscriptions will allow creators to monetize and become closer to their most engaged followers by offering exclusive content and experiences. Of course Instagram is far from the only social platform trying to help creators build their own Pateron-esque subscriber list to directly monetize their content — just ask Twitter — but it arguably has the largest number of active influencers than other social platforms. With this feature, some Instagram creators may be able to move away from number’s game and sustain themselves on a smaller, but dedicated audience with niche-interest content.
Related: Mike and Ike is tapping esports’ Dignitas to reach young consumers in their new Fortnite collective [Marketing Dive]; NFT summer in New York is in full swing amid crypto winter [TechCrunch]
Reddit Launches New NFT Avatar Marketplace [TechCrunch]
Look, I know you’re tired of hearing about NFTs too at this point, but the news just keeps coming as more platforms try to get a piece of the web3 buzz, and until better news comes along, I will keep covering them. And hey, at least in this case, it makes sense for the platform! Last week, Reddit jumped on the bandwagon with a new series of Collectible Avatars, which are essentially artist reimaginings of its Snoo brand character, which users can buy to then use in the app.
Different from regular NFTs, however, these Reddit profile avatars have been “priced at a fixed amount and are purchasable with fiat (government-issued) currencies.” Reddit avatars also enable you to support artists, with the originating creators paid a portion of the cost of each Collectible Avatar sold. Considering Reddit is where a big part of the web3 and DeFi communities reside, this new feature will certainly find its audience, despite its arguably limited functionality or trading value.
Related: NFT marketplace OpenSea lets go of 20 percent of its staff amid crashing sales [Engadget]; PlayStation Stars Rewards 'definitely not NFTs,' Sony says [IGN]
TikTok overtook YouTube for the first time in a report on how kids and teens spend their time, with young people spending an average of 82 minutes a day on TikTok and 75 minutes on YouTube, according to data from Qustodio, a parental control software maker.
Gen Z is ditching Google as their main search engine—they’re looking to TikTok and Instagram instead. According to Google’s own data, nearly 40% of Gen Z prefers searching on TikTok and Instagram over Google Search and Maps.” Social media formats, particularly TikTok, are changing the way young people are browsing the internet, and Google is working on keeping up.
A new survey says Americans aren't sold on EVs. Just over one-third of Americans say they'd "seriously consider" or "definitely" buy an EV as their next vehicle, per a survey of over 8,000 U.S. adults by Consumer Reports. Overall, 71% of the people surveyed expressed at least some interest in EVs. But that figure includes the 35% share that merely said they "might consider" an EV.
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