NEW HARDWARE: A bunch of new hardware announcements this month. Facebook – the least self-aware company on earth – just released Smart Glasses with Ray-Ban. No doubt a giant engineering feat, I can’t help but marvel at a company known for surveillance capitalism launching spy glasses. A fun write-up here. Amazon is also launching a new TV that is Alexa-powered and Kanye West (first time typing that name in this newsletter) is launching a new music gadget along with his new album.
TWITTER UPDATES: Lots of ‘innovative’ new Twitter updates:
Communities: Reddit meets Twitter for public / private groups
Ticketed Spaces: Clubhouse meets Twitter for audio events
Edge-to-Edge Tweets: Instagram meets Twitter for full-bleed images
For something truly novel, check out this new social platform that gives users 100 posts….for life!
SOCIAL (R)EVOLUTION: The Future from a16z has put together a set of posts on the evolution of social media services. It has the same spirit as the Web 2.0 revolutionary wave, and speaks to how many existing services without an inherently social dimension will be disrupted. Love it.
App Annie also has a new report, with global social media app adoption numbers with highlight the growth of live streaming video.
SMART ESSAYS
It’s Time for Esports to Stop Idolizing Traditional Sports. I’ve been doing more digging into this topic recently. Very helpful article, building on the big strategic theme of not limiting a new form to traditional models.
Netflix and Video Games. In a similar vein, another fantastic read by Matthew Ball. Exploring how Netflix views its competitors more laterally than others (i.e., competing for attention with Fortnite, not Disney+).
Ads, Privacy and Confusion. If you’re interested in keeping up with what is happening in regulatory space regarding privacy, data, technology, and advertising – there is not one that writes about it as clearly as Ben Events. His latest.
Why the Sales Funnel is the Cockroach of Marketing Concepts. I should say that shitting on the much-maligned sales funnel is the cockroach of marketing article ideas, but this is a good read. No frameworks are perfect, but some are useful (as are funnels in many contexts in my experience).
ADVERTISING STUDIES: Some interesting studies on advertising effectiveness. New research shows that advertising that matches the context of the platform it is consumed is more effective. For example, a Kanye ad on a page with a Kanye article performs 23% better than not. (That’s twice). An interesting report on the positive impact from following creative best practices shared by platforms for digital advertising (tips included). Finally, a useful, data-backed post on how marketers continue to chase the least important metric in social media: clicks.
Speaking of data and privacy, someone on Twitter highlighted the unintentional comedy of the ‘Accept Cookie’ placement on the new Matrix promotional website. BTW the trailer just launched, and it looks awesome.
