Not much to add this week beyond the comments on the links below. But here's a little round-up of depressing news for Friday, the 13th.
The FCC might cut children's television because the rules are "outdated" (as we get more branded content, which is part of what the rules are meant to stop), and will stop taking public comments in a decent fashion because Ajit Pai can't handle feedback. The Justice Department just won't give up on AT&T/Time Warner, as if they have any chance of stopping this thing (although AT&T did raise prices right after the merger was approved, and is doing some evil shit). Women who make science videos get some sickening feedback from men on YouTube. There is one last Blockbuster Video standing, in Bend, Oregon. Who knew?
Crazy times, but hey - those Thai boys getting rescued was pretty cool. Onwards to the news below.
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Film
Gaming is now bigger than film and TV: Reuters reports that gaming is now the world’s favorite form of entertainment.
WattPad is rewriting the rules for Hollywood: Vulture reports on how smart folks are using WattPad to discover authors and stories for film, and how most people in film are missing out on the trend and what their data can do to help with finding great stories and audiences. Best example: The Kissing Booth. Heard of it? Me neither, but it’s “touted by Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos, in an interview with Vulture, as “one of the most-watched movies in the country, and maybe the world.””
Fake Voice and Video is Coming. And it ain’t gonna be pretty says, Daniel Miessler. It’s being used now to insert actors (or your friend’s) faces into porn, but soon it will be used to make all kinds of fake news. It’s also interesting to think about how it will be used creatively in film/video and what that means for actors.
Nonprofits – and indie filmmakers – can win w/ smarter Facebook ads – so says Daniel Gallant of the Nuyorican Poets Café (and he’s a marketing consultant too) in the WSJ (there may be a pay wall). The key is getting even more targeted in your demographics. Sounds simple, but it’s the subtle differences between a Japanese cultural institution targeting fans of Japanese art, for example, “to focus on audiences whose interests included at least five manifestations of Japanese culture, such as woodblock prints, Ikebana or Kabuki.” My take: Read the article, as it’s a great, short primer on how to do FB ads right, and it’s also a great marketing push for his consulting – use the Facebook ad scandals to push how to market better with his firm - why didn’t I think of that?
Just how big does Netflix want to be? 250 – 400 Million subscribers, with new additions of interactive entertainment and gaming, but not live sports, according to Matthew Ball in ReDef. Me: I had lunch with a big media exec who thought this was an impossible goal, and I have to say, this person is wrong – this is the first article to nail just how big Netflix wants to be – as the article reminds us, their “only enemy is sleep.” That’s why the entire media business is losing it (sleep) too.
Just how Stupid is John Stankey, the new head of Warner Entertainment via AT&T?. Very, according to Scott Galloway. As Galloway describes so well, Stankey’s speech to HBO employees was not just tone deaf, but dumb, and shows he will possibly ruin the company. Best quote: “To move HBO to a Netflix strategy is to walk into the Musée d'Orsay and announce, "We need to scale this."” I say Amen to that. As Netflix moves more towards quantity and shows, HBO needs to double down on quality. Not that I don’t love Netflix or believe what Matthew Ball says in the link above, but HBO needs to remain HBO. They don’t need advice from someone coming over from DirecTV, land of the famous hits…(HB)oops.
See the graph from Galloway's newsletter below:
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BRANDED CONTENT
Should brands be thinking bigger about content? Sam Glynne of Freemantle (writing in The Drum) thinks so. He suggests brands should be funding and creating big, long-lasting franchise hits, like his company makes – The Voice, Price is Right and other factual entertainment that lasts a long time and reaches a lot of people. Me: Only for mass-appeal brands and definitely not for anyone wanting to be hip or cool, or have any street cred, but yes, they need to think bigger.
Shinola Shies a light on Immigration: Nice little campaign in support of immigrants, as they film 100 immigrants coming out of their Naturalization ceremony in NYC and speak about what it means to become an American. We need a few nice immigration stories these days.
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