🔥 Amazon proves people still like ads

💩 Amazon proves people still like ads (or will pay for them at least)

🥪 Why an LA bar owner is launching a media business

📺 Roblox enters new era of video + e-commerce

🛑 TikTok back in bed with UMG as US exit looms

🤝 The future of celebs on social?

The Amazon money machine rolls on…

There’s a funny thing about advertising. We’ve all got a bit of a love / hate thing for it. We particularly hate bad, disruptive ads. We generally love the flip side - an immersive billboard, for example, which is non-disruptive and merely presents the cutting edge of creativity.

Its also the case that we are more tolerant of ads when we can see the ‘saved cost’ - for example when the ‘ad-free’ tier is there for a fee.

And so its not surprising that Amazon’s introduction of the ad-free tier in January (£3 per month) has led to record advertising revenue in the quarter, up 24% YoY. Noone leaves, people just feel marginally better about watching ads.

Often the business case for introducing an ad-free tier is not the subscription revenue but the increased satisfaction and reduced churn on the ad-tier.

Other ad-based businesses take note…

Read more here

h.wood group goes from bars to TV shows

This one is a story about a hospitality group (with premium nightlife and restaurant venues across North America) that have formed a media unit to create talent-led films and documentaries.

It actually makes a lot of sense:

• They have relationships with a lot of talent from their presence within the LA nightlife scene and live events

• They have credibility and expertise in launching new brands (and IP)

• Talent-led IP is more important than ever before in cutting through and engaging audiences

Its also not surprising, given the above synergies, that they’re also looking to invest in consumer products and brands - again, they can leverage the media and talent to help promote and grow these investments.

Hospitality x Media is going to get a lot bigger in the coming years.

Read more here

Roblox launches video advertising

This newsletter isn’t meant to be an ‘ode to Roblox’ but its been difficult to ignore recently. Brands are getting more and more involved - seeking to build awareness and credibility with a younger audience that is increasingly hard to reach.

This week - to help this process (and potentially make a tonne of cash) - Roblox rolled out video advertising.

In the same week they announced a partnership with Walmart to bring integrated commerce to life.

Imagine then:

• Walk past a video billboard in Roblox

• See an item you like

• Buy the item from a store in Roblox

• Receive the physical version in the post

Could be massive.

Read more here

TikTok 🤝 Universal Music Group

After a few weeks of boardroom posturing, UMG and TikTok have found a way to get happy with UMG’s music being used on the platform.

Good for users and good for artists - after all its a pretty important place to get your music heard.

And it looks like they’ve done a good job at future-proofing it:

“By harnessing TikTok's best-in-class technology, marketing and promotional capabilities, UMG and TikTok will deliver improved remuneration for UMG’s songwriters and artists, new promotional and engagement opportunities for their recordings and songs and industry-leading protections with respect to generative AI.”

This is in the same week where rumours emerged that Bytedance would rather shut down TikTok in the US than endorse a forced sale.

Surely we can’t be seeing the end of TikTok in its largest market ….🤷‍♂️

Read more here

Celebs deepfaking themselves

I guess its only fair we acknowledge that celebrities do have lives outside of social media.

But how to manage all those fans alongside the day job?

Here’s an idea - create a deepfake AI bot of yourself to sort out the community management stuff.

At least thats what FKA Twigs has done. And there is a lot of merit in this - just look at what it will do:

• Interact with fans and journalists

• Use FKA Twigs personality and tone of voice

• Speak in multiple languages

I mean, I kind of want one of these just to sort out Whatsapps, emails and questions from my kids…

Read more here