Month: February 2020

Posted on

Bloomberg Buys Instagram Influencers

Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg is a candidate in the Democratic primary for the 2020 Presidential race. Having built a fortune of more than $60 Billion with his financial news business, Bloomberg is financing his own campaign and has already spent more than $400 Million of his own money. To give you some perspective, the chart below, from the Guardian newspaper, shows you how many advertising impressions each of the candidates have purchased on Facebook in the first six weeks of 2020.

Drawing fire from all sides, Bloomberg is accused of trying to buy the election and that fear was amplified last week when news organizations reported that his campaign is paying Instagram influencers $150 a pop to post memes that will make him look “cool.” Using influencer marketing on social media is nothing new, and is certainly a powerful way to reach younger demographics, but is has never been used at this level for presidential political campaigns.

The huge media buy leading up to Super Tuesday gives every impression that money is no object for this billionaire businessman. So if you have a lot of followers on IG, and want to cash in some of that “juice,” this presidential candidate with deep pockets may want to make you an offer.

Posted on

Sonic Boom!

It was a big weekend for Sonic the Hedgehog, the new videogame movie release from Paramount Pictures. Earning upwards of $70M domestically in its 4-day opening weekend gave Sonic the biggest-ever opening for a movie adapted from a video game.

But the path to success was not without a few bumps in the road. Last year’s November release was delayed after fans took to social media to pan an early trailer because of a creepy looking Sonic.

https://youtu.be/SXDa8i75PpM

With fans up in arms, Paramount did the right thing by delaying the opening and spending another $5 million bucks to give Sonic a makeover. The new Sonic turned out to be a vast improvement and led to this weekend’s big open. Turns out bigger eyes, smaller (less-human looking) teeth, and a less-elongated body is a better look for SEGA’s little speedster.

Old v Redesigned Sonic

Knowing your audience and taking the time to get it right appears to be the lesson to be learned. Audience research can be expensive, but bombing at the box office is even more expensive. That’s a lesson that we could only have wished the producers of Cats would have learned.

Posted on

VR: A Time to Grieve

Sometimes, when reality punches you in the gut, it is tempting to turn to “unreality” to escape. It may be as simple as turning to a sitcom or videogame after a difficult exchange with a roommate or family member. We’ve all done it, because it works…it distracts our mind long enough to let the negative emotions ebb and gives us time to return to a more comfortable emotional place.

At other times we turn to fantasy to intentionally trigger an emotional response because we enjoy the “feelings” that serve to remind us of our humanity. We read a romantic book, watch a funny TV show, or go to an action-adventure movie for the experience that each emotional experience brings.

But what about a recreation of something from our past for the purpose of giving us an opportunity to re-live an emotional moment? And what if that recreation could be a fully-immersive experience made possible by VR technology?

According to the PC Gamer website:

A South Korean TV documentary that aired on February 6 depicts Jang Ji-sung, mother of four, donning a headset, haptic gloves, and meeting a virtual recreation of her daughter Nayeon…Nayeon died in 2016 from an incurable disease at only seven years old…the documentary production team spent eight months building Nayeon, including her actual voice. An elaborate park scene was the backdrop, where the two played and celebrated Nayeon’s birthday. 

I’m interested in know what you think…is this a healthy use of technology that will facilitate emotional healing?

Posted on

Parasite With the Win

If you watched the Academy Awards, aka Oscars, last evening you know that the Korean film Parasite was the big winner. With four Oscars, including Best Picture, the social comedy thriller will be sure to attract movie-goers who may have missed it when first released. And because it is the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture, Parasite is attracting a lot of attention from the global filmmaking community. Also, it is important to note that the Best Foreign-Language Film label was changed this year and from now on it will be known as the Best International Feature Film.

In other Oscar news, Steve Martin and Chris Rock were pretty funny in their roles as “non-hosts” as they poked fun at Bezos and pointed out the lack of female nominees. The very touching Hair Love won Best Animated Short and Toy Story 4 won Best Animated Feature. Musical performances included: Janelle Monae, Eminem, Billie Eilish, and Elton John, and Elton got an Oscar. And in what some will consider a major upset, The Irishmen went 0 for 10 (although director Scorsese received quite a few shoutouts from winners). One of my personal favorites, Ford v Ferrari, picked up a couple of technical awards early on. The best actor winners were fairly predictable: Renée Zellweger, Joaquin Phoenix, Brad Pitt and Laura Dern. And as expected, 1917 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood did pretty well despite not winning the big awards.

The Academy Awards are both a celebration of what Hollywood does best (storytelling and the manufacturing of culture) and a cringe-worthy spectacle of decadence, hubris and self-importance. It’s hard to imagine it being anything else.

css.php