Category: interactive media

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‘Some Good News’ Goes Big Time

If you haven’t seen the eight episodes of Some Good News, produced, directed and starring John Krasinski, you owe it to yourself to check them out. Go ahead, we’ll wait.

The series, produced under the “stay at home” directive, is just one example of the many creative efforts that were hatched in people’s basements and living rooms during the Covid-19 spring of 2020. But unlike some of the less-inspired efforts, e.g. Imagine, this one was a huge success. BTW, I explore the Imagine fiasco in a bit more detail here.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, SGN racked up more than 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube, with some episodes topping 17 million views. That’s nothing to sneeze about, and that’s why ViacomCBS recently dropped a boat-load of cash on Krasinski for the rights to make SNG into a brand with the full support of a major media network.

According to THR, “CBS All Access, which will be rebranded this summer and bolstered with more originals from across the ViacomCBS portfolio, will have the first window for the new episodes before they move to a number of the company’s linear networks. While Krasinski will continue to be involved as an executive producer, he will not host the new episodes. A new host will be named at a later date, though Krasinski will have some sort of on-air presence.”

The success of SGN should come as no surprise. In a time with non-stop terrible news some GOOD news felt so right; even necessary. Krasinski not only had the kind of affable personality to pull it off, he had a veritable host of A-list celebs and stars willing to make guest appearances. Friends from The Office, the cast of Hamilton, Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart, Oprah, and even the Red Sox got in on the deal.

Whether “good news” continues to be a big draw once this season of “bad news” comes to an end remains to be seen. But I know that I will continue to look for positive and affirming content when I need a little pick-me-up. And I won’t even feel guilty about it.

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Happy Quinceanera to YouTube

YouTube is turning 15, and to celebrate, the Morning Brew put together this nice package of stats:

It’s been 15 years to the day since YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim uploaded the platform’s first-ever video, 18 seconds of him pontificating about elephant trunks at the San Diego Zoo. Here’s a brief timeline on what’s happened since:

2005: YouTube launches its public beta in May, and with $3.5 million from Sequoia Capital it goes beyond beta by the end of the year. 

2006: Google acquires YouTube for $1.7 billion.

2007: “Charlie bit my finger” becomes the first viral video, proving babies are cuter than cats, and YouTube goes mobile-friendly the same month the first iPhone hits stores. 

2008: “Evolution of Dance” gets a record-breaking 100 million views.

2009: Justin Bieber. Vevo. The music world is never the same. 

2012: Psy’s “Gangnam Style” gets a historic 1 billion views.

2014: Susan Wojcicki becomes YouTube’s third CEO.

2017: The “Adpocalypse” and “Elsagate” throw the platform under public scrutiny.

As of last year, 500 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube…every minute. There’s no sign of that number going down, especially amid COVID-19.

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Deep thoughts from…Steak-Umm?

If you’re not following @steak_umm on Twitter, you’re missing out on some amazing takes on promoting thinly sliced beef. Their tagline might as well be, “come for the social media marketing, stay for the science.”

Here’s just a sampling of some of the tweets, and responses from readers:

When your product is thinly-sliced beef, delivering your product wrapped in scientific wisdom and philosophical musings turns out to be not such a terrible idea.

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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.

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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?

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Esports, It’s a Thing

Just in case you hadn’t heard, Esports has arrived. If you’re not already familiar with the term, Esports refers to organized video gaming competitions. You can find plenty of background information on the Esports wikipedia page.

So, how big of a thing is Esports? Well, you know something has entered popular consciousness when SNL and Chance the Rapper poke fun at it.

Esports exists on various levels from amateur to college to pro. Professional Esports players earn on average $300,000/year, not too bad for playing video games, but far less than the average salaries for major league sports.

Among colleges and universities in the region, Colorado College in Colorado Springs has a well-established program. Last spring they won first place at the SCAC Esports Showdown where they competed in Overwatch, League of Legends, Smash Bros Ultimate, and Fortnite.

This year the Summer Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo, Japan, and while Esports will not be an official game of the 2020 Olympics, it will be featured in the days preceding the official games. According to engadget, “Players will compete in Street Fighter V and Rocket League for a price of $250,000 for each game.”

And for those who like to watch, VENN is launching this year and promises to be a new 24/7 post-cable network aimed at gaming, esports and entertainment audiences.

Maybe my next post should explore the idea of a “post-cable network.”

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YouTube Takes Action to Protect Children

If you have children of your own, a younger sibling, or nephews and nieces, there’s a good chance that they spend a good amount of time online, and often that time is spent on YouTube. For preteens, YouTube is the top destination for streaming media content. And why not? It’s free, constantly updated with fresh content, and a lot of it is pretty entertaining.

But in recent years YouTube has attracted criticism for not sufficiently protecting children from potentially harmful content. They’ve also been criticized for profiting off of children’s personal data. In 2019 that led to a $170M fine from the FTC for a violation of COPPA (the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).

In response, YouTube has just rolled out new policies to limit the downside for children and (let’s be honest) to minimize YouTube’s exposure to future fines and litigation.

Starting today YouTube will require content creators to identify content designed for a younger audience. That content will no longer allow commenting, live chats, push notifications, and the ability to save videos to a playlist. All of these changes are designed to reduce the amount of data that YouTube collects on its younger audience members. YouTube is also eliminating targeted ads around this content.

While this is a great first step, critics say that more needs to be done to ensure that YouTube is a safe environment for children. One options for parents is to use the separate app, YouTube Kids. This app provides more parental control features and its content is more carefully curated by YouTube.

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Makeup Tips, With a Side of Political Activism

New Jersey teenager and Afghan immigrant Feroza Aziz offers beauty tips online…or does she? In the following clip you can watch a portion of the video that led to her account being suspended by TikTok.

After its initial action censoring Feroza, TikTok backtracked and claimed that her account was suspended for a different video. But few are believing that explanation. TikTok has already drawn scrutiny because of concerns over its political ties to China and this incident is being offered as an example of what happens when free speech and religious freedoms are compromised for political ends.

In this short interview the 17-year-old says that “anyone can do it” (raise awareness) and that she’s not scared of TikTok.

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Meth, We’re On It!

People are wondering if South Dakota’s sharpest minds knew what they were doing when they approved an advertising campaign designed to draw attention to the methamphetamine problem. Like many states, SD is struggling with a serious meth problem and public health officials are trying to find solutions. Public information campaigns like this are part of the solution by raising awareness about the problem and where to seek help.

But social media took the opportunity to mock the effort and the agency behind it.

But the governor is standing behind the campaign and arguing that the very fact that social media is talking about the meth problem is, in fact, evidence that the information campaign is working.

According to an NPR interview with the Social Services Secretary for the State, “that slogan was specifically designed to be provocative and to get awareness of the issue of meth. Really, meth is all of our problem in South Dakota, and it specifically is meaning – you know, we’ve got a lot of things that are coming together, a lot of people that have issues revolving around meth. Together this is our problem, and we’re on it. We’re on the solution. We need to work on this together.”

What do YOU think? Is it working?

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Zuckerberg v Dorsey, round 1

Jack Dorsey, head of Twitter, just announced that political advertising will not be allowed on his platform. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook, will allow political ads and has taken a hands-off approach to policing political ads for false or deceptive content. The stakes are high and the debate is contentious.

Regardless of your political views, you can easily see how these different policies are complicated by very real and important foundational issues. First up is freedom of speech. In the US Constitution, freedom of speech as enshrined in the First Amendment is at the center of this debate. First and foremost the First Amendment protects political speech…which includes political advertisements. Those who are First Amendment absolutists argue that the solution to wrong speech is not banning speech. Rather, the solution is to allow MORE speech. In the end, they argue, truth will win out as long as everyone is free to speak and present their views. Score one for Zuckerberg

If you have a lower view of human nature you might argue, yeah, but advertising is paid speech, and those with the most money can afford the most advertising and most sophisticated advertising strategies and campaigns. Free speech is great, but allowing people with money to distribute political messages to the masses without any responsibility to speak truthfully will result in many people being deceived and manipulated for political ends. Score one for Dorsey

I could go on but am more interested in your thoughts. Which of the arguments articulated by Zuckerberg and Dorsey resonate with you?

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