KC DEBRIEF WEEK 49, FRIDAY 2023/12/08
DIGITAL TITANS
_The massively popular video game Fortnite has launched a high-profile collaboration with Lego. Crafting has always been a key part of the online shooter, which has more than 400 million registered players. Now it has released an entirely new survival game mode, where players will do their crafting with Lego bricks. And it seems to have drawn inspiration from Minecraft - a Lego-style block-building and crafting game - which is the best-selling game of all time. The new game mode can be accessed by launching Fortnite - which is free-to-play on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
_Sony has teamed up with accessibility experts to release a PlayStation 5 controller for disabled gamers. The Access Controller is a "highly customisable kit" of different buttons, triggers and sticks that lets players create a set-up that suits their needs. Microsoft's Adaptive Controller, which can be used on Xbox and PC, has been on the market since 2018. But this is the first device of its type to be specifically designed by Sony for the PS5.
_If you're a gaming fan, you definitely won't have missed the long-awaited trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6. But you might not have recognised the teaser's soundtrack - a 1980s Tom Petty tune Love Is A Long Road. While the trailer has racked up more than 100 million views, the song has also seen a huge leap in streams. Since the trailer's Tuesday release, Spotify tells BBC Newsbeat streams for the track have increased 36,979% compared to this time last week.
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In just 22 hours, the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI has racked up 85 million views, breaking a MrBeast video’s record for most YouTube views in 24 hours. That ranking excludes music videos, but the hype around this long-awaited game could smash past those records too — right now, the most viewed YouTube video in 24 hours is the music video for K-Pop sensation BTS’ song “Butter,” which was viewed 108 million times in that timespan.The excitement for Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) is a decade in the making. The last game in the franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, was released more than 10 years ago, in September 2013. According to Guinness World Records, it broke the record for “highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours,” earning $815.7 million on release day from the sale of 11.21 million copies. It remains the second-best-selling video game of all time, falling short only of Minecraft. Rockstar Games, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, planned to release the trailer on Tuesday morning. But the trailer was leaked on X (Twitter) a day early, so Rockstar just posted the trailer anyway and got the leaked version taken down.
_Google has released an artificial intelligence (AI) model which it claims has advanced "reasoning capabilities" to "think more carefully" when answering hard questions. AI content generators are known to sometimes invent things, which developers call hallucinations. Gemini was tested on its problem-solving and knowledge in 57 subject areas including maths and humanities.
_Why It Took Meta 7 Years to Turn on End-to-End Encryption for All Chats. Mark Zuckerberg personally promised that the privacy feature would launch by default on Messenger and Instagram chat. WIRED goes behind the scenes of the company’s colossal effort to get it right. Since 2016, the social behemoth now known as Meta has been working to deploy end-to-end encryption in its communication apps. CEO Mark Zuckerberg even promised in 2019 that the data privacy protection would roll out by default across all of the company's chat apps. In practice, though, it was a wildly ambitious goal fraught with technical and political challenges, and Meta has only been able to move toward it in gradual, incremental steps. But this week the company is finally starting its full rollout.
_Here’s a twist: Advertising on X might be lucrative for a certain type of marketer, provided they can overlook the deluge of hate speech, misinformation and violent content rampant on the platform. It’s a bargain bin for ad space at the cost of compromising principles. Thanks to Elon Musk’s battle with major advertisers, less of them are advertising on the platform. Less competition for ad inventory means lower prices, but at the cost of associating with a platform facing ethical challenges. This is why four advertisers who Digiday caught up with haven’t shied away from the platform, at least not yet.One U.K.-based advertiser, who wanted to remain anonymous said some of the brands they have been talking to recently have been discussing how they can play in those spaces (meaning X), where there is cheap inventory now. Previously, X’s CPMs hovered around $3 – $5, but since Musk took over, they typically sit at around $1 – $2, according to three ad buyers interviewed for this story.“Everyone is leaving, none of the big tier brands want to be there. But there is an audience for this,” said the marketer. “Is there a competitive advantage to being on those platforms when all of your competitors don’t want to be?”Robert Brill, CEO of Brill Media, certainly seems to think so. As he pointed out, Musk’s recent response to advertisers hasn’t deterred his clients from spending because they are “looking for performance and growth”, although he is now considering whether it’s still a good idea to recommend it — the idea being that mud sticks and being guilty by association. Having said that, for now, while the platform isn’t a big driver of attributable conversions, Brill said it still plays a part in the media mix. He said that CPMs he sees on X are typically $6.50 for website and traffic ads, and $0.16 for video ads to the U.S. with broad targeting. Brill, however, did caveat that X’s percentage of the social media mix varies. Sometimes it can take up to 12% but currently it accounts for 3% – 4% of his team’s social ad spend.It’s like that famous Warren Buffet saying: “’Be greedy when others are fearful.”Babar Khan, the chief communications officer at Z2C Limited, is witnessing this firsthand with his clients, who spend roughly between 10% – 15% of their social media mix on X. He expanded on the point: “My clients are marketers and their job is to generate a return on advertising spend. They are not paid to be activists. They are held accountable for missing sales targets.”
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News outlets turn to Reddit as Musk’s X descends into chaos / WaPo
PEOPLE, MEDIA, CULTURE
_Have labels hit a breaking point with data-driven A&R? Analytics can predict hit singles, but skeptics say it's far less effective at identifying enduring artists / Billboard
_Media watchdog says layoffs at top social media firms affecting moderation create ‘toxic environment’ as 2024 elections approach. As the 2024 elections approach, experts warn that top social media firms have rolled back vital safety policies and laid off moderation staff, creating a “a toxic online environment” vulnerable to exploitation that threatens democracy. A new study from the non-profit media watchdog Free Press documented 17 major platform policies affecting online content integrity that have been rolled back in the past year at Alphabet, Meta and Twitter/X. It also cited more than 40,000 layoffs at these companies as a threat to the health and safety of their platforms.
_KISS, following their final concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, has announced their perpetual existence as digital avatars. During the encore of their last show, co-founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, alongside guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, surprised fans with the revelation that they will persist as digitized versions of themselves in the future.Expressing gratitude to the Kiss Army, vocalist/guitarist Stanley hailed the fans' love and support, immortalizing the band in a video introducing the digital characters while performing “God Gave Rock and Roll to You.” The avatars were crafted by George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, in collaboration with Sweden's Pophouse Entertainment Group, the same entities behind the ABBA Voyage show. This innovative move allows KISS to potentially have concerts simultaneously in multiple cities across different continents. During a roundtable interview, Stanley emphasized that KISS deserves to live on, transcending individual members because the band symbolizes more than any individual. Simmons echoed this sentiment, expressing excitement about the possibilities the digital band will unlock, enabling KISS to achieve feats beyond their previous imaginations.The digital transformation, facilitated by cutting-edge technology, promises to expand the band's capabilities, providing new avenues for creative expression and performance never before achievable in the physical realm.
BRANDS
_Balenciaga is giving its clothes their own exclusive soundtrack. A new partnership with digital identity company Eon enables wearers to listen to an Archive song that was created for Balenciaga Music. Only people who scan the physical product have access, marking Balenciaga’s first time experimenting with connected clothing.
_What Coca-Cola’s generative AI experiments mean for the brand’s future. Selman Careaga, president of the global Coca‑Cola category, detailed how the brand balances artificial and human intelligence.
MMMM of the week
_A$AP Rocky Staged Paparazzi Shots for Bottega Veneta’s Latest Campaign / GQ
_Mountain Dew is using facial-recognition tech to identify and pay people who are drinking the soda on Twitch livestreams / AdAge