With “Now Feel This” Concert Livestreams, Skullcandy Wants To Get Back To Basics

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Headphone manufacturer Skullcandy got its start by focusing on musicians and music fans, and with its yearlong Now Feel This concert series, it hopes to return on its original promises without losing sight of what’s on the horizon.

“We started as an audio company focusing on music, so we’re really getting back to our roots,” said McKenna Taylor, Skullcandy’s global brand manager, told AListDaily. “We’ve gotten distracted a bit in the past.”

A series of 29 concerts over the course of a year, Now Feel This shows will star smaller artists and take place in low-headcount venues to give attendees a more “physical” experience, tying the live experience with the “haptic bass” features on Skullcandy’s headphones. For those unable to attend, the brand will livestream the concerts on its microsite.

“We don’t just want you to listen to your music, we want you to feel it,” McKenna stated. “We wanted to transfer that to more emotional responses and connections on a more personal level.”

Though a music brand sponsoring a concert can hardly be considered groundbreaking on its own, (the company has even hosted ad-hoc music livestreams for the past two years) Skullcandy’s Now Feel This program marks a committed, long-term effort by the brand to integrate more completely into its customers’ daily lives.

“We want to give these emerging artists the platform to share their talent and music with our fans, who we’ve identified as hungry for the latest and the newest and the upcoming,” Taylor added. “We’ve focused on creating holistic touchpoints with our consumers and our products and our initiatives.”

Part of Skullcandy’s holistic strategy includes more diverse content offerings than just concerts. Starting on May 18, the date of the first Now Feel This concert, the audio brand will launch a podcast series featuring exclusive interviews by the bands performing.

Overall, the campaign is focused more on branding than sales. McKenna claimed that the metrics Skullcandy will monitor tend more toward social sharing and time spent watching content over sales conversions.

If the series gets enough traction, Skullcandy plans to run more concerts and expand its podcast as well.

“We’re helping our fans stay on the cutting edge of music,” McKenna stated. “It’s going back to our heritage of music as well as looking progressively forward.”

‘Jurassic World’ Wants You To Adopt A Dino

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May 15 is National Dinosaur Day, according to Universal Pictures (though National Today disagrees), and to celebrate and promote Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s June 22 release date, the studio released a series of stickers, a video featurette and… an extensive in-universe microsite by a fictional dinosaur rights organization.

Featuring the same sort of mission-statement language common to many real charitable organizations, the Dinosaur Protection Group‘s website extols importance of saving the island’s dinosaurs.

“We brought the dinosaurs back into the world; it’s now our responsibility to protect these magnificent creatures,” the site’s welcome page reads. “Actually, it’s more than a responsibility. It’s a calling. A passion that keeps us going every day. And as we settle into our new office, we promise to keep you updated with all the latest news and information that we’re able to gather. Just as soon as it’s verified.”

In addition to parodic pseudo-ads, the site delves deep into the lore of the upcoming film, with posts detailing history of “dino-ethical misconduct” and monitoring the volatility of the island’s volcano (that erupts in the film). There’s even a poster for a march on Washington scheduled for September 10.

Lastly, the site urges its visitors to “adopt a dino,” letting them select from a list of the film’s animal characters in much the same way one might adopt an endangered animal or stretch of highway. Mercifully, the Jurassic World site skips the “ask for donation” step, going straight to offering the user an adoption certificate to download and share on social media.

For those willing to brag about their altruistic achievements on Twitter or Instagram, Universal is offering the chance to win Dinosaur Protection Group-branded buttons and t-shirts.

As the site states: “For those willing to stand up and speak for the dinosaurs, it’s your turn.”

‘Deadpool 2’ Marketing Ripe With Parody; Celebrity Partners

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Deadpool 2 marketing is in full swing, utilizing the character’s trademark sense of humor with activities, contests, a music video and as always, a healthy dose of parodies.

Unlike most other comic book characters, Marvel’s Deadpool is self-aware. This meta approach to storytelling (and marketing) gives him free reign to talk about—and openly mock—just about anything he likes regardless of whether it exists inside the Marvel Universe.

In a video spot called “With Apologies to David Beckham,” Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) arrives at the home of the soccer star, begging for forgiveness for a wisecrack made about him in the first film.

Deadpool has a way of showing up where he’s least expected, like on 7-Eleven cups. The convenience store brand added Deadpool 2 AR to its loyalty app, scannable codes around its stores and a number of branded retail items ahead of the film’s release.

He also appears where he’s not necessary wanted, like this birthday message from Hugh Jackman.

The red-clad mercenary took to Google, answering pressing questions from users like how to meditate and whether you should text your ex.

“Absolutely,” replies Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) in a video response. “I suggest you text every four seconds until you die alone.”

A Google+ Community called “Ask Deadpool” was also created, inviting members to ask the character questions about whatever they liked. Responses are given in the character of Wade Wilson, Deadpool’s not-so-secret identity.

Espolòn Tequila partnered with the film to offer a limited edition gift set that includes a Deadpool 2-themed bottle of tequila and flask. The official Espolòn social channels have been sharing crudely-modified ads that replace brand names with its own, a person’s face with Deadpool’s and product images with bottles of Espolòn tequila—supposedly created by Deadpool himself.

When Canada wasn’t invited to the annual Eurovision song contest, Deadpool produced a video in protest, claiming that the snub awakened a “sleeping moose” that will force him to tour Europe.

In April, the mercenary showed his softer side (kind of) with a campaign called “Fuck Cancer.” Those who donated through Omaze were entered to win a pink version of Deadpool’s suit.

Céline Dion recorded a song called “Ashes” for Deadpool 2 and filmed a music video that includes the mercenary dancing in stiletto heels.

Fans were invited to join “Deadpool Core,” a parody of the old Mickey Mouse Club that notifies fans of contests and new marketing materials. In April, the campaign launched with a coloring page that earned over $14,000 in earned media value over four days.

With the release date of Deadpool 2 only a few days away the marketing efforts are peaking just as early reviews hint the sequel may actually be better than the original film.

Netflix Hosts Never Nude Meet-Up For ‘Arrested Development’ Season 5

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Netflix hosted an Arrested Development-themed meet-up in Austin over the weekend that included the show’s famous stair car and a get together for “never nudes.”

Fans gathered at the Texas State Capitol and a parking lot on Brazos Street Saturday to join other Arrested Development fans in “never nude” attire—that is, jean cutoff shorts and not much else. The show’s famous stair car also made an appearance as part of a nationwide tour.

On the show, Dr. Tobias Fünke (David Cross) eases his phobia of being naked by wearing jean cutoff shorts at all times, even in the shower. His insistence on wearing cutoffs became one of the most memorable aspects of Arrested Development.

Fans were joined by marketing staff that “blue themselves,” paying homage to Tobias’ frequent attempts to join The Blue Man Group by covering themselves in blue paint.

Arrested Development Season 5 debuts on Netflix May 29 with a plot that revolves around politics. As Lindsay campaigns for office, the entire Bluth family is campaigning to award itself “Family of the Year.” The marketing campaign includes a website where fans can stay up to date on the stair car tour, view the show’s character bios and download images to create their own promotional materials.

Those to visit the stair car and never nude meet-ups are given promotional items for the Bluth Family of the Year campaign that include stickers, hats, posters and of course, photo ops. The nationwide faux campaign tour runs through New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle through May 20.

Netflix previously used experiential marketing for Arrested Development when it aired season 4 in 2013. To promote the show’s comeback after seven years, a replica of the Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana stand was installed in Times Square, complete with an employee in a banana costume.

In addition to giving away real frozen bananas, the campaign invited fans to show up dressed as never nudes, offering six free months of Netflix to the first eight dozen attendees who did.

Netflix released a newly edited version of season 4 called “Fateful Consequences” and has hosted a number of 24-hour contests over Twitter and Instagram under the hashtag #UltimateBluthMaster. For Mother’s Day, the official Arrested Development account asked fans to share photos of dance partners dressed alike to pay homage to the show’s running Mother Boy joke. Additional challenges will be posted every day through May 19, with winners receiving a trophy that looks like a frozen banana.

Report: Top Public Game Companies By Revenue In 2017

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Newzoo has revealed the top 25 public companies by game revenue in 2017, illustrating the growth of mobile gaming worldwide and a strong Chinese market.

The top 25 public companies, as determined by game revenues, generated a total of $94.1 billion in 2017, a 29 percent increase over the previous year. To illustrate the sheer earning power of these brands, the top 25 captured 77 percent of the $121.7 billion global games market.

Still On Top

Tencent is the number one gaming company in the world for the fifth year running. The Chinese brand earned $18.1 billion—15 percent of the global games market and outpacing the next highest company by over $7 billion. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Tencent now owns Riot Games (League of Legends) in addition to its already massive library of mobile titles.

Newzoo attributed Tencent’s domination of the Chinese market to “smart, diverse investments” which allowed the company to retain a firm grip on both PC and mobile social platforms in 2017. Tencent owns the most popular social media platform in China, making it “the perfect gateway to reach the multiple hundreds of millions of gamers in China,” Newzoo market consultant Tom Wijman told AListDaily.

Tencent also benefits from restrictions set forth by the Chinese government that does not allow foreign companies to publish games in China without a local publishing partner.

Sony, which comes in second on the list at $10.5 billion in 2017, not only develops its own AAA titles but owns the PlayStation Store publishing platform—taking a cut of every transaction.

“While the industry has been announcing the ‘death of single player’ games for years, Sony is still releasing multiple single player titles for PlayStation every year which boost their game sales,” said Wijman. “Last year it was Horizon: Zero Dawn and Uncharted, and so far this year it’s God of War, etc.”

Sony, Apple, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard round out the top five companies—unchanged from last year.

Mobile Movement

Mobile accounted for 46 percent of revenues earned by the top 25 companies, compared to 41 percent in 2016. Interestingly, 13 out of the top 25 companies earned the majority of their revenues through mobile gaming last year.

Apple and Google both had a record year in terms of game revenues, earning $8.0 billion and $5.3 billion, respectively. Apple is now the third-largest gaming company in the world, illustrating the advantage of owning its own game distribution platform.

Even traditional game publishers are investing in mobile, with great success. Bandai Namco, Konami, Sega, and Square Enix, now earn more through mobile games than console, Newzoo observed.

Konami, known for its popular console franchises like Metal Gear and Silent Hill, now earns more than four times as much on mobile than it does on console with titles such as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links.

Mobile-first Chinese publishers Perfect World and 37 Interactive joined the top companies list for the first time at number 23 and 25, respectively.

While mobile is driving most revenue growth in the industry, it’s not driving the entire industry, Wijman said. “PC still has a massive contribution—even if it’s only as the most innovative platform in the industry. Esports, VR, cloud gaming, all these innovations that will shape the industry in future years started on PC. Console games are still massively popular in established, mature gaming markets such as North America, Europe, and Japan.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated to include statements not received before publishing time.

Consoles Are Still Kicking

Growth in the mobile sector is impressive, but gamers aren’t ready to put down those controllers just yet. The big three platform companies—Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo—accounted for 57 percent of all console revenues in 2017.

Nintendo’s revenues rose by 98 percent year on year in 2017, driven by its Switch console.

Together, Sony, Microsoft and Nintento continued to outperform the global console market, earning an increasing share of revenues through third-party sales in their online stores.

IAB Announces NewFronts West

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The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has announced the creation of NewFronts West—an extension of its annual New York event—that will debut this fall in Los Angeles.

NewFronts West will run October 9-10 at NeueHouse Hollywood, where digital content creators will showcase advertising opportunities to marketers. Registration for presenters will open this Summer.

The Los Angeles event will differ from its East Coast cousin in length—running two days compared to five in New York—but what NewFronts West lacks in time will make up in home advantage. IAB hopes that hosting NewFronts in the entertainment capital will attract brands, celebrities and media buyers native to the area.

“We also expect to see even more out-of-the-box programming in the mix, taking full advantage of emerging formats ranging from virtual reality to podcasts,” Anna Bager, IAB’s executive vice president of Industry Initiatives said in a statement. “This represents yet another vital marketplace from IAB, designed to encourage growth across the industry.”

IAB’s announcement comes just as NewFronts wrapped last week. The annual presentation revealed a number of trends in the digital entertainment space including a demand for brand safety, original content and a hybrid approach between digital and traditional TV ad formats.

NewFronts is attracting new players, which indicates a growing interest in the annual competition for ad dollars. Last week’s presentations included the usual powerhouses such as Disney, Hulu and Viacom but also included first-time appearances from Twitter and ESPN.

Twitter unveiled 30 new content and renewal deals during its NewFronts presentation that included NBC Universal, ESPN and Viacom.

Disney-owned ESPN announced a new daily version of its popular SportsCenter program that will run native to its mobile app. The curated edition of SportsCenter will be hosted by Scott Van Pelt and other SportsCenter anchors, focusing on highlights, previews and top plays.

Another trend from NewFronts this year was niche OTT to complement existing programming. Refinery29 has announced plans to launch Channel29, an ad-supported niche OTT service aimed at millennial women. Condé Nast Entertainment is creating a dedicated OTT channel for Wired, which will launch later in 2018. Next year, OTT channels for Bon Appétit and GQ will follow.

Refinery29, Condé Nast Continue Niche OTT Trend With Separate Launches

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Refinery29 has announced plans to launch Channel29, an ad-supported niche OTT service aimed at millennial women.

Announced during the company’s Newfronts presentation on Wednesday, Channel29 will feature live and on-demand video that includes both live and on-demand programming with ties to ecommerce. Although free, the OTT service will be ad-supported, Refinery29 said. It will be available on connected TVs, smart TVs and the company’s digital platforms beginning in the fourth quarter of 2018.

In addition to its new OTT channel, Refinery29 will redesign its site to focus on “consumer action”—creating a funnel that offers original news, entertainment and lifestyle programming while promoting its ecommerce portal.

Niche OTT is a common theme at this year’s Newfronts. Condé Nast Entertainment is creating a dedicated OTT channel for Wired, which will launch later in 2018. Next year, OTT channels for Bon Appétit and GQ will follow. These new channels will be available for AppleTV, Roku and Amazon Fire.

“Our new OTT expansion is significant because it brings the quality of Condé Nast to next-gen consumers on new platforms, and in new ways,” Pamela Drucker Mann, chief revenue and marketing officer of Condé Nast said in a statement.

Like Refinery29, Condé Nast Entertainment is using OTT to include entertainment as part of the buyer’s journey. An internal study found that 69 percent of respondents take a purchase-related action after seeing a product featured in a Condé Nast brand. The company did not specify how advertisements would be integrated into its new OTT offerings and declined to comment to AListDaily requests for more information.

Exactly how ads are integrated within niche OTTs is still a topic of much discussion.

In an interview with AListDaily in April, Tosca Musk—co-founder of niche OTT PassionFlix—highlighted the annoyance of mid-roll ads for many viewers, “I find it annoying and I lose sight of the story. If I’m paying for something, I really don’t want ads, I don’t care how much I’m paying.” But, she also noted, “advertising is necessary. It offsets the costs dramatically on a film and it allows you to do so much more… There’s a definite need to have those conversations [with brands] but we all need to work together to create great content and get brands that work for that specific audience out there.”

TiVo, ANA: #SeeHer Ads Improve Sales When Paired With Gender-Equal Programming

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Portraying women fairly in advertising is directly correlated with improved sales performance according to new research. Debuting a system called GEMfit, the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) #SeeHer Movement and TiVo found quantitative evidence that gender-parity ads enjoyed an increased return on investment.

“The foundation of the #SeeHer Movement is data. Our research consistently proves that consumers reward the marketers who create advertising and support programming that accurately portrays women and girls,” said Stephen Quinn, chairperson of #SeeHer.

GEMfit, or Gender Equality Measure fit, is based on an ANA metric that quantitatively scores media based on on how accurately it portrays women. The “fit” aspect comes from placing high-scoring ads next to high-scoring programming.

“The research showed that ads with a high GEM score generated double-digit incremental sales per rating point post ad exposure, when they’re aired on shows that also have a high GEM score,” the organization declared in a statement.

To gather these results, TiVo used its set-top box viewership measurement and shopper loyalty cards to aggregate data from over 2 million US households. To provide GEM measurement figures to the viewer researcher, the ANA partnered with Advertising Benchmark Index.

“Our analysis demonstrated that, when you have good GEMfit, both women and men respond positively, with an uptick in purchasing behavior,” said Walt Horstman, senior vice president and general manager of advanced media and advertising for TiVo. “The accurate portrayal of women and girls in media needs to happen in both advertising and programming content to see effective sales lift.”

AT&T has already pledged to achieve completely gender bias-free advertising by the end of 2018, and Fiona Carter, the company’s chief brand officer, indicated interest in placing unbiased ads with the proper, unbiased, media context.

Additionally, the #SeeHer movement has announced plans to release its GEMfit findings to support brands hoping to improve their ROI and cultural impact.

“We are creating a portfolio of research solutions using our GEM scores as the foundation for advanced performance evaluation,” added Shelley Zalis, CEO of The Female Quotient. “GEMfit is a great tool for contextual planning.”

Trader Joe’s Joins Branded Podcast Caravan With “Inside Trader Joe’s”

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How did Trader Joe’s become a national chain of 475 different grocery stores? “By being comfortable being different,” the company writes in its announcement of its Inside Trader Joe’s podcast series, adding its name to the long, long list of branded podcast creators out there.

“For the first time, our Captains (store managers) and Crew Members (employees) are taking you Inside Trader Joe’s in a new 5-part series,” the company’s announcement reads.

Inside Trader Joe’s was released in full on the company’s website and across multiple podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play and Stitcher. The company declined to comment on how it planned to promote the content or measure its success, though Apple’s recently released podcast analytics tool will likely give the brand the tools to determine if it’s meeting audience expectations.

“Inside Trader Joe’s has allowed us the air—literally—to delve a little deeper into our story and to answer the questions our customers have asked of us, in our own fun and interesting way,” said a Trader Joe’s spokesperson in a statement. “It’s a good start to a conversation we hope to continue.”

For the most part, the podcast purports to educate consumers on the Trader Joe’s brand message, such as whether it plans to sell products online (it doesn’t) and what it takes to get Trader Joe’s to open a new location in a consumer’s neighborhood (asking them). Additionally, Inside Trader Joe’s promises to expose its audience to never-before-heard stories (they once almost went out of business), and its plans for the future (growth).

Though the podcast series is currently limited to five episodes, the retailer hopes that they will have reason to make more.

“We have many more stories to tell,” a Trader Joe’s spokesperson told AListDaily. “So yes, we are interested in producing more episodes.”

Mobile Will Drive Growth Of $137.9B Global Games Market In 2018

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Newzoo released its quarterly update of its Global Games Market Report on Monday, forecasting that 2.3 billion gamers will spend $137.9 billion on video games this year, a majority of which comes from the mobile sector.

Global games market revenue will increase 13.3 percent from the year before, or $16.2 billion. At $125.3 billion, digital game revenues will take 91 percent of the global market. Consumer spending on games will grow to $180.1 billion by 2021, a CAGR of 10.3 percent between 2017 and 2021.

Mobile Gaming On The Move

Mobile gaming will be a $100 billion market by the year 2021, according to predictions by Newzoo but the meantime will fetch $70.3 billion in 2018—51 percent of total industry revenues. This is the first time mobile gaming has accounted for more than half of all game revenues—no small feat, considering that mobile gaming was the smallest segment in 2012.

Smartphones will account for 80 percent of this of mobile game revenue this year at $56.4 billion, with the remaining 20 percent coming from tablets. Mobile game revenue growth will outpace the overall games market, growing to $106.4 billion in 2021. By that time, smartphone and tablet games combined will generate 59 percent of revenues in the entire market.

Newzoo attributes growth in the mobile market to several factors, including the growing number of users—particularly in Asia—as well as an increased spending per player in “mature” mobile markets such as the US, Japan and to a lesser extent, China.

“The rise of competitive gaming on mobile is another contributing factor, as there are types of games which players often spend more on,” Newzoo market consultant Tom Wijman told AListDaily. “By becoming more immersive and ‘core,’ games are drawing in more of the traditional gaming audience found on PC and console, who are used to spending on games.”

Despite the impressive growth mobile gaming has not significantly cannibalized revenues from other platforms like PC or console, Newzoo observed.

Competitive Console

Console gaming is the second-largest segment generating $34.6 billion in 2018—a quarter of global revenues. Newzoo predicts that the console segment will grow to $39.0 billion in 2021 with a CAGR of 4.1 percent.

Newzoo says it sees further room for growth in the console segment if publishers continue to improve in-game spending options while retaining the upfront price point, such as loot boxes in Star Wars: Battlefront II, Destiny 2 and Shadow of Mordor.

“While some of these games did get public backlash for implementing these [monetization] strategies, the issues were mostly related to how they were implemented rather than that they were at all,” said Wijman. “We expect that publishers will continue to experiment with in-game monetization while keeping that same purchase price and, ultimately, finding a way to do so without upsetting their fanbase. We’re likely to see more optional cosmetic spending along with the season passes on a (semi) annual basis whereby more significant content will be added to the game, which will be more costly (~$40).”

The company also sees livestreaming and esports being fully embraced by the console segment by 2021, further driving player engagement.

PC Keeps A Slow Pace

In 2018, PC games will bring in $32.9 billion, or 24 percent of total market share, the smallest gaming segment. The total PC gaming market will grow at a CAGR of 1.8 percent between 2017 and 2021, Newzoo predicts, as the continued shift from browser PC to mobile games cuts revenues from the browser segment in half.

While PC gaming is expected to grow over the next few years, it will be at a modest rate of 1.8 percent CAGR through 2021.

“We believe that some of the most popular [PC] titles are already operating at close to their full monetization potential and, at the same time, are unlikely to be displaced by new games soon,” explained Newzoo. “In addition, average prices for pay-to-play PC games have been declining in recent years, putting downward pressure on the segment’s overall revenue growth.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated to include analyst commentary received after publishing time.