Smart speakers aren’t just the latest fancy home appliance—they’re changing the ways in which American consumers behave and even think. In a keynote address at Advertising Week today, Tom Webster, Edison Research’s vice president of strategy, revealed just how significant of an effect Amazon Echo and Google Home have on their users.
According to their study, which surveyed 1,620 American households, 40 percent of smart-speaker owners reported that the device had a major impact on their lives and 42 percent claimed to have purchased multiple. Edison’s interviews revealed that users find themselves listening to significantly more audio content, from music to podcasts to audiobooks.
Though this rise in audio consumption cannibalizes from radio, interviews showed that smart speakers most frequently replaced mobile device usage. Some respondents even reported choosing audio content over television.
Twenty-eight percent of respondents said their smart speaker drove them to pay for a music subscription service, and several interviewees reported switching from Spotify to Amazon Prime because of their speaker.
Families with children were the most affected by their smart speakers, with 42 percent reporting that they found the device “essential.” One person that Edison interviewed referred to his Echo as his “girlfriend when the wife isn’t around.”
“At a minimum, we can say that these devices have become companions, if not full-ranking members of the household,” Webster stated.
Webster described the experience of using a smart speaker as strange but familiar, and referenced Star Trek not once, but twice to explain how pervasive the Zero UI experience has been in America’s cultural lexicon.
Their research confirmed his claims. While young people remain the fastest adopters, with people 35 and younger comprising 52 percent of the heaviest users, the ease of use of these devices meant that 27 percent of medium-heavy owners—ones who regularly use their smart speakers for six to ten different tasks—were 55 and older.
However, not everyone is pleased with the current state of voice-controlled devices. Of the 820 survey respondents who did not own smart speakers, the top five reasons for not purchasing one were all related to privacy. Even more concerning, 63 percent reported wariness over government surveillance from the always-on listening devices. Webster himself admitted to fearing the possibility of someone shouting into his apartment and fraudulently ordering a herd of cattle.
Overall, the explosive growth of smart speakers offers major potential for marketers. Sixty-five percent of survey respondents claimed to have used one to place an item in their shopping cart, and 58 percent have bought an item they had never purchased before.
Citing Star Trek again, Webster described using Zero UI technology as strange but familiar and anticipated the devices as heralding the dawn of the science fiction era he grew up expecting.
For women, marketing is still in the same place as it was twelve years ago. In a panel discussion at Advertising Week, Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, discussed comprehensive research on biased representation in advertising.
Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
Using the Geena Davis Inclusion Quotient (GD-IQ) tool, Di Nonno’s research compiled data from the last twelve years of Cannes winners and shortlists to build a picture of how men and women appeared differently in TV ads. They found that little had improved in over a decade.
“It revealed a level of unconscious bias we didn’t think was possible,” said Di Nonno.
According to their findings, women are still underrepresented in advertising. Additionally, twice as many men as women appeared in TV ads, enjoyed four times as much screen time and spoke three times more dialogue.
Beyond simple inclusion, the Geena Davis Institute’s research revealed heavy disparities between women and men in the types of roles they portrayed. Only 20 percent of female characters in the studied ads were shown to be employed, and 48 percent appeared in kitchens.
Di Nonno argued that this issue has implications beyond the actors starring in commercials. Stating that 58 percent of women reported that they would be inspired to be more ambitious if they saw more women in power, she made the point that advertising, like conventional media, shapes the way young women choose careers and life goals.
And beyond societal goals for equal representation, Di Nonno posited that infantilizing women in modern advertising diminishes an ad’s effectiveness. Women in their 20s are the most represented in television ads, yet it is women in their 50s who make the majority of a family’s purchasing decisions.
Brands should strive to equalize the playing field, Di Nonno argued, and recent research supports her point: Facebook found that promoting gender equality increased customer loyalty by 48 percent.
Editor’s Note: Madeline Di Nonno will be speaking at the October 26 AList Sessions event.
The highly anticipated Total War: Warhammer II—the second game in an epic trilogy that combines the deep strategy of the Total War series with the fantasy world of the Warhammer franchise—was released on Thursday. In the tradition of both franchises, the launch was marked by plenty of blood and chaos on the field of battle.
Sega and English game developer Creative Assembly hosted a pre-launch livestream event the night before at the Mixer Studio, located at the flagship Microsoft Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Eight of the best Warhammer players—four in-studio, four online—assembled to compete live in a broadcast studio designed for competitive gaming.
Al Bickham, communications manager at Creative Assembly
According to Al Bickham, communications manager at Creative Assembly, Mixer Studio are big Warhammer fans, and they reached out to Sega to coordinate a pre-launch broadcast. This gave Creative Assembly a chance to show off its revised free-for-all multiplayer mode, where four players battle each other simultaneously in chaotic combat using swords, spells, dragons and dinosaurs.
James Given, Creative Assembly’s outreach and community development manager, introduced the tournament as “absolute chaos in a bottle” during the broadcast. He wasn’t kidding. Player Indypride (@milkandcookiesTW) took home the trophy in an upset victory, where he launched a sneak attack on two players locked in battle using an army of rats.
Just as the game is the perfect hybrid of two franchises, the pre-launch event simultaneously promoted two brands. While the broadcast mainly promoted the launch of Warhammer II, it also served to showcase Mixer Studio’s capabilities.
“It’s got all the equipment and infrastructure you need to do something of this scale,” Bickham said. “More importantly, there’s an awesome team behind it. Combined, they have hundreds of years of broadcast experience, and these things are complex. There are loads of stages and interstitial sweeps of graphics. They’ve put together a tremendous production from start to finish.”
Given added that the location, which was a few blocks away from Central Park, made the Mixer Studio the ideal place to hold an event. But he also agreed that being in a studio that’s purpose-built for livestreaming made a huge difference.
“Other studios that do online broadcasting are kind of a hodgepodge—they weren’t built for this sort of thing, but grew into it,” Given said. “Just getting in and out has been absolutely easy, and when you put together a broadcast like that, anything that looks easy is usually not and was paid for with a lot of blood, tears and long hours.”
Given also said that what set Mixer apart from other livestreaming platforms such as Twitch or YouTube is its interactive features, including a chat and multiple-choice trivia question showing real-time results. Given continued that Mixer, being a newer platform, was pushing the boundaries of interaction, while more established platforms were refining their approaches.
James Given, Creative Assembly’s outreach and community development manager
“The interaction is the key thing on Mixer,” said Given. “Audience interaction is a key thing that other platforms are pushing for but haven’t quite reached the same level. That’s something that Mixer has over everyone else.”
Leading up to the event, Bickham said that Creative Assembly reached out to its fans through social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, while community managers engaged with fans on the Total War subreddit and other channels.
Given, who helped assemble the players for the tournament, emphasized working with influencers. Fans wanted to see these personalities battle it out and crown the best, and using influencers and social media to inform audiences about the event through word-of-mouth was critical.
However, Given added that influencers weren’t simply chosen because of their large followings. For example, Indypride probably has one of the smallest channels of the group, but he made a name for himself by offering deep analysis of Warhammer multiplayer videos.
“When you work in a studio, you’re looking for that top quality content,” said Given, referring to the players. “Something that will engage fans and looks flashy and hits all the selling points. That’s something [Indypride] did very well, and a lot of these guys are big personalities on Twitch.”
These players include BurkBlack, who describes himself as “The Pirate of Twitch” and dresses the part with the addition of a steel gauntlet. Given said that the inclusion of the Warhammer fantasy brand brought new personalities and streamers to the Total War community.
“Warhammer has opened a lot of doors for us,” Given explained. “We make historical strategy games, and a lot of people love history, but they might not like all types of history. Some might not like it at all. But when fantasy comes into it, it opens that door and loads of people want to jump in and play. Total War: Warhammer I and II have opened the way for a lot of people to stream us—people who we haven’t been in contact with before.”
As exciting as multiplayer matches can be, Given believes that the single-player campaign may be one of the most attractive aspects for influencers because of its narrative structure. He talked about how one steamer dressed up as a rat and role-played while playing the entire Warhammer I campaign on the hardest difficulty. Another used the High Elf faction as the way he believed an actual High Elf would play. The single-player campaign, with its multiple objectives and somewhat predictable pacing, make it possible for more entertaining experiences.
“All of these things mean it’s very watchable for audiences,” said Given. “In some cases, things happen that throw them off completely, and then they get advice from chat on what to do. But you should never do what chat says, because they’re always wrong.”
🔴 Live now! Tune in for our pre-launch party! Interviews and battles and more! #MicrosoftNYC
Although fantasy has opened many doors for Creative Assembly, it did come with its share of challenges—especially when considering how the Warhammer universe has a large variety of races and factions, accompanied by a ton of lore that newcomers might find intimidating. To underscore the point, Bickham went into detail about the new Skaven faction—a race of ruthless humanoid rats—in an interview before the tournament.
“You’ve got a dual problem to solve,” said Bickham. “One is that [Total War] is a relatively complex and deep real-time strategy game. The other is that we’re dealing with a whole universe of characters, monsters and different races. So, we try to roll that out by doing a lot more storytelling in Warhammer II than we did in the first game. Each race that you play has its own series of cut scenes and introduction videos to show the races and characters, along with the character of the races.”
Meanwhile, Creative Assembly worked with the UK-based research company Player Research and used biometrics to improve the game’s tutorial and make it more approachable to new players.
Bickham said that Total War: Warhammer II will release its first free update in just a few weeks, which will engage players as the studio continues to grow the world and build toward the third part of the trilogy. Their goal: to combine all parts to make the biggest strategy game in the world.
Less than a year and a half removed from retirement and playing in his last basketball game, five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant is again leading a team and building a winner—only this time, instead of on the hardwood, it’s as a storyteller on the screen.
The Los Angeles Lakers icon has produced the animated short Dear Basketball, a five-minute-and-22-second-long film that is based on his painfully honest poem that doubled as his official retirement from the sport in 2015. According to Hollywood critics, it appears that the film is building considerable buzz as a formidable contender for the Academy Awards.
“To sit here right now, to even hear you say that the film is even being considered for an Oscar nom, that’s crazy,” Bryant said at the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org conference on Wednesday in Los Angeles. “I’m winning championships. That’s what I dream of. That’s beyond any realm of any dream whatsoever.”
Bryant recruited two other industry stalwarts—veteran Disney animator Glen Keane and composer John Williams—to his Newport Beach-based, animation-devoted Granity Studios to make the piece, which he narrates. “Granity” is a word Bryant created from the combination of the phrase “greater than infinity.” The studio is developing a multitude of stories outlined by the Hall of Fame-bound player for a variety of media.
The short, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and was performed live by Bryant and Williams at the Hollywood Bowl earlier this month, is just one part of Bryant’s newfound career calling. Storytelling is a strong part of the second act of his career, which incorporates being the CEO of Kobe Inc. and a general partner of Bryant Stibel—a $100 million investment fund that includes sports media website The Players Tribune and video game designer Scopely, among other start-ups.
“I just love what I do with the stories we are trying to build and create,” Bryant said. “That’s what keeps me going. That’s what keeps me up at night. That’s what wakes me up in the morning. How do you inspire a person to inspire a person that inspires another person that creates something that’s truly timeless?”
Aside from 4 a.m. workouts, Bryant’s workload these days is devoid of basketball and strictly revolves around his businesses and slate of stories—including endless editing for the eight novels he’s concurrently working on.
Bryant went on to talk about a variety of topics, including swimming with sharks while working with Nike on campaigns as well as building a brand. Below are the rest of the highlights, as told by Bryant himself.
.@kobebryant‘s mornings still start at 4 am with a morning workout. And then he heads to the office to edit the eight novels he’s working on pic.twitter.com/UyUKttkEkj
“I love stories. I love everything about it. I love framing it. I love plotting it and writing compelling characters. I love stories about hard work and dedication. Beyond that, I love the reaction from children once they read the stories. The a-ha moment, because it’s different for every child and how they interpret the meanings.”
On reinventing himself:
“It’s really, really hard to break away from what was, especially when you loved it. But you’re not fully breaking away from it. You’re taking lessons that were learned and carrying it forward. If you look at it from that perspective, it makes it a lot easier to discard what was and then focus on what’s to come. That’s what I’ve tried to do. Just go. You don’t have all the answers, but you’ll figure it out as you go.”
On learning new leadership skills as an entrepreneur:
“It’s a little different. In sports, you’re constantly driving people all the time. It’s an immediate thing. Business is a slower process. We have to figure out ways to keep the flame and curiosity burning on a consistent basis for longer stretches of time for projects like films and novels.”
On his favorite book, and one story he would recommend reading to others:
“We’re a Harry Potter household. That’s our favorite. We completely geek out on it. There are divisions within the house where we are in characters like Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff . . . You have to read the Game of Thrones books. The show is amazing, but the books are even better. It’s on another level. I mean—insane.”
On what he’s learned most from investors:
“Patience. Paying attention to the details. That’s always the key. Things just don’t happen by accident. You have to look at the source of things and understand why they occur . . . Investing can be really complex. You sit in a room and hear all of these complex ideas—it can give you a headache . . . I heard the best description for being an entrepreneur is like you’re jumping off of a building and you’re trying to build a plane while you’re on your way down.”
On one technology that he is most excited about:
“The storytelling possibilities and what you can do with AR is pretty interesting. The experiences that you can create, and try to actually build a story centered around the now is exciting and I want to see where it goes.”
On building his brand on social media, and digitally:
“I was always reluctant to get on social media because I figured I’d probably get in trouble. I’m a natural smart ass. I think the most important thing is to be who you are, and understand that who you are can impact others. If you can find the common thread with who you naturally are and find that common thread with a greater message as a whole, then it becomes easier for people to understand who you are, and relate to you.”
On the basketball players that inspired him:
“As a kid I had so many of them, and often for different reasons because they did so many things. Michael Jordan for his competitive drive and spirit. Magic Johnson for his vision and ability to bring other guys along in a seamless manner. Larry Bird because he was just so stone cold and nasty.”
Kobe Bryant on cage diving with great white sharks with Nike designer Evan Avar. pic.twitter.com/NiliGzyHri
On what he learned collaborating with Nike for marketing and advertising campaigns throughout his career:
“When I first arrived at Nike, I felt like Harry Potter when he first arrived at Hogwarts. I was surrounded by sports geeks and engineers that cared nothing more than about every inch and every detail about the products. I was right at home. The reason why I cared so much [about my shoes] is because that was a direct correlation to how I played. It helped me as a player, therefore I must take care of every single thing. That’s why I approached it with that much care. I actually swam with great white sharks with Nike shoe designer Eric Avar when we were designing the shoe. We do all kinds of weird stuff. Once I retired from the game, and started making decisions that were somewhat uncomfortable for me, I called Nike president and CEO Mark Parker for advice and he walked me through his process. I looked at his temperament from the leadership position and not trying to lead with what you’re doing, but doing the best you can to serve. The most important thing about leadership is to serve—don’t lead. ‘How can you help others reach their full potential?’”
On how to be successful:
“Just get better a little bit every day, that’s all. There’s no secret formula, or secret sauce. At the end of the day, look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘did I get better today?’”
In a star-studded sequel to their Uncomfortable Conversation panel in March, The Marketing Society gave four marketing executives from some of the world’s largest brands a platform to share what in today’s marketplace is giving them pause.
Digital
Jason Chebib, vice president of consumer planning for Diageo, opened the discussion by confessing to feeling “intuitive repulsion” when he hears marketers talk about the power of digital. “Something isn’t right. Digital isn’t building brands,” he said.
In a five-minute speech, Chebib accused the industry of tunnel vision and pointed out that highly personalized ads remove the powerful motivating force of social pressure.
“The problems arose from marketers looking to digital to make up for the shortcomings of TV,” he added, before being cut off by The Marketing Society’s strict five-minute time limit for opening remarks.
Angela Ceccarelli, vice president of marketing at HSBC, picked up the same thread about the all-encompassing spread of online marketing: “Digital is not itself a channel anymore. It’s our day to day,” she said.
Ceccarelli also addressed the limitations of information gathering. “We sit on reams of data that should help us build intimacy, but that breeds unfamiliarity,” she said. “We don’t know [consumers] as well as we think we know them.”
Samsung’s vice president of marketing excellence, Michelle Froah, also commented on the subject, stating that data is useless without insight. “Sometimes I think we wouldn’t know a true insight until a herd of elephants stampedes us,” she said, referring to The Marketing Society’s “elephant in the room” theme for the talk. “It’s a chief marketing scientist that we need.”
“An insight stops being an insight once you reveal it. It just becomes the truth,” Chebib pointed out.
Control
IBM’s chief marketing officer for North America, Rashmy Chatterjee, talked about her concerns over the position of CMO in the future, claiming that marketers have steadily held less control over their own brand images—a trend she expects to continue down the line.
As marketing strategies become more complicated, it becomes much easier for them to fail. “IT’s the weakest link that defines the outcome,” Chatterjee said. “What’s the point of great campaigns if you can’t guarantee user experience?”
Chatterjee emphasized the importance of advocates for maintaining brand equity, a viewpoint echoed by Michelle Froah. “Our loyalists were able to accept our setbacks as long as their loyalty was recognized,” she said.
According to Ceccarelli, loyalists should be the ones telling brands’ stories. “We don’t need to be directors,” she pointed out. “Our challenge today is not so much storytelling, but ‘story doing.'”
Technology Experience, a.k.a. TechX, is new to Advertising Week this year. The gallery experience, presented by VentureFuel and Experiential Advertising Group, is located at the heart of Times Square and showcases some of the biggest technological innovations that advertisers and marketers should be keeping an eye on, including virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and holograms.
Allie Feinstein, director of innovation and brand strategy at VentureFuel.
VNTANA is showing a life-sized hologram projector at the event, and with it, attendees can interact with characters, sports celebrities or speak to someone via a livestream as though they were in the room. The potential for this kind of location-based technology becomes even more apparent when seen alongside innovations in artificial intelligence that respond to people’s verbal responses, or seemingly straightforward technologies, like targeted speakers that can cut through environmental noise so that users can clearly hear content even when in a crowd, or amid noisy traffic at a bus stop.
“Categories such as VR, AR, MR and AI are rapidly growing,” Allie Feinstein, director of innovation and brand strategy at VentureFuel, told AListDaily. “Advertising is becoming more personalized, allowing advertisers to truly connect one-to-one. Whether that be through an immersive, engaging augmented reality experience, as illustrated by companies like Guru or 8i, or with AI, companies like Throtle and IRIS.TV, that leverage data to better understand the consumer and connect with them in a relevant manner.”
Video game developer DreamSail was at the TechX showcase to demonstrate Iota, its upcoming mechanized robot game where players blast giant bots, drones and destroy buildings in VR. The developer was also showing a greenscreen cube, where users could place themselves into virtual worlds for livestreams and other content—essentially combining virtual and augmented reality.
Feinstein thinks mass adoption for AR may be coming soon, especially with Apple, Google, and Facebook backing it.
“We’re already used to throwing up rainbows or donning puppy dog ears [on social media],” she said. “ARKit, ARCore and AR Studio will only further open up the window of opportunity to develop more content, which promises to engage consumers and, in turn, brands.”
But even with AR seemingly on the rise, VR still has a prominent standing among brands, especially in the movie industry. The only question is whether they should develop experiences for pricey premium headsets such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, or focus on the accessibility of mobile devices like the Samsung Gear VR.
“It depends on the strategy,” said Feinstein, who explained VR experiences can be powerful and meaningful in an event setting and mobile VR—broadly including 360 video—lends itself to more reach. “With consumer adoption of VR headsets being slower than expected, brands are more hesitant to invest in content creation for experiences that require a headset, however, it really depends on the story they are trying to tell. The bigger opportunity at the moment will likely be mobile AR.”
On that topic, mobile AR experiences that placed users next to exotic animals such as tigers for videos and photos can be seen at TechX alongside the VNTANA hologram projector, which begs comparison. Although the hologram projector is impressive, with users able to throw virtual tennis balls for athletes like Roger Federer to hit, it is limited to location-based experiences. Similar to VR, marketers may have to balance between the impact of a physical event and the accessibility of a digital campaign.
A TechX visitor immerses themselves in VR. Via AdWeek.
“It’s interesting that we’ve seen growth of digital in tandem with physical experience,” said Feinstein. “Experience is the currency of the younger generation, but if it isn’t shared, it’s like it didn’t happen. So, I don’t think it’s about digital vs. physical, but instead technology evolving the entire consumer journey and brands embracing these trends to stay relevant.”
Although Iota was the only actual video game at TechX, it’s hard to overlook how technology is increasingly blurring the line between marketing and games. Feinstein shared her thoughts on the defining line by stating that it all comes back to relevance.
“There has to be a relevant connection between the experience and what the brand is trying to say,” she explained. “Say you’re playing a mech game from DreamSail, as giant robot walking through the city. You may spot a Coca-Cola billboard on the street as you might in real life and maybe there’s a gamification element where Coke fuels your robot. It’s all about story, context and relevance.”
Feinstein also said that word-of-mouth is the best form of advertising because it’s relevant and authentic. “When your friend recommends a product, you don’t consider it advertising. In the same way, advertising as content is powerful when it’s relevant and authentic,” said Feinstein.
All the technologies shown at TechX are evolving and iterating on a daily basis, Feinstein said.
“Brands need to stay on top of all of the different ways they can create experiences, make their messaging more personalized and be more efficient,” said Feinstein. “It can be overwhelming, which is why VentureFuel is dedicated to custom technology solutions for brands and agencies.”
With more than 50 events on the first day alone, Advertising Week 2017 has a lot going on: you’d need 67 hours to see all of the day-one talks. To save you some time, we’re breaking down the biggest topics on the first day.
China
The swiftly-growing Chinese market featured prominently on day one of Advertising Week, with Tencent hosting two panel discussions on the market. The first, entitled The Same? But Different! How Content and Technology Are Transforming Business In China, discussed the key differences between American and Chinese consumers. The talk primarily centered around the vast difference between the heavily regulated television and laissez-faire Internet content spaces.
Steven Chang, corporate vice president at Tencent, put forward the need for more standardized data systems between different digital platforms.
The Chinese market seems to be a major theme of this year’s Advertising Week, and there are several talks on the subject on Tuesday.
Advertising Week itself commented on diversity, revealing an ad campaign featuring a “multicultural” composite hand.
HP started the conversation off, releasing its report card for the diversity challenge it issued last year. The results: 61 percent of the computer company’s worldwide agency partners have female team members, and 51 percent have at least one woman in a senior position. During one presentation, HP CMO Antonio Lucio said the company’s next goal is to increase racial-minority representation in the workplace.
The CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion panel spoke along similar lines. “I think our industry is making strides with women,” said Michael Roth, CEO of Interpublic Group, “but we were going nowhere with women of color and people of color.”
Keith Cartwright, Saturday Morning’s executive creative director, pointed out that the problem isn’t just with hiring, but giving people of color the same opportunities for mentoring and promotion.
But it takes more than just calling out bad actors. “We need to celebrate the good companies that are doing it well,” Cartwright added, citing McDonalds and the University of Chicago as companies acting well.
Representation of women needs a lot of work, too, as the panel The Truth About Gender Bias in Ads in 2017 revealed. Citing the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, they discussed how women are still massively underrepresented in ads, and when present are forced into highly stereotyped roles (i.e. in the kitchen or as sexual objects). The institute’s research analyzed 12 years of Cannes winners and shortlists and found that there was almost no difference in representation between 2006 and 2017.
Data, AI and Automation
With a total of 15 talks on the subject, information and technology proved to be the largest subject of conversation on day one. The general consensus: the industry still has quite a way to go.
Keith Weed, chief marketing and communications officer at Unilever, stridently urged for better practices: “There’s a sea of content out there, and we’ve all developed these marvelous bullshit filters,” he said.
Accountability was another hot-button issue, with Weed being just one of many speakers to hold companies like Facebook and Google responsible for content they host.
While some panelists predicted doom for the industry, the consensus seemed to be that AI still isn’t a threat to the creative arms of the advertising industry. Yin Rani, Campbell’s vice president of integrated marketing, summed it up: “Machines are still kind of dumb these days.”
There are still four more days of Advertising Week left to go: check back here tomorrow for more features and round-ups.
Star Trek: Discovery made its TV debut on Sunday, bringing the voyages of Starfleet exclusively to CBS Access. Set roughly a decade before the events of the original series, the show is the first to be developed specifically for CBS’s subscription OTT service. For those outside of the US, Star Trek: Discovery is also being streamed through Netflix.
It has been 50 years since the world was first introduced to the Star Ship Enterprise, and more than a decade since the last episode aired of Star Trek: Enterprise. To celebrate the momentous occasion, CBS created a marketing campaign that celebrates the legacy of Star Trek with a modern approach.
“From the beginning, the franchise has been on the forefront of representation, and Star Trek: Discovery is no different,” CBS says on its site. “Featuring a woman of color in the lead role and the first gay couple in Star Trek TV history, the new show fully embraces and expands on its predecessors’ ideology of progress and harmony.”
Much of Star Trek‘sscience fiction has now become science fact. It’s fitting, then, that a Star Trek promotion would take shape on one of the most high-tech consumer products today.
Amazon Alexa now has an official Star Trek skill that offers three daily trivia questions, snippets of interviews and sneak peaks behind the scenes of Star Trek: Discovery.
Alexa is also offering a new feature that lets you change your Echo’s wake word to “computer”—just like the onboard computers on Federation starships. Consumers can also try out different sayings to prompt Star Trek-themed responses from the AI assistant, such as “Alexa, red alert,” “Alexa, beam me up,” “Alexa, what is your mission?” and “Alexa, revenge is a dish best served cold.”
We may not have a real holodeck yet, but augmented reality is pretty cool, too. A new Snapchat Lens is available that transports users onto Star Trek: Discovery backgrounds to share with friends.
Discovery is the name of the Starfleet ship on the new series, but before any details were unveiled about its design, CBS released an interactive 360-degree video. The media takes audiences on a fly-by of iconic Star Trek ships NX Enterprise (Star Trek: Enterprise), the NCC-1701 Enterprise (Star Trek: The Original Series) and the Enterprise D (Star Trek: The Next Generation.)
Of course, it wouldn’t be Star Trek without new worlds and civilizations. CBS is introducing a new alien race to the franchise called Kelpiens. One of the Kelpiens, Lieutenant Saru, is portrayed by veteran actor Doug Jones (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth). Even the Klingons—who have been a key part of the franchise since the very beginning—have a new look for Star Trek: Discovery.
To assure fans that the development team is respecting the show’s legacy, CBS has provided a number of behind the scenes looks into the costumes, characters, props and more.
CBS is using Star Trek: Discovery as a vehicle for its OTT service, offering not only the show but add-ons as well to those who subscribe. Subscribers will have access to every episode of Star Trek: Discovery across multiple devices and be able to watch all past iterations of the TV property, including the animated series.
Episodes of the companion after-show After Trek become available on CBS All-Access following each new episode of Star Trek: Discovery, where new plot twists and fan theories are discussed with members of the cast and crew.
When games focus on promoting through music, they can create engaging experiences for fans. For artists and music labels, the $108 billion video game industry provides collaboration and exposure.
“In recent years, the video game industry has been the fastest growing area of the entertainment business, and music is a major part of many of these games,” Todd Brabec, ASCAP executive VP of membership wrote, “For songwriters, recording artists (new or old), film and television composers, music publishers and record companies, the video game industry represents a new and valuable source of income.”
Brabec is correct—music is such a major part of video games that Electronic Arts (EA) co-founded Next Level LLC. This partnership allows EA to sign and develop musical talent while gaining access to existing music libraries. Ubisoft penned a similar deal with Audiogram last year.
Aside from royalties—which the music industry takes very seriously—video games attract the attention of A-list actors and top industry musicians who are also fans.
For example, Swedish metal band Sabaton teamed up with Wargaming to create a music video for the hit song Primo Victoria. The band even drove a real, Sabaton-themed tank in the video–a replica of which became an in-game add-on. Fans at Gamescom were treated to a Sabaton concert.
Hip-hop artist, Kid Ink, teamed up with Bandai Namco this year for the Tekken 7 soundtrack. His original song “This Time It’s Personal” is a nod to the game’s tagline “The Best Fights Are Personal.”
For WWE 2K17, 2Kpartnered with Grammy-award-winning hip hop artist Sean “Diddy” Combs to curate the official soundtrack. The game’s music featured 13 songs from a variety of musical genres, including hip hop, indie and alternative rock, heavy metal and electronic dance. One such track is “Bad Boy For Life” by Combs himself as a tie-in to his Bad Boy 20-Year Family Reunion Tour.
Wu-Tang Clan rapper/producer, actor and video game fanatic RZA is working with Atari to create an original album inspired by the sounds of Atari game music.
“I’m so excited to work on these iconic games to deliver what I believe will be one of my best albums,” RZA said in a statement sent to Billboard. “I am going to invite some of my friends to join me and it will be ‘Game On’ with the first beat!”
DJ Zane Lowe became the face and voice of Activision’s DJ Hero, participating the game’s development and promoting through 25 live performances.
Musicians get involved with the game industry through other ways, as well. American band Avenged Sevenfold has an ongoing partnership with peripheral manufacturer Scuf to create their own console controller.
For the release of Medal of Honor, Linkin Park’s Joe Hahn directed a music video set to the band’s song, The Catalyst.
A mutual love of gaming and music can bring together some powerful combinations. From moving soundtracks to epic trailers, music is a vital part of the video game experience and so these partnerships will continue to thrive.
Dropping even lower than last year, the 2017 Emmy Awards hit an all-time low for Nielsen ratings among its primary demographic of adults ages 18-to-49.
According to Nielsen data, the industry gala captured 11.4 million viewers, barely above last year’s numbers of 11.3 million. Overnight ratings for the event dropped by 10 percent, from 2.7 to 2.5 among its key watchers—the lowest rating in the event’s history.
Magna has released its 2017 analysis, revealing a banner year for US ad revenue. The market grew by 3.6 percent this year, reaching an all-time high of $185 billion.
However, despite the record-setting revenue, industry growth is actually slowing down—2016’s figure was 5.9 percent. Analysts at Magna attribute this to increases in digital spending just barely compensating for shrinkage in TV advertising.
Marketers are shelling out for Instagram influencers during London Fashion Week, a survey by Rakuten Marketing has found.
Premium fashion brands report willingness to pay up to £93,000 for a single Instagram post, compared to the nationwide average of £60,000. The research found that these brands intend to spend an average of 40 percent of their budgets on influencers this year.
“Influencers are famous at Fashion Week, attracting lots of attention from the media and across social,” said James Collins, senior vice president and managing director for Rakuten. “However, fashion marketers have become dependent on these influencers without measuring their impact fully and many don’t have a proper understanding of what they help them to achieve from a sales perspective.”
Smaato has released a report on trends in mobile advertising, revealing that video has been the fastest-growing ad format this quarter. Spending on video ads is up 142 percent from Q1 2017, while native advertising grew only 50 percent. The largest growth in the format comes from rewarded video, where spending grew by 153 percent.
New analysis from Jumpshot reveals that Instagram has finally surpassed Snapchat in global share of new users, jumping up to 61 percent for the month of August. However, Snapchat still barely holds majority share in the US, dropping down to 52 percent of new enrollments.
A survey by Juniper Research has found that 40 percent of US iOS users do not intend to use facial recognition to authenticate payments, with 62 percent saying they preferred voice authorization instead. Security fears remains the reason, with one-third of those who don’t use contactless payment methods reporting it as their largest concern.
Millennials are the least likely to trust direct-mail advertising, according to a survey by MarketingSherpa. On average, millennial respondents reported mistrusting 30 percent of the ads they received in their physical inboxes, as compared to 23 and 20 for Gen X and baby boomers, respectively.
The fitness app market is experiencing massive gains, according to research by Flurry. Between 2014 and 2017, usage increased by 330 percent, with workout and weight loss apps accounting for 73 percent of user sessions. Fitness apps additionally trend toward frequent usage, with 75 percent of survey respondents opening their apps more than once per week, and 26 percent more than ten times per week.
The Nintendo Switch continues to outsell its competitors, according to sales figures by the NPD Group, as it has in four of the six months since its launch in March of this year. Overall, games hardware sales have increased this year by 17 percent from 2016, in large part due to Nintendo’s console offerings.
Bernstein Research has tracked a steep falloff in children’s TV watching, recording a 50 percent smaller audience in the last six years. In 2011, Nielsen registered 2.5 million daily viewers between the ages two and 11, which has dropped to 1.25 million in 2017.
“We don’t know the internal mechanics of the 50 percent decline—is it a function of the same number of kids watching, but only watching half as much—or have half of kids stopped watching linear TV altogether?” writes Todd Juenger, senior media analyst for Bernstein Research. “We strongly suspect it’s closer to the latter.”
(Editor’s note:This post will be updated until Friday, September 22. Got a tip? Let us know at editorial@ayzenberg.com)
