Global Ad Spending Forecast Shrinks; Engagement On Instagram Increasing Dramatically

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Zenith has lowered its global ad-spending forecast for 2017 and 2018, reducing their growth prediction from 4.2 percent to a flat 4 percent.

“Advertising expenditure grew ahead of the wider economy for the third consecutive year in 2016, but we expect it to fall behind over the next three years,” Zenith stated.

GroupM has also released a more conservative estimate, dropping their expected growth from 4.4 percent to just 3 percent.

User engagement with Instagram videos is growing faster than with photos, according data from NewsWhip, increasing 53 percent from 2016, as compared to 46 percent for photos.

This year saw a flattening of growth for mobile video consumption, per the Global Video Index. Additionally, long-form (20 minutes or more) video content now represents the most-consumed segment across all platforms, with mobile devices leading the trend.

“Much of that is due to the increasing amount of premium content that services are now making available to all devices,” the report notes, adding: “As longer content becomes more prevalent, an increasing number of users—across all demographics—are as comfortable watching longer form content on smaller screens as they are watching it on big screens. And they’re simply watching more content in general.”

Biometric technology will be fully integrated into the smartphone market in the near future, according to research by Acuity Market Intelligence. Their data reveals that by 2019, 100 percent of smartphones, 96 percent of wearables and 83 percent of tablets will integrate biometrics in some way. Acuity also predicts that all three categories will reach full saturation by 2020.

Consumers are not yet ready to rely on fingerprinting or facial recognition to replace current payment options. A survey by Paysafe found that 40 percent of consumers think biometric solutions are unsafe in their current state. This is not a death blow to payment innovation, however: 54 percent responded that they will not need to carry cash by 2020 and 57 percent reported that they use mobile wallets “much more” than they did two years ago.

Research by Forrester indicates that half of all online shopping goes through marketplaces like Amazon, Alibaba and eBay. Forrester further predicts this figure to rise to two-thirds in the next five years.

Millennials value sales associates much more than baby boomers, a study by ChargeItSpot found. Of the 600 shoppers surveyed, 66 percent of millennials found interaction with employees “extremely important,” while 22 percent of baby boomers claimed it was “extremely unimportant.”

PwC has released a new report on digital advertising toward children, forecasting the market to grow to $1.2 billion by 2019, accounting for 28 percent of all kid-directed advertising. The report attributes the rapid growth to shrinking TV watching among young children.

“Today kids are spending time on apps, games, online video, [streaming video on demand],” Dylan Collins, SuperAwesome’s CEO, told The Drum. “Virtually any free content producer (e.g., most game developers) survives by including ads in their games.”

Research by New Yes Lifestyle Marketing indicates that consumers are 50 percent more likely to open emails with a personalized subject line than one without. The report defined personalization as subject lines including the recipient’s name or a previously purchased or browsed item, and went on to state that only 2 percent of marketing emails include such personalization. Their report also concluded that subject lines shorter than 20 characters drive a 31 percent higher-than-average open rate.

Public relations firm MWW released a report on “corpsumers,” which it defined as consumers that value a company’s values, actions and reputations as much as its products. These brand activists make up 33 percent of the adult American population, and are more likely to be well-educated, high-income millennials or Gen Z. Of the corpsumers MWW identified, 89 percent claimed that they would share positive news about companies, and 79 percent reported they would share negative news.

The GSMA has released revenue projections for the IoT, and they are astronomical. According to their report, global earnings for the IoT will reach $1.8 trillion by 2026. Of that number, $534 billion is projected to come from the Americas region. Their research also predicts that mobile IoT networks will reach 862 million connections by 2022.

Podcast industry revenues will hit $220 million this year, according to PwC research, an 85 percent growth from last year. Income last year was a relatively modest $119 million.

Millennials are moving away from live TV, according to a study by the Consumer Technology Association, 55 percent of respondents reported a preference for self-recorded and on-demand TV, compared to 45 percent who enjoyed live broadcasts. This number drops off dramatically for those outside the age bracket, with only 35 percent of those 35-years-and-over preferring time-shifted content.

eMarketer has revised its predictions for the growth of cord-cutters in 2017, increasing the number from 15.4 million to 22.2 million. Additionally, it estimates that the amount of people who have never had a cable subscription will grow by 5.8 percent to 34.4 million.

As a result, eMarketer has lowered its estimate for US TV ad spending by more than $1 billion, from $72.72 to $71.65 billion for the 2017 fiscal year.

According to a new report by Deloitte, a full 80 percent of shoppers have researched grocery products online, accounting for 51 percent of all grocery purchases last year. Additionally, almost 30 percent of survey respondents claimed to trying products based on online recommendations and reviews.

Marketing technology accounts for 16 percent of marketing budgets this year, per market analysis by WARC. The market currently is currently worth $34.3 billion annually.

A new report by MMGY Global revealed that road trip-style vacations have increased by 77 percent from last year, and have jumped from 22 percent of all domestic travel in 2016 to 39 percent in 2017. Furthermore, expenditures during road trip travel have increased in the past year from $66 billion to $113 billion.

Jobs requiring social skills have been the least affected by automation, as found by a study in The Quarterly Journal of Economics. Between 1980 and 2012, jobs requiring high levels of social skills grew by 11.8 percent, while fields requiring high math and low social skills shrank by 3.3 percent over the same period.

Word-of-mouth influence is much more common among millennial men, a study by Engagement Labs found. Members of the demographic group have, on average, 12 brand-related conversations per day, as compared to 6 for men ages 40–69 and 10 for millennial women. The study also found that millennial men were 26 percent more likely to talk about ads they’d seen than millennial women.

The gulf between mobile and desktop searches is widening, according to a report by BrightEdge Research. Mobile devices and tablets accounted for 57 percent of all Google searches in 2017. The study also revealed that users’ search goals differ greatly across platforms: 79 percent of search queries ranked differently between mobile and desktop.

The National Retail Federation has lowered its sales forecast for the year, dropping their growth projection from 3.7–4.2 to 3.2–3.8 percent. The prediction applies only to retail stores, excluding car, gas station and restaurant sales from the figure.

MediaRadar has released a new report on digital video ads, revealing that 60 percent of sites autoplay the majority of their video ads, despite recent efforts by Google to punish sites that use the tactic.

Reports by Journalist’s Resource that streaming services don’t actually combat piracy: college students that stream music are 11.4 percent more likely to illegally download music. The largest factors impacting the results are beliefs that the practice is not risky and that it does not harm the original artist. Demographic factors such as gender, income and college major had no significance on piracy rates.

 

‘Best Fiends’ Animated Shorts Boost Emotional Engagement For Games

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The relationship between games and animated films and videos has always had a close relationship, and animated shorts have proved to be an incredibly effective way to engage fans with their favorite game characters, as evidenced by Blizzard’s Overwatch shorts.

Mobile game developer Seriously, which makes the Best Fiends puzzle game series, has taken advantage of that trend and released two original animated shorts on YouTube over the past months to extend the Best Fiends world, where cute little Fiends battle against Slugs.

Matt McMahon, SVP of business development at Seriously Digital Entertainment

“At Seriously, we try to create worlds on mobile,” Matt McMahon, senior vice president of business development at Seriously Digital Entertainment, told AListDaily. “What that means is that we are trying to create intellectual properties and entertainment brands that have great characters, stories and worlds that happen to come to life first as mobile phone games.”

The first short is “Boot Camp,” which involves two Slug army cadets named Hank and Roger, who end up getting a lesson in defeat. The video took in over 6.4 million views when it released in May, and it boosted profits for Seriously in the months following the launch.

The second one was “Visit Minutia” and features an all-star voice cast that includes Pamela Adlon (Better Things, Californication), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), David Herman (Office Space), Maurice LaMarche (Futurama, Zootopia), Kate Walsh (13 Reasons Why, Grey’s Anatomy) and Billy Dee Williams (Star Wars, Batman). In it, the Fiends go on a vacation and discover that Slugs are the worst tourists in the world. “Visit Minutia” got over one million views within two weeks of launching.

McMahon explained how Seriously loves the direct connection mobile games have with their players, and the company fosters engagement through frequent updates, push notifications and social media. Seriously puts a great deal of focus on the characters from its games, and it decided to extend that theme beyond mobile games to original scripted videos—giving the characters a chance to come to life and speak while showing more of the world.

“We have a lot of stories to tell in Best Fiends,” said McMahon, describing how the company decided to produce an animated series to deepen the experience with the brand and its characters. “The game is only the tip of the iceberg, and you can only tell so much with it, and we think there’s a ton more to tell with the epic struggle between the Fiends and the Slugs on Minutia. There’s a lot more material behind it that underpins the games but are hard to express there. Videos are great because we can introduce new characters, new parts of the world and hopefully make you laugh.”

The series is being released on YouTube, but players are made aware of them through the Best Fiends games. McMahon said that partnering with animation studio Reel FX to make high-quality shorts helps these animations stand out against competing content. Seriously has even promoted them like movie premieres, complete with teaser videos on social media. Quality also encourages players to share the videos on social media, extending awareness of the brand, and McMahon confirmed that the videos successfully brought in new players.

“We’ve had over 1.2 million shares from the game to users’ Facebook pages via the YouTube link,” said McMahon. “That’s phenomenal. That’s our fans telling their friends that this is something that they’re passionate about, and it’s recommended content because it’s on their Facebook pages.”

According to McMahon, there was a huge spike in both engagement and monetization during the months of June and July following “Boot Camp,” which released just before Memorial Day. Even though he admitted that it’s hard to directly attribute that rise to the video, the developers know that—based on fan reception, comments and shares—the video was driving new people to the game while re-engaging old fans through corresponding in-game events that were timed with the video release.

Meanwhile, the related in-game events help drive monetization. For example, players who play the “Boot Camp” event have an extra emotional connection if they do so right after watching the video.

“I think there’s an emotional connection when you watch a video that’s of feature quality and looks like it could be a movie. You say to yourself, ‘all this time and love I’ve put into this little mobile phone game—there could be something more there. The people who make that game love their property as much as I do. They love it enough to make these great videos, and clearly invest a lot of time, effort and love into them.’ I think it just makes our core fan base feel really good about the whole experience, which might lead them to spend a little more time and money.”

McMahon said that these in-game events can pay for the production of videos, which was the case for “Boot Camp,” which brought in revenue that exceeded the budget of the short. Given their success, Seriously will continue to release more videos on a regular basis, although the exact details such as the release schedule, how they relate to each other and their overall length, are still being worked out.

“Suffice it to say, we’re going to take video as seriously as we take games,” McMahon explained. “We see it as a great channel to build out the IP, complement the game and tell more stories.”

One of the lessons Seriously learned from the first videos is that story needs to come first. McMahon said that the company will be ambitious with its video plans, but it needs to ensure that the stories are right first—featuring subversive comedy that’s appropriate for families from around the world to enjoy.

Although Seriously plans on sticking to short-form animations for the foreseeable future, it is exploring the possibility of longer-form animations and different distribution channels.

“I think now is a time in Hollywood where that’s a very fertile ground,” said McMahon. “There are a lot of dynamic players in that space and there are a lot of folks looking for new content, and we think our content, world and IP stack up very well to a lot of what’s out there. Like I said, we want to take the video business as seriously as we take the games business, and we think there’s a lot of opportunity there.”

McMahon commented on whether Seriously saw itself competing against Angry Birds creator Rovio—which launched its IPO in September and also has roots in Helsinki, Finland—in becoming a full media company. He acknowledged the similarities between the two companies, but there are key differences as to how Seriously approaches its stories and how the animated shorts tie in with the game.

“I think we’ve always seen ourselves as a media company,” said McMahon. “IP, brand and story creation has always been at the heart [of what we do], and that’s been in the DNA of the company from the start. Mobile games are the ways to get our properties out first and foremost—it’s where we have great expertise, and we have world-class people. We have world-class people now attacking the video business, doing our brand marketing and our influencer marketing, but games will always be the core hub of opportunities for the brand.”

Apple’s iOS 11 Update Fuels Competition For Augmented Reality Gaming

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Apple’s annual keynote placed a heavy focus on the integration of augmented reality (AR) that begins with its big software update on September 19. IOS 11 will introduce ARKit and AR capabilities to hundreds of millions of iPhones worldwide—creating a race for developers to create and market the next Pokémon GO.

Demonstrations during the Apple Event included other uses for AR, such as enhancing a baseball game with stats or identifying constellations in real-time. However, it was in mobile AR gaming that the demonstration really shines.

Directive Games’ upcoming real-time strategy game The Machines renders a digital battlefield on top of any real table, where players control the action through an iPhone camera. Players will be able to battle one another in the same room or in online multiplayer. Even the sound is location-based—adapting sound levels and clarity based on where the player is standing in relation to the virtual action.

Games currently account for 82 percent of the mobile AR market’s total revenue, SuperData reports, so Apple is well-positioned to profit from iOS 11’s new features.

“By bringing AR to 400 million devices with the release of iOS 11, Apple’s phones will contribute a hefty chunk of this year’s mobile AR revenue of almost $1 billion,” predicted Stephanie Llamas, VP of research and strategy for SuperData Research in a statement. “Games will be a major driver for growth to start since they have the most obvious monetization model (free-to-play microtransactions versus upfront premium purchases).”

The mobile AR market is projected to grow from $1.01 billion in 2017 to $18.69 billion by 2020, according to SuperData. By 2020, games will account for 18 percent of the mobile AR market’s total revenue.

Apple’s focus on AR is fueling a sort of “space race” to bring the best AR game technology to market. Google showed off its ARCore developer tool mere weeks ahead of Apple’s keynote. ARCore enables augmented reality features on regular smartphones as opposed to high-end devices such as the Asus ZenFone AR, which uses Google Tango hardware. The tools also support Unreal Engine and Unity, two of the top game engines in use today.

A mixed reality Halo experience is in the works from Microsoft, along with other game-related AR/VR projects, to accompany the launch of new mixed reality headsets such as the Dell Visor. In addition, Windows Mixed Reality PCs will hit retailers this holiday season to “support today’s immersive video and gaming experiences.”

“Mixed Reality is the future, and we want everyone on the journey with us,” Microsoft technical fellow Alex Kipman wrote on the company blog.

Since December, Snapchat has hosted a number of AR games, beginning with sponsored activations and holiday-themed challenges. Snapchat Lenses led the way in terms of AR engagement, but the company will have to keep up if they are to remain competitive—especially against its biggest rival, Facebook.

Facebook’s new Camera Effects Platform allows anyone to create AR filters for fun or profit. While silly masks are always a popular choice for such effects, the gaming implications are obvious. In fact, gaming giant Electronic Arts—one of the top three game companies this year—is among the first Facebook camera effects platform beta partners.

Competition often yields bigger and better products for consumers to enjoy, and the race is on. The video game industry can only profit from the advancement of AR technology—and according to SuperData, games revenue is predicted to increase from $0.83 billion in 2017 to $3.4 billion in 2020.

Facebook Cozies Up To The Music Industry While YouTube Struggles With Copyright

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Facebook is offering major record labels and music publishers hundreds of millions of dollars so that its users can legally include songs in videos.

This news, reported by Bloomberg, comes mere weeks after a debate between YouTube and executives from the music industry about how much should be (and is actually) paid. Negotiations have been underway as early as February of this year.

Remaining competitive with YouTube is all part of Facebook’s “video first” business plan. “I see video as a megatrend,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors during its fourth quarter earnings in February. “That’s why I’m going to keep putting video first across our family of apps.”

Facebook just launched Watch tab—a direct competitor to YouTube. The new video hub will compete with Amazon’s Twitch by allowing users to interact in real-time as they watch, with the goal of creating communities around original content. Facebook is reportedly spending as much as $1 billion for original Watch programming this year.

The company knows that in order to succeed, it will have to play nice with the music industry. Helming music rights negotiations for Facebook in this matter is Tamara Hrivnak, a former executive for YouTube as well as Warner/Chapell Music.

Warner Music Group begrudgingly renewed its recorded music and publishing deals with YouTube earlier this year, according to a memo obtained by Billboard.

“There’s no getting around the fact that, even if YouTube doesn’t have licenses, our music will still be available but not monetized at all,” Warner Music Group CEO Stephen Cooper wrote in the memo. “Under those circumstances, there can be no free-market ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ negotiation.”

Facebook may have a better chance of obtaining a more satisfactory deal with Warner Music Group and others under the guidance of Hrivnak. If so, such a deal may force YouTube to match or rethink their payment methods, as well. Higher royalties could make Facebook Watch more attractive to music labels and marketers during a time when advertisers are already concerned with brand safety and fake traffic through Google.

The memo said that Warner Music Group was able to secure “the best possible deals under very difficult circumstances” and that term for the deal is shorter so to allow for “more options in the future.” These options, probably refer to the music industry’s hope for stricter copyright legislation—closing the “value gap” between streaming site income and safe harbor sites like YouTube and Facebook.

The current legal framework for copyright online allows users to upload video with infringing material and leaves enforcement up to rights holders. YouTube allows these rights holders to monetize the videos rather than take them down—keeping users relatively happy while ensuring at least some income for the creators. The music industry isn’t satisfied with the solution, especially since streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music pay billions each year.

In the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) annual state of the industry report, IFPI chief executive Frances Moore said, “The whole music community is uniting in its effort to campaign for a legislative fix to the value gap and we are calling on policymakers to do this. For music to thrive in a digital world, there must be a fair digital marketplace.”

Until copyright laws require video sites like YouTube to pay the same as streaming music companies, Facebook can at least sweeten the deal with a whole lot of money.

Spending On Radio, Data, Analytics Increases; Email Marketing Stays Dependable

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According to a survey by WideOrbit, programmatic radio advertising is set to substantially increase in the next 12 months. Ninety percent of the survey’s ad buyer respondents reported an intention to use programmatic platforms, compared to just 30 percent who admitted to using it already. The difference is dramatic, but it should be noted that while WideOrbit reports that over 9,000 professionals were surveyed, fewer than 300 actually responded.

Email marketing retains its rock-solid dependability, according to surveys by the Data & Marketing Association. One-hundred percent of healthcare and hospitality marketers report using email to reach consumers. Retail was the lowest adopter of the format with only 81 percent usage.

According to surveys by email service provider Emma, 58 percent of marketers in the US plan to increase email marketing budgets in 2017, a higher response than in any other channel.

Forecasts by the Radicati Group predict that email marketing messages will grow by 4.4 percent annually, meaning that by 2021 319.6 billion marketing emails will be sent out per day.

The August edition of The CMO Survey is now available, reporting on marketing-industry trends for the second half of this year. Most notable of its findings was a projected 6.4 percent increase in hiring and a 5.1 percent increase in outsourcing by marketing departments, the highest figures in the past two years.

Spending on data analytics is also predicted to increase, from 5.5 percent to 18.1 percent of marketing budgets in the next three years.

“More firms are using quantitative tools to demonstrate the long-term impact of marketing investments,” said The CMO Survey director Christine Moorman. “The number remains low, but it has increased more than seven points since we first asked about it four years ago.”

According to a report by the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of U.S. adults now get at least some news from social media. That same stat is higher among minorities at 74 percent.

Facebook has more American millennial users than there exist in the United States, according to a report by Brian Wiesser at Pivotal Research. The social network claims there are 41 million 18-24 year-olds, while census data reports just 31 million. The discrepancy may result from the fact that Facebook’s data relies on self-reporting for its age data.

Ethnic diversity among podcast fans has increased by 20 percent over the last seven years, according to a report by Nielsen. According to their information, “ethnic” listeners represented 30 percent of the market in 2010, rising to 36 percent in 2016.

The report also revealed that 51 percent of homes that buy bottled water also listen to podcasts, and continued to draw conclusions that self-acknowledged “avid” podcast fans spend nominally more than the less enthusiastic group.

A new study by Viant has revealed that Hispanic millennials are much more active on social media around brands than their non-Hispanic counterparts. According to their information, 50 percent of Hispanic respondents reported using a brand’s hashtag or discussing brands online, compared to only 17 percent of non-Hispanics. Furthermore, 58 percent of Hispanic millennial women follow beauty brands on social media, a marked increase above the 14 percent reported by the general population.

As hand-me-down smartphones become more common, American teenagers are becoming increasingly reliant on them, per a new eMarketer report. Seventy-nine percent of 12-to-17-year-olds will become regular smartphone users this year, finally surpassing the general population’s penetration of 77 percent.

A survey of 253 teens ages 13-to-17 reports that 38 percent of high-school aged teens claim they would not be able to go a full day without their phones, a number that skews slightly higher for women, at 43 percent.

An Influenster survey conducted recently reports that women overwhelmingly approve of branded content, with 87 percent claiming to enjoy it. Other notable findings are that over 90 percent responded that they mostly interact with branded content on mobile devices and that brands and social-media influencers increase purchase decisions more than celebrities do.

Flexibility and affordability are at the top of consumers’ minds this summer, according to surveys by Google. Of those surveyed in April, 16 percent reported they won’t plan their activities until they’ve already arrived. Furthermore, Google reported that inexpensive travel options have broken into the top search trends for family and couples vacations.

Searches for family vacations, luxury travel and couples/honeymoon travel grew three times faster year-over-year than in ecotourism or adventure travel categories.

Airbnb has seen massive growth in China, reporting a 495 percent increase in bookings in Hangzhou and a 388 percent increase in Chongqing.

Family travel on the home-stay app continues to rise, with eight million family bookings between May 1 and August 31. According to their report, the most common destinations are the United States, France, Italy and Spain.

Amazon is making waves in Japan: the island nation is the online retailer’s second-largest and quickest-growing market as of last year. At a Digiday conference in Fukuoka, 55 percent of the brands surveyed reported devoting part of their advertising budgets to Amazon’s platform, but only 23 percent claimed to spend more than a quarter of their budget on it.

Leanplum has released its latest mobile marketing research, which reports that promotional push notifications result in 960 percent higher user purchases as compared to those who did not receive a message, and increase in-app expenditures by 16 percent.

The most effective times to send push notifications are Saturdays and late afternoons, resulting in 220 percent and 270 percent more purchases, respectively.

Subscription services are enjoying unprecedented popularity with millennials, according to surveys by Fluent. As compared to baby boomers, the tech-native generation is 24 percent, 35 percent and 28 percent more likely to be subscribed to meal kit, shave club and beauty subscription boxes, respectively.

The subscription box category is growing rapidly, with Amazon and Walmart both attempting to enter the fray earlier this year.

Even with the relatively low penetration of voice-activated devices in the US market, a survey by Magid Advisors reports that almost half of those surveyed are interested in owning one.

Furthermore, despite Amazon’s best efforts to break into the market, its Echo still lags behind Apple’s Siri in both awareness and usage—by five percent and 12 percent, respectively.

‘IT’ Marketing Terrifies With VR And Real Haunted House

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IT creeps into theaters this weekend, much to the delight of horror fans and lament of coulrophobia-suffering audiences everywhere.

As the first theatrical version of Stephen King’s classic horror novel, it’s hard to follow the 1990 TV mini series starring Tim Curry. But rather than try to mimic what has already been done, marketing from Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema has fearlessly presented a re-imagined Pennywise the Dancing Clown while staying faithful to the source material.

Unlike many horror films where an interesting villain is pitted against a group of hapless victims, IT follows the story of seven outcast children who call themselves “The Losers Club.” Together, they uncover an ancient mystery and have to stand together to defeat “IT”—an evil force that preys on children.

Featurettes and behind-the-scenes videos introduce these characters to elicit a sense of empathy and relatability for them.

In order to illustrate the world of IT, a virtual reality experience called Float was presented during San Diego Comic-Con. Shown inside a branded school bus, Float transports users to a stormy night where they encounter the infamous Pennywise and venture into the sewers beneath. The experience is now available to everyone on YouTube.

In case computer-generated graphics weren’t scary enough, a replica of Neibolt House—a key location from the story—has been erected on the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles. Guests are divided into groups of seven to match the number of children in “The Losers Club” and guided by “Georgie” through the 5,000-square-foot house. Venturing from room to room, guests can see authentic set props and, of course, expect some jump scares along the way.

The IT Experience: Neibolt House is free to the public (18 and over) and will be open through September 10.

If you’re still wondering whether the sewer will play an important role in the film, there is a free 16-bit game called Enter The Sewer. (So . . . yes.) Users must navigate Georgie’s paper boat around obstacles and collect red balloons for points.

Of course, IT would not be a notorious horror novel without its titular villain. Earlier this summer, a fan art contest was held to encourage creativity from the fans and send a lucky winner to the film’s premiere in either New York or California. Naturally, there were a lot of Pennywise portraits.

An IT art exhibit was displayed at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, featuring original works by artists including Jeffrey Everett and Thomas Walker.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYgXXdXldj0/

To set the mood for the film’s premiere in Sydney, Australia, red balloons were tied to sewage drains around town.

Following its successful female-only screenings of Wonder Woman, the Alamo Draft House is hosting a number of clowns-only screenings for IT.

In IT, an evil force torments the small fictional town of Derry, Maine every 27 years. In a subtle, yet effective nod to the book, New Line Cinema’s IT debuts 27 years after the TV movie (we see what you did there).

Audiences won’t have to wait that long for the sequel, however, as it is already in production.

Andy Serkis Ushers ‘Planet of the Apes’ Brand Into Video Games

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Even though the Planet of the Apes brand has been around since 1963, there’s never been a video game—until now.

Andy Serkis, who directed the performance capture of Ninja Theory’s 2007 game Heavenly Sword and 2010’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, in addition to starring in games such as Risen, Volume and Squadron 42, has helped change that. His company, The Imaginarium Studios, has entered the video game industry through a partnership with FoxNext Games and indie developer Imaginati Studios. Their first game, Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier, based on the latest movie franchise—where a sentient chimpanzee named Caesar (voiced by Serkis) leads a growing society of intelligent apes while humans face extinction—launches this fall across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Andy Serkis, actor, director and The Imaginarium Studios founder. (Image Credit)

“This is very closely linked tonally to the movies,” Serkis told AListDaily. “It’s of the same universe, but it’s a parallel story, so it’s not the same characters as the films. It’s not Caesar and his followers. It’s a separate group of apes who are trying to survive and a separate group of humans who are trying to do the same. Timewise, it’s happening concurrently to the world of the movies between Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, but in a different place, and they’re going through their own versions of what Caesar and his tribe are going through.”

Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier is a narrative adventure game that can be played by up to four people. Rather than directly control the on-screen action, the choice-based gameplay allows players to make decisions by voting.

“The team at Imaginati Studios carried the role of this franchise,” Serkis said. “It was a great responsibility to be tasked with and given permission to make the game. They had to really reach that high level, but in their tests, they really proved that the look of it and the feel of it was going to live up to the world of the movies. So, as much as I could, I imparted information and was around for a little while to consult. But on the whole, they’ve run with it creatively, and what they’ve done and achieved is pretty remarkable.”

The game has been created using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 technology. Former Quantic Dreams developer Steve Kniebihly directed the game’s performance capture, which was used to bring both the apes and the humans to life.

“You can get such incredibly detailed, nuanced performances now with Unreal and with performance capture technology,” Serkis explained. “With the marriage of those two, you can really see a phenomenal amount of detail and emotional engagement with the characters and the texturing of all the fur.”

Serkis worked with Martin Alltimes, founder of Imaginati Studios, at the very beginning of the development process three years ago to prove that Unreal could support the quality of performance capture needed to replicate the level of details fans have come to expect in the Apes film franchise. Although he’s not in the game, his early performance capture tests led to the developer’s streaming technology application that brought the game to life.

“When I came back from doing King Kong, I was approached to direct the performance capture for Heavenly Sword for Ninja Theory, and it was the most incredible confluence of ideas and timing because I had come back from there thinking that I really want to further the art and craft of the performance capture technology, and bring actors and writers and directors together to create stuff,” Serkis said. “So, to sort of land in this video game world was amazing. Video games are now getting really good screenwriters to come in and write great scripts and they need great performances. With Heavenly Sword, we treated it exactly like a film shoot. We auditioned lots of actors, not because they had any experience in this world, but because they were great actors.”

The founding of The Imaginarium Studios came from Serkis’ early game development experience. After casting the Heavenly Sword game, he realized that there was nowhere in the UK that he could shoot full-on performance capture, so everyone had to fly to New Zealand to work with Peter Jackson’s visual effects company Weta on their first video game project.

“That’s when I came back and decided that this was an amazing experience, but we really do have to have a UK-based performance capture studio because the cameras were made in Oxford, the software is made in Cambridge, and we had to travel 12,000 miles across the world to make this game,” Serkis said.

Now things have come full circle, with Serkis directly involved in the game development business and he’s putting his movie experience to work. Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier used an extensive casting process was identical to Fox’s films. There was even an Apes bootcamp that Serkis set up, replicating the experience he and the other performance capture actors went through for the big screen adventures to get a better understanding of how apes behave.

“It’s not a million miles away from creating movies,” Serkis explained. “There’s a production process that’s slightly different, but certainly when you’re working with performance capture and actors and all of that, the shoot is identical. Publishing the game is in The Imaginati’s bag, and that’s what we’ve entrusted them to pull off. But in terms of actually bringing this story to the world, it’s the same as creating a movie, as far as I can see.”

Serkis hopes this new game is the beginning of a digital franchise, which is something Telltale Games has been able to do well with Hollywood IP over the years.

“I absolutely adore this franchise because it’s the perfect metaphor for us as human beings,” Serkis said. “Apes are 97 percent genetically the same as us, but that 3 percent difference and how they look so totally different allows us to see ourselves through fresh eyes—through a different prism. I was always blown away by the films, and I love that for each generation—this franchise is now 50 years old since the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie—they’ve changed the social commentary. They’ve always been really ‘on the money’ about what they’re talking about. This can continue into the world of games, and that’s why this moral choice-based game is such a brilliant 21st century evolution of the storytelling.”

Dunkin’ Donuts Hires New CMO

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Burger King and Monster.com have both capitalized on the volatile job market this week, offering support for the newly fired and the upwardly mobile, respectively. The job-searching website released several spots featuring their new mascot, an enormous fuzzy purple monster that kidnaps people from their dead-end jobs and puts them in new ones that they deserve.

Burger King, to promote the way they “fire” (i.e. flame-grill) their burgers, offered a cheeky week-long deal: if you posted on LinkedIn about being fired with the hashtag #WhopperSeverance, they’d send you a severance package uniquely their own.

Let’s take a look at this week’s comings and goings.

Tony Weisman has been brought on by Dunkin’ Donuts as US chief marketing officer, where he will help oversee the brand’s attempts to shift its image from breakfast snacks to a competitor in the coffee beverage market.

“Tony is a highly experienced, much-admired business leader with a proven track record of building global brands. Very importantly, he also has a deep understanding of working with franchised organizations, including Dunkin’ Donuts having led the work on our account at Digitas for the past six years,” said president David Hoffmann.

Previously, Weisman was the North American CEO for DigitasLBI, a global marketing agency network, and before that served at Leo Burnett for 19 years.

Spotify has poached Courtney Holt from Disney, appointing the former executive vice president to the position of vice president and head of Spotify Studios and Video.

Previously, Holt worked as CEO of Disney-subsidiary Maker Studios until 2016, when he shifted roles to executive vice president of media and strategy at Disney proper. Holt is a longtime veteran of the music industry, having held positions at Atlantic Records, A&M Records, MTV Networks and MySpace Music in the past 20 years.

Graydon Carter has announced plans to retire from his position as editor of Vanity Fair, after 25 years in the role. He has yet to reveal any information on who might be replacing him.

His accomplishments as editor of the acclaimed magazine are too many to list here, but he leaves Vanity Fair and its parent company Condé Nast during an era of quickly shrinking advertising revenue and an even more quickly shrinking staff.

21st Century Fox has promoted Peter Rice to president, though he will continue his role as chairman and CEO for Fox Networks Group. In the newly created position, he will oversee both domestic and international subsidiary television channels on matters of strategic planning and business development.

“As part of our ongoing work to evolve and expand the 21CF leadership structure, we’re pleased to name Peter to this newly created position,” said 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch. “Peter has driven exceptional growth at Fox Networks Group during a time of real transformational change in the business, expanding our audiences and innovating new distribution models, from which the Company, our shareholders and our customers have benefited greatly.”

Rice has only ever worked in the 21st Century Fox conglomerate, beginning his career in the marketing department of the film division before transferring to Fox Broadcasting Company in 2009. During his tenure at Fox Networks Group, Rice was responsible for the expansion of FX into a three-network group, and led the creation of the Digital Consumer Group.’

MGM has announced the re-launch of the long-defunct studio Orion Pictures, selecting John Hegeman as president of the renewed distribution group.

“After working together, we saw first-hand John’s ingenuity in creating disruptive marketing campaigns with limited budgets,” said MGM Motion Pictures president Jonathan Glickman. “He is the ideal executive to lead Orion as he has proven that he can deftly craft strategies for releases, spanning all genres, to reach targeted audiences without the burden of high-cost traditional advertising.”

Most recently Hegeman was president of Blumhouse Tilt, a subsidiary of Blumhouse Productions, where he oversaw marketing for Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn’s horror thriller The Belko Experiment. Before that, he served as CMO for New Regency Productions and president of worldwide marketing for Lionsgate and Artisan Entertainment.

Sean “Diddy” Combs has hired Roma Khanna as CEO of his content creation studio Revolt Media and TV. In the role, Khanna will work to increase the brand’s global presence.

“After decades of building large scale businesses in TV and media, I am excited to have the opportunity to work alongside visionary Sean Combs to get hands-on and redefine content models with a view to building a modern, relevant, global cultural brand,” said Khanna in a press release.

Before her latest appointment, Khanna served as president of the television and digital group of MGM Studios, overseeing the production of several critically acclaimed shows like Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale and the Teen Wolf reboot. Previously, she was president of NBC Universal’s international networks.

Spotify’s head of video and podcasting operations Tom Calderone departed the company after its initial set of programming never gained traction. Instead, the company will refocus on its most successful playlists like Rap Caviar and Rock This.

Calderone worked at Spotify for more than a year, where he spearheaded the launch of a dozen original video shows, including the electronic dance music mockumentary series “Ultimate/Ultimate.” Previously, he spent eight years as the president of VH1.

Fox Entertainment president David Madden is leaving the company after three years in the position for the role of president of original programming and development at AMC.

Replacing him is longtime 20th Century Fox TV employee Michael Thorn, who will assume responsibility for scripted programming, development and casting. Previously, he was executive vice president of development for the subsidiary studio.

Warner Bros. Entertainment has promoted Adam Presser to international senior vice president. As a part of his expanded responsibilities, Presser will oversee the entertainment giant’s businesses in China, as well as the production of Chinese-language media for the company.

“Adam brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our efforts in China and around the world,” said Warner Bros. executive vice president Reg Harpur. “He’s been invaluable in helping us navigate the Chinese business and regulatory landscape as we launched joint ventures as well as our own in-country operations.

Prior to joining Warner Bros. in 2015, Presser served as senior director at Ticketmaster for the China region, and contributed to one of China’s first co-productions with his current employer, The Painted Veil.

Pharmacy chain Rite Aid announced the departure of its president and CEO Ken Martindale. The company has not announced a replacement, but packaged the news that it is promoting Bryan Everett to the new position of chief operation officer in the same press release.

Martindale, who had been with the company since 2008, will be assuming the new role of CEO of GNC health-supplement stores. Before joining Rite Aid in 2015, Everett worked for Target, Fleming Wholesale and Aldi, overseeing clinic and pharmacy operations.

MGM Resorts International hired Kelly Smith as their latest senior vice president and chief digital officer.

“As a global entertainment brand, with customers at the center of our business, our company’s commitment to digital innovation remains a critical part of our long-term strategy,” said MGM Resorts CMO Lillian Tomovich. “Kelly’s extensive digital expertise and demonstrated skill bridging software, design and emerging technology trends make for a valuable addition to our talented executive team.”

Before his appointment, Smith was vice president of global digital products for Starbucks, where he contributed on the company’s international expansion into the China region.

Roger Adams, chief marketing officer for the insurance and finance company USAA, will be retiring at the end of the year. Filling the role will be Wes Laird.

(Editor’s Note: This post will be updated daily until Friday, September 8. Have a new hire tip? Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.)

Job Vacancies 

Director, Marketing Razer USA, Ltd. Irvine, CA
Director of Strategy, Marketing Starbucks Seattle, WA
Director, Marketing Sony Music Entertainment New York, NY
Brand Manager BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc. Santa Clara, CA
Director, Product Marketing Facebook Menlo Park, CA
Sr. Product Marketing Manager AT&T El Segundo, CA

Make sure to check back for updates on our Jobs Page.

Pet Influencers Promote Brands With Intention

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Who knew adorable, furry faces would turn out to be such great spokespeople? Pet influencers (aka “petfluencers”) are teaming up with brands to promote everything from travel to video games.

The allure of these petfluencers is pretty obvious—they’re fun to fuss over and animals can’t help but be authentic. Since they can’t technically speak and most lack opposable thumbs, petfluencers won’t post something that conflicts with a brand partner’s message, either.

Many of the most famous animal celebrities are rescues—adding a rags-to-riches backstory that helps audiences empathize with them.

Tuna, known to his fans as TunaMeltsMyHeart, is a rescue dog with an exaggerated overbite. He now has a book and over two million followers across all his social channels. His sweet face has attracted brand partners such as 1 Hotels, The Body Shop and BarkBox as he and his owner travel across the globe.

“Since Tuna is the epitome of the underdog, most people advocate for him and adore him for his endearing qualities,” says the dog’s official website.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BYOUYK4nPzW/?taken-by=tunameltsmyheart

Just like their human counterparts, Petfluencers are in high-demand, have agents and make public appearances.

The New York-based talent agency Dog Agency represents celebrity social media animals and has worked with some of the internet’s most famous petfluencers, including Chloe the Mini Frenchie and Toast, the spaniel with the eternally stuck-out tongue. Agency owner Loni Edwards says that petfluencers outperform humans in terms of likes, comments and posts going viral. They also do more than just sell dog food.

“The majority of the brands we work with are human-facing brands,” Edwards told Forbes.” They span verticals such as travel, fashion, makeup, cleaning products and movie studios amongst others.”

During EA’s 2017 Gamescom press conference, world-famous Pomeranian Jiffpom helped announce the addition of pets to The Sims 4. It wasn’t the little guy’s first foray into video game promotion, either—the well-trained pooch starred in a commercial for EA’s Bejeweled last year.

Menswear Dog, a Shibu Inu named Bodhi, models high-end brands for humans. What started out as a joke post by his owner turned into a canine modeling career that lands photo shoots for Gucci, Levis, Next Menswear and more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPpywNEFMxZ/?taken-by=mensweardog

Just as with any influencer partnership, staying authentic means not endorsing products that you wouldn’t use yourself—or in this case, the petfluencer.

Samson, a Golden Retriever and Poodle mix with over 168,000 followers on Instagram, was offered a paid deal with Purina Dog Chow, but his owner declined because he wouldn’t eat the food.

Whether it’s a dog, cat, raccoon, pig or other animal, petfluencers entertain with their antics and by just being themselves. When that animal’s brand aligns with a product or service, any pet can become a marketer’s best friend.

Going Big: Hollywood Is Reviving The Monster Movie Genre

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Get ready for ancient beings, goliath beasts and that one guy who has all the answers, because monster movies are back. Armed with modern CGI, big name stars and nostalgia that spans generations, some of the most famous cinematic creatures are taking a romp through today’s box office.

A Monstrous Tradition

For over a century, audiences have been drawn to monsters on film, beginning with The Golem in 1915. It was in 1931 that Universal Pictures began a tradition of frightening, yet relatable, monsters with Dracula and Frankenstein. The Mummy shambled onto screens the following year, continuing what would be a long line of famous film monsters.

Over and over these stories are retold, and while some versions are well-received and others not so much, iconic monster stories stand the test of time like legends shared around an ancient campfire.

With The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, Universal Pictures kicked off its Dark Universe franchise—a series of films that reintroduces and connects many of its most iconic monsters. Egypt’s cursed fiend has appeared in a number of films that have been both terrifying and comical over the years—but never as a woman until now (played by Sophia Boutella).

Director Alex Kurtzman—who produced the popular 1999 Mummy reboot with Brendan Frazier—championed the idea of bringing the classic monster to a present day setting.

“What we are trying to create here is a texture and tone rooted in the Universal horror classic, while having one foot in the modern age,” Kurtzman said in a statement. “This serves as a nod to these classics, while also bringing these monsters to life in a whole new era for a global audience.”

Marketing for the film invited audiences—and NBA stars—into the world of The Mummy through TV spots, VR and 360-degree experiences and a giant sarcophagus in Hollywood.

Despite mixed reviews, The Mummy has earned over $407 million worldwide to date. Now available for digital download, the film could very well surpass its 1999 predecessor in terms of revenue (at $411 million).

Russell Crowe appears in The Mummy as Dr. Jekyll, and other stars have been announced for future films in the series—Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean) as The Invisible Man, and Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men) as Frankenstein’s Monster. Universal’s Dark Universe continues with The Bride of Frankenstein in 2019.

Return Of The Kings

Warner Bros. has partnered with Legendary Pictures to create a connected franchise of its own—the Monsterverse. Unlike Universal’s Dark Universe that focuses largely on the supernatural, Warner Bros. is putting its faith in Kaiju—a film genre that centers on giant monsters, usually in battle with one another as well as the military. Kaiju literally translates to “strange beast” in Japanese.

Godzilla, released in 2014, was the first entry in the Monsterverse—grossing over $200 million worldwide to date. Kong: Skull Island, proved to be a giant hit earlier this year and has grossed over $565 million worldwide.

“Working with our partners at Legendary, we enjoyed tremendous creative and commercial success with Godzilla,” said Kevin Tsujihara, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros., in a press release. “It’s great to be able to revisit these characters and help create a franchise with so many creative possibilities for filmmakers. Fans love these big, globally iconic films and it doesn’t get any bigger than this.”

King Kong is an icon of American cinema, first introduced in 1933. Godzilla, a Japanese character so beloved that he was made an honorary citizen, has been battling fantastical monsters since 1954. Together, they represent a partnership and friendly rivalry between Eastern and Western audiences.

A sequel to Godzilla titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters is now in production. Featuring the cryptozoological society Monarch from Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla will duke it out with classic Kaiju including Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah.

All three films are ultimately leading up to Kong vs. Godzilla in 2020.

Kaiju are big, so Warner Bros. and Legendary chose marketing campaigns that emphasized just how big Godzilla and Kong are, respectively. Campaigns simulated what it would be like to have the monsters stomp through town with destruction (Godzilla) and gigantic footprints (Kong).

Giant Monsters, Meet Giant Robots

Legendary Pictures seems to have cornered the live-action market for monsters, working alongside Universal Pictures for Pacific Rim and teaming up with Warner Bros. for its Monsterverse series.

Director Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim was set in the near future with Earth at war with Kaiju that emerged from an interdimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Marketing for the film simulated what it would be like to live in a world constantly at war with Kaiju. An interactive website included tests of the “Kaiju Emergency Broadcast System,” news footage from attack sites and information about mankind’s defenders—pilots operating giant robots (aka mechs) called Jaegars.

Perhaps fueled by a growing consumption of anime in the West, audiences really seem to enjoy giant robots battling giant monsters. Pacific Rim grossed $411 million at the worldwide box office and will get a sequel next year, starring Scott Eastwood (Fate of the Furious) and John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens). Although details about Pacific Rim: Uprising are scarce, the film’s first trailer calls for fans to sign up for the Jaeger program, much like a military recruitment video.

Whether they’re big and scary or back from the dead, monsters intrigue audiences worldwide and will continue to do so for years to come.