Lindsay Pattison: 10 things I loved about August; Apple, Instagram, ViacomCBS and more...
Each month, WPP's chief client officer Lindsay Pattison will share her favorite developments in the world of media and marketing to offer readers an overview of things she feels they should be aware of. Here she takes a look back at what caught her eye in August.
10 things I'm loving this month with... Lindsay Pattison / Maxus
1. As the streaming wars rage on, news that Apple has invested more than $6bn in original content creation. With the landscape fragmenting, it’s increasingly important for media platforms like Apple to own the IP of their content - hence the major spending. But with upcoming big budget shows like See to look forward to (directed by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight and starring Jason Momoa) - I’m all for it.
2. My inner commerce nerd finds this very cool - Yoox (owned by Richemont) have three million high spenders around the world. This interview with their CEO Federico Marchetti is fab. Read his take on using data for high-end personalisation, from making WhatsApp a core part of its personal shopping operation, to building an AI tool that serves up product recommendations, in other words - “a big database of taste”.
3. Brand partnerships are a great way to reach new audiences, build brand credibility in unchartered waters and solve practical problems. This partnership does all three: BP and Chinese taxi giant Didi Chuxing (DiDi) are teaming up to develop a network of electric vehicle chargers across China – proving BP is serious about a sustainable future for the automotive industry.
4. This has been on my to-listen-to-list for ages and I can now report that it’s well worth 30 minutes of your time. The brilliant Janey Whiteside, Chief Customer Officer of Walmart, talks about how she’s injecting humanity into a very functional industry (retail), breaking down silos, and dreaming of SoulCycle.
5. More media news here (can you spot a theme?) Just when you thought media’s shifting landscape and big power plays couldn’t get any more exciting, last week brought news that Viacom and CBS have re-merged to become ViacomCBS. This is a great read from our very own Brian Wieser, anticipating what’s to come and how ViacomCBS will fare in the face of media mammoths Disney, Comcast, AT&T, Amazon Prime, Netflix and co.
6. Collaboration. We all know it’s key to creativity in our industry. What we don’t see so often is creative collaboration with consumers. Which is why I’m so excited that our new client Instagram (Facebook) is now allowing users to create their own augmented reality filters. They’ll also have an Effects Gallery showcasing filters by up-and-coming artists, for those wanting something a bit more polished than my creations…
7. This is a fun one. Does anyone remember the insanely catchy Baby Shark YouTube that took the world by storm a few years ago? 3.1 billion views later, a massive internet meme challenge and Kellogg’s has released ‘Berry Fin-tastic’ – surely the first cereal to be directly inspired by meme culture?
8. Ikea has a staggering 780 million shoppers visiting their stores each year. They’re hoping that number will propel them into the smart home tech arena (where Google and Amazon reign supreme) with a new business unit dedicated to just that. This could become a major new revenue stream for the retailer, reframing them from a flat pack company to a tech and data giant.
9. Lots of interesting nuggets from IAG’s CMO Brent Smart here. I particularly like his point on long-term thinking, and his observation that many companies changing the world have had the same leaders for 20 years – inspiration enough to combat the industry’s short-termism.
10. And finally, I saw this and it reminded me of some amazing creative VMLY&R produced for Polish news platform Gazeta.pl this summer - together, they bought Poland’s most iconic porn magazine and reimagined the content to be fit for 2019. In a similar vein, this Kickstarter page is for DECENT - a new independent print magazine for men, created by women, aiming to shift today’s binary idea of manhood through diverse storytelling.