Future of Media: Food ad ban, QR's rise, AR imitating life
Following on from our Creative Transformation Festival, we've nearly completed our Mobile deep-dive.
Future of Media: Food ad ban, QR's rise, AR imitating life
Food and Free Thought
The UK gov's going to try and ban HFSS (high fast, sugar and salt) food ads from TV and online before 9pm in the UK from 2023. Or at least it says it will.
Initial thoughts: in digital, is this even possible? Advertisers can barely land their ads on the right page and reach real eyes, and with third-party cookies in the air, is the 9pm embargo even possible in the sprawling global internet?
TV's easier sure – at great expense to broadcasters. But then digital audio and the out-of-home space get a free pass, apparently. If ads are playing a considerable part in the obesity crisis (I believe they do, but I've yet to find convincing evidence), why are some mediums getting an easy ride?
It's a mess, and this morning we've tried to make sense of it here.
The Unlikely Rise of QR
I have sympathy for any QR skeptics waking up from coma/finally leaving isolation to find the tech FINALLY catching on after a global pandemic. It's quite the curveball.
We spoke to mobile operator EE about how it is applying the tech to drive in-store footfall.
And also, our exclusive research dug into the US's love affair with the little buzzy box and its many applications.
AR Imitating Life
State-side, Kendra Clark has been looking at the rise of augmented reality initiatives and their potential to be real-game changers (sometimes literally) in gaming.
Dr Helen Papagiannis, a leading AR influencer and author of the book Augmented Human, says it nicely: “Once a ‘nice-to-have’ feature, AR has quickly become an essential technology for retailers.” Learn more here.
And amid all this talk of merging realities and metaverse, we see O2 building the O2 Arena in Fortnite to provide intimate gig experiences. We told you this was all in the post back in our Gaming deep-dive. Virtual back pats all around.
Other Stories
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Meet the Media Minds: Clare Chapman, EVP & head of media, Essence [This is a new series media-heads (is that a thing?) will love]
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Ryan Reynolds sells out again: Maximum Effort acquired by CTV player MNTN [Bought by a CTV player – weird]
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Rolling blog of top Cannes Lions Grand Prix winners [Not media, but take a quick look at the winners – some of the work is actually good...]
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Reuters' Digital News Report 2021 shows lasting impact of coronavirus on media [The figures are in, and they're not handsome]
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Are these the best mobile ads ever? The art of selling a cellphone [These ads helped get these devices in billions of pockets]
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Clubhouse strikes back as the ‘audio room’ space gets awfully crowded
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Mobile gaming giants Activision Blizzard and Zynga only see growth – despite iOS changes
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TikTok SME boss on organic social’s role in the ad mix [If you're considering moving on to TikTok, this is worth your time]
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Samsung partners with Snapchat for timely AR watch simulation
That's you all caught up. If you missed the last installment, read it here. You can subscribe to our other briefings here. And if you want to talk to me, I'm on Twitter, Linkedin and email.