INDUSTRY UPDATES

Ad Vendors / Platforms / Data

• Meta added several updates to its Call Ads for Messenger, which lets brands connect with customers via a Call Now button within the platform. (AdWeek)

• US consumers most value features that connect the physical and digital shopping experience, with an app notification when an order is ready for pickup being valuable to 48% of consumers. (Insider)

  

• Over 85% of American Gen Z adults have a favorable impression of YouTube, making it the most popular brand with the cohort. Google comes in at No. 2, followed by Netflix and Amazon. (Morning Consult)

  

• Google will make Search and Maps more immersive, showing users search results with organized tiles of photos presented like Stories on Instagram. (NYT)

• Roku will work with Nielsen to track cross-media viewership, enabling four-screen measurement across desktop, mobile, CTV and traditional TV. (TechCrunch)

• FreeWheel and Comscore have partnered to expand Freewheel's CTV contextual targeting capabilities available through its demand-side platform, Beeswax. (MediaPost)

• 5G began rolling out in India this weekend. With majority of Indians watching streaming content on mobile devices, the rollout has wide potential implications for entertainment services. (Variety)

Awards / Festivals

• Los Reyes del Mundo won the top award at the 70th San Sebastián film festival, while Genki Kawamura won the best director prize for his film Hyakka. (AP)

• Bunker, Sex Education, On The Verge and Dreaming Whilst Black will compete for the best comedy at the 2022 International Emmys. 60 nominees across 15 categories were unveiled for the 50th awards ceremony. (THR)

• The 2022 New York Film Festival will run through October 16th. Attendees will be able to catch screenings throughout the five boroughs. (NY Daily News)

Cinemas / Theatrical

• Don’t Worry Darling debuted at No. 1 at the global box office, bringing $19.2M in ticket sales. (AP)

• Deadpool 3 will hit theaters September 6th 2024, and Hugh Jackman will be back as Wolverine. (Variety)

• Cineplex will potentially merge with Cineworld to take over Regal Entertainment in exchange for debt and stock. (WSJ)

• Cineworld predicted cinema admissions in 2023 and 2024 would remain below pre-pandemic levels just after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (THR)

• Bruce Willis became the first actor to offer his likeness to future films via deepfake technology. (Collider)

Gambling / Casinos

• The updated NBA app will include new features focused on sports betting content. While users will not be able to wager directly, they will have access to the NBABet stream. (Gambling News)

• The Star has promised to make "urgent changes" to retain its Sydney casino license including new management and more checks on customers. (Yogonet)

• Kambi Group and Mohegan Entertainment have struck a sports betting partnership deal that will see Kambi Group power Mohegan’s properties with a retail sports betting platform. (Gambling News)

• Illinois gambling revenue hit an all-time high in fiscal year 2022 at almost $1.9B, up 35% from the previous high. (Yogonet)

Live Events / Attractions

• Vice Media Group will host a pop-up experience at Art Basel Miami Beach to bring more brands and marketing execs into the art world. (AdAge)

• Netflix hosted its second Tudum global fan event, showing off dozens of TV shows and movies coming to its platform. (Variety)

• Tickets to upcoming Paramore shows will be non-transferable as the band fully embrace Ticketmaster’s mobile-only ticketing technology. (Ticket News)

• VidCon will take place in Baltimore next summer after the Anaheim convention, marking its first East Coast appearance. (THR)

• A Hocus Pocus musical is coming to Broadway, though details including the show's run dates, location, and cast are not available yet. (EW)

Music / Audio / Podcasts

• Spotify passed SXM Media to become the top podcast network in the US. iHeartMedia follows just behind SXM. (Radio Online)

• True-crime podcast star John Allen ("MrBallen") struck a podcasting deal with Amazon that will see his podcast become available exclusively on Amazon Music beginning on November 1st. (THR)

• Harry Styles’ As It Was topped the Hot 100 for 15th week, the longest reign ever for a British Act. (Billboard)

• Concord acquired the publishing and recorded music catalogs of Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford, as well as the catalog from their years in Genesis. (Music Business Worldwide)

Crypto / NFT / Metaverse

• Alibaba launched a metaverse shopping experience on its Tmall Luxury Pavilion platform and hosted an AR fashion show in collaboration with Vogue China. (Retail Touchpoints)

• Samsung teamed with NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for a gamified experience on Fortnite featuring a host of activities, including Giant Pong, taxi races and an escape room. (AdAge)

• Walmart is entering the metaverse with two experiences in Roblox: Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play. It's also experimenting with shoppable recipes, livestreaming events and an AR feature for furniture. (CNBC)

• A+E Networks launched the History Channel NFT Marketplace, which features collectibles celebrating historical events, figures, and holidays. (AdAge)

OTT / Streaming

• Pluto TV will launch in Canada on December 1st with 100 curated channels and over 20K hours of content. (Digital TV Europe)

• EPIX will become MGM+ in early 2023, promising fans content that "reflects and celebrates the legacy of the MGM brand." (THR)

• Older and lower-income consumers are more interested in Netflix's ad-supported tier, with 52% of baby boomers and 48% of Gen Xers more likely to shift. (Marketing Dive)

• Netflix has 40% of the top trending shows on Twitter, though the top trending show is The Last of Us on HBO Max. (Variety)

• Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story notched 196.2M hours of viewership in its first five days, making it Netflix's biggest series debut since season four of Stranger Things. (Morning Brew)

• STARZPLAY has rebranded as LIONSGATE+ in 35 global markets but will remain as STARZ in the US and Canada. (Digital TV Europe)

• Almost 95% of US households are reachable through programmatic CTV ads, up from 86% in 2021. (Digiday)

• After 6 years in the country, Prime Video is attributing much of its success in India to programming in 10 languages, with half of its audience base watching content in 4+ languages. (Variety)

Retail / Lifestyle / Travel

• Walmart and Target will roll out their holiday promotions earlier than before. Target’s Deal Days will begin October 6th, four days earlier than last year. (AdAge)

• Amazon will limit automatic ebook returns to cases where people have read no more than 10% of the book. (The Verge)

• Amazon will host its second Prime-exclusive sales event of the year. The Prime Early Access Sale will take place on October 11th and 12th. (The Verge)

• Used luxury sales were up 65% last year relative to 2017, compared with a 12% rise in new luxury sales. Over the next five years, secondhand luxury sales will increase annually at around 15%, double the expected rate of new sales. (WSJ)

• Brazil will be the world’s 10th-fastest-growing country in retail ecommerce sales this year, just after Mexico. (Insider)

  

• One-third of Americans will travel further this holiday season than they did in 2021, which may lead to more impressions for OOH ads. (The Drum)

Social Media

• Meta will let users switch between Facebook and Instagram more easily via a slew of new features and a modified user registration process. (CNBC)

• Shortly after introducing the feature, Instagram is testing home feeds without a shopping tab. (The Verge)

• Instagram is testing a feature that lets users post statuses to followers. Followers can respond with a message before the note disappears. (The Verge)

• TikTok removed 113M videos in three months. The most common reason for removal was violating policies around minor safety. (The Verge)

• TikTok rolled out comment downvotes to all users to flag inappropriate responses to video clips. The feature appears in the comment section as a “thumbs down.” (Social Media Today)

• TikTok will increase the character limit within videos from 300 characters to 2.2K characters, letting users explain their content in more detail. (Social Media Today)

Video Games

• 35M US households are interested subscribing to a cloud gaming service, with most interested in playing on mobile. (PR Newswire)

  

• RP1 plans to demo a shardless platform where 100K users can connect in a land area of 20km², playing multiple activities in the same experience. (RP1)

• Netflix is establishing an internal games studio in Helsinki, Finland led by former Zynga and Electronic Arts exec Marko Lastikka. (Variety)

• Google is shutting down Stadia and will refund all Stadia purchases — both hardware and software. (The Verge)

Live Sports

• The second week of Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football drew an average of 11.03M viewers for a game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns. (Deadline)

• Rihanna will perform at the Apple-sponsored Super Bowl Halftime Show. She last performed publicly at the Grammy Awards in early 2018. (NYT)

• Sports fans globally watch an average of 3.5 hours of live sports per week out of 14 total hours of live TV/video per week. (Altmansolon)

  

• Bally Sports+ launched across all 19 Bally Sports regional sports network brands, letting in-market sports fans watch their local teams without a cable, satellite, or live TV streaming service. (The Streamable)