24th Feb 2018
Amazon’s football livestreams may test the Premier League’s OTT (over-the-top TV) ambitions. Amazon could livestream Premier League matches in the U.K. in a move that will determine whether football chiefs launch their own over-the-top service. ‘..Advertising on Prime (is) one way Amazon could monetise the rights it buys… if Amazon could show brands selling on its site that there’s an upturn in sales from their stores during matches, then the proposition starts to become more interesting, particularly for related products such as ticketing and merchandise.’
Michael Harris has forgotten how to read. ‘Our sense of time has always been warped by our technologies. Church bells segmented the day into intervals. Factory whistles ushered workers. But the current barrage of alerts and pings leaves us more warped than ever. I’ve been trained not just to expect disruption, but to demand it.’ For a long time he convinced himself that a childhood spent immersed in old-fashioned books would insulate him from our new media climate – that he could keep on reading in the old way because his mind was formed in pre-internet days.’ He was wrong’.
After months of asking to get their content onto Amazon, publishers have got their wish. Amazon has been running a test with a small group of publishers where versions of publishers’ commerce-focused articles are accessible directly inside Amazon’s website. But as it always is with Amazon, there are risks. …And on the subject of news (and Facebook), this from Digiday: ‘Facebook didn’t get into the news business with the expectation that they would become the most powerful force in American media. They got in because they wanted to squash Twitter.’ ….And on the subject of Twitter, does it look like it might be on its way back?
Space X has launched two demonstration satellites, which are being used to test SpaceX’s future Starlink broadband service. Once all the necessary testing has been completed, the launch of operational satellites could begin sometime in 2019. SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to provide gigabit broadband worldwide by 2022. BTW, you can use a website to track Elon Musk’s Tesla through space, the aptly named whereisroadster.com.
Here are two great creative executions, focusing on two very different subjects : ‘As a marketer, when things go badly wrong, sometimes it is best just to hold your hands up. Even better if you can be self-deprecating as well.’ Here ‘KFC’ becomes ‘FCK‘, as @KFC_UKI apologises for the recent absence of chicken. And on a much more significant and serious note, this outdoor execution was inspired by the film Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, and potently brings to life the lack of progress with the Grenfell Tower enquiry.
In 2018, The Account Planning Group is celebrating 50 years of planning excellence. To coincide with this anniversary, the APG is collaborating with Russell Davies on a series of podcasts and they will be releasing one a month for the whole year. ‘Each podcast features Russell in conversation with a planner who has done interesting things. The idea is to get them telling some unusual stories; the stories that don’t get captured in case studies and awards entries.’ Well worth a listen.
Smart. After years of testing, The Wall Street Journal has built a paywall that bends to the individual reader.
Nesta has mapped the regional progress of creative industries in the UK, with their Creative Nation report. You can look at individual areas via this interactive visualisation. If you want to look at innovation across the globe, split out by country, then the 2018 GE Innovation Barometer, is the place to go.
This is fun. A map showing the top tourist attraction in every country, according to TripAdvisor. Some surprises here….
This is a really nice Sci-Fi short about The First Faster-Than-Light Spacecraft. 16 mins long but worth a watch. ‘And just like that, the astronaut had disappeared.‘