Lab Weekly — 03/25/2022

Why brands need to differentiate between crypto, web3, and the metaverse; New Floor 9 episode; Plus, news analysis and stats roundup

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The Metaverse ≠ Web3: What Brands Need To Know

The metaverse discourse is being muddled by crypto startups and getting lost amid web3 hype, but innovation-forward brands should not lose sight on why it truly matters

In case you missed it…

The Subscription Economy Enters New Dimensions

Can the subscription model work for service-oriented brands? Many across the travel, healthcare, and QSR industries are experimenting to find out, revealing a new dynamic of customer relationships and how brands can leverage it build loyalty

How IoT and Web3 Technologies Reshape the Future of Insurance

Insurance brands should leverage IoT data to expand usage-based insurance, while also exploring the opportunities that web3 technologies may unlock

How Brands Can Find the Right Entry Points to the Metaverse

From in-game experiences to connected communities, brands should carefully weigh the pros and cons of each emerging option as they prepare to enter the metaverse.

Episode 135: Brand Safety and Responsibility in Times of War

Welcome to Floor 9. This week, we chatted with Arielle Garcia, Chief Privacy Officer at UM Worldwide and our resident expert on online safety, about how companies are taking actions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

Many international companies, including big tech companies, have paused marketing operations in Russia, or pulled out of the market entirely. Adam Simon, UM’s U.S. head of Innovation, talked with Arielle about how brands are thinking about brand safety in response to a devastating world event like this, the brand responsibility of continuing to support quality news and combat misinformation, and why taking a more nuanced approach is crucial in times like this.

You can click here to check out the Human Rights Watch site that Arielle mentioned towards the end of the episode.

Click here to listen and subscribe! If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Thanks for listening!

EU Targets Big Tech With Sweeping New Antitrust Legislation [The Verge]

The EU has unveiled its biggest ever legislative effort to balance competition in the global tech landscape and protect consumers from antitrust pratices. The new Digital Markets Act, or DMA, is targeted directly at Big Tech, or as the EU regulators calls them, the “gatekeeper platforms” — namely, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta. Under DMA, which expected to take effect in 2023, pending court challenges, will require these big U.S. tech companies to offer consumers more choices — for example, an alternative app store on iOS, or the sort of in-app billing options that Google just made available to Spotify users.

As we’ve previously seen with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (aka. GDPR), European lawmakers have been setting the pace on legistations aiming to rein in the big tech. Similar to how everyone now have to deal with an endless series of “this website uses cookie” notices thanks to the GDPR, the DMA may just bring a barrage of in-app popups notifying users of alternative options available to them. Still, great news for Epic Games regarding their ongoing lawsuit with Apple over in-app purchases, which the gaming company is appealing following an initial ruling in favor of Apple in September.

Related: Google will let Spotify add in-app billing on Android and lowers app-store fee cut [Variety]; Apple’s App Store problem in the Netherlands keeps getting worse [9to5Mac]

NFL Sets Deal for Its First Virtual-Reality Video Game [Variety]

The NFL is entering virtual reality with its first VR game created in collaboration with StatusPro, which Variety calls “a sports tech and gaming startup that specializes in extended reality experiences using athlete data.” Details are scant at the moment, but the game will let users “play like a professional football player through a first-person 3D immersive experience,” and it is slated to be released on both Meta Quest and Sony’s PlayStation VR headsets.

Gaming continue to grow as a crucial media channel for non-endemic brands to engage with their customers. Even for an entertainment behemoth like the NFL, gaming is a channel they cannot afford to ignore. At a time everyone from Disney and Netflix is ramping up their gaming investments in a bid for consumer attention, it does seem like gaming is eating the world (of media), as we observed in our 2021 Outlook report. One could also easily see how the 3D assets developed for this game would be instrumental in future metaverse explorations for the league as well.

Related: Disney announces “Disney Mirrorverse,” a RPG mobile game heading to iOS and Android in June [GameSpot]; Netflix acquires Boss Fight, its third game studio [NYT]

Smart Technology Is Amping Up Home Entertainment [Axios]

This trend piece from Axios points out an interesting intersection between smart home and home entertainment beyond the natural nexus of connected TV. From at-home gym equipment to smart lightbulbs, every connected device at home can potentially be tapped to enhance the entertainment experience at home, either through data-driven personalization, contextual automation, or simply using mood lighting to create an ideal ambience tailored to the content playing.

In addition, the rollout of Matter, an industry connectivity standard for smart home devices, is expected to ensure that the gadgets we buy are interoperable, starting as early as this fall. This means more opportunities for not just entertainment brands, but any brands whose products are primarily consumed at home, to fully make use of the capabilities enabled by interoperable connected devices to deliver an elevated brand experience at home.

Related: Apple TV app on Android TV no longer allows rentals, purchases, or subscriptions [The Verge]; Matter smart home standard delayed until fall 2022 [The Verge]

• Spotify paid $7 billion in royalties to rights holders in 2021, the company announced on Thursday in its annual “Loud and Clear” report. That total is more than any other service. With more than 180 million paying subscribers, Spotify is the top paid-subscription music service in the world by far. The report also states that in 2021, for the first time, more than 1,000 artists generated over $1 million on Spotify for rights-holders.
• Netflix wants users who share passwords with people outside their households — in violation of its terms of use — to pay an additional fee to keep streaming. The plan, if successfully rolled out globally, could add a cool $1.6 billion to Netflix’s top line, according to a new Wall Street analysis, Variety reports.