Lab Weekly — 06/28/2024
Decoding the ongoing vibecession; EMEA POV on Outlook trends; Plus, the latest news on Meta’s AI chatbots, Verizon’s new streaming bundles, and some cool stats
Want this newsletter in your inbox every week? Sign up for our mailing list here
Decoding the Ongoing “Vibecession” & Spreading Financial Anxiety
Despite job growth and rising wages, financial anxiety looms large for many U.S. consumers, negatively coloring an individual’s outlook on the economy and impacting consumer behavior. While conventional metrics for macroeconomic health are looking good, prevailing challenges in housing affordability and inflation’s lingering effects continue to stoke economic pessimism. On top of that, the double-whammy of climate change and geopolitical uncertainty are also causing long-term financial uncertainty for many.
Outlook 2024: EMEA POV
Welcome to the EMEA Edition of the IPG Media Lab’s Outlook 2024 report. Led by Kate Walkom and Deb Cho, both from UM International, as well as Patriz Datlangin from UM MENA, with contributions from their brilliant teams, our EMEA team took a deep dive into the downstream effects of the social and technological disruptions over past few years, and laid out their impact on consumer behaviors and brand implications in the EMEA region.
In case you missed it…
Social Media At a Crossroads of Cultural Backlash & Generative AI
Social media has been in flux for a while, with major social platforms from Twitter to TikTok were confronting existential-level threats while bracing for the impact that generative AI promised to unleash. This year, however, social media companies have a new formidable challenge to overcome: convincing parents that they are not bad for kids. Could generative AI be the savior or its downfall? Let’s take a closer look at social media at a crossroads.
Apple Intelligence All The Way Down
In this recap of Apple’s WWDC announcements, let’s dive into Apple’s “safe yet impressive” approach to AI integration, the headline-grabbing partnership with OpenAI, software updates for Vision Pro, and more must-know tidbits for brand marketers.
The Backlash to Google’s AI Search, Explained
Why Google Search telling people to eat rocks is just the tip of the iceberg that’s about to hit online media ecosystem
Meta Starts Testing User-Created AI Chatbots on Instagram [TechCrunch]
Ever since people realized how much LLMs transform the chatbot experience, there have been tech analysts theorizing about a future of hybrid social media where human users and AI chatbots co-exist and interact with each other. And that future might be closer than we think. There is already a niche but growing segment of consumers who are obsessed with companion chatbots — Character.AI recently rolled out a feature that lets users talk to AI characters over voice calls in multiple languages, and says its 3 million users made over 20 million calls during testing.
Meta has been testing AI-powered chatbots on its platform for a while. The company first rolled out a curated slate of celebrity-based AI characters for its messaging platforms in September 2023. Since then, it has also worked with creators like the meme account Wasted to roll out early versions of creator-made chatbots. This week, Meta is taking it one step further with more user-created AI chatbots, starting with select creators on Instagram.
Positioning generative AI as a creator tool is a sound strategy for Meta, considering that it is getting harder and harder for creators to earn a living in an increasingly fragmented and competitive market environment. Creators could leverage AI avatars to provide fans with personalized interactions and 24/7 engagement.. While the potential benefits are significant, there are also challenges to consider. Ensuring the accuracy and reliability of AI chatbots is crucial, as misinformation or biased responses could have negative consequences.
Related: Zuckerberg disses closed-source AI competitors as trying to ‘create God’ [TechCrunch]; Character.AI now allows users to talk with AI avatars over calls [TechCrunch]; OpenAI is delaying the wider launch of its highly-anticipated voice assistant until fall, citing safety concerns [Bloomberg]
Verizon Adds Discounted Streaming Deals for Home Internet Customers [Variety]
As part of a broader rebranding effort, Verizon is rolling out “myHome,” a new program offering discounted streaming options for home broadband customers, who can choose to add the likes of Netflix and Disney+ for $10/month each on top of their home internet plans. The plan also bundled YouTube TV as a Live TV option (and an alternative to Verizon’s Fios TV) for the cord-cutters. Overall, this presents a very modern package that caters to changing consumer demands in home entertainment and connectivity.
Beyond the home, Verizon is also expanding into the out-of-home entertainment business with a new platform called Verizon Access, which offers customers exclusive access to events and experiences, including thousands of tickets to concerts and music festivals through pre-sales, ticket giveaways and select seats. Time will tell if this platform can give the Ticketmaster-Live Nation de-facto monopoly a run for their money and improve the experience economy overall, but it looks promising.
Related: Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile customers roaming internationally can’t connect [The Verge]; Comcast bundles Netflix, Peacock, and Apple TV Plus for $15 / month [The Verge]
NBCU Rolls Out AI Vocals for Olympic Recaps on Peacock [The Verge]
NBCU has started using the AI-generated voice of legendary sportscaster Al Michaels to create daily, personalized recaps of the Paris Olympics on its streaming service Peacock. Users of the Peacock mobile app can tell the AI model their names and what Olympics coverage they’re most interested in, and they will receive a short daily recap clip with personalized greetings and recommendations. The voice was trained using Michaels’ appearances on NBC, according to the press release, and the experience was built in-house by the Peacock team.
This is an interesting showcase of how media companies can leverage the new personalization capabilities unleashed by generative AI to create more engaging content for their audiences. The Olympics is also a good fit for testing out a feature like this, given the wide scope of the event, which lends itself well to a more personalized, interest-based approach. Compared to hard news about politics or world events, sporting events are also low-stakes enough that even if the AI model made a mistake in summarizing, the implications would be less damaging.
Related: Time has struck a multiyear content licensing deal and strategic partnership with OpenAI [Axios]; ElevenLabs launched its first iOS app, which provides voiceover for any article, book, or document with AI-generated voices [VentureBeat]
Situational Awareness:
Disney’s aggressive bid for streaming ads leaves video rivals scrambling [Variety]
How aggressive, you ask? Variety says, in some cases, Disney has agreed to reduce CPMs for Disney+ by as much as 10% to 15%. Streaming is supposed to represent the future of the industry, but the rollbacks could undermine efforts in years to come to gain better pricing.
Uber will pay you $1,000 to ditch your car for five weeks [The Verge]
This is no doubt a great publicity stunt for the 175 people in select US and Canadian cities, who will be given free Uber rides and credits for bikeshare and public transit to stop driving for five weeks. That might work out in cities with robust public transit systems, but alas, most North American cities are primarily built for cars, and the cost of Uber rides can quickly add up.
Archer plans air taxi network to link San Francisco Bay Area [Axios]
The sci-fi dream of flying taxis is coming closer to reality as more eVTOL companies start to roll out services, looking to disrupt the $49 billion helicopter industry. However, the question remains, can the price point come down soon enough to get it out of the niche, upscale audience segment that it is currently boxed in?
Robotaxi service Waymo is opening up rides for all users in San Francisco [The Verge]
Also happening in the Bay Area, Waymo is getting rid of its waitlist for its robotaxi service and now everyone can hitch a ride in a driverless Waymo car. Considering the semi-recent incident of a Waymo car being vandalized and set on fire in San Francisco, it’d be curious to see how the local general public reacts to Waymo’s expanding services.
- YouTube is claiming a daunting share of overall media consumption, including in the living room. The Google-owned digital platform made up 9.7% of all viewership on connected and traditional TVs in the U.S. in May — the largest share of TV for a streaming platform ever reported by Nielsen’s monthly “The Gauge” report. Netflix ranked second, claiming 7.6% of viewership. Among streamers only, YouTube’s total viewership was close to 25% market share.
- TikTok Shop might be gaining momentum in the U.S. Citing data from delivery trackin app Route, Forbes reports that Bytedance’s ecommerce initiative saw a 13% jump in U.S. orders from April to May. Also, TikTok appears to be hiring hundreds of employees in the US to support its expansion efforts.
- AI might not be replacing office workers yet, but it is already starting to impact freelanders. The number of freelance jobs on platforms like Upwork, in areas where generative AI excels, have dropped by as much as 21% since ChatGPT’s debut, Wall Street Journal reports citing data from recent research.
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy, at chelsea@ipglab.com.
If you liked this edition of Lab Weekly by IPG Media Lab, why not share it?
