Lab Weekly — 07/27/2018

The latest on podcast; Verizon’s 5G TV service; Walmart teams up with Waymo, and more

Lab Original

Event Recap: Podcast Movement 2018 Conference

Podcast is a fast-growing audio medium that is attracting a high-value audience and capturing a lot of attention from brands and advertisers alike. This week, the Lab popped over to Philadelphia to attend the Podcast Movement conference to find out the latest from the podcast world. Here is what we learned from this three-day conference.

News Analysis

Verizon In Talks With Google And Apple To Provide A Live Tv Service Over 5G [link]

After shutting down its struggling go90 streaming service last month and returning content rights to production companies, Verizon is now looking for another big play to keep up with the shifting U.S. content landscape. With its archrival AT&T recently cleared to acquire the media assets of Time Warner and is doubling down on its content play, it makes sense for Verizon to be looking for a strong partner to supply a highly differentiated OTT content service to spice up its highly commoditized carrier business.

Right now, the U.S. content space is flooded with new content coming from emerging suppliers. Popular tech and science publisher Wired went over-the-top with a new streaming TV channel available on a slew of OTT devices including Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku. Hello Sunshine, the hot content production company founded by Reese Witherspoon, has sold shows to both Apple and Amazon, and it recently launched an on-demand channel on AT&T’s DirecTV with two new shows. For Verizon to avoid repeating the failures of go90, it really needs to find highly differentiated content to drive audience interests.

The 5G angle of this service is also intriguing, in that it could push TV distribution off the home broadband and, for the first time, to a wireless cellular network. This would no doubt help Verizon to compete against AT&T or Comcast by disrupting the home broadband business with its upcoming 5G service. One profound implication of a wireless TV service like this could be that it may help bridge the viewer intention gap and further encourage more flexible, interstitial content consumption.

Related: DC announces streaming service DC Universe for comics, films, TV shows [link]; Comcast is moving beyond the set-top box as it rolls out its Xfinity X1 interface on smart TVs [link]; YouTube to test new “explore” feature in iOS app with expanded video recommendations [link]

Walmart Partners With Waymo To Test A Customer Ride Service In Arizona [link]

This is an interesting partnership for both parties involved. For Walmart, this partnership allows it to expand its online-to-offline shopping experience to include the trip to the store. By subsidizing the ride for shoppers to pick up their online orders via a Waymo self-driving car, the retail giant is removing another pain point in online grocery shopping and making it more appealing to the connected shoppers today. More retailers can learn from this initiative and start thinking about how to prepare for a future where AI-driven automation can be leveraged to transform your business operation and enhance customer experience.

For Waymo, on the other hand, this partnership allows them to explore the potential of deploying autonomous cars not in a ride-sharing network, but instead for servicing brand-specific mobility tasks. For more on the future of transportation and mobility services, as well as the roles brands may play, check out our recent in-depth analysis of this space.

Related: How Best Buy found a competitive edge over e-commerce retailers with its in-home consultants [link]; Goodwill aims to attract young shoppers with a “curated” boutique store in NYC [link]; Porsche launches pilot test for ultra-fast EV charging stations in Berlin [link]

Grubhub Acquires Payments And Loyalty Company LevelUp For $390M [link]

This is an interesting acquisition for Grubhub (which also owns Seamless and Eat24, among others), as it looks beyond simply scaling its restaurant ordering and delivery business and starts thinking about its strategic positioning in the market. Buying LevelUP, whose customers ranges from established QSRs like KFC and Taco Bell to emerging fast-casual players like Dig Inn and Sweetgreen, will allow Grubhub to deepen its integration with restaurants’ point-of-sale systems, which, in turn, will also allow them to handle more deliveries. Another opportunity down the line would be for Grubhub to integrate LevelUp’s robust loyalty programs into its flagship apps to further lock in users with rewards and discounts, which would help Grubhub to further cement its place in the restaurant business value chain.

Related: Amazon is bringing free Whole Foods deliveries to New York City and Florida [link]; Google enters deal with supermarket Carrefour to sell food online in France [link]; Glad is partnering up with Buzzfeed’s Tasty to sell products in the Tasty app [link]

Snapchat Launches Pilot Program To Pair Brands WIth Top Content Makers [link]

This new Snapchat Storytellers program will finally pair brand advertisers with five of the app’s most popular content makers, including Mplatco, Cyrene Q and Shonduras. Snapchat is rather late when it comes to courting influencers and content creators on its platform, but better late than never, especially as the company continues to seek extra revenue streams. Snapchat recently started moving beyond traditional publishing brands and striking partnerships with up-and-coming niche digital publishers that are popular among the teens. This new pilot program will further offer brands a way to connect with the young Snapchat audience in a native and authentic way.

Related: Snapchat to discontinue its peer-to-peer payment system Snapcash [link]; Snapchat launches Lens Explorer in iOS app that lets you find lenses created by other users [link]; WeChat introduces WePage to let brands compile all their information and social channels into one page [link]; Brands like Fenty Beauty and Prada are creating virtual influencers for social campaigns [link]

Stats To Know:

• Facebook is having a rough week. The social media giant reported Q2 revenue of $13.23 billion, with its flagship site/app now reaches 1.47 billion daily active users, up 11% year-over-year, but that growth is mostly from developing markets. Its daily active users in Europe actually dropped for the first time, down from 282 million in the previous quarter to 279 million in Q2. Facebook stock closed down 19% on Thursday due to the disappointing user numbers and revenue growth projections, wiping out nearly $120 billion in market value in one day.
• Online streaming television has overtaken traditional pay-TV for the first time ever in Britain, according to research from media regulator Ofcom. The study found that streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime has reached 15.4 million subscribers, while pay-TV is at 15.1 million subscriptions.
• Smart speaker are cutting into screen time: With 43 million adult owners in the U.S., smart speakers are driving more audio use and impacting engagement with other media, too. According to a new report from NPR & Edison Research, 29% of new smart speaker owners say the smart speaker usage replaces some of the TV time.
• Cord cutters will outpace previous projections and grow more than 30% this year, analysis from eMarketer shows. This is the second time eMarketer has increased projections for cord cutting in less than a year.