Branded, 11/13/17

Hulu is dating Switch, YouTube’s CEO talks about her original content budget and a little dive into FTC regulations about endorsements.

“You’ll learn more in a day talking to customers than a week of brainstorming, a month of watching competitors, or a year of market research” — Aaron Levie, CEO, Box

Branded is a daily curated report of industry news designed to help executives in marketing, advertising and branding create ROI producing media, stories, and campaigns that deliver long term results.

News that Matters

Hulu is now available for download on the Nintendo Switch as of November 9th. The Nintendo platform is making strides towards multi-use, not just for gamers anymore. I imagine that it won’t be long before Netflix and other streaming apps are on the Switch.

Feels like the continued shift towards the ol’ cord cutters. This is what younger consumers want. If they have a Switch or PS4 as a gaming console then they would rather just use an app to watch shows. Remember when people were buying a Playstation (PS3) because it was actually cheaper than a standalone Blu-Ray player? It’s kinda like that. Younger consumers are tech savvy and will flock to the easiest thing to use.

Well, we never ended up getting ESPN “The Ocho” but it looks like we will get ESPN Plus in spring of 2018. ESPN is launching a new streaming service (aka ESPN+) that will integrate with a new and improved ESPN App.

Lessons Learned

Advertising is very simple in a lot of ways. Advertisers go where the users go, and users are choosing to spend a lot more time online. — Susan Wojcicki, CEO, YouTube

Original Content, Series, and Shows

Budgets, they are a-growing! Budgets for original content are growing as we mentioned last week. YouTube is taking a slightly different approach but leaves the door open for larger spends down the road.

Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO, announced that they are starting to “dip our toe into doing a lot more higher end content production” as told on Recode Decode.

They recently launched a sci-fi series Lifeline with The Rock and have other celebrity-driven shows outside the YouTube Red paywall (starring Kevin Hart, Ellen DeGeneres, Demi Lovato, etc). These are designed to compete with regular old TV ad dollars.

However, with 1.5 billion signed-in folks each month, Wojcicki believes that one “hit show” is not going to move the needle. I recommend you listen to the entire podcast episode!

I get that YouTube doesn’t exactly need a Westworld, but it couldn’t hurt, right?

Storytelling

Harry Potter Fans rejoice! The Potter Universe will move to HBO starting January 1st! Now you can watch all 8 films + Fantastic Beasts. Unless you don’t have somebody’s HBO login, of course. I wonder how many franchises in the future will rotate which streaming service has rights to their content? Also, did anyone else’s iPhone 3 autocorrect to ‘Happy Routes’ back in the day? Just me? Moving on…

Marketing Q&A

This question is “ripped from the headlines” as in, I pulled it from the FTC’s FAQs. We get a lot of questions about how endorsements work and I think most marketers struggle to keep up with the evolving nature of media, endorsements and social.

Q: Does the FTC hold bloggers to a higher standard than reviewers for traditional media outlets?

A: “No. The FTC Act applies across the board. The issue is — and always has been — whether the audience understands the reviewer’s relationship to the company whose products are being recommended. If the audience understands the relationship, a disclosure isn’t needed.” — FTC

Spotlights

Looking for the latest in TechTrends? Check out our daily curated report, TechTrends, written by Stephanie Postles of The Mission.

“From Baghdad to Iwo Jima, an anthem for the dead”. This is a fantastic article by Matt Ufford and great read after Veteran’s Day.

Also check out “Veterans to Watch in 2018” by Eric Mitchell. Cool to be listed with this group of amazing veterans.

Opportunities

Looking for elite level talent for your company? The team at Shift.org is rethinking the way veterans transition into the workforce. If you want all-star military veterans in your company, reach out to Mike Slagh or go to shift.org!

Branded is brought to you by our team at The Mission. We create original content, shows, and series for brands and distribute them to our audience of millions. To learn more, connect with us here. Or you can email me at ian (at) themission.co