TWW 073

👋 Only the 1 new subscriber this week, but HELLO! Thanks for the support👋 Another pretty tough week of news, ranging from bottled burnt hair to Australia being underwater, to Russia being dickheads. In better news, Blink 182 are back together and touring🤘

🏖Things you may have missed🏖

• Ad free Instagram removed from app stores😣

• Airline bans AirTags after public shaming😂

• Hey, quick one, what’s our space strategy?🛰

• AI that finds where the photo was taken🤯

• Meta enforcing use of Horizon Worlds🤔

🤯The BIG stories🤯

Despite the stock falling 60%, projects being cancelled, and a hiring freeze in place. Meta has launched the Quest Pro, a $1,499 USD mixed-reality headset that focuses more on productivity than escapism and, I think, they’re on to something…

Some caveats. The price is outrageous, the battery life is 1-2 hours and it’s still a wearable prophylactic (shout out Prof Galloway). But, the slight pivot into mixed reality looks to be very smart indeed. It’s already struck up an unholy alliance with Microsoft and the emphasis on productivity will target a completely different audience - are they after those working from home?

I know what you’re thinking…it’s been a while since we’ve had a new acronym for a Google product. WELL HAPPY FRIDAY to you my friend! Introducing PAIR, or Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation. A reimagined way to run first-party data for personalisation goals, with privacy-centric controls.

Oh, and clean rooms! Another buzzword for 2022. Already partnering with Infosum, LiveRamp, and Habu, Google is going hard on privacy and allowing brands & publishers to share & match datasets without exposing the consumer.

😎Cool & Creativ3😎

Again, another week where I’m not sure I need to say too much about this. This is a very good out-of-home advert from Whatsapp. Watch, enjoy and share with your client for inspiration, only for them to produce a static billboard. We tried.

3D billboards are all the rage and rightfully so. Look at the mix of storytelling, distinctive assets, and the placement, oh boy *chefs kiss*

Honestly, I don’t know where to start with this one. This is SO mind-blowing and I’m running out of superlatives to describe what we’re currently witnessing with advancements in AI. This podcast features Joe Rogan interviewing Steve Jobs, it’s been entirely generated by artificial intelligence…

Fans of Podcast AI send in ideas of the guests they want to hear, the hosts, and the topics that they’ll talk about. Some of it is a bit unusual, but this technology is unreal! Take a listen, share with your friends, freak out a bit…

📚Studies & Research📚

What is up my fellow kids? Turns out that we’re not all being real, are we? I’m not upset, just disappointed in you all. According to new dubious numbers, there are 53m installs but only 9% open the app daily. Get ready for the BeReal fatigue article soon to drop in NY Times...

It’s cool I get it, sometimes you just can’t BeReal. You may be in a meeting, stuck on the loo, or even watching Below Deck (yes, I’m shaming you). Really interesting to see that despite the app being a breakout success, the take-up ISN’T where you think it is…So, for clients asking for your BeReal strategy, back in your box.

🤓Technology & Tracking🤓

Uh-oh. Another headache for AdTech and advertisers? The new Pixel 7 will include a VPN service for free across BOTH app & web, in a move that echoes Apple’s Private Relay - just stricter. I wonder how much the GA4 teams and Pixel teams have communicated on this one?

So that’s Apple, Microsoft, and now Google who are taking the IP address off the table as a viable identifier. It all feels very conflicted, as a pixel user this is awesome BUT as an advertiser this makes things much harder…

📱Best of the Net📱

• The age-old debate🛍

• She did him dirty🤣

• This is important🏃‍♂️

• Goood dahmer😂

• True😅