Weekly Roundup – December 9th, 2024

"The combined company will retain the Omnicom name and trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Omnicom Group
Omnicom Group will acquire Interpublic Group in a deal that will create the world’s largest advertising business, the companies confirmed Monday."

"This week, openai launched what its chief executive, Sam Altman, called “the smartest model in the world”—a generative-AI program whose capabilities are supposedly far greater, and more closely approximate how humans think, than those of any such software preceding it. The start-up has been building toward this moment since September 12, a day that, in OpenAI’s telling, set the world on a new path toward superintelligence.
That was when the company previewed early versions of a series of AI models, known as o1, constructed with novel methods that the start-up believes will propel its programs to unseen heights. Mark Chen, then OpenAI’s vice president of research, told me a few days later that o1 is fundamentally different from the standard ChatGPT because it can “reason,” a hallmark of human intelligence."

Our Take: OpenAI coming out with tech that emulates 'human reasoning' is like watching someone invent fire and immediately insist it will only be used to make gourmet s'mores.

"The biggest trend in culture on social media in 2024 can be summed up with one word: Fans.
Major broadcasting networks and mainstream media, and in more recent years streaming companies, have had near-total control over entertainment habits. But now it's the fans who are making an outsize impact on what Americans listen to, play, read and watch — through social media.
The new end-of-year reports released by social media companies including YouTube, TikTok and Spotify point to this overarching trend — Instagram did not produce a trends report this year."

Our Take: It's actually a small minority of users that regularly post on social media. Everyone else basically lurks. So your entertainment strategy is based on the tastes of social media power users, people who compulsively post, while the tastes of the lurking masses/non-users might be more varied than that of the users driving fandom culture.

"Brendan Carr, an FCC commissioner who is Donald Trump‘s pick to chair the regulatory body, vowed to back local TV stations “even if that’s in conflict with the interests of national broadcast networks.”
Appearing Friday on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, Carr continued to draw attention to broadcast networks’ “public interest” obligations in the wake of calls from Trump and his supporters to compel the FCC pull network licenses. Two key flashpoints have been a CBS interview with Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes and an appearance by the Democratic candidate on NBC’s Saturday Night Live."

"....Anthony railed against the industry and his perceived issues with it in the 15-minute recording.
“When you talk to these management companies and these label-type people about their strategies, they’ll use the word, ‘Create a moment,’” Anthony said. “But they want to have three or four things happen at the same time on social media and different places so that it looks like a moment happened. And then people get inspired by it and almost in a trance by that, and it’s like a phenomenon that they want to know more about.""

Our Take: It's been a viable strategy in the Viral TikTok/YouTube/whatever era to 'create a moment' that will boost engagement with a particular single by an artist. Consumers are increasingly privy to how the sausage is made and labels will need to adjust their marketing strategies to stay current.

"TikTok could become a bigger part of advertisers’ measurement mix under a new pact unveiled Thursday with Nielsen.
The two companies have struck a partnership that will give advertisers and buying agencies the ability to compare ad performance on the quick-hit streaming-video site with that of other digital, connected-TV and linear outlets. The hope is that the new data will help advertisers place their commercials across various media with more precision.
“Amidst a fragmented ecosystem, advertisers are increasingly challenged to understand and substantiate the incremental value of each element of their media plan,” said Ameneh Atai, Nielsen’s general manager of audience measurement, in a statement. Having TikTok under Nielsen’s measurement should help “advertisers make the most informed decisions as they plan and measure their cross platform and publisher campaigns.”"

Our Take: Nielsen aligning with TikTok feels like a legacy institution trying to stay relevant by stapling itself to the newest thing, even if it doesn't fully understand it. Their promise of "precision" in ad placement is ironic, considering their own metrics have long been criticized for lagging behind modern viewing habits. This partnership risks being less about innovation and more about Nielsen’s desperate attempt to prove it’s still the referee in a game that keeps changing the rules.