Happy Friday!
This week one HQ Trivia app player won his own pot of gold, or $25,000 if you are not lucky enough to be at the end of a rainbow.
Let the scrolling begin!
Top Pick
What Is Fortnite, and why wonât my kid shut up about it?
If you haven't heard of the new game sweeping the world, now you have. It's called Fortnite. It's been out since July, but with the combination of free, cool, and on all the platforms, it's blowing up. And it's making some streamers a lot of money.
Itâs #1 on Twitch... The most popular streamer, a guy known as Ninja, routinely pulls in close to 100,000 live viewers and is currently making well over $500,000 a month (not a typo) simply by broadcasting his Fortnite gameplay sessions. Heâs also very good at the game, which helps.
On top of that, Ninja and Drake are playing together. So that helps.
Interactive Media
Gen Z is quitting social media in droves because it makes them unhappy, study finds
34 percent of Gen Z say theyâre permanently quitting social media, and 64 percent are taking a break, according to new research from Origin, Hill Hollidayâs in-house research arm.
Why is this? According to the study, 41% of Gen Z feel social media is wasting their time, while 35% feel it's very negative.
There are lots of recommendations in the report about creating a positive brand experience for Gen Z.
At Rerun, we feel it strengthens the case for building owned & operated properties. This way, brands control the entire experience, ensuring it remains positive for fans.
Storytelling
Interview with CondĂ© Nastâs Chief Digital Officer Fred Santarpia - Over The Top
We are delighted to bring you this interview with Fred Santarpia, Chief Digital Officer at Condé Nast. Fred leads digital strategy for 20 brands including Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Vogue. A portfolio with diverse audiences that has grown its digital audience from 70m in 2014 to 130m this year. Not bad. So what is Fred's advice for those building a multimedia brand?
'Look at where your brand has authority, authenticity, and what your core audience is resonating with. Thatâs going to create longterm value.â
On the flipside, he adds;
âYour strength can become your weakness. If you represent so many different types of content, and youâre so broad, you can run the risk of not meaning anything to anyone.'
A fine balance indeed.
This interview took place at Axonista's New York HQ, filmed by our lovely partners at VideoInk.
Facebookâs Silicon Valley approach has hindered its video ambitions
Facebook is having a topsy-turvy time at the moment.
Struggling to grow its Watch side to the platform is resulting in a split in media and advertising companies.
The core issue appears to be that they themselves do not know what they want to be known for when it comes to their video content, and in turn, are struggling to attract like-minded content creators to the platform.
âBashing on Facebook is the new black; everyone feels like itâs time to poop on them,â said Spiegel. âYou certainly have the right to, but youâve been playing along and feeding this beast for so long â so shame on you if any of these things that Facebook does isnât in your best interest.â
Many brands are now deciding to stop creating live video content and original content for Facebook. Rather opting for the lazier approach of sharing the same content on YouTube, Twitter and other platforms. The good times for click bait content may be over, but the future for creative content and well-planned advertising may be on the horizon.
AVA: The art and science of image discovery at Netflix
In a very interesting post from Netflix's Tech Blog, they describe how they surface high quality imagery from video content. Algorithms process the video to select stills for cover art or backdrops, recommending them based on composition, face detection, motion blur, camera shot and object detection.
A single season of average TV show (about 10 episodes) contains nearly 9 million total frames. Asking creative editors to efficiently sift through that many frames of video to identify one frame that will capture an audienceâs attention is tedious and ineffective. We set out to build a tool that quickly and effectively identifies which frames are the best moments to represent a title on the Netflix service.
YouTube is working with Wikipedia to add context to conspiracy videos
YouTube is working hard to save face after a few months of turmoil, but the harder they try, the more issues arise. On this occasion, YouTube is working on adding Wikipedia to add context to some conspiracy videos but apparently never contacted Wikipedia about doing this.
On Tuesday at SXSW, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki stated that YouTube will now begin displaying links to fact-based content alongside conspiracy theory videos.
"Our goal is to start with a list of internet conspiracies listed on the internet where there is a lot of active discussion on YouTube," Wojcicki said at SXSW.
After the event, Wikipedia tweeted âWe were not given advance notice of this announcement,â
âWikipediaâs content is also freely licensed for reuse by anyone, and thatâs part of our mission: that every single person can share in free knowledge,â Wikimedia says. âWe want people all over the world to use, share, add to, and remix Wikipedia ... At the same time, we encourage companies who use Wikimediaâs content to give back in the spirit of sustainability.â
Virtual Reality
Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network banking on virtual reality
VR is becoming a potential future of children's TV, with engaging graphics and immersive viewing.
âWith our share growing and content pipeline in overdrive, we are reinventing ourselves to best serve the new and next generation of audiences on new and next-generation platforms,â said Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon Group, in a statement.
The television networks are still the primary focus for Disney, Turner and Viacom, but itâs clear that on the kids programming front, the potential of AR and VR is being taken seriously by all three.
Blue Vision Labs, which builds âcollaborativeâ AR, emerges from stealth with $14.5M led by GV
"Blue Vision Labs", a new augmented reality startup has recently revealed a platform that they claim will bring âcollaborationâ to the AR experience. Their API and SDK have been used to create applications showcasing features that vary from multi-player games to on-street navigation. They claim the technology is far more accurate than normal GPS - being able to locate users within centimetres of their actual location. And with emerging wearable technology such as AR glasses, the applications for this technology are seemingly endless.
...multiple users will be able to see the same virtual objects, and interact with each other in that virtual space with spatial accuracy that hasnât been seen in widely-available AR services before.
Esports
Esports: Why pro video gaming will be bigger than the NFL
For many of the next generation (the 'Twitch' generation?) there is little difference between esports and traditional athletics. The level of dedication, mental agility, hand-eye co-ordination and skill is evident in both. It also lends itself very well to streaming, resulting in a global network of content that's always on and available to watch. Several countries now officially recognise professional esports players, granting athletics visas, and there was an official tournament at last month's Winter Games.
Competitors in the esports tournament played StarCraft II, a war game that tests wits and dexterity. Professional players routinely execute more than 300 actions per minute as they build armies and try to outmaneuver rivals on a virtual battlefield.
We think esports, by many measurements, will eventually be bigger than the NFL. That said, it's a little unfair to compare the entirety of global pro esports as an industry to a single traditional sports league in one country.
Spike Jonze directs mind-melting new dance video for Apple
Spike Jonze has directed a short for Apple HomePods called "Welcome Home". It features some colourful and trippy visuals which were mostly created without digital effects - along with a catchy song and a choreographed dance route.
Enjoy and Happy St. Patrick's Day from all of us at Axonista â