New Florence. New Renaissance.

"The Apple of Wellness"

Also during the pandemic, People magazine began covering instructors such as Rigsby and Arzón like celebrities (which they sort of are — some of Arzón’s rides can attract 20,000-plus riders, or roughly the capacity of Madison Square Garden). And talent agencies signed up instructors, including Emma Lovewell (UTA), Tunde Oyeneyin (ICM), and Rigsby and Ben Alldis (A3).

Despite the voluntary recall of Peloton’s two treadmill models in May after the death of a child (a $165 million hit to future revenue, according to company predictions) and a recently revealed data breach (since patched), the company is moving ahead.

When Peloton opens its new 20,000-square-foot London exercise studios and broadcast center later this year — it opened a hugely upgraded $50 million New York facility in 2020 — one feature will make Peloton’s media aspirations clear: a huge street-level window allowing passersby a peek into the control room.

The Hollywood Reporter

Digital Marketing Data Nuggets

Spending on digital media surpassed television ads in 2017, and now global digital spend is anticipated to top $333 billion this year.

Thanks to Tamas Hevizi for pointer to the infographic from Visual Capitalist. Here are some nuggets

 

• Search:
  The top five search results for a keyword on Google get 70% of the clicks.
• Social media:
  80% of B2B leads come in through LinkedIn vs. 13% on Twitter and 7% on Facebook.
• Video marketing:
  Video will represent 82% of all internet traffic by 2021.
• Cold email marketing:
  Emails sent between 10-11am have the highest open rates. Tuesday is the best day to send cold emails.
• Paid advertising:
  The mobile ad blocking rate has increased 90% year-over-year.
• Lead generation:
  61% of marketers say generating traffic and leads is their top challenge.
• Content marketing:
  47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep.

 

 

 

 

The Fortnite Metaverse

Saw this in Redef thanks to Thomas Otter

"The proof of Fortnite’s unique potential was demonstrated live on February 1, 2019. At 2pm Eastern, the Marshmello (who ranks #10 in DJ Magazine’s Top 100) held a live concert that was held exclusively inside Fortnite. The event, which was live synced to the real Marshmello, was attended by more than 10MM in the game – with millions more watching live via Twitch and YouTube – many of whom used their characters’ user-specific dance moves to join in. The event was stunning. And it showcases the potential of the Metaverse (including payment for performances, music rights, etc.), wherein a user can have potentially unlimited experiences inside a single medium."

 

Geeky media: Tom Standage

Part of series on journalists, STEM specialists, authors who explain technology in sports, autos, healthcare and other aspects of life and work. I look forward to watching/reading/hearing their stuff. Many in this list have come recommended by readers – so please nominate others.

This time it is Tom Standage at The Economist. I enjoy reading the magazine’s Technology Quarterly and Mr. Standage as Deputy Editor certainly can take some credit for it.

He is also responsible for the newspaper’s digital strategy and the development of new digital products, including Espresso and Economist Films. He joined The Economist as Science Correspondent in 1998 and was subsequently appointed Technology Editor, Business Editor and Digital Editor. He is the author of six history books, including “Writing on the Wall” (2013), “The Victorian Internet” (1998) and “A History of the World in 6 Glasses” (2005). He studied engineering and computing at Oxford University and has written for other publications including the New York Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Wired, taking a particular interest in the internet’s cultural and historical significance.

 

Delta celebrates its employees

Delta had a 55 hour Facebook Live show which recognized every one of Delta’s 80,000 employees. From Adweek

“Delta also scoured the world—or just its travel hubs across the world from Atlanta to Seoul—to find over 430 actors, athletes, comedians and Delta business leaders to participate in the stunt. “

The Digital Transition of Presidential Power

On Twitter, for example, the handle @POTUS will be made available to the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. The account will retain its more than 11 million followers, but start with no tweets on the timeline. @POTUS44, a newly created handle maintained by NARA, will contain all of President Obama’s tweets and will be accessible to the public on Twitter as an archive of President Obama’s use of the account.

On Instagram and Facebook, the incoming White House will gain access to the White House username, URL, and retain the followers, but will start with no content on the timeline. An archive of White House content that was posted to the Obama White House Instagram and Facebook will continue to be accessible to the public at Instagram.com/ObamaWhiteHouse and Facebook.com/ObamaWhiteHouse. Facebook accounts for President Obama and the Vice President and the Instagram accounts belonging to the First Lady and Vice President will be moved to new “44” usernames and preserved by NARA.

Whitehouse.gov

Twitter’s NFL Live Stream experiment

When Twitter streams its first N.F.L. game on Sept. 15, it will get to assess whether its vigorous pursuit will pay off — and whether live streaming can viably be a linchpin of its future.

For Twitter, the bet on live streaming is crucial to turning itself into a mainstream internet destination after other efforts have failed. Live streaming could finally broaden Twitter’s appeal, attracting an even wider audience. And perhaps more important, live events would be another way to sell video ads. If streaming football or basketball games on Twitter’s mobile apps and on desktop computers, along with other platforms, draws viewers, the company could sell more video ads, which typically command a premium.

New York Times

Photo Credit

3.57 degrees of separation

“How connected is the world? Playwrights [1], poets [2], and scientists [3] have proposed that everyone on the planet is connected to everyone else by six other people. In honor of Friends Day, we've crunched the Facebook friend graph and determined that the number is actually 3.57. Each person in the world (at least among the 1.59 billion people active on Facebook) is connected to every other person by an average of three and a half other people. The average distance we observe is 4.57, corresponding to 3.57 intermediaries or "degrees of separation." Within the US, people are connected to each other by an average of 3.46 degrees.

Our collective “degrees of separation” have shrunk over the past five years. In 2011, researchers at Cornell, the Università degli Studi di Milano, and Facebook computed the average across the 721 million people using the site then, and found that it was 3.74 [4,5]. Now, with twice as many people using the site, we've grown more interconnected, thus shortening the distance between any two people in the world.”

Facebook Blog

BTW Facebook tells me I am slightly better than average with 3.28 degrees of separation, though not as connected as its COO Sheryl Sandberg who clocks at 2.92

How Facebook unified communications

“I said years ago that I don't want to call phone numbers; I want to call people.

Facebook Messenger lets you do just that because you can send a communications request to anyone on the platform without needing or knowing their phone number. Facebook Messenger has essentially become the white pages of the smartphone age.”

And it has over 800 million users

ZDNet

Digital SOTU

CNN says President Obama’s speech this evening at 9 pm et

“…is likely to be a combination of a valedictorian's look-how-far-we've-come rhetoric and calls to action directed not at Congress but at the voting public on issues near to Obama's heart -- and extending beyond his increasingly-limited time in office”

But as the White House Office of Digital Strategy describes at Medium it will also reflect the state of the digital nation

“For the first time, this year SOTU will be available to stream on-demand on Amazon Video, in addition to on wh.gov/sotu and our YouTube channel. And beginning Wednesday through the end of the week, Amazon will make the speech available across all devices for Americans to watch the State of the Union in the same way we’re used to consuming video content in 2016. So, for those who’ve cut the cord from cable and network TV: Whether you use a smart TV, web browser, mobile device, or tablet there’s a way for you to watch the President’s speech as it happens and on-demand.

And as in past years, you’ll be able to watch video excerpts released in real-time on Facebook and Twitter. From live GIFs on Tumblr to 6-second videos on Vine and photos on Instagram, we’ll build on previous efforts to connect with users across a range of social media sites and make the experience of the speech appropriate to each platform.”

Here is a teaser from the President of what we will hear in his last SOTU