New Digital Age highlights some of the best stories you should read across the media, marketing, and advertising press.
Businesss
CNBC
GameStop shares surge on report it will create NFT marketplace
GameStop shares rose in extended trading Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported the retailer plans to create a marketplace for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
Social media
The Drum
Amid the omicron surge, LinkedIn amps up its virtual events platform
With in-person events like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) suffering from the spike in Covid cases, LinkedIn has spruced up its virtual events platform. Here’s what you need to know about the platform’s new tools.
AI
CNBC
How A.I. is set to evolve in 2022
While AI still has a long way to go before anything like human-level intelligence is achieved, it hasn’t stopped the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon investing billions of dollars.
Mobile trends/Metaverse
Business Insider
A record $133 billion was spent on apps last year, up 20% from 2020. Streaming services had another successful year, and mobile shopping grew as the pandemic persisted.
CES
AdWeek
Wunderman Thompson Unveils Its Own Metaverse at CES
The environment is meant to give the agency’s clients a sense of the tech.
Digiday
Esports and traditional sports fandom have converged during the Covid-19 pandemic, pushing companies on both sides — and their sponsors — to experiment with new types of activations and partnerships to reach this growing combined audience.
Acquisitions/Partnerships
City A.M.
The New York Times snaps up The Athletic for £406m in a subscriber push
The New York Times has agreed to buy subscription sports site The Athletic in a deal valued at around $550m (£406m), according to insiders.
Campaign
WarnerMedia brings on Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp as measurement partners
The decision comes amid growing calls to diversify TV measurement strategies.
Advertising
Campaign
Spotify rolls out clickable in-app podcast ads at CES
The feature makes advertising interactive on Spotify original and exclusive podcasts.
The Drum
Axa ad tugs on the heartstrings with tale of birdwatching grandfather
Insurance company Axa and creative agency Publicis Conseil have collaborated on a heartwarming short film intended to assure customers they get to ‘stay focused on what matters’.
