Raffi's Round Up - w/c 5th May 2024
The five best Marketing-related nuggets across my desk this week
Welcome to the latest edition of my weekly Round Up!
Greetings from Brighton, England! This is a paid edition of The Raffi Report. For £8/$10 a month you’ll get 5 nuggets at week that will keep you at the bleeding edge of the Marketing industry.
ONE (if you’re interested in how Google is dialling up its owned/operated media machine, read this one)
We’ve been speaking for a long time on this newsletter about the power of owned media machines.
Robinhood’s Sherwood News set the tone last year for B2B companies to shape the narrative around their category (I think the first time a company spun out a separate entity to run as a media vehicle?!) and now Google are at it too.
Per the article on BI:
“The effort, called 100 Zeros, is a multiyear partnership with Range Media Partners, the talent firm and production company whose notable films include "A Complete Unknown" and "Longlegs." The company sees it as a way to get the creative community to adopt its newer tech products and services, like its Immersive View feature that lets you see things in 3D, spatial tools that blend the physical and virtual worlds, and AI. Google also wants to promote a positive view of its products — and tech generally — through entertainment to young audiences by helping shape pop culture.”
TWO (if you want to see how much room there is to run for podcasts, read this one)
I’ve said it before and I remain convinced that the biggest podcast in 2030 still probably hasn’t been started today. BTW: this goes for YouTube, Reddit and any of the fastest growing social platforms.
We are still so early on podcasts as evidenced by previously underestimated ad revenues that are ramping up.
The global podcast industry generated $7.3 billion in sales last year, according to a report from the research firm Owl & Co., more than double most estimates and a sign that this newer entertainment format is far more lucrative than even insiders realize.
What was fascinating in the report was that the increased revenue number “doesn’t take into account live events, like the recently sold-out O2 arena in the UK for a taping of The Rest is Politics.”
The universe that is being created around the original audio IP is still nascent.
THREE (if you’re a Berkshire Hathaway/Buffett fan, read this one)
As a reminder that every business (even ones run by The Sage of Omaha!) runs off a power law, this detail from
regarding the importance of BH’s stake in Apple hit home.
FOUR ( read this one)
Life is mirroring art… This sensational piece in Politico details how cardinals are watching ‘Conclave’ the movie for guidance on the actual conclave.
To be fair, just look at the similarities between the film and the reality…
FIVE (if you want to see how TikTok is in a league of its own, read this one)
35 hours per month, or a full working day (8hrs) per week is the average time spent per user on Bytedance’s crown jewel.
It’s quite incredible to think how recent and rapid its rise has been — and look who’s lurking just behind…
As I’ve argued elsewhere, YouTube is the one to watch if you’re a brand thinking about organic content in 2025.
