#23 The era of celeb influencer is over
W/C 12th September
Hello and welcome to #23 - I missed last week’s edition, the first I’ve missed in 23 editions so far. A lot was going on at work and well, the world, so it felt like - let’s have a little moment. It did get me thinking about how odd death of well known people is just so bizarre in a digital/social world. But that’s another story.
Anyway, hope no one else had campaigns going live…
Now, on to the #content.
1. The Era of the celeb influencer is over.
Interesting piece here, in the same world as the growth in niche as a strategy (that sounds like a conflict) but see point 3 below. Being contrary to this, I do wonder if it’s leaning too much into an trend. Are we also just building new celebs anyway? Mass brands are going to lean into niche and mass, they can because they’re mass. Bit of emperor’s new clothes here (apt for Vogue I guess). Worth a read though.
2. Roblox unit economics.
Bit of a big one this. But if you’re interested in how Roblox works, how you could work on it and generally how they acquire and make money. It’s a *must* read. Dense though. Took me awhile.
3. The rise of micro-communities (again)
This feels like the buzz concept for the next few months in digital/marketing. I think there is a place for this, of course (see above point 1). But again, I do wonder how does this scale and impact? That said, the social vs media debate is in the right place IMO. Social as we know it, is moving from the channels we now class as social to niche, or actually, private spaces. Is micro just privacy?
Odds and ends, basic links. Just pure linkage, low intervention links.
God save the brands - which brands needed to just stop during the Queen news. Clutchpoints for me.
How to make a great 3D billboard. Question - when will they not be cool?
Daily Mail has 35 people working on Snap? Surely not exclusively?
The hierarchy of competence and the paradox of trust - sounds so worthy, interesting tho.
Adieu.
September has started at great pace, genuinely looking forward to Christmas.
Bonus.
The Capture on iPlayer is great fun, it’s a bit BBC in that the script is a little on the nose, but S1 in 2019 (!) was strong and S2 has seemingly got something interesting though it’s kinda heavy-handed. Also honourable mention of Making Wrexham on D+ for football and non-football fans.
All the spelling and grammatical mistakes in this Substack are on purpose to test you, actually. Well done. You got them all. No, I don’t need to know about them, you have that kudos.