All hail the queen. ICYMI, the Grammys have a new GOAT, and her name is Beyoncé. During last night’s awards, Queen B broke the record for the most Grammy wins of all time (32 and counting), dethroning the conductor George Solti of the #1 spot. In total, music’s most decorated artist took home four awards, including the best R&B song for “Cuff It” from her highly acclaimed album Renaissance.
We hope Ticketmaster is ready for what happens next.
In other news… Ad spending gets weird, YouTubers strike a deal with the UFC, and wine fails to capture younger drinkers.
Top Trends
YouTube: Mario Kart (SNL)
Twitter: Kyrie Irving
Google: Manchester City
Reddit: Fedor Emelianenko
TikTok: “Trap Mafia” - Lastra
Spotify: “Flowers” - Miley Cyrus
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ADVERTISING
Advertisers gamble on new platforms // Illustration by Kate Walker
Advertisers spend less but experiment more
The Future. Huge changes to data privacy rules and competition in the attention economy have crippled traditional digital advertising. As a result, advertisers are decreasing their ad spend but increasingly allocating that money to new and experimental media like audio and video streaming services. Thinking outside the box might just be marketers’ safest growth strategy.
A gambler’s gameDigiday interviewed various marketing firms about the trend of increased ad spend on new and experimental media.
Claire Russell, head of media at Fitzco advertising agency, said that while overall client ad budgets have stagnated or fallen 5%, clients reliably keep 10-15% of that budget open for experimentation.
Clients want efficiency, so instead of reducing testing budgets, they keep those budgets confined to easily measurable channels like video and audio streaming. Spend in both of these categories is rising.
But advertisers are moving away from the really new platforms, like Web3, VR, and the metaverse. The reason? None are receiving much audience engagement or showing as much promise as content streaming currently is.
Getting realStill, advertisers caution that no channels are likely to be as effective as they were at the height of the pandemic when engagement hit record highs because everyone was stuck inside consuming content. Marketers now expect their biggest hurdle to be convincing clients to lower their expectations.
That’s gonna be a hard sell.
BUSINESS
Prime throws their hat in the sports drink ring // Illustration by Kate Walker
Prime’s UFC deal proves influencer businesses can go big
The Future. The UFC has just signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with Prime, the sports drink label owned by YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI. The brand’s rapid success (raking in $250 million in retail sales last year) demonstrates the growing power of influencer marketing, and suggests that some influencers may have what it takes to build businesses that can compete with major industry players.
Prime timeBloomberg recently covered Prime’s meteoric rise and UFC deal.
Prime will be advertised on the UFC’s MMA broadcasts, including pay-per-view and the Fight Night events streamed on ESPN+, as well as in the fighting arena.
For their part, Logan Paul and KSI will push Prime’s products on their social media accounts, which command over 400 million followers combined.
Everything on Prime’s online store is currently sold out. The company’s products are pretty much impossible to find in Europe, and resellers have even started flipping the drinks on e-commerce platforms.
This deal will replace the UFC’s 5-year deal with Coca-Cola’s BodyArmor sports drink, which recently ended.
Force of personalityPrime’s ambitions go beyond this deal. The label hopes to break $1 billion in retail sales and to strike even more sports sponsorships in the coming year.
That’s a reasonable goal for a brand that’s already competing with the likes of Coca-Cola. If Paul and KSI can build a competitive sports drink company in just over a year, what’s stopping other major influencers from doing it with similar products?
TOGETHER WITH HARRY'S
Meet Harry's
Shaving products have been overdesigned and overpriced for years. To solve this problem, Jeff Raider and Andy Katz-Mayfield set out to bring simple, high-quality products to market — at a fair price. And so, Harry’s was born.
Today, Harry’s sleek razors are best sellers. But Jeff and Andy didn’t stop there. Harry’s also boasts high-quality hair, body, and facial care products. Even though the company began as a go-to for men, we would recommend it to anyone who shaves… or bathes.
What we might love even more than the products is that Harry’s sets aside 1% of their sales to support nonprofits providing mental health care services to men in need.
Try Harry’s range of grooming essentials, and let us know what you think!
BUSINESS
Love the wine you're with // Unsplash
The younger generations aren’t wine-ing down
The Future. As vino fails to capture the millennial and Gen Z markets, winemakers speculate that vino’s “inherent elitism” is turning off young drinkers. If they want to engage millennials and Zoomers during their prime spending years, they might have to flesh out their brands with more approachable offerings.
Partners in wineForbes highlights the key takeaways from Silicon Valley Bank’s annual State of the Wine Industry Report.
American wine consumption has only grown among drinkers over 60, with the biggest growth among 70 and 80-year-olds.
Sales of $15 and above wine bottles have increased, while sales of those under $15 have dropped.
Just 35% of 21- to 29-year-olds drink alcohol, but not wine. 5% of consumers now abstain from alcohol entirely.
No wine left behindBecause today’s youth has access to a larger selection of beverage options than previous generations, they don’t have to reach for wine. They can imbibe thoughtfully-made hard seltzers or craft canned cocktails or mix their own drinks at home.
While some winemakers aren’t overly concerned with the decline in interest from young drinkers, others are pouring more resources into social media and brand experiences to appeal to the younger market.
“Younger consumers want real experiences with [a] brand,” Sam Coturri, Proprietor of Winery Sixteen 600, tells Forbes. “Overly curated or overly glossed brand touches, whether in person or digitally, dissuade meaningful engagement [...] Deeply authentic, intentional brand experiences build long-term customers.”
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
UGGs are officially cool again
The sheepskin-lined boots, which were popular in the early 2000s, have made a comeback over the last few years due to the “ugly fashion” movement — where ugly products become so ironic that they’re fashionable. When fashion search site Lyst released its quarterly index of the hottest brands in Q4 2022, UGG was listed as one of the top 20 brands for the first time since the index was created in 2017. “The power of a strong Gen Z following is undeniable,” Lyst analysts wrote, adding that searches for UGG’s ultra mini platform boots jumped by 82% over the holidays and were sold out at most retailers for the entire fourth quarter. Don’t threaten us with a good, comfy shoe...
Read More → insider
Music fans can soon become music investors
Thanks to a new platform from GTS and JKBX, music fans can buy the rights of their favorite artist or music catalog. The system, which will launch at the end of 2023, will allow fans to invest similarly to how they buy stocks. Instead of shares, investors will essentially buy parts of music royalties and become holders, taking a portion of the revenue from the copyright. The music royalties will be packaged into a new company, like an LLC, which will be filed with the SEC and made available for investors to buy. GTS and JKBX will also launch a fund for songwriters and recording artists to get ongoing revenue from the platform. Nice.
Read More → bloomberg
We’re living in a post-pandemic economy
The Fed acknowledges that COVID no longer poses a risk to the economy, as the shocks of the pandemic have transformed the very fabric of the economy itself. Still, the US labor market is short on workers, which means higher wages, more employee power, and a stronger push toward automation. The shift to hybrid work has also led to huge changes in cities, where retailers depend on desk jockeys for business. Supply chain issues and mounting tensions with China have even convinced some companies to relocate manufacturing closer to home. As Axios points out, the past few years have changed so many lives, it would be weird if the economy didn’t change, too.
Read More → axios
Where people spend the most on coffee is surprising
It’s Virginia Beach, Virginia, clocking in at an average of $5.75 per cup. That means a weekday espresso drinker might spend $28.75 per week on coffee before tipping — which totals $1,495 per year. Across the country, Las Vegas is the most expensive coffee city relative to income — where a weekday drinker might spend a little more than 2% of their annual income on their caffeine fix. The cost of roasted coffee was up by 15.5% in December 2022 compared with December 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So, while we wouldn’t give up our daily brew for anything, we think it’s wiser to opt for a Keurig instead of Starbucks.
Read More → cnbc
Air will get an unprecedented theatrical release
According to sources, Amazon will release the Matt Damon-Ben Affleck drama Air — which centers on real-life shoe salesman Sonny Vaccaro and Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan — on 3,000+ domestic screens. Amazon is planning an exclusive theatrical window that’s comparable to, or even longer than, those from major studios. After its theatrical run, Air will launch on Prime Video. To generate buzz for the film, Amazon shelled out more than $7 million for a Super Bowl ad, so keep an eye out for Matt and Ben this Sunday.
Read More → variety
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Today's email was brought to you by Luke Perrotta and Kait Cunniff.Editing by Nick Comney. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.