5 minutes estimated reading time
Sponsorship
Sports has created a sponsorship bonanza, with women’s sport being a particular beneficiary – Women’s elite sports to generate more than $1 billion in revenue in 2024 | Deloitte UK.
For some brands sponsorships aid in research and product development, motorsport and mountaineering are two sports where this the case. Other sponsorship deals, for instance college athletes and premier league footballers depend on the individuals effect as an influencer as much as their role on pitch. All of these complexities will affect the perception of the sponsorship value and effectiveness. Sponsorship being unmanaged and unmeasured isn’t a new phenomenon. – Sponsorship ‘unmanaged and unmeasured’, WFA warns – The Media Leader. Shirt sponsors are basically dependent on the amount of time on screen. Sponsoring celebrities like Jackie Chan is more about attracting eyeballs to the companies advertising campaigns.
(Jackie Chan represents a particular problem in this sector of sponsorship because he represented over 12 brands at the same time. From local companies that made game consoles suspiciously similar to Nintendo systems to Japanese multi-nationals Canon and Mitsubishi.)
Part of this focus on sponsorship measurement might be about the culture change digital advertising created: How the digital revolution led to a greater justification for advertising – The Media Leader. Famously, telecoms executives love of particular sports influenced sponsorship programmes of their companies. Sir Peter Bonfield was a keen sailor and BT sponsored the Global Challenge yacht race series.
Sir Chris Gent, over at Vodafone was a big cricket fan. The sponsorship would have been difficult to measure as a lot of the impact would have been in cementing existing relationships and facilitating new ones through corporate entertainment. With both, there would be some efforts to demonstrate the relevance of the sponsorship, but it was very much putting the cart before the horse.
Beauty
Avon Promotes CMO Kristof Neirynck to CEO
Consumer behaviour
Nostalgia is a curse in life and tech. – On my Om
Culture
Grateful Dead x Stundenglass Bong | Esquire – yes the Grateful Dead now have an official bong for resale, but the author’s deadhead memories are the thing to read on this article
Design
Tektronix’s Ceramic CRT Production And The Building 13 Catacombs | Hackaday
Energy
Finance
This feels structural in nature and implies something is broken in Hong Kong’s capital investment and wealth management sectors: What Hong Kong’s banker malaise signifies | FT
Health
Let’s Talk About Obesity Drugs | Out-Of-Pocket – probably the best 101 on the current state of obesity medication as a market sector
Hong Kong
Deloitte and KPMG ask staff to use burner phones for Hong Kong trips | FT – Moscow Rules in Hong Kong
Innovation
Europe finally sets date for Ariane-6 rocket debut – BBC News
Ideas
When journalism is emptied of journalism – Nieman Storyboard
Luxury
Luxury borrowing from sports apparel and mainstream fashion with its use of NFCs – From Tod’s to Balenciaga, NFC chips are luxury’s secret weapon | Jing Daily
Louis Vuitton is selling a €6,000 digital mini trunk by Nicolas Ghesquière | Vogue Business – Louis Vuitton is selling a €6,000 digital mini trunk by Nicolas Ghesquière. The next product available to LV’s exclusive group of NFT holders is a mini trunk bag designed by the brand’s women’s artistic director. Only 200 are available, and the physical will land in March.
Media
Social media belongs to the creator economy—not users | Fortune – if that’s the case, expect regulation to come in much stronger
The Hundred-Year Battle for India’s Radio Airwaves | WIRED – state broadcaster All India Radio has 262 radio stations that reach almost every part of India, broadcasting in 23 languages and 146 dialects. There are over 388 private FM stations spread across the biggest and smaller cities – it is easy to forget that there are millions of people who still don’t access online media. And at the other extreme: Global SVOD subs to reach 1.79 billion by 2029 – The Media Leader
Netflix Gave An Unproven Director $55 Million For A Sci-Fi Series, And He Blew It On Rolls-Royces, Crypto, And Dodgy Stock Bets – surprised Netflix hasn’t optioned a documentary to tell this story
Online
Is Argentina the First A.I. Election? – The New York Times
Security
War has spread to a sixth domain: the private sector | FT this concern is coming into focus as there is greater awareness of shrinkage in military orientated manufacturing capability: People are realizing that the Arsenal of Democracy is gone | Noah Smith
A Civil Rights Firestorm Erupts Around a Looming Surveillance Power Grab | WIRED
L3Harris to sell commercial aviation business for $800 million – Breaking Defense – renewed focus on their security business
Software
Magnific AI – I look at this and think of Blade Runner
the world’s largest distributed LLM training job on TPU v5e | Google Cloud Blog
2023 CommsIndex: Asia-Pacific Comms Heads Remain Wary Of AI’s Rise | PRovoke Media – clients are also concerned about potential job losses and skills gaps that may result from using generative AI tools to automate their work. The skills gap point doesn’t get sufficient discussion in talks about machine learning and automation
Style
Why Jerry Lorenzo and Adidas joined forces to create Fear of God Athletics | Vogue Business
Deep Dive: Two DTC Brands – 2PM – Allbirds is on life support while ON Running shoes sails ahead
Taiwan
Taiwan and the True Sources of Deterrence | Foreign Affairs
Tools
Clipdrop – SDXL Turbo – stable diffusion image creation
Kosmik • For All Mindkind – Pinterest and Pinboard meet Evernote
The Best Social Media Analytics Tool | Measure Studio – taking a good deal of the drudgery out of social media account reporting