Trending on TikTok: #FrozenHoney – TikTok creators discovered a new food hack with #FrozenHoney. Participating in the trend is as simple as pouring some honey into a smaller water bottle before tossing it into the freezer overnight. The result is a solid but malleable substance that can be squeezed out of the container for easy eating. But creators haven’t stopped there. With different recipes and styles, #frozenhoney allows for creative alterations with a similar delicious result.
Keith Kelly Signs Off – For 23 years, his Media Ink column for The New York Post was a must-read for magazine machers. What’s next? – His column, Media Ink, appeared on Wednesdays and Fridays and became a must-read for many in Manhattan, especially those in magazine publishing. It was where you might find out that your editor in chief was about to get “the ol’ heave-ho,” to use Kelly parlance, or that the publication you worked for was getting sold. [NY Times]
Fury, Worry, and Walkouts: Inside Activision Blizzard’s Week of Reckoning – IGN has spoken to seven past and present Activision Blizzard employees, building a clearer picture not just of its deeply troubled working culture, but the immediate aftermath of that culture becoming public – and how those at the company have organised to try and effect positive change amid worldwide outrage.
Activision Blizzard’s week of reckoning began with allegations coming to light through a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment & Housing [DFEH]. It revealed a two-year investigation into reports of pay discrimination, sexual harassment, and a general “frat culture” at the company known for Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and other massive games. The report touched off a firestorm on social media that has burned ever since, made all the more fierce by official responses that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has since acknowledged as “tone deaf.” [IGN]
Amazon plunge drags down eBay, Etsy and Wayfair as investors fret over slowing growth – E-commerce stocks sank Friday after Amazon, the largest U.S. e-retailer, reported disappointing results and gave a weaker-than-expected outlook for the third quarter.
Wayfair and Etsy dropped almost 8%, while eBay fell 7%. Amazon had its worst day on the market in more than a year, falling 7.6% and wiping out about $75 billion in market value.
Amazon said revenue growth slowed in the second quarter to 27% from 41% a year earlier, when the company got a boost from stay-at-home orders during the pandemic. Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s finance chief, told analysts on the earnings call that more vacations and social gatherings are on the horizon, and there will “be things that probably people shied away from last year and that’s all good.” [CNBC]
Nielsen announced its approach to eliminate its reliance on digital identifiers and ensure that advertisers and publishers can continue to measure confidently in a dynamic, privacy-first media environment. – Third-party cookie deprecation is fundamentally changing the advertising ecosystem. Combined with the deterioration of other digital identifiers, there’s greater emphasis on first-party data, which provides a good understanding of online users’ unique habits, from website browsing to app usage. As a result, every publisher and brand has been challenged to develop its own first-party data strategy and leverage other data signals when identity is not directly attributable to an ad impression.
In the new world order, digital traffic will ultimately move into two distinct categories for measurement following the deprecation of digital identifiers:
- Authenticated: Traffic with identifiers on properties which have logged in environments or consented devices. To measure authenticated traffic, Nielsen will leverage all available identifiers and first-party data from participating clients, such as hashed email addresses, Unified ID 2.0 and select, verified self-reported demographic labels. This will ensure interoperability in the ad ecosystem, including with walled gardens, and simplify measurement for clients by reducing reliance on third parties.
- Unauthenticated: Logged out traffic or traffic on properties that do not have logged in environments or where no alternative identifiers can be provided. To measure anonymous traffic, Nielsen has developed a machine learning technique with additional contextual data signals including time, browser, content and device information, as well as FLoC groups. The model is validated against the panel for accuracy. Demographics of unauthenticated behavior are also modeled and validated with panel observations for both representation and accuracy. [Nielsen]
Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago continues through Sunday – Lollapalooza is underway in Chicago’s Grant Park with around 100,000 daily attendees expected and more than 170 bands scheduled to perform, according to festival organizers and The Associated Press. All attendees must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within the last three days to enter the festival. The four-day event is the first major multi-genre music festival to take place in the US since the pandemic started.
