Good morning. The Making Media podcast asked me on their show this week and the episode came out this morning. We talked about managing a newsletter as a business, documentary filmmaking, and “the art of trendspotting.”
THE NEWS!!
Plan B let Serena Kerrigan write, produce, and star in a commercial about emergency contraception. As viewers get used to forced ads and the creator economy more and more, I think it’s harder to trust influencers (worst case scenario) or enjoy their sponsored content. I know I skip through most ads. When I heard that Serena was given the opportunity to basically create a miniseries for Plan B, I texted her about the project. “The fact that a pharmaceutical company was willing to do something as innovative and bold as this is really telling of how they are willing to take a risk in terms of putting their advertising budget towards a creator. Making short-form episodic content…it's just a new wave of advertising and it's really smart. I believe that many other brands are going to follow. Why would you pay for a one off video when you can have people coming back every week?” Young emergency contraception companies (Julie, Stix) are taking market share and it seems to me that Plan B is deciding to modernize and refresh their brand in response.
JPMorgan launched a sports investment banking group. Sports teams are an asset class that professionalized investors are beginning to be more interested in – weird rich guys are not the only buyers anymore (but they’re still my favorite). Sports teams have seen valuations soar, driven in part by owners looking to cash in on a rising perception among investors, following the pandemic, that live sports remain a hit with viewers.
