Digital Digest Newsletter - June 20, 2021

Each week I curate and send out The Digital Digest covering digital marketing and tech. You can subscribe here.

THE WEEK THAT WAS IN DIGITAL FOR JUNE 20, 2021

ICYMI, police in Pakistan were told “No free burgers for you” and promptly arrested 19 employees of Johnny & Jugnu. Amazon seems to hire people just to fire them by channeling the worst of Jack Welch. And, what’s life in an Amazon Warehouse really like?

An NFT that makes a bit more sense than others is an actual piece of Internet History from its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. Michael Bury (Big Short guy) is calling a colossal crypto-crumble that will be "the mother of all crashes". And, TikTok just gave themselves permission to take your biometric data (face and voiceprints). Creepy.

Finally, RIP Herbert R.Tarlek Jr. (the P is for plaid). Enjoy the commentary and links below.

MARKETING STUFF

1 - RONALDO SNUB SINKS COCA-COLA SHARES BY THE BILLIONS

Talk about influence all you like, but when Ronaldo says “Beba agua!” (Drink water) and sinks Coca-Cola’s market value by $4 Billion, that’s the new gold standard. (It's only 1.6 percent of the total value, they'll be fine).

2 - PINK FLOYD FOUNDER CALLS MARK ZUCKERBERG “A LITTLE PR#CK” WHO’S A “POWERFUL IDIOT”

That’s what Roger Waters thinks of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. He said no to a huge amount of dough to use Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 for an Instagram ad. Never one to be accused of wishy-washiness, Waters diplomatically responded “And the answer is, ‘F#ck You. No f#ckin’ way.’”

3 - VOLKSWAGEN VIRTUAL TEST DRIVE ON PINTEREST IS AN AR-LIKE AD EXPERIENCE

Pinterest is banking on new adverts that are "immersive, AR-like experiences, which will eventually become commonplace in all forms of eCommerce and online product discovery." Sounds a bit like Apple's iAds tbh.

+ Shopify is also bringing Augmented Reality to online shopping with the acquisition of Primer.

4 - ADVERTISER CPM RATES INCREASE DRAMATICALLY. THANKS, APPLE.

The cost of privacy passed on to advertisers since Apple’s IOS opt-in for tracking took hold has gone way up in terms of CPM rates. This (biased) article delves into Apple using privacy as cloud cover for other ends.

5 - EMAIL MARKETERS WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO LOSE OPEN RATE TRACKING

Here's a Q&A on how changes announced last week by Apple are viewed by marketers who rely on email and the impacts this will have on tracking results. (Subscriber article)

TECH STUFF

1 - THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE DIGITAL APOCOLYPSE RIDE INTO THE ANTI-TRUST STORM

When the words “bipartisan agreements” are used in relation to anything south of the border, you know sh#t's really about to go down. It’s nearing high-noon for the four horsemen that are Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple. Things are just getting going but there are near certainties they'll look different on the other side.

+ Cheatsheet on what's actually in the antitrust bills

++ US Senate calls for wider oversight on Data Privacy beyond the SEC as it has become too large and pervasive for one agency to go it alone.

2 - AMAZON IS FLOC-BLOCKING GOOGLE

Sounds like while Google wants all the kids to play nice in the FLOC sandbox, Amazon just peed in it.

3 - ENHANCED FUNCTIONALITY WITH GOOGLE WORKSPACE FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Google announced options for small businesses to upgrade their Gmail accounts for greater calendaring, video chat, and email newsletter functionalities all available through a new Google Workspace.

4 - FACEBOOK WATCH IS WATCHING YOU WATCHING ME

Facebook hardware, aside from Oculus, has been a roll of the dice. Now Facebook is working on a smartwatch. With absolute certainty, it's a hard pass for me.

+ The bigger question: Will it smoke meats?

5 - TICKETS FOR TWITTER'S TICKETED SPACES

Sounds great, but by the time Apple, Twitter and Stripe take their cut, is it still worth the effort?

That's it and all for now. If you like the newsletter, you can subscribe here.