Introducing: The Wave

In this debut issue, we focus our inter-generational lens on dragons versus fairies, brands making waves in the industry, a real life wavemaker (proof that there are humans behind the emails, calls and activations is a must), and hot reads and podcasts to keep all the grey matter, well, pink. Some meme somewhere said keeping one’s brain engaged is the key to joy. We’d be remiss not to share a bit of joy, so we hope you enjoy yours with a dash of culture.?Don't forget to subscribe to The Wave so that you never miss a beat!

X to the Y to the Z: The House of Dragons?vs. Lord of the Rings?????

?I’m feeling the House of Dragons. Is it because I get to watch it with my GenZ teen son? Sure, I'll do anything to binge-watch and chill with that kid.?But…he has friends that are very much team Lord of the Rings. There is one thing that we all – from my mom, aka MomMom (Boomer), to my sons (Gen Z) to me and my crew (GenX)- agreed on after MomMom put one particularly confident Generation Alpha relative to bed before the House of Dragons debut. This, despite said child’s?increasingly?screechy pleas to just “see five minutes.” Nope. I’m old school and some stuff just ain’t for the youth.???

Back to the shows at hand; as a family we do agree that the?battle ?betwixt these branding behemoths is the stuff of old-school must-see-tv lore. IRL, it seems that my family is a wee focus group, literal living proof of inter-generational media consumption habits. LIVING THE DREAM.??

Here’s three stats that really made one of my finally re-grown (the 90s took tweezing to another level) eyebrows go up:

1. The House Of The Dragon premiere topped the viewership for the 2019 Game of Thrones finale, which was seen by 19.3 million viewers, a record for the series?(Forbes ). Talk about eyeballs???
2. The first eight episodes of “Lord of the Rings, ”dropping two episodes on its September 2nd debut, reportedly cost $456 million for the series?(The Hollywood Reporter ). Rapid math says that’s around $90 million an episode. Alexa, play that song about money folding not jiggling by that person who was on TikTok, or was it YouTube? ????
3. Stranger Things, the show that took Millennials into the magically delicious realm of things aglow with that GenX 80s/90s je ne sais quoi and had GenZ putting acid-wash to the test, cost a 1/3 of that per episode in season 4 (XFire ), coming in at about $29 million an episode.???

Positive Provocation 101?

With back to school on many of our minds, a little orientation on our guiding light, positive provocation, and how it makes Wavemaker tick. No, this is not a quiz???

1. Positive provocation is?paramount. With it, we find ways to optimize our work, relationships and way forward. This is evidenced in the work of our teams across the company and OpCos?provokes assumptions around data and usage. ??
2. Change is?constant. The shifting US Media landscape not only affects how and what media is being consumed, but how teams work on a granular level. Agility of thought and action will continue to be the beacon that signals innovation and integration. Even the way?sound is used to optimize brand engagement ?is transforming.??
3. People are the reason.?Whether it’s the products that people create for clients, the people that are clients or the people that work with us in the teams that create the products, people are the constant center of excellence. As we build the agency of the future forward, Wavemaker is committed to educating, listening, (one other tent poles), and (last tentpole) our people and the people we work with daily.?

Making Waves???

?Brands making, you guessed it, waves in the industry?

1. Walmart reached a deal with Paramount Global to include the Paramount+ streaming service as part of the retailing giant’s Walmart+ membership program starting in September as the Paramount+ Essential plan, which will include ads, for no extra cost to Walmart+ members (more )?
2. YouTube is planning to launch an online store for streaming video services and has renewed talks with entertainment companies about participating in the platform (more )?
3. Amazon is internally testing a TikTok-like feed in its app (more )?

Wavemakers

Meet a real life wavemaker!?

Brett Perotta, Senior Associate, Wavemaker Sports & Live on How the Team Delivers Strong Assists for Partners, Globally?

Being on the Sports & Live team leads to a unique set of workflows in the world of media agencies: we service the same clients as the rest of Wavemaker and work closely with several teams internally, but many of our campaigns happen on the ground with partners across sports and entertainment. The three weeks that bridged the end of July and start of August featured three major experiential activations for Coinbase and DoorDash, taking place in three cities (and two different countries!)?

The stretch began at Lollapalooza in Chicago with Coinbase’s WAGMI Club (WAGMI = “We’re all gonna make it”, a crypto slogan), an NFT-focused activation at the four-day music festival as a part of Coinbase’s partnership with Live Nation. Less than a week later, I headed out for back-to-back iterations of the DoorDash Locker Room, an activation we’ve now done a few times in the past year. First was at MLS All-Star week in Minneapolis, followed immediately by a Toronto Blue Jays game.?

The goals of each activation may differ, but there is a throughline: clients lean on our expertise and trust us to deliver. In my year on Sports & Live, it has been an adventure to hit the road and learn a completely new side of this industry. Sometimes that means watching Green Day from the VIP area of Lollapalooza. Sometimes it means packing up hundreds of promotional fanny packs in a hotel room late into the night. Look, nobody said it was always glamorous, but it’s worth it!??

Wavemaker's Reads???

?The words that keep our brains buzzing

1. Consumer goods brands are finding that the best way to get consumer data is to simply ask for it.?Zero-Party Data and Brands – How Marketers are Continually Navigating Privacy Crackdowns.
2. Apple Debuts Podcast Popularity Charts ?- Listeners can see the top shows and episodes in all markets and categories.
3. How minority-owned Direct Digital Holdings helps media buyers and ad tech embrace diverse investment (read more ).
4. This week’s Pew Research Center’s?Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022 Report ?had some fascinating finds (unless, of course, you’re the parent of a teen…) around social media and tech use. 97% of teens say they use the internet daily, with 46% of teens saying they use the internet almost constantly.

Podcast Poppin’???

Audio and video goodness

1. Audio: A must-listen convo on this year's Young influentials list which highlights individuals under 40 who are truly making an impact across media, marketing, tech and the creator economy.?Yeah, That's Probably an Ad
2. Video: In this episode, Seth MacFarlane takes WIRED’s Autocomplete Interview and answers the most searched questions about his very own self.?Seth MacFarlane Answers the Web's Most Searched Questions: WIRED's Autocomplete Interview .