Weekly PR and Social Scoop 05.09

ITV Gen-Z media brand, Woo, closes after two years?

Woo, an ITV-backed media brand aimed at becoming the “defining Gen Z media business”, has closed two years after launch.??

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Woo was billed as “an antidote to the toxic news cycle” offering “shows, editorial and products designed to make you feel good”. Its content categories were wellness, culture, joy, fashion, beauty, sex and relationships, music, film and TV, travel, and fitness.?

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At the time of the launch, CEO Stephen Mai said the media industry did not fully appreciate “the power of memes and the power of how actually these meme accounts have some of the biggest audiences in the media”.??

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Mai’s aim was to reach 45 million people in Woo’s first month, including through its content being hosted on ITVX, and to hit 12 million website visits within a year and gain a social media following in the hundreds of millions.??

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After Woo’s closure, Mai?wrote on LinkedIn?that it had peaked at one million website users per month and five million monthly video views.??

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Find out more here?

Vacuum between Dyson and Channel 4 is over?

Technology company, Dyson, has ended its?libel?claim against?Channel 4 News?and the programme’s producer ITN after more than two years of proceedings.?

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Dyson Ltd, the brand’s UK trading company, and Dyson Technologies Ltd, which holds Dyson’s intellectual property, technology, and brand rights, had sued over a February 2022 report alleging exploitation and “appalling” conditions in factories in Malaysia?where Dyson products were being manufactured by a company called ATA.?

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Dyson founder, Sir James Dyson, was initially part of the claim but stopped pursuing the case on his own behalf?after a High Court Judge said the programme did not defame him.?

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Dyson denied suggestions its case could be characterised as a SLAPP – meaning ‘strategic litigation against public participation’, or a lawsuit designed to intimidate and silence journalists or other critical parties.?

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Find out more here?

Instagram adds Broadcast Channel replies?

Instagram Broadcast Channel creators can now activate replies allowing subscribers to engage and add comments – only the replies won’t be visible within the main channel feed.?

First launched in 2023, the Instagram Broadcast Channel was created to provide a stream of updates from the channel admin, enabling brands and influencers to keep fans updated within Instagram DMs.??

Broadcast Channels have been seen as a success for the past 18 months, with subscribers able to react to messages posted by the admin. This latest update allows subscribers to comment on specific messages.??

Replies can only be viewed when clicking on the original message, expanding the interaction between brands and followers.?

X Launches connected TV app?

After teasing its new TV app over the past few months, X has now officially launched the beta version of X TV, which it claims is “a massive leap forward in transforming X into a video-first platform.”?

The new big-screen playback platform is similar to YouTube TV and provides an overview of all the video content you can watch on X, on TV rather than mobile.?

X has reportedly informed potential video ad partners the new TV app will highlight trending content, powered by X’s advancing AI systems. Cross-device compatibility, enabling users to continue watching content as they switch from phone to TV, is also planned.?

The social platform is also due to offer new ad options for the TV app at a later date.??