From Crypto and celebs to Microsoft and the Metaverse, from influencers to Twitter – these 10 podcast-episodes from January of 2022 are your curated dose of recent things that will help you stay at the edge of your profession as a marketer.
Have a listen, will ya?
**
Peloton (32 mins)
Pop Culture Happy Hour, 27 Jan
What do Dancing With The Stars, the Sex and the City spinoff, and one of the most viral ads of 2019 have in common? They represent some of the many pop-culture touchpoints of the ubiquitous fitness brand Peloton. We talk about the Peloton universe, including its star-making stable of instructors’ complicated relationship with the wellness industry.
**
TBD | Why Does Matt Damon Want Me to Buy Crypto? (19 mins)
What Next | Daily News and Analysis, 21 Jan
A recent advertisement for crypto.com, featuring Matt Damon, was met with widespread mockery online. But Damon’s ad is only the most visible example of a much broader—and more insidious—trend of celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements. Is the partnership between crypto and Hollywood really dangerous? And what separates the trend from run-of-the-mill salesmanship?
**
Microsoft and the Metaverse (23 mins)
The Daily, 20 Jan
Microsoft announced this week that it was acquiring Activision Blizzard, the maker of video games such as Call of Duty and Candy Crush, in a deal valued at nearly $70 billion. Microsoft, the owner of Xbox, said the acquisition was a step toward gaining a foothold in the metaverse. But what exactly is the metaverse? And why are some of the biggest companies in the world spending billions of dollars to get involved? Guest: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times.
**
Dave Eggers: Writing For A Better Future (51 mins)
TED Radio Hour, 21 Jan
Fiction can serve as a window into multiple realities—to imagine different futures or understand our own past. This hour, author and TED speaker Dave Eggers talks about technology, education, and the healing power of writing.
**
Accurate Attribution in a Post iOS 14.5 World (33 mins)
eCommerce Fuel, 21 Jan
eCommerce. After the debacle that was the Apple and Facebook divorce, you are definitely not alone if you found the ax being taken to your ad account ROI. Joining me today are Austin Harrison and Grant Margerum, founders of Northbeam.io, the new standard for eCommerce intelligence and attribution. Listen in as we talk all about data, tracking, and what the heck happened between Apple and Facebook. You’ll learn what you need to know about the different types of data, what the future of tracking looks like, and how Northbeam.io helps clients grow their revenue by an average of 44%—and allows them to make smarter, faster decisions. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://bit.ly/3zZxJQU
**
Workers Are Burnt Out. Can Companies Fix It? (22 mins)
The Journal , 11 Jan
Workplace burnout is on the rise, with resignations at an all-time high. WSJ’s Ray A. Smith reports that employers are scrambling to find ways to combat it. And we hear from a woman who says professional burnout sent her to the hospital. Plus, the president of Bumble, the dating app, explains why his company gave employees a week off last year.
**
The gaming industry sees major revenue in going mobile (8 min)
Marketplace Tech, 3 Jan
Take-Two Interactive, publisher of big franchise video games like Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K, announced its plans this week to buy Zynga, a mobile game developer known for Words With Friends, and to take you back a bit, “FarmVille.” The deal is reportedly worth $12.7 billion and demonstrates the future of gaming is more than powerful PCs. This is a topic for our “Quality Assurance” series, where we take a second look at a big tech story. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Jay Peters, a news writer at The Verge covering this story.
**
Twitter’s Former C.E.O. Has a ‘Too Bad, So Sad’ Approach to Content Moderation (37 min)
Sway, 3 Jan
Remember social media before Donald Trump’s presidency? Dick Costolo does. He was Twitter’s chief executive from 2010 to 2015. And despite being in the hot seat for certain content moderation decisions during his tenure, Costolo thinks that platforms have the right to take down whatever and whomever they want. Costolo argues that the key is transparency and companies acknowledging that every decision “ends up being subjective anyway” — so that no one is surprised “when we decide to treat the avatar who signed up on a Tuesday with zero followers differently than we treat The New York Times.”
**
Can This Marketplace Help Influencers Make More Money? (18 mins)
SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders, 23 Jan
Cobalt connects creators to manufactures.
**
Are Resumes Dead? (11 mins)
The Founders Journal, 7 Jan
Resumes have barely changed since 1482, when Leonardo da Vinci wrote a letter to the Duke of Milan. That is freakin wild. Today, I explore the purpose of the resume and predict how it may evolve in the future.