Welcome to The Yellow Summarin - collecting the most interesting ideas, topics, and tweets from the past week at the intersection of tech, media, and commerce.
In today's edition, I cover:
A Twitch streamer with access to the world’s biggest football stars
A next-generation shopping experience
A sober look at digital transformation
Read and listen:
A Permissionless World
Why Is Everyone Talking to Ibai Llanos? (NY Times)
There’s a paradigm shift in what is considered “appropriate” journalism these days and a more recent example is the rise of independent creators who enjoy unprecedented access to their subjects and are distinguished from their traditional counterparts by their authenticity and unorthodox methods, as well as media savviness. Once they have the audience, they become unstoppable and impossible to ignore. Thanks to technology and the influence they hold in the digital world, those actors need no permission from the old guard. This is the story of Ibai Llanos and how a Twitch streamer has become an influential figure in sports entertainment. Read story
Curation and personalized recommendations are not something new when it comes to fashion. However, e-commerce is still lagging in being able to offer customers the surprise and delight of discovering new products that match one’s style and values. Access to first-party data is the sort of a Holy Grail, brands should strive for in order to evolve and match the rising expectations of customers. Stitch Fix, an online retailer known for its personalized styling solutions is introducing a new way for shoppers to discover new styles. Their new offering is a good example of what technology and data, when deployed to solve a customer problem, can achieve. Read story
Mainframes, ML and digital transformation (Ben Evans)
This one is more technical (or geeky) but an important topic to be aware of. A term that gets thrown around in corporate circles, “Digital Transformation” is the generational shift of technology inside big companies. In this article, the buzz is taken away and we are presented with an interesting look at how long such a process can take. Consequently, for the companies that empower digital transformation, this creates an opportunity to be in business for a long time and extracting good profits over time. Read story
Netflix Releases Free VR Game, Eden Unearthed, On App Lab For Oculus Quest (Upload)
Netflix’s foray into gaming is going to receive much more coverage in the next months and years. This year plans to start a gaming department inside the company became public. Now, we see examples of Netflix publishing a VR game inside the Facebook-owned Oculus VR universe. With Oculus making VR headsets more accessible and desirable, brands left and right is going to start paying more attention to VR. While most of the games and apps will feel gimmicky, some may surprise us and become hits, further advancing the popularity and mass adoption of VR. Read story
Brutal honesty: the new look sustainable marketing (Vogue Business)
Transparency and sustainability should go hand in hand. The “sustainable” label is being thrown around left and right from every brand and as someone who is working in the industry, I am surprised at how liberal brands can be when it comes to labeling their products as “sustainable”. The reality is that true sustainability is almost unattainable. The effort is to try and minimize the negative impact as much as possible, educate people on what is going on behind the scenes, and keep learning and exploring new methods that can bring us closer to sustainability. Brands are starting to adopt such practices more and more and there’s a new playbook they are starting to follow now. Read story
Megan Thee Stallion Becomes Nike's 'Hot Girl Coach' in Stunning Wellness Campaign (AdWeek)
Nike’s aspirational marketing approach that everyone is an athlete is now getting a boost from its latest collaboration. Hip hop artist Megan Thee Stallion is becoming Nike’s new coach in a campaign that encourages people to define their own athlete-self and inspire them to exercise. Read story
Tweets
And that’s all for this week!
Until next time.
Marin