The Week Kick-off: Who you gonna call… Genuinfluencers!
People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive 2021, Paul Rudd, set pulses racing at the weekend, as ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ hit the big screens. There’s also a return to the real-world for Harper’s Bazaar, as the Bazaar at Work Summit returns to in-person format this week. All of this as Glamour magazine contemplates life after Insta… asking if we are seeing early signs that the zeitgeist is beginning to turn against traditional influencers. It’s a new week in media and it’s very much… ALIVE! ?♀️
Afterlife breathes new energy into Ghostbusters
The latest instalment of the Ghostbusters franchise hit cinemas over the weekend, starring none other than People magazine’s sexiest man alive, Paul Rudd. With preliminary box office estimates of US$44m, Senior comScore Media Analyst, Paul Dergarabedian, said that the earnings represented a “really solid number” and that part of this success was due to the film’s “theatrical exclusive release”.
And that’s an interesting observation. Because while cinema attendance figures remain lower than pre-pandemic levels, we are now beginning to see audiences return to shared settings. Does this mean that reports of cinema’s death at the hands of home streaming have been greatly exaggerated? Well, maybe the Twain shall meet…
A shocking Discovery ?
… Because in a shocking twist to the streaming wars, it seems that the latest season of the latest Star Trek is set to jump ship from Netflix to Paramount. Star Trek Discovery will be shown outside of the US on Paramount+, a new subscription-based streaming service owned and operated by ViacomCBS. It’s another example of the increasingly fragmented – or if you prefer, competitive – streaming landscape, which is explained eloquently here by Chris Stokel-Walker for Wired:
“What’s bad news for Discovery fans now is yet another glimpse of the increasingly muddled future of streaming. Up until relatively recently, most intellectual property (IP) owners sold rights for TV and movies through paid TV, physical home video, and cinema. The concept of online streaming was seen as a non-priority. Then everything changed—and quickly.”
You can read Stokel-Walker’s full analysis here, and additionally I can’t let reference to this article pass by without also including the thoughts of Glenn van t’Hof, a Dutch Star Trek fan who was interviewed for the piece: “What a dick move to announce this two days before the supposed European release date,” he said.
Boldly going where no one has gone before…
But fear not if you are attempting to keep Trek of (ok, gave it a go) the diversifying streaming and subscriptions landscape, because FIPP is charting a course! Our Global Subscriptions Snapshot, published in partnership with CeleraOne, provides a comprehensive view of this increasingly popular area of media. We’ve just published results for Q3 2021, recording data across 113 publishing titles and 39 streaming services, as the New York Times posts record third quarter results.
“While this latest quarterly edition of the FIPP CeleraOne Global Digital Subscription Snapshot doesn’t quite show it yet, we are seeing the point of light for magazine media growing larger and larger,” writes FIPP President & CEO James Hewes in his introduction to the report.
“Across the world, magazine media businesses are trialling and launching paid content solutions, and we await the first results with anticipation… When it comes to magazines, I would quote Carl Sagan: ‘Maybe it’s a little early. Maybe the time is not quite yet. But those other worlds – promising untold opportunities – beckon. Silently, they orbit the sun, waiting.’”
So there you go you’ve now had quotes from Mark Twain (not really of course), Carl Sagan, and TWO agitated Star Trek fans in a single article… and you can find out more about the Global Digital Subscriptions Snapshot here.
Bazaar real-world events
Back on earth and another legacy brand is returning to real-world events this week as Hearst’s Harper’s Bazaar hosts the Bazaar at Work summit in London tomorrow. The event consists of empowering talks, thought-provoking panel discussions, interactive workshops and networking opportunities, and will include speakers such as Jane Wurwand, co-Founder of Dermalogica and Wurwand Foundation, Lauren Cuthbertson, Principal dancer with The Royal Ballet, and Sharmadean Reid, Founder of The Stack World. Full story here.
Gen Z: Influencing the influencers
And finally… speaking of returning to reality, a fabulous article appears in Glamour magazine this week… Penned by Stylist & Writer, Alexandra Fullerton, it’s titled ‘Who are the social media ‘genuinfluencers’, the online creators who aren’t just trying to sell you their ‘fits?’
In the piece, Fullerton looks at the cultural phenomenon of Genuinfluencers – a term coined by trend forecasting channel WGSN earlier this year – and says: “As Gen Z exerts ever more power in their choices, generic, glossy Instagram content is a turn off to the generation that values honesty and inclusivity.” You can read the full article here.
