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Instagram + fandoms
Instagram is reportedly jumping on the NFT trend by testing a new Stories format 'fan club' which would enable creators to share exclusive content and a 'collectibles' option, which would likely allow people to bid on collectible NFT-style digital items, Social Media Today reports. This is another move by Facebook as it doubles down on e-commerce and commercial behaviors on its apps, with Shops on WhatsApp and Facebook Marketplace, plus a visual search tool for Instagram. In fact, head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri explicitly says Instagram is "no longer a photo sharing app" as it strives to compete with TikTok and others.
Amazon livestream: "The numbers were astronomical"
So says Justin Moore, who's been selling products on Amazon's livestreaming service, Amazon Live. This Digiday article looks at how Amazon has been developing the channel and its tools and notes that brands have been slow to adopt, so far.
Adidas CEO: Social media will drive sustainability
Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted tells CNBC that the transparency social media brings will force brands to be more sustainable. This topic is close to our hearts since our founder David Jones wrote a book about it in 2011 (Who Cares Wins: why good business is better business). Rorsted says he believes scrutiny of companies and CEOs, powered by social media, is increasing and that it's a good thing. “It drives change, it drives responsibility, and it drives transparency,” he says.
NFT roundup
There's a lot of activity in the NFT space, here's a few recent favorites:
F1 team, McLaren, announced it's building an NFT platform for fans, including a partnership with Tezos, an 'energy-efficient' NFT network.
Italian soccer club, Juventus, has launched an NFT of its 21/22 shirt, to be sold at auction. DeadHeads is an upcoming NFT 'underworld', which incorporates collectible NFT avatars, with its own animated series, co-created with collectors.
Creator of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, sold an NFT of the source code of the original web browser for US $5.4MM.
Meanwhile, in China
Interesting look at why Chinese startups are overtaking international heritage brands (e.g. Coca-Cola, Maybelline), which explains it's largely a result of investment in tech-driven social marketing, influencers, and nimble supply chains. (Paywalled)
Coach has been growing impressively in China and is one of the top performing luxury brands on Alibaba's Tmall. Its global and China CEOs discuss how this has been achieved with a mix of smart data analysis, social marketing, KOLs (influencers), including in-house ambassadors, and livestreaming.
In China, social media is a social marketplace: 44 percent of internet users used social networks to purchase goods or services in 2020.
Explainers, trends and reports
A handy video explaining how NFTs work and how we got to where we are today.
But, there are more kinds of digital tokens than NFTs, get up to speed on them all and how each can be used.
Want something explained, demystified, decoded?
Email us at info@youandmrjones.com or contact us on Twitter @uandmrjones
News about group & partner companies we've invested in
Delighted to be featured again in CB Insights' Worldwide Unicorn Map, its regular report on the world's most valuable private companies.
Read more: CB Insights
You & Mr Jones chief technology officer, Will Luttrell, spoke to Digiday about the NFT boom and the technology's marketing applications.
Read more: Digiday
55 partner, Hugo Loriot, was asked about Google's decision to delay the phasing out of third-party cookies, and how marketers should respond to the decision.
Read more: Marketing Dive
