2021 Social Media Marketing Strategy

April 29, 2021 | 156 views

The ever-evolving state of social media marketing is not always an easy one to keep up with. Within the past year, social media behaviors have shifted as a result of a global pandemic, new networks emerging, top-ranking networks rolling out major updates, and more.

Because of this, we’ve compiled a comprehensive state of social media marketing 2021 white paper as a resource for other brands and marketers in the industry seeking information about the current state of social media marketing and what their social media teams should be preparing for throughout the year.

Spotlight

The Crewing Company

Supplying world class talent for the creation of video content, The Crewing Company is a multi-award winning, specialist recruiter to the creative industries with offices in London and Manchester. Originally established in 2006 as a freelance agency representing a diverse selection of off camera talent, The Crewing Company work with customers across Broadcast, Production (TV, Film & Corporate), Advertising, PR, Animation, Gaming and New Media.

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MEDIA AND BROADCASTING

Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming arrives on iOS with some Apple restrictions

Article | May 21, 2021

Microsoft is expanding its Project xCloud service to the iPhone today. The software giant is launching a beta of xCloud through Apple’s TestFlight service, allowing xCloud testers to try the service on an iPhone or iPad. It’s the first time we’ve seen a cloud game streaming service appear on iOS since the days of OnLive — and OnLive’s iOS app wound up in limbo when Apple didn’t approve it. Google’s Stadia and Nvidia’s GeForce Now are still not available on Apple’s devices, either, and neither company has been able to tell us when that might change.

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MEDIA AND BROADCASTING

Apple's AR & VR headset may not need external input for orientation & motion detection

Article | June 14, 2021

Apple is continuing to investigate headsets like its "AR Glasses," as part of its exploration of Augmented and Virtual Reality systems. One such headset in future may utilize sensors that can detect angular rotation, such as that experienced when the device is placed on a user's head or removed. "[It] may be beneficial for the VR headset to be able to detect when a head-worn device (e.g., headset, eyeglasses, headphones, etc.) is being removed from the user's head, is being placed on the user's head, or both," says Apple in US Patent No. 10,557,724, "Angle detection of a rotating system using a single magnet and multiple hall sensors."

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MEDIA AND BROADCASTING

Game On: These Entertainment Stocks Hit New Levels

Article | June 17, 2021

Some Chinese entertainment stocks listed in the U.S. got a boost last week after the People Bank of China (PBOC) said it would pump $173 billion into the economy. Since news of the report from Beijing hit the street, one of the biggest gainers was Chinese gaming giant NetEase Inc. (Nasdaq: NTES) NetEase, a partner of California-based Blizzard Entertainment in China, traded as low as $317.48 per American depositary share within the last couple of weeks, and soared as high as $347.95 apiece last week. NetEase rolled out its international presence in recent years in Japan and North America, lowering its China dependency.

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The Future of Tech: Gaming Consoles, the Xbox and PlayStation of Tomorrow

Article | February 10, 2020

Consoles have come a very long way since the arrival of first-generation machines from Atari and Coleco in the seventies. Even the original PlayStation (1994) and Xbox (2001) look dated compared to the 4K/HDR-capable machines of today, and that divide will grow even larger once the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X arrive at the end of 2020. But what about the future? More than once console makers have tried to break new ground, by focusing on functionality beyond gaming, but for the most part those attempts have failed. Nintendo has found the most success with specialized hardware that still focuses on games first, while Sony and Microsoft have seemingly understood that building powerful general purpose machines that are akin to PCs is their best and safest bet.

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Spotlight

The Crewing Company

Supplying world class talent for the creation of video content, The Crewing Company is a multi-award winning, specialist recruiter to the creative industries with offices in London and Manchester. Originally established in 2006 as a freelance agency representing a diverse selection of off camera talent, The Crewing Company work with customers across Broadcast, Production (TV, Film & Corporate), Advertising, PR, Animation, Gaming and New Media.

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TECHNOLOGIES

WIN Reality Launches New VR Baseball Coaching

prnewswire | May 23, 2023

WIN Reality, the virtual reality training and assessment platform for athletes, announced today the launch of their latest in-game coaching product, WIN Elite. This new offering is designed to provide direct, personalized coaching and analysis for young baseball and softball players to improve their hitting performance in real-time in an immersive VR environment. WIN Elite is centered around individualized 1:1 coaching from a core group of coaching professionals who lead hitting lessons with athletes in real time. The combination of coaching with VR provides game speed repetitions with real time metrics. The program includes working through fundamental drills, hitting scenarios, and teaching a winner's mentality, all designed to improve performance at the plate. With Elite, athletes will experience coaching that is normally only accessible to elite athletes and teams. Scheduling is flexible and athletes can join the platform from anywhere with a wifi connection, making WIN Elite a convenient training option for both players and parents. "There's no substitute for a coach, but not everyone has the time and resources for in person, 1:1 instruction on top of the rigors of school, practice, and games," says Ben Schragger, Director of Customer Experience at WIN Reality. "With WIN Elite, young players can unlock the benefits of a private hitting coach, including custom development plans, from the comfort of their own home." Beyond the advantages of a VR environment, WIN Elite leverages accountability between the players and the coaches in order to help develop athletes who are just getting started in sports all the way through elite high school players preparing for their transition to college. That means personal training plans with clear expectations of completion coupled with on-demand text messages directly between coaches and players. It also means access to community events periodically that feature Q&As with college athletes, interactive training livestreams with other coaches, and info sessions on college recruiting and other off-the-field topics. "We launched WIN Reality because we knew that a VR environment can help more players hone their performance," said Chris O'Dowd, Founder and CEO of WIN Reality and former pro baseball player. "But that's no substitute for the value of a personal coach guiding a player's growth in the game. By bringing together the best of technology with the power of individual attention and instruction, we know that our young players can make the most of their growth in the sport." "Being able to throw the headset on, take swings, and receive instantaneous feedback about how you're performing, you can't rival that", said Chris Love, WIN Elite Parent. "The ability for Winter, my son, to train virtually with his WIN Elite coach, who played high-level baseball, is as good or better than any in person coach Winter has had up until this point." WIN Reality is hosted on the Meta Quest headset and the platform is available at both winreality.com as well as the Meta Quest store. WIN Elite is $299 for a three-month subscription in addition to the basic pricing for WIN Reality at $29/month. Introductory pricing offers are currently available for new users. About WIN Reality WIN Reality's virtual reality -based training tool is used by thousands of youth players and hundreds of professional and collegiate baseball athletes, including most Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises and more than 100 NCAA teams. Delivered through the Meta Quest headset, the company's software solution allows baseball and softball players to step into a virtual ballpark and take game-speed pitches that move as they would in a live environment. With a library of over 7,000 real-life pitchers and nearly two million pitches, users can participate in a near-infinite number of hitting drills and pitching simulations with real-time data-driven insights to improve pitch-recognition abilities and swing attributes. MLB players who used WIN as a game-prep tool exhibited 19% higher batting averages, 12% higher on-base percentages, and an 18% better plate-discipline ratio, according to a joint WIN-MLB study. Within the last year, players have faced nearly 40 million pitches on the WIN platform.

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MEDIA AND BROADCASTING

LiveOne Partners with OTT Studio as Multi-Year Exclusive Music Streaming Provider

LiveOne, Inc. | May 16, 2023

LiveOne an award-winning, creator-first, music, entertainment and technology platform, announced today an exclusive content distribution deal with OTT Studio, a leading streaming technology platform and CTV app publisher. LiveOne will be OTT Studio’s exclusive music streaming provider, delivering LiveOne’s 600 expertly curated radio stations via OTT’s new Music Plus application. The deal will expand the distribution of LiveOne’s premium audio and entertainment content to an additional 47 million CTVs in North America via LG’s webOS and Vizio’s SmartCast platforms. Patrick Markel, LiveOne’s Senior Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, said, “We’re excited to execute this multi-year agreement with OTT Studio to make LiveOne even more accessible to music lovers by leaning into OTT Studio’s unique ability to reach millions of customers on the most popular streaming TV devices.” James Patrick, OTT Studio Co-founder, commented, ”The CTV ecosystem is ripe with opportunities for innovative audio-first destinations offered to consumers at no cost. Our advanced CTV technology and audience growth engine combined with LiveOne’s world-class offering will allow us to bring users an unparalleled free live streaming and on-demand music experience on devices that are often the best speaker system in the house.” The Music Plus app is slated to launch in Q3 2023 on Roku and FireTV, and on LG's webOS, Vizio's SmartCast and other platforms later in the year. About LiveOne, Inc. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, LiveOne, Inc. is an award-winning, creator-first, music, entertainment and technology platform focused on delivering premium experiences and content worldwide through memberships and live and virtual events. The Company's wholly-owned subsidiaries include Slacker Radio, a membership music streaming service, and PodcastOne, which generates more than 2.3 billion downloads per year, 350+ hours distributed weekly, and 14M+ monthly unique listeners. Nearly all new Tesla EVs sold in the U.S. come with a paid membership to LiveOne’s Slacker Radio which is paid by Tesla. As of April 11, 2023, the Company has accrued a paid and free ad-supported membership base of approximately 2.9 million*. The Company was awarded Best Live Moment by Digiday for its “Social Gloves” PPV Event, and has been a finalist for 8 more awards, including Best Live Event, Best Virtual Event, Best Overall Social Media Excellence, and Best Original Programming from Cynopsis and Digiday. As of February 9, 2023, the Company has streamed over 2,900 artists, has a library of 30 million songs, 600 curated radio stations, over 300 podcasts/vodcasts, hundreds of pay-per-views, personalized merchandise, released music-related NFTs, and created a valuable connection between fans, brands, and bands. The Company's other wholly-owned subsidiaries include PPVOne, Gramophone Media, Palm Beach Records, Custom Personalization Solutions, and LiveXLive, and the Company’s other majority-owned subsidiaries are Drumify and Splitmind.

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VIRTUALIZATION

Strivr Advances Content Services with Generative AI, Expands VR Content Library with Mental Health & Well-Being Experiences

businesswire | May 29, 2023

Strivr, the leading platform for enterprise-scale Virtual Reality (VR) solutions, announced the evolution of its offering to accelerate content and solution capabilities using Generative AI (GenAI) for enhanced storyline development, animation and asset creation, and optimization of visual and content-driven features. Staying true to its roots in using cognitive science, data science, and artificial intelligence, Strivr will also be using GenAI to intelligently derive unique insights from immersive user data to support HR and L&D leaders in making critical business decisions. With nearly 60,000 hours of content creation experience, Strivr has driven measurable impact for its enterprise customers through a best-in-class content library in the areas of cost savings, increased sales, and faster onboarding. Along with advancements like the use of GenAI to accelerate the content creation process, Strivr is able to drive further value for customers with advanced capabilities and a broader library of experiences including a critical area of today's enterprise: employee well-being. “The demand for high-quality, scalable VR experiences that deliver meaningful and impactful results is at an all-time high,” said Derek Belch, founder and CEO at Strivr. “Our customers are among the largest companies in the world, and they are seeing firsthand the impact immersive technology can bring to employee engagement, retention, and performance. They want more, and we’re listening. Along with GenAI to accelerate content creation, we’re also going beyond training and partnering with one of the world’s leading financial institutions to offer immersive meditation to support the mental health of its workforce. This is just the beginning of how VR will continue to impact the employee experience, and we're excited to see our customers embracing it." “Immersive and generative AI technologies are taking over the corporate learning landscape,” said Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company. “Strivr, through its deep experience with immersive and VR implementations in the market, is clearly a leader to watch.” Expanding the Strivr Content Library In recognition of Mental Health Month, Strivr is hosting its first in-headset mental health and well-being applications on the platform in partnership with Reulay and Healium. According to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, meditation can help reduce anxiety just as well as drug therapies, while practicing mindfulness has also been shown to help employee productivity, focus and collaboration. Strivr customers can now offer safe mental health “breaks” to their employees as part of their VR-based immersive programs and training curricula, addressing reskilling for emotional well-being to tackle increasing levels of employee burnout, depression, and anxiety. Building on this newly expanded offering, Strivr also offers customers choice when it comes to sourcing content to build out their VR libraries. Whether it’s Strivr-created content, content developed by Strivr-certified partners, or content developed in-house, Strivr’s open platform enabled by the Strivr Software Development Kit (SDK) allows customers to choose how they want to source content. Similar to Strivr’s Solutions team, content partners have the potential to leverage Strivr’s enterprise-scale platform to impact millions of learners, and the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the global workforce. For content developers interested in Strivr’s assessment and certification process, please visit developer.strivr.com. Introducing Strivr Home Enabling learners to navigate their own experiential learning path, Strivr has also introduced Strivr Home, a virtual in-headset performance hub focused exclusively on employee experience. As the central hub to upskill, reskill, and recharge, Strivr Home simplifies, unifies, and personalizes the in-headset experience by transporting users into a tranquil home setting to access world-class immersive content. With features including single sign-on and a central hub where people can browse premium training content, Strivr Home is also designed to guide the user’s journey and will evolve to offer insights on learner performance and recommendations on future experiences. Strivr Home is available today with the latest release of the company’s in-headset Player product. To experience Strivr Home and new content offerings. About Strivr With over 1M learners trained in VR, Strivr is transforming the employee journey through experiential learning. Incubated at Stanford, Strivr’s platform empowers enterprises to build, manage, experience, and measure VR-based learning to optimize workforce performance. With a premium content offering based on nearly 60,000 hours of content creation experience since its inception in 2015, Strivr customers gain unique learning and assessment data to measure training effectiveness and predict learning outcomes at scale. With nearly 2M sessions conducted in VR from hiring to training and upskilling, Strivr is proud to partner with elite sports teams and Fortune 1000 companies to elevate performance through immersive experience.

Read More

TECHNOLOGIES

WIN Reality Launches New VR Baseball Coaching

prnewswire | May 23, 2023

WIN Reality, the virtual reality training and assessment platform for athletes, announced today the launch of their latest in-game coaching product, WIN Elite. This new offering is designed to provide direct, personalized coaching and analysis for young baseball and softball players to improve their hitting performance in real-time in an immersive VR environment. WIN Elite is centered around individualized 1:1 coaching from a core group of coaching professionals who lead hitting lessons with athletes in real time. The combination of coaching with VR provides game speed repetitions with real time metrics. The program includes working through fundamental drills, hitting scenarios, and teaching a winner's mentality, all designed to improve performance at the plate. With Elite, athletes will experience coaching that is normally only accessible to elite athletes and teams. Scheduling is flexible and athletes can join the platform from anywhere with a wifi connection, making WIN Elite a convenient training option for both players and parents. "There's no substitute for a coach, but not everyone has the time and resources for in person, 1:1 instruction on top of the rigors of school, practice, and games," says Ben Schragger, Director of Customer Experience at WIN Reality. "With WIN Elite, young players can unlock the benefits of a private hitting coach, including custom development plans, from the comfort of their own home." Beyond the advantages of a VR environment, WIN Elite leverages accountability between the players and the coaches in order to help develop athletes who are just getting started in sports all the way through elite high school players preparing for their transition to college. That means personal training plans with clear expectations of completion coupled with on-demand text messages directly between coaches and players. It also means access to community events periodically that feature Q&As with college athletes, interactive training livestreams with other coaches, and info sessions on college recruiting and other off-the-field topics. "We launched WIN Reality because we knew that a VR environment can help more players hone their performance," said Chris O'Dowd, Founder and CEO of WIN Reality and former pro baseball player. "But that's no substitute for the value of a personal coach guiding a player's growth in the game. By bringing together the best of technology with the power of individual attention and instruction, we know that our young players can make the most of their growth in the sport." "Being able to throw the headset on, take swings, and receive instantaneous feedback about how you're performing, you can't rival that", said Chris Love, WIN Elite Parent. "The ability for Winter, my son, to train virtually with his WIN Elite coach, who played high-level baseball, is as good or better than any in person coach Winter has had up until this point." WIN Reality is hosted on the Meta Quest headset and the platform is available at both winreality.com as well as the Meta Quest store. WIN Elite is $299 for a three-month subscription in addition to the basic pricing for WIN Reality at $29/month. Introductory pricing offers are currently available for new users. About WIN Reality WIN Reality's virtual reality -based training tool is used by thousands of youth players and hundreds of professional and collegiate baseball athletes, including most Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises and more than 100 NCAA teams. Delivered through the Meta Quest headset, the company's software solution allows baseball and softball players to step into a virtual ballpark and take game-speed pitches that move as they would in a live environment. With a library of over 7,000 real-life pitchers and nearly two million pitches, users can participate in a near-infinite number of hitting drills and pitching simulations with real-time data-driven insights to improve pitch-recognition abilities and swing attributes. MLB players who used WIN as a game-prep tool exhibited 19% higher batting averages, 12% higher on-base percentages, and an 18% better plate-discipline ratio, according to a joint WIN-MLB study. Within the last year, players have faced nearly 40 million pitches on the WIN platform.

Read More

MEDIA AND BROADCASTING

LiveOne Partners with OTT Studio as Multi-Year Exclusive Music Streaming Provider

LiveOne, Inc. | May 16, 2023

LiveOne an award-winning, creator-first, music, entertainment and technology platform, announced today an exclusive content distribution deal with OTT Studio, a leading streaming technology platform and CTV app publisher. LiveOne will be OTT Studio’s exclusive music streaming provider, delivering LiveOne’s 600 expertly curated radio stations via OTT’s new Music Plus application. The deal will expand the distribution of LiveOne’s premium audio and entertainment content to an additional 47 million CTVs in North America via LG’s webOS and Vizio’s SmartCast platforms. Patrick Markel, LiveOne’s Senior Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, said, “We’re excited to execute this multi-year agreement with OTT Studio to make LiveOne even more accessible to music lovers by leaning into OTT Studio’s unique ability to reach millions of customers on the most popular streaming TV devices.” James Patrick, OTT Studio Co-founder, commented, ”The CTV ecosystem is ripe with opportunities for innovative audio-first destinations offered to consumers at no cost. Our advanced CTV technology and audience growth engine combined with LiveOne’s world-class offering will allow us to bring users an unparalleled free live streaming and on-demand music experience on devices that are often the best speaker system in the house.” The Music Plus app is slated to launch in Q3 2023 on Roku and FireTV, and on LG's webOS, Vizio's SmartCast and other platforms later in the year. About LiveOne, Inc. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, LiveOne, Inc. is an award-winning, creator-first, music, entertainment and technology platform focused on delivering premium experiences and content worldwide through memberships and live and virtual events. The Company's wholly-owned subsidiaries include Slacker Radio, a membership music streaming service, and PodcastOne, which generates more than 2.3 billion downloads per year, 350+ hours distributed weekly, and 14M+ monthly unique listeners. Nearly all new Tesla EVs sold in the U.S. come with a paid membership to LiveOne’s Slacker Radio which is paid by Tesla. As of April 11, 2023, the Company has accrued a paid and free ad-supported membership base of approximately 2.9 million*. The Company was awarded Best Live Moment by Digiday for its “Social Gloves” PPV Event, and has been a finalist for 8 more awards, including Best Live Event, Best Virtual Event, Best Overall Social Media Excellence, and Best Original Programming from Cynopsis and Digiday. As of February 9, 2023, the Company has streamed over 2,900 artists, has a library of 30 million songs, 600 curated radio stations, over 300 podcasts/vodcasts, hundreds of pay-per-views, personalized merchandise, released music-related NFTs, and created a valuable connection between fans, brands, and bands. The Company's other wholly-owned subsidiaries include PPVOne, Gramophone Media, Palm Beach Records, Custom Personalization Solutions, and LiveXLive, and the Company’s other majority-owned subsidiaries are Drumify and Splitmind.

Read More

VIRTUALIZATION

Strivr Advances Content Services with Generative AI, Expands VR Content Library with Mental Health & Well-Being Experiences

businesswire | May 29, 2023

Strivr, the leading platform for enterprise-scale Virtual Reality (VR) solutions, announced the evolution of its offering to accelerate content and solution capabilities using Generative AI (GenAI) for enhanced storyline development, animation and asset creation, and optimization of visual and content-driven features. Staying true to its roots in using cognitive science, data science, and artificial intelligence, Strivr will also be using GenAI to intelligently derive unique insights from immersive user data to support HR and L&D leaders in making critical business decisions. With nearly 60,000 hours of content creation experience, Strivr has driven measurable impact for its enterprise customers through a best-in-class content library in the areas of cost savings, increased sales, and faster onboarding. Along with advancements like the use of GenAI to accelerate the content creation process, Strivr is able to drive further value for customers with advanced capabilities and a broader library of experiences including a critical area of today's enterprise: employee well-being. “The demand for high-quality, scalable VR experiences that deliver meaningful and impactful results is at an all-time high,” said Derek Belch, founder and CEO at Strivr. “Our customers are among the largest companies in the world, and they are seeing firsthand the impact immersive technology can bring to employee engagement, retention, and performance. They want more, and we’re listening. Along with GenAI to accelerate content creation, we’re also going beyond training and partnering with one of the world’s leading financial institutions to offer immersive meditation to support the mental health of its workforce. This is just the beginning of how VR will continue to impact the employee experience, and we're excited to see our customers embracing it." “Immersive and generative AI technologies are taking over the corporate learning landscape,” said Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company. “Strivr, through its deep experience with immersive and VR implementations in the market, is clearly a leader to watch.” Expanding the Strivr Content Library In recognition of Mental Health Month, Strivr is hosting its first in-headset mental health and well-being applications on the platform in partnership with Reulay and Healium. According to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, meditation can help reduce anxiety just as well as drug therapies, while practicing mindfulness has also been shown to help employee productivity, focus and collaboration. Strivr customers can now offer safe mental health “breaks” to their employees as part of their VR-based immersive programs and training curricula, addressing reskilling for emotional well-being to tackle increasing levels of employee burnout, depression, and anxiety. Building on this newly expanded offering, Strivr also offers customers choice when it comes to sourcing content to build out their VR libraries. Whether it’s Strivr-created content, content developed by Strivr-certified partners, or content developed in-house, Strivr’s open platform enabled by the Strivr Software Development Kit (SDK) allows customers to choose how they want to source content. Similar to Strivr’s Solutions team, content partners have the potential to leverage Strivr’s enterprise-scale platform to impact millions of learners, and the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the global workforce. For content developers interested in Strivr’s assessment and certification process, please visit developer.strivr.com. Introducing Strivr Home Enabling learners to navigate their own experiential learning path, Strivr has also introduced Strivr Home, a virtual in-headset performance hub focused exclusively on employee experience. As the central hub to upskill, reskill, and recharge, Strivr Home simplifies, unifies, and personalizes the in-headset experience by transporting users into a tranquil home setting to access world-class immersive content. With features including single sign-on and a central hub where people can browse premium training content, Strivr Home is also designed to guide the user’s journey and will evolve to offer insights on learner performance and recommendations on future experiences. Strivr Home is available today with the latest release of the company’s in-headset Player product. To experience Strivr Home and new content offerings. About Strivr With over 1M learners trained in VR, Strivr is transforming the employee journey through experiential learning. Incubated at Stanford, Strivr’s platform empowers enterprises to build, manage, experience, and measure VR-based learning to optimize workforce performance. With a premium content offering based on nearly 60,000 hours of content creation experience since its inception in 2015, Strivr customers gain unique learning and assessment data to measure training effectiveness and predict learning outcomes at scale. With nearly 2M sessions conducted in VR from hiring to training and upskilling, Strivr is proud to partner with elite sports teams and Fortune 1000 companies to elevate performance through immersive experience.

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