Things of note for the week ending Friday June 30th, 2023

First thing first: THANK YOU to everyone for your gorgeous messages of congrats after last week’s super rogue edition of Five Things Seven Wins on Friday.

It means so much to me (more than you could know) that so many of you recognise the journey its been – and whether you’ve been with me since the beginning or only got onboard at the last stop, your love and support is appreciated, and taken direct to my heart.

Thank you x.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can read that one-off special edition 🦁 right here 🦁.

Bonus? I’m headed to Gamescom in Germany this August (Going? Hit reply or comment to LMK and we’ll grab a coffee) and my old Saatchis Dusseldorf team are going to drive down to Köln to celebrate. Can’t wait.

Quick interlude:

WE ARE LESS THAN EIGHT WEEKS UNTIL I RUN 15K + 30 OBSTACLES AT TOUGH MUDDER SOUTH WEST. WE ARE RAISING MONEY FOR WAR CHILD. IF YOU HAVEN’T SPONSORED YET, PLEASE DO SO HERE.

Come on, its pay day for a bunch of you. HMU with your dollar x

What else can I tell you?

Oh yeah: HELLO AND WELCOME to the several hundred new people that signed up this week (you’ve nearly tipped me over the 4k subs number!). I think you found your way here via a mixture of an amazing recco from the CEO of CP+B over on Marketing Brew (hi Maggie) and Moshe’s viral (and shamelessly copied) Twitter thread all about Barbie’s epic marketing campaign (more on that in a bit).

If I’m wrong – and you found Five things on Friday another way – let me know. Whatever the weather, it’s nice to have you. I hope you like it here, and fingers crossed you stick around.

PS. If you missed the intro when you signed up: my name’s James Whatley and Five things on Friday is a collection of noteworthy stuff that I’ve seen on my travels around the internet. It doesn’t always come on Friday but there’s always more than five.

And finally… (for the intro section at least):

This past week marked a year since I stood on stage at Ministry of Sound at BIMA Beyond and presented this slide.

Never seen this before? Watch the video.

A slide that if you’ve been reading this newsletter for any length of time would come as no surprise to you at all and frankly, a full 365 days later? I only have one thing to say about it:

It’s been A YEAR, y’all.

What’s good?

…

…

Shall we get to the things?

LET’S.

1. LET’S CHAT ABOUT #AIRPHORIA

A Fortnite thing. A Nike thing. A whole UEFN thing.

Truth be told, I was meant to write about this last week but the whole Cannes Lions thing (seven of them, did I mention?) got in the way.

A few weeks ago, Nike announced a new Fortnite world called Airphoria. The Unreal logo next to the .Swoosh logo got the web3 bros in a right old froth.

But as it turned out, it was a small step for Nike and a baby-step for the OMG NFT GAMING IZ HERE web3 jizzards.

Me being me, I booted up Airphoria island the day it launched aaaaaaand completed it before breakfast. Natch.

Let’s talk about what #Airphoria IS.

• As a great example of Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) can do, Airphoria IS superb. A good case of showing other brands and developers what’s possible.

• On top of the, the store (aka Item Shop) integration integration Airphoria IS superb (but I doubt this is open to all).

• (aka Item Shop) all in all, about 20-30mins of gameplay all in (nice).

• The world of Airphoria IS stunning to look at and short enough to retain interes.

OK, so what about all the Web3, NFT, .Swoosh stuff? Well, let’s talk about what Airphoria ISN’T.

• Airphoria ISN’T ‘the metaverse’ – no matter what (the overly-committed-to-the-bit and-can-find-no-way-back-from-how-deep-its-gone) Vogue Business says. Please.

• Airphoria ISN’T perfect. The gameplay isn’t quite there (everyone I’ve spoken to who played it didn’t really know where to go or what to do at certain phases) and the island crashed a couple of times while playing too. So while it’s a great branded experience, as a pure-play GAME, it still has as a way to go.

• Airphoria ISN’T the Web3 gaming revolution (I’ve seen a few of those on Linkedin already – absolute chancers).

• And finally, Airphoria ISN’T great for .Swoosh users outside the US.

On that Web3 point, there was a whole bunch of crowing from the Web3/NFT crowd about what Epic x Nike were about to do with this partnership when it was originally announced and as it turned out it’s… account linking and a .Swoosh-side unlockable achievement.

So nothing in game then?

Ok fine. Looking forward to all those updated LinkedIn posts!

Baby steps though right?

The Nike small print talks about the account linking enabling ‘interoperable’ assets. And while that’s not quite there yet (you can’t trade .Swoosh-side unlocks, you can’t bring .Swoosh-side stuff into Fortnite, and you have to spend money in Fortnite to unlock stuff in .Swoosh – not vice-versa) it is a good promise for the future.

All in all, congratulations to Nike and Epic. As a showcase for what mega-brands can do in #UEFN, Airphoria is top tier. The item shop integration especially – in fact, I would bet a decent lunch on more Fortnite users buying the outfits in the Item Shop than there are users that linked their .Swoosh accounts… I wonder if/when that level of integration will become open for UEFN builders. If ever.

ONE. TO. WATCH.

Especially with EA Sports FC around the corner… ay.

To close this section off, this week, a day or so after the event finished, participants who played the island for more than ten minutes were able to log back in and claim themselves some AIR MAX 1 ‘86 backbling. Lovely.

Learn more how they did all of this, and more on UE5 Spotlight.

Finally, I’ve gathered up all my screenshots from the activation into a Google Photos folder so if you’re looking for any to use for presentations or anything, please go ahead and use them.

Just mark them up with ‘Source @whatleydude’.

Thanks x

2. OH MY GOD HOW HAVE WE NOT TALKED ABOUT THE CHANNEL 4 IDENTS YET?!

‘For this is… the island life’

I cannot express to you enough to take three minutes and twenty-eight seconds out of your day watch and enjoy this incredible piece of art and craft.

You’ll almost certainly want to watch it again.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll probably want to know more.

So here’s the behind the scenes video too.

What a truly incredible piece of work. I cried.

3. THIS WEEK IN GAMING

FIRST: Super Mario is an Elephant now in Super Mario Wonder.

I haven’t been this excited for a new Mario since Odyssey came out. I just love this whole VIBE. In in in in in in….

‘Oh that Goomba looks so serene… well then’ – (watch the trailer, you’ll see what I mean).

What other news?

Well:

• Annapurna Interactive did their 2023 showcase (Annapurna never miss) and this one is no exception. Big news: Stray – aka ‘The Cat Game’ – is coming to Xbox in August. Outside of that, for 30mins of your time, Annapurna will show a bunch of narrative-led games that will change the way you look at gaming.

• Roblox CEO, David Baszucki, did a great interview with The Verge. ‘Why Roblox is ready to grow up’. Interesting to hear how they’re pushing into an older target (with appropriate content to match). Between Epic and Roblox – universal 3D worlds of play are coming and these two titans will set how we explore them. Worth watching.

• The UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has published a new framework as a best practice supporting tool for research into video games (consumers, cultures, communities and more). Keep this one for reference.

• More UEFN stuff, if you are a Fortnite player, I really liked PRELOADED’s ‘Wonders: Pyramids of Giza’ UEFN build. Worth a look (again – a great engine demo).

• The Barbie x Forza integration is stunning (yes, that is my character – yes, I did change him into a baby blue tank top for the photoshoot).

What am I playing?

Truth be told, I’ve barely touched a thing of late. Between WORK (and there has been a lot of that – turns out pitching, then going on holiday, then winning a pitch, then catching covid, then trying to catch up on everything else – while also trying to be the CSO of an agency and everything that comes with that takes up a lot of time), training for the Tough Mudder (have you sponsored me?), and the sun finally coming out…

Well, I’ve not the time to spend on it. However, aside from dipping into Forza 5 (see above) and playing a bit of Mincraft with the kids, on the rotation schedule at the moment I’ve got:

• Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Truth be told I’ve put this down for a bit. I think I’m a bit worn out. I will go back to it. I hear the ending is excellent.

• Diablo IV. Still chipping away at the campaign. Well into Act III now and things are heating up.

• Occasional SF6 (although I’ve not been back since getting to Bronze 2 Star).

• C-Smash VRS came out this week and I really want to try that this weekend.

• I managed to catch up with my Destiny 2: Season of the Deep story beats (although a new one dropped this week – the final one I believe) so I’ve got that to do. Might even do that today.

• And then, of course, Final Fantasy XVI has dropped – and Diva has done a fair amount of work on this one so I almost feel obliged, y’know? I mean first off, it’s getting rave reviews and second, I haven’t really played an FF game since Crystal Chronicles on the GameCube (yes, I know). If you didn’t know, the FF series – while numbered – doesn’t actually tell one continuous story. Each game is a brand new story. There are common themes etc but it’s a new character, background, world… using similar mechanics as before. XVI is the new/first proper next gen version of Final Fantasy. And apparently it shows. So I’ll see you there, right?

What are YOU playing?

4. WHY SO WETIKO?

[A few weeks ago, from asked if we wanted to a ‘thing swap’ for our newsletters. You’ll find a thing from me over on the next/latest edition of Salmon Theory. But now, over to Rob…]

Hey friends, my name’s Rob and you guessed it – i’m not James.

We’re trying something for fun, where we do a mini guest writing thing on each others’ newsletters. I am a Planning Director at VCCP in London, and the author of Salmon Theory, a newsletter whose aim is to help you either slow down, or keep going, by tapping into timeless ideas that helps us make sense of whatever the hell today and tomorrow is. I’ve been writing it for about 6 years, having a ton of fun and meeting heroes along the way, some of which are part of the 2.5k readers who lend their attention to me on a regular basis. I’m grateful to every single one of them.

Anyway, James gave me a brief which is: what’s the most interesting thing you’ve read/seen this week?

And as i was reviewing stuff i saved this week (i’m a bit of a link hoarder), i came across this wonderful concept of wetiko. So what is it?

“Wetiko is an Algonquin [indigenous people of Eastern Canada] word for a cannibalistic spirit that is driven by greed, excess and selfish consumption (in Ojibwa it is windigo, wintiko in Powhatan).

It deludes its host into believing that cannibalising the life-force of others (others in the broad sense, including animals and other forms of Gaian life) is a logical and morally upright way to live.

Wetiko short-circuits the individual’s ability to see itself as an enmeshed and interdependent part of a balanced environment and raises the self-serving ego to supremacy. It is this false separation of self from nature that makes this cannibalism, rather than simple murder.”

Grim stuff, right? And yet, i’m a huge believer in being able to clearly label problems before you can start solving them. And looking to the past, or often forgotten or misunderstood cultures, can sometimes yield fantastic pieces of language and modes of thinking to change our perspective. Wetiko feels like that to me. It relates to our relationship with mother nature and the planet, but i would argue can also be applied as a more general way of looking at the world. Of course, in this case what we want to learn and improve by opposition of what wetiko means.

This letting go of a competitive drive doesn’t always come easy for a strategist like me who is formatted to think in terms of competitive advantages. And yet, while that skill is useful when you think about an organisational problem, i know that this form of competition can become quite detrimental in our own lives. In other words, it’s fine to have your competitive hat on when life and work so require, but equally we have to know when to let that go and adopt a much more holistic view towards ourselves and others. I’m a huge fan of channels like Kurzgesagt because they help me take a much more systemic approach to, quite literally, life, the universe and everything.

And while that does not make me a saint (far from it), i have to believe that being able to approach our environments with respect, with a sense of “us-ness”, instead of us vs them, can only be an increasingly mandatory skill to be a decent human being in the 21st century. Or, if we bring it back to the world of strategy, you literally think of yourself as being far more integrated and interconnected to the world around you, in ways that perhaps no one ever taught us to before. And if integration and interconnectedness and complementarity and mutually reinforcing benefits are good enough for this small thing called strategy, then they must be good enough for this huge thing called life. 

So next time someone is projecting a type of antagonistic energy where for them to win you must lose, perhaps ask yourself: “Why so wetiko?”

Anyway, thanks James for allowing me a little corner here, and hope you all enjoyed it. I write more stuff like this over at Salmon Theory, so hope i see you there?

5. BEE AY AR BEE EYE EE

BARBIE!

You cannot move for Barbie marketing at the moment – and I LOVE IT.

First thing first, all credit to Joe Kozak, creative lead at Diva, for sending me this amazing Barbie billboard just outside of Canary Wharf in London.

I tagged it to the super smart Moshe Isaacian’s attention, who was in the midst of compiling this mega (size and viral) thread all about Barbie’s PAINT THE TOWN PINK approach to its whole launch campaign.

One campain. 50+ executions.

You must’ve seen it by now (and if you haven’t, you’ve probably seen a million rip offs).

Moshe’s thread covers everything from Airbnb to Xbox, from candles to cosmetics, from rollerskates to rolling suitcases. The partnerships job on this is everything.

You should check it out and, if you see any copycats, direct them back to Moshe’s original. Don’t use Twitter? Here it is on Linkedin.

Also, it should be said: some ADLAND PEOPLE got really grumpy about the Pink OOH. Like, laughably so. Which is amazing really. I think I made some throwaway comment like ‘If you don’t get it, then it’s not for you’ – and honestly, it was like I personally poked them in both eyes with the feet from a Barbie doll.

It’s ok to not get an ad. It’s also ok to assume that Warner Bros might actually know what they’re doing by going all out to ensure that every single Barbie fan (and their friends) goes out and buys a ticket.

Kicking off because it doesn’t suit your interpretation of a brief you haven’t seen is like completely fine and stuff but also, kinda why I ended up writing about gaming instead. As painful as it sounds, not every ad is for middle-aged white man strategy Twitter. Some ads are for people that really like Barbie.

BONUS SECTION

THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.

ENJOY.

• Everyone is talking about the new Fiat ad, ‘No More Grey’. If you’ve not seen it yet, watch it. As ever, Ritson is great on this. Strategy is sacrifice, y’all.

• How about Harry Styles covering Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’.

• I love a good bio/celeb interview, and this Vulture one on one with Parker Posey does not disappoint.

• Same topic, different celebs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito on Life and Death is one of the best things I’ve read this year.

• What Michelin inspectors truly experience dining out.

• I am in love with Entertainment Weekly’s social media manager.

• Obama’s career advice: ‘Just learn how to get stuff done’ – advice FOR LIFE.

• Whatsapp notifications are coming to Meta Quest (not the Metaverse) – THERE IS NO ESCAPE.

• ‘Would an idiot do that?’ – watch this, please x

• How to think real good.

• Engineering our dreams (September 2022)

• ‘If you want it to be easy, you don’t want it to be great’ – Rob Campbell on essential form.

• Dua Lipa every time Elton John rang her to duet at Glasto.

• It was really nice of to mention me and my old predictions pal, Marshall Manson, in his Substack piece ‘Handle your predictions with care’ – a good read.

• The ongoing saga at Reddit is not going to end well at all, is it?

YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.

If you’ve made it his far then you get a free hug. Claim it when you see me next.

It’s my day off today and I’ve spent a lot of it writing this to you. I had a whole thing about glasto lined up but I’ve swapped it out for Rob on Thing 4. So you’ll have to read it next time 🙂

I hope you have a decent weekend. I’m off to take the kids to see George Ezra.

Happy Friday, fam.

Whatley out x

Things of note for the week ending Friday June 23rd, 2023

No things this week just Lions.

12 shortlists.

Seven Lions.

Four Gold. Two Silver. One Bronze.

Seven Lions awarded at the peer reviewed and judged Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity.

All seven for the OREO x Xbox partnership (aka ‘Cheat Cookies’ or ‘Unlock Playfulness’ – market depending), that launched at the turn of the year.

I led and sold in the strategy for this project when I was at Digitas, working with the amazing team at Saatch Saatchi Dusseldorf, in my role as European Strategy Lead for Mondelez bakery .

I cried.

Clients have been amazing.

And my old team have sent a million selfies.

I know it sounds mad but for me, this shit is important.

When it comes to the advertising industry, winning a Lion is IT.

Like that is IT.

People care about all the other awards, sure. But the big one, the one that really chuffing matters – it’s the Cannes Lion.

Winning a Lion at Cannes MATTERS.

I know this because the only other Lion that I have on my CV is the Bronze I’m credited on for the 2014 Expedia activation: Travel Your Tweet Interesting.

And I have always been proud of that.

But y’know what, I don’t talk about my upbringing that much (Dad was a carpenter, left when I was six or seven, Mum worked two jobs – in a pub and a supermarket) – I was recently sent a book called ‘Making it in the creative industry: A practical guide’ and it reminded me that actually, I’ve been really effing lucky to get where I am.

I grew up in Essex. I didn’t come into the ad industry knowing someone. I didn’t go to private school (I got my GSCEs at Castle View, Canvey Island, Essex). I had free school dinners (had to queue up at reception every lunchtime and get the little bus ticket voucher). I didn’t go to university and I don’t have a degree. No one paid for me to get anywhere. No one opened doors. I’m a white cis-het male and so the system is easier for me to navigate – there’s privilege there. I acknowledge that.

Today though, I acknowledge my background. My working class roots. I’m a member of Jed Hallam’s common people and proud.

And today I’ve got four gold lions.

You may not care about Cannes. And y’know what, if you’d asked me before this week, I probably would’ve said I don’t care as well.

But then we won. And I sobbed. Sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. Uncontrollably! Sobbed for the validation of my peers. Sobbed for achieving the heights on a campaign strategy and idea we believed in so much. Sobbed for all those bastards that never really knew what to do with me when they found me working in their team.

And yet here I am. With FOUR GOLD Lions.

Speechless. Utterly speechless.

…

Normal service will resume next edition.

I’m done now.

Whatley out x

PS. Watch the case film.

PPS. Those Lions in full:

GOLD: DIRECT, FOOD & DRINK
GOLD: CULTURE & CONTEXT
GOLD: AUDIENCE, SOCIAL INSIGHT & ENGAGEMENT
GOLD: BRANDED CONTENT, INSIGHT & STRATEGY
SILVER: ENTERTAINMENT FOR GAMING, PARTNERSHIPS
SILVER: GAMING, DATA & TECHNOLOGY
BRONZE: BRAND EXPERIENCE & ACTIVATION

Things of note for the week ending Sunday June 18th 2023.

I snapped this Crown Plaza ad at Heathrow Airport last month. It’s in the corridors as you pass through security. If you made this, I only have one question: what the actual ever loving f*** were you thinking? Thanks x

INTRO

It’s been a minute. How have you been?

I’ve been: busy with work (more on that later) on holiday (ten year anniversary with the Mrs – Sorrento, was lovely), and then down and out with covid (do not recommend).

As I write to you it’s 942am on Sunday 18th June. It’s Father’s Day. The kids have delivered gifts, coffee, and cake (cake!) and so I’ve been left to relax in bed.

And here I am, writing to you.

I hope wherever you are in the world reading this you are well and happy. Life is hard at times. Sometimes it feels like it all of the time. The most important thing is that you stay. You are loved and appreciated more than you will ever know by people close to you and people who you’ve met only once but left a lifelong impression on.

So… if you take one thing from this week’s edition it’s this: stay.

What else can I tell you?

Oh yes! Thank you so much to the FToF readers that have kindly donated to the my Tough Mudder attempt (less than two months away!) – we’re still a little way off our target so if you enjoy this entirely free newsletter, and can spare a fiver or two FOR WAR CHILD on payday (stick a reminder in) then please donate here.

There’s been a lot going on across my broad spectrum of interestingness since we last spoke so I’ll try and keep this edition of THINGS tight and brief – we both know that won’t happen. But there’s no harm in trying, right?

Shall we?

TO THE THINGS!

1. 100 BARRINGTON

A dear friend of mine happens to be in charge of a ridiculous event space in South London called, 100 Barrington.

A few weeks months ago, and in the name updating their marketing material for ‘23 and beyond, 100 Barrington hosted one hell of a party – this one in fact.

Yours truly- along with some other VERY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE -bagged an invite and, as it was such an amazing evening, I made a promise to the hosts that I would gladly let you all know about it.

So in case you are looking for an events space in Brixton – for a summer party, a wedding, or planning ahead for Christmas – Give 100 Barrington a call.

Ask for Dan. And tell him James Whatley says hi x

2. OK LET’S TALK ABOUT THE METAVERSE VISION PRO

(I wasn’t going to write about this – it’s been done to death already and so many others have done a better job; I liked Ben Evans’ take. But a few people have asked and so OK fine).

On June 5th, Apple announced Vision Pro. A beta programme first generation mixed reality headset that will be made available from early 2024.

The price for this beta headset starts at $3499.

A few things.

Let’s talk about what the Vision Pro is:

• IT IS the start of a new category: consumer facing mixed reality device.

• IT IS a phenomenal amount of tech squeezed into what is basically curved glass.

• IT IS (in textbook Apple behaviour) a smart application and combination of existing technologies + some Apple magic. eg: eye-tracking and foveated rendering (the technology that only keeps high fidelity focus on the areas of the screen your eyes are looking at, delivering energy and memory efficiencies) has already been in PS VR2.

• IT IS v. exciting purely from a future-gazing entertainment perspective. The Disney+ integration (easily the best part of the entire presentation – casual Bob Iger) is great but I highly doubt it’ll stay VP-exclusive – so I look forward to that rolling out on other VR platforms eventually.

• IT IS (again, textbook Apple) a great communications exercise in how to root technology advancement in human-centric situations.

Let’s talk about what the Vision Pro isn’t:

• IT ISN’T anything to do with the sodding metaverse. And you can take Apple’s word for that. In fact, the M word wasn’t said, presented or inferred once throughout the entire 2hr WWDC event. Telling. More on this shortly…

• IT ISN’T – with its reported battery life of 2hrs – going to let you watch Everything Everywhere All At Once (2hrs 19mins) on a flight anytime soon.

• IT ISN’T going to change anything for at least 18-24mths. The US release date is scheduled for ‘early 2024’ with more countries to follow later in the year. Volume targets are low (and lowering) so don’t expect the THREE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR device to do iPhone numbers ay. That said, this early announcement specifically at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC – the clue’s in the name) gives devs a decent run up to get familiar with the tech and get some banging apps ready. So that’s exciting.

• IT ISN’T going to get families wearing these goggles during family events (that whole section was proper Black Mirror / divorced dad y’all).

So yeah, that’s the Vision Pro. A glimpse of an exciting/immersive future.

It’s mega premium, classic Apple, and dick all to do with the metaverse.

Related: the AFP asked me for some commentary – you can read that here – and Jamie East invited me onto The Sunday 7 to chat about it too, you can listen to that right here (from about 4mins 40).

IN OTHER NOT-THE-METAVERSE NEWS

• I spoke to Alex Hern at The Observer about bad consultants selling terrible experiences for his piece, ‘Is Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse over?’

• If you think your life is bad, it could be worse – you could’ve been the one that signed off ‘the Skodaverse’. Or worse: PWC in Decentraland.

• The Voice announced a ‘Roblox-Style’ metaverse called The Voice Studios. The only catch? They built it in Decentraland. How crap must the experience be in DCL if your own press release has to use Roblox to get press coverage? 😂

• Shed a tear for early retirement of the Chief Metaverse Officer role. According to AdAge, even the godmother herself has broadened out the title (print friendly link).

• Meta announced the Quest 3 (who for?) and didn’t use the M word (are they shying away now? Finally?)

• Everyone (well, everyone pictured in the middle of the image at the top of this section) says gaming is the ‘entry point’ to the metaverse, so why did the entire summer of gaming / Not-E3 / #SummerGameFest pass without a single developer or publisher mentioning it?

• And of course, throughout Apple’s entire WWDC they didn’t say ‘metaverse’ once.

Hilariously these last two points were noted and raised to me by a client (I have the best clients).

To quote Ben Evans: it is impossible to know what someone means when they use the word ‘metaverse’. It is a meaningless joke. A waste of time, breath, and usually, money.

With the entire gaming industry, Apple, and now seemingly Meta itself finally moving away from the word, will 2023 mean we’re finally binning the metaverse word off for good? It’s nearly been a year since I stood on stage and told you all it was waffle.

Glad everyone has caught up.

3. THIS WEEK IN GAMING

It’s been quite busy in the world of gaming. A whole host of announcements in/at Summer Game Fest meant that players will FEAST over the next 12-18mths.

Xbox by far and away had the best presentation of the show (you can watch the showcase, along with the Starfield direct deep dive right here).

I’m not going to go into the details of everything but overall highlights for me were:

• Fable (amazing trailer, no announcement date)

• Star Wars Outlaws (the gameplay trailer at Ubi Forward was great)

• New Prince of Persia (2.5d refresh, I’m in)

• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (rescue choppers, DUNE DLC!)

• Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga (I cannot wait for this)

• Starfield (seriously, looks nuts – No Man’s Sky and so much more)

• Jusant (‘climb, fall 23’ – is a great line)

• Assassin’s Creed Mirage (new AC based on old AC? Sign me up)

• Still Wakes the Deep (creepy af)

• Dungeons of Hinterberg (love the style and setting)

• Cyberpunk 2077: Phanom Liberty (I hope this is good)

• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (I am unashamedly a fan of all things Avatar so will absolutely be all over this)

AND THAT’S JUST OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD AND THERE ARE STILL ANNOUNCEMENTS TO COME.

There has never been a better time to get into gaming.

Lovely.

Next question.

What am I playing?

• I finished Jedi Fallen Order (excellent – this is a good article on the game’s main mode of transport) and downloaded Jedi: Survivor to play but didn’t get around to playing it because…

• …I went on holiday and finally finished The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the way and then immediately picked up Tears of the Kingdom upon arrival (I’m three regional phenomena down, one to go) along with Advance Wars. Its inarguable that TotK is not a great graphical experience but the physics and the story are incredible. On this point specifically, Jonathan is excellent.

• Then Street Fighter 6 came out and I’ve struggled to put that down (global ranking of Bronze + 2 stars and 3517 – wanna fight?)

• AND THEN Diablo IV came out and I’ve been playing a ton of that too.

And while I’m still doing regular raids with the gang, I’m really behind on my Destiny 2 story beats. I’ve got a pitch next week so hopefully some time will free up after that…? MAYBE?!

What are you playing?

…

AND FINALLY IN THIS GAMING SECTION

A big thanks to the people and PR team at PLATFORM BAR. A few weeks ago they invited (and paid for) me and a pal to their brand new venue in Canary Wharf (right by Crossrail) for an evening of pizza, beers, and gaming.

With a boozy gamer-themed cocktail bar and pizzas (along with vegan options for the dairy intolerant massive), each booth has a PS5 and Nintendo Switch on hand to play a whole ton of different games while you booze.

Like I said, Platform paid for our whole evening – I have to declare that – but the way it’s set up and ran (by clearly a bunch of awesome nerds – and it’s ace), we had such a great evening (I don’t have to say that).

Want to know more? Here’s the website (there’s one in Shoreditch too, natch).

4. HERE, HAVE SOME AWESOME WORK STUFF

I know this is all tangential/adjacent to the above thing but we’ve got so much in this edition I felt like it needed to be broken out on its own.

Sorry, I can’t get enough of this.

Briefed by Activision, designed and rendered by Diva (in Unreal Engine 5, no less), painted by Global Street Art on media bought my Rapport WW – this is some of my favourite work we’ve every produced (not just London either).

It’s just stunning. More here.

We also did this sick bus for Square Enix and their incoming launch of Final Fantasy XVI (free demo available right now).

I think flames might be a thing.

MORE STUFF COMING SOON.

Other stuff of note from Diva towers:

• Paul Weedon on Minecraft and mental health is worth your time.

• I spoke to Business Insider about Twitter’s plans for doubling down on video (tl;dr: it doesn’t matter what it does, if Twitter doesn’t fix brand safety, the platform is dead). Print friendly version here.

• The Drum on EA FC’s (nee FIFA) rebrand (feat. me).

5. SPIDERVERSE LEGO AWESOMES

Took the eldest to see Spider-Verse last week and in the minorest of minor spoilers, there is a moment in the movie where it spins a web out to a Lego-variant Spider-Verse. This alone is awesome. The story behind it is even better.

‘How a 14-Year-Old Came to Animate a Scene in ‘Across the Spider-Verse’

BONUS SECTION

THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS (AND ALMOST CERTAINLY THE EMAIL LIMIT) BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.

ENJOY.

• The new Babylon 5 animated movie looks fun.

• Twitter is dying. David Wilding managed to capture what’s keeping me there. For now at least (playing a lot in Blue Sky these days). Read ‘Small Twitter’.

• LOST Illusions: the untold story of the hit show’s poisonous culture is essential reading.

• Catastrophe is now available on Netflix. Not watched it? Watch it!

• Gaming. It’s a thing. (Related: thanks but no thanks).

• Rami Ismail on ‘surviving the indie apocalypse’ (smart stuff)

• Also from Ismail, ‘the publisher’s lie’ – also excellent.

• What strategists want from work.

• The OREO x Xbox Cheat Cookies work picked up 14 awards at the Art Director’s Club in Germany last Friday. It’s the most awards piece of work in the home country of the creatives that developed it. Well done, gang. Proud. Oh, and at the time of writing, it turns out its been shortlisted at Cannes too. Incred.

• Where are all the unempowered women?

• The FTC has told Facebook/Meta it really shouldn’t be monetising kids – but Facebook/Meta has allegedly been doing it anyway.

• Ikea – ‘second best’ – is great.

• The best printer review perhaps ever.

• The Notre-Dame fire has revealed some amazing innovations.

• Any excuse to watch Chris Morris.

• Daft Punk foreveeeeeer.

• What’s the opposite of Triggers? Glimmers.

• All praise our new orca overlords (orcalords?)

• The Bandwagon. A great read to end this with.

YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.

There’s no way I’ve covered everything off I wanted to cover but I woke up this morning and wanted to write. Thanks for indulging me. It’s 15:58 and I’m writing this final section to you.

I won’t be sending it til later though – it’s Father’s Day and the kids wanna play Fortnite. I’ll see you again soon gang.

Big love,

Whatley out x

Things of note for the week ending Sunday April 23rd 2023

INTRO

Good morning from 11:28am on a gentle starting Saturday morning. The kids are playing Fortnite and Cult of the Lamb and I am booting up Substack to see if I can get a newsletter out at some point this weekend – shall we see how we go?

How are you?

It’s been a good social week. Caught up with some of the old Digitas lot (bye Lauren!), managed an extremely rare pint with my brother, and then ended the week cooking a steak dinner for (and opening a significant amount of wine with) some dear friends who hadn’t all been together since before the Covid times.

A heart-filling few days.

As an aside and perhaps as your first bonus thing for this week’s edition, I came across this smoky Brussels sprouts recipe as an interesting side dish to go with the steak and it turned out to be deeeeeelish. So if you can find a reason to give that a go, do so 🙂

While I’m here, here’s a huge thank you to everyone that pledged their support for the Diva Agency/Warchild Tough Mudder attempt in August. Times are tough and with the London Marathon this weekend I am reminded of just how much people are giving already.

At the time of writing there are 3623 subscribers to this newsletter with a 48% open rate. If you all gave one pound then that’d get us well over halfway to our target in an instant. Donate now.

PS. There are a bunch of us doing it from Diva so if you do donate, please yell something like ‘Go Whatley!’ in the comments of the page so I know that one was for me 😉

Where were we?

Ah yes, the newsletter. I hope this edition of Five things on Friday finds you well and healthy. Spring is springing – AT LAST – and the sunshine is warming the soul. I’ve no idea what we’ve got in the link bank this week but let’s open up the ol’ inbox and see what’s what.

Shall we?

TO THE THE THINGS!

1. WHAT, IF ANYTHING, DO WE WANT FROM SOCIAL MEDIA?

With Twitter going through the motions of its dying days, there are new potential platforms and old beckoning beacons popping up all over the place – all trawling behind the slow motion death of the blue bird to see how and where they might attract departing users.

Artifact, Hive, Post, Mastodon, Notes, Blue Sky… (and these are just the ones from memory) – there are a lot. FWIW, judging by feeds this weekend, Blue Sky is the current attempt du jour that everyone is talking about. It was Notes last week, it could be something else in May. It’s not going well, is it?

The reality is, there won’t ever be a single and complete replacement for Twitter. Its growth over time – from piss poor presidents to newspaper celebrity sourcing – will never be repeated. Its original journey from micro-blogging platform to ‘town square’ to news platform, took well over a decade to happen. And while I don’t doubt that new platforms could experience overnight success (hello TikTok), what Twitter was is gone.

Which leads me to the question headlining Thing One this week:

What, if anything, do we want from social media?’

An indirect quote from Bob Merberg, author of the Substack , it’s a question that I have kept coming back to all week.

What do we want want from social media?

Twitter has been such a huge part of my life (and frankly: my career) for so long, I am finding it hard to let it go.

Instagram I gave up on in 2019 (here’s why). But truth be told, with so many of my friends active over there I have been considering a return. Then I think ‘Hang on, what is it for?’ Do I need to go all in on what Rabbi Jeremy Wieder calls ‘Conspicuous Consumption’. Nah. That’s not for me.

One of the reasons I’m enjoying dipping in and out of Substack Notes so much is that the content and the community is completely different. It feels small – and that’s OK – but the conversation is good, engaging and – for me at least – it feels wholesome. But it’s not (old) Twitter.

But then what do I need / use Twitter for? News updates. Friends being funny. Writing. Photos. The sense of connection. I follow a well pruned list of people that talk about such a wild varied bunch of topics – with a handful of opposing opinions thrown in for good measure – that I nearly always enjoy reading it (as a result the new ‘For You’ tab has been broadly very good IMO but that’s literally it).

Last year, in an article I wrote for The Drum about gaming, I recalled social object theory as a way to put all the garbage about the metaverse (vs video games) into perspective.

In 2005, tech founder and investor Jyri Engeström coined the term ‘social object theory’. Building on the work of sociologist Karin Knorr Cetina, Engeström came up with – and subsequently implemented – this theory as part of his explanation as to why some social media networks succeed and some fail.

Social media networks need objects. Or, as Jyri put it: ”Social network theory fails to recognize such real-world dynamics because its notion of sociality is limited to just people.”

Simply ‘connecting people’ is not enough. For example, Engeström argued at the time that much of the success of Flickr (remember Flickr?) was because user-generated photography served as social objects around which conversations of social networks could form. And he was right.

This perhaps goes a long way to explain the success of Instagram (and, if we had more time, would no doubt provide a decent foundational argument for the vacant pornography of trauma that you see displayed on LinkedIn every day). However, we’re not here to talk about that.

The point is: when online, people need something to talk about. They need ’object centered sociality’. If you’re gathering, then the reason you gather needs to have purpose. On Instagram, it’s that amazing photo you took at Coachella. On Facebook, it’s your nan’s birthday. In Whatsapp, it’s the memed version of your best mate’s most recent terrible opinion. Posting images, videos, links, news stories, the latest misinformation from your Next Door community… it’s all what brings us together.

I’m reminded of that every time someone says ‘What about Linkedin?’ which, while I do think it has improved of late, is nowhere near as valuable for me personally (as I guess it is professionally – but then, that’s the point, right?) – so I’m not hauling ass that way anytime soon.

(as an aside, if you are, then Mat Morrison is very good on what does and doesn’t work over there – algorithmically speaking)

All this and I still don’t have an answer to the question.

The Mrs and I work hard to keep our kids off social platforms (like, I think I can count on one hand the number of photos I’ve personally shared). Instagram babies, they ain’t. And why should they be? Imagine realising your face was already been scraped for AI tools before you turned 13? Or finally being allowed on Facebook and realising the platform already knows everything about you before you’ve even hit publish on your first update. Big yikes.

I wrote about this in 2008 (!)

However, one does wonder, in the years to come when the newborns of the late noughties find their way into school, will a new elite group be the rage in the playground? The Facebook Kids — whose parents embraced this new digital wave completely, and used it to track the entirety of their youngling’s lives to date…

And when the time comes, will these ‘Blog-Babies’ be given the logins to their blog like some twisted digital version of the keys to their first car? Or the first $100 from their lifelong trust fund? Of course, but only when they come of age, so to speak.

Could the parents become precious over this personal history?

‘My child ruined/deleted his blog’ is a Jerry Springer/Jeremy Kyle show waiting to happen…

Swap out ‘blog’ for ‘Facebook’ or even ‘TikTok’ and we’re not far off where we are today.

And I still don’t have an answer to the question.

But you know what, maybe we don’t need a definitive answer.

Maybe it’s just a good question to hold in your head whenever you’re hovering over that share/post/publish/toot/tweet button?

Try it for a week and let me know. I’m interested to hear what happens.

What do you want from social media?

2. PODCASTS FOR YOUR EARS

Confession: I don’t listen to that many podcasts. I don’t. Being able to sit and listen to something for 35-40mins is a luxury that I rarely get*. Occasional solo long drives or train travels tend to be where and when I get to indulge, and even then that’s when I remember (and not seat dancing to whatever’s on the radio).

To that point, I’ve had to go in and out of London a bit of late so I’ve been catching up. So here are a few decent things I’ve heard recently:

1. First up, Dr Menaal Munshey on the excellent One Question podcast addressing a response to the question ‘Can we rewrite the rules of leadership’ through the lens of female leadership (aka: the best leadership) and what leadership means working as an immigrant living between countries while at the same time battling on the frontlines of the climate crisis. This is really bloody good.

2. Jo Arden on Uncensored CMO is quite great and worth a listen. Sad we never got to work together when we were both at Publicis, she sounds brilliant and I’m pleased as punch Ogilvy has a decent CSO again. They’re lucky to have her.

3. And finally, for something a bit left-field, I can’t remember how but I happened upon an episode of Conan O’Brien’s podcast ‘Conan needs a friend’ and of the small handful that I’ve listened to, it’s really well put together and the guests are great.

These are all Spotify links, obvs. But they’re all available on Apple and almost certainly literally anywhere else where you get your podcasts.

Enjoy!

*It’s probably why I’m still only on the October edition of Season 10’s (aka 2022’s) excellent Midlife Gamer ‘Year of Shame’ podcast. Sorry lads.

3. THIS WEEK IN GAMING

I mean, I can’t kick off this week’s gaming section without SCREAMING about the drop dead gorgeous EDGE COVER that the amazing PR team at Diva managed to secure for HYPER LIGHT BREAKER.

You can check out the gameplay trailer right here – and I believe Early Access is coming to Steam later this year….

Way back when video games magazines did front cover freebies the amazing and much read/missed Nintendo Magazine System gave away an actual Street Fighter II VHS on the cover. I was in school when this happened and I’m fairly sure I even had the video as well – and back then I was such a Nintendo boy through and through, I remember when this was on the shelves. Retro news experts Time Extension has a great piece on of how all that happened.

Side: there’s a FREE Street Fighter 6 demo inbound. It’s available right now for PlayStation owners and Xbox and Steam follows next week. GET IT. Game is out in June so this is a good way/time to get on top of the new systems…

What else can I tell you?

Quick Game News + Updates

• Cult of the Lamb DLC has finally been dated. It comes out ON MONDAY (April 24th) and is a FREE UPDATE! Yes!

• This is a great interview with the CEO of Black Girl Gamers.

• There were a couple of 20+ minute long publisher broadcasts that are worth catching up on if you missed them: Indie World Showcase from Nintendo and a Final Fantasy XVI focused State of Play from PlayStation. The former is great for just a ton of new indies coming soon to Switch and the latter is, of course, a deep dive on the all new all different FFXVI. I haven’t properly played a Final Fantasy game since Crystal Chronicles on GameCube so I’m looking forward to this. (I should say: Square is a client but I think y’all know me well enough by now to know I’m not being paid to write this 😁). Check out both broadcasts – anything interesting there for you?

• Diablo IV is getting another open beta next month.

• If you have an older Nintendo Switch you might have a joy-con that suffers from stick drift. I do – well – I did. It’s past-tense because Nintendo just announced (in the UK at least, I think they’re doing it elsewhere too) that it will repair any joy-con, for free, no matter when or where it was bought. Details are here. I sent mine off this week and it was EASY. UPS turned up less than 24hrs later and it’s currently being repaired at Ninty. Lovely.

• Must watch: occupational burnout in video games.

• Pokemon Sleep – a game which you play BY SLEEPING – is coming this year!

What am I playing?

I finished DREDGE (details on that in last week’s edition). It’s a great game and you should play it. I found it to be reminiscent of the Fighting Fantasy Adventure books from my school days and that can only be a good thing. Well written, relatively short, and quite chill at times. It’s the sleeper hit of the year – don’t miss it.

Next up, I’ve decided to take one final swing at getting into Jedi: Fallen Order. If you don’t know, JFO is an in-canon story that takes place shortly after the events of Revenge of the Sith (Order 66 etc – IYKYK). With the sequel, Jedi: Survivor, due any day now, I thought ‘Why not give it a shot?’ (I’d already tried it 2-3 times and just didn’t get on with it – turns out, as quite a few people told me, the first hour is tricky to get through but you’re off planet and exploring, it really picks up).

Well. I smashed through the first hour and…

I am in love.

More photos at this thread.

If you haven’t played JFO, this is me recommending you should.

If you have played JFO, were you a fan? Are you getting Survivor?

Hit that comment/reply/notes button and tell me.

4. A COUPLE OF METAVERSE BITS BECAUSE WHAT IS LIFE IF YOU CAN’T HAVE A LAUGH FROM TIME TO TIME?

I’ll keep this brief.

Word is: Facebook/Meta’s has reportedly stopped pitching metaverse rubbish to advertisers. Instead it is said to be focusing on selling in AI as well as buffing its Instagram-based TikTok clone, Reels (with deep discounts up to 25% off).

I am shooketh.

Look, I’m not saying you shouldn’t believe a single thing that they say but y’all remember the pivot to video, right? You remember the ol’ ‘over-inflating view counts by about 900%’ routine, right?

Facebook’s er… ‘loose’ …relationship with the truth (and the above just one example, there are many many more) has never been something I’ve been comfortable with and so when the metaverse thing came along I was like ‘Wait, what?’

It only took five years for the pivot to video to be pulled apart as a pack of lies. The wheels coming off its metaverse announcement has only taken 18mths. Things are improving!

It’s almost like spunking a load of money and time on a thing that nobody wants or has asked for with no proof or measurement of any real or meaningful ROI whatsoever has been a complete and utter waste of time. Almost.

‘OK James, but when you say ‘a load of money’, how much are we talking?’ – that’s a great question. Well, it’s a LOT. And to put it into perspective, let me borrow a slide from Ben Evans’ excellent February 2023 presentation ‘The New Gatekeepers’.

Ell. Oh. Ell.

Related: Facebook has a new ‘opt-out’ form. Here’s how well designed that is. I think they might’ve done it purpose? I can’t be sure.

5. WHAT IF WE WROTE ABOUT DADS IN THE WAY WE WROTE ABOUT MUMS?

The Grudge Report

What Kind of Dad Are You?

Hey, beautiful, badass Dadas! Whether you’re a Workin’ Dad or a S.A.H.D., there are so many different kinds of new fathering styles to read about, it can be downright overwhelming! And we get it: Bumping into other judgy, “perfect dads” (with perfect bodies) at preschool dropoff or at the grocery store can definitely get you doubting yourself and your li…

Read more

8 months ago · 58 likes · 4 comments · Bess Kalb

No further questions, your honour.

BONUS SECTION

THERE BE GOLD IN DEM HILLS.

• Hannah Waddingham getting a Christmas Special is honestly the best news ever and if you don’t know why this is, I’m about to change your life.

• This week I learned about the RMS Carpathia – and now you will too.

• I’ve been relatively careful about not doing too much stuff on Elon’s Twitter. So many others do it better (Casey Newton, for example) and frankly, the less time I spend on it the better off I will be. That said, a net uptick of 28 new Twitter Blue subscriptions is just embarrassing, right? Oy.

• The Mandalorian made ‘The Volume’ famous. I’ll never tire of seeing it explained.

• Hedda Gabler is my favourite Ibsen. Did it once. Seen it a few times (best one was Sheridan Smith at the Old Vic ten years ago) and reading about Tessa Thompson doing a new version of it has made my week. Bring it the hell on.

• Actually, here’s Casey again but this time looking at Snap’s most recent Partner Summit. Good analysis.

• The power of being an outsider.

• This crisps are horrendous.

• Some [more] good notes on Substack Notes.

• Tom Watson has a level / different take on Dominic Raab. Hasn’t changed my mind about the man but it’s good to be challenged.

• A Substack about digital memorials. Fascinating AF.

• Dishwasher fish?

• My old head of strategy at Digitas, Charlene Charity, did a Strategy Diet interview for Contagious Mag and not only is it brilliant (I LOVE HER) but she also – and entirely unexpectedly – recommended this newsletter. So if you found it because of Charlene’s lovely words, thanks! Hope you like it! Also, nice one boss x

• Taylor Swift did more due diligence on FTX than most thought leaders, celebrities and ‘experts’ lol. Amazing.

YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.

As I start to wrap things up on this week’s edition of Five things on Friday, it’s coming up 915am on Sunday April 23rd.

The Mrs is away this weekend so it’s been Dad Club this weekend. The youngest wants to make a bolognese this afternoon so I think we’ll have to get up and head to Tesco shortly. Might watch Superman II as well.

Let’s see how we go.

Thank you for reading this week’s edition. If you enjoyed reading it, please forward it on to your team or your friends and maybe I’ll see you next time.

Whatley out x

Things of note for the week ending Friday April 14th 2023

INTRO

Sup gang.

Welcome to #345 of Five Things on Friday.

This week’s edition is brought to you by the letters ‘W’ for winner winner winner winner winner winner and ‘P’ for ‘physio’ and ‘pints’.

An especially lovely welcome to all the new subscribers that found FToF via Substack’s new Notes feature (more on that in a bit). I hope you like what you see and, for the record, just because THIS edition has arrived on a Friday, please do not let that set any expectation that future editions will do the same. Fair warning.

Wherever you are in the world, I hope this finds you relaxed and well. If you’re neither of those, then take a big deep breath – and start over.

All will be OK.

This is Five Things on Friday. I am James Whatley.

Why not stick around for a while?

TO THE THINGS!

1. A BIT ABOUT SUBSTACK NOTES

Like 99% of every other Substack user/reader/author this week, I’m opening with a bit about Substack Notes.

If you missed the announcement (it’s here), Substack Notes is Substack’s new (but definitely not an attempt to replace Twitter but almost certainly is that because oh my god have you even seen it) ‘social’ platform.

Billed as a way for Substack ‘writers to be able to post short-form content and share ideas with each other and their readers’, so far it feels like a strong start.

Here’s some early thinking on why

1. Notes feels like the early days of a few of the original truly social platforms (Friendfeed, Jaiku, Twitter 1.0, etc). Familiar faces, early adopters – yes – but also the novelty of a new platform that is still figuring out what it is and allowing its users to help define that. This is a good thing.
   

2. Notes also feels like a lighter lift than other services but with potential for deeper connection. Substack has said itself that it doesn’t want Notes to be like ‘legacy social networks [where] people get rewarded for creating content that goes viral’ and as a result the content there has a completely different vibe. The dopamine driven commitment to the constant. checking. of. notifications. is non-existent. And we all need less of that in our lives.

   
   It also means: no ads. The business model is subscriber driven. Not ads/views etc. So y’know – no crypto bros trying to scam you every 3rd or 4th tweet.
   

3. Writers reading, reading, recommending and subscribing give Notes an air of Google Reader (RIP) and I have missed that ever since Google dispatched GReader the ol’ Google Graveyard in the sky. On the that similarity alone Notes is worth checking out.
   

4. ‘Yes James, but what what we really want to know is: what does this mean for brands?’

   
   I’m telling you now, this is almost certainly the wrong question to ask.
   
   At a personal level, I think Notes could be a great discovery engine. I do! For those that use it at least. From established writers and authors through to industry or category leading thought leaders, Notes is already working for me in either finding new content from people I already knew (but didn’t know they published) or finding great new people/content, recommended by people whose content and opinions I already enjoy and trust. And that, again, can only be a good thing.
   
   From a professional standpoint, I am sure there will be a bRaNd AcTiVaTiOn on there by the end of the month (‘Consumer? what consumer? I want trade press!’) but that would be missing the point of the platform. This is about great content written and published by talented people. I’m hoping that continues.
   

5. Finally, Notes is the new kid on the block. With platforms suffering from their own issues (whether thats egomaniacal ownership, crap like-driven content, or simply a terrible onboarding experience – there are more and I could list them but I’ll run out of room before we get to Thing 2), having options is both welcome and healthy.

Substack is not without its own problems (Casey Newton is good on this) and it will need to get a lot sharper on its content moderation policies if it intends to get ahead of the game. In the short term, having a 35m install base is a pretty good head start I’d say – and if they make enough noise, the policies will follow.

Notes is a thing.

And I’m giving it a go in earnest.

As I have Noted below:

If you’re in, you’re in.

If you’re not, then maybe it’s worth a go? I think so.

Depends how you feel.

My profile is here (vanity URLs, when?) and I’m checking the notifications tab on the reg. So… Let me know, yeah?

2. ALL. OF. THE. TRAILERS.

I have no idea what happened between now and the last time we spoke but honestly suddenly everyone just went: ‘Oh, summer blockbuster season is it? You all better have some trailers then’

BARBIE.

Before we move onto the next trailer, we need to give out some points. First, ten points to The Mary Sue who shortly after the trailer dropped put out this perfectly executed MCU-esque ‘How to watch the Barbie movies in order’. Outstanding.

Second, whomever is in charge of the Barbie marketing has got themselves some wicked talent on their team. The make-your-own Barbie post was a stone cold slice of fried social media gold genius.

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

I really hope they smash this one.

One day I’ll tell you a story about this film. Not today (maybe after the third one drops – movie, not trailer).

BLUE BEETLE!

SECRET INVASION!

AHSOKA!!

SEASON 2 OF VISIONS!!!

Points to Aardman for just Aardmanning the hell out of their effort.

There’s probably more that I’ve missed. What’s are you most looking forward to out of the above? Hit reply! Leave a comment! Sent a Note!

3. THIS WEEK IN GAMING

Some great stuff this week. Let’s get into it.

EA Sports FC has released its new branding and I LOVE IT. Regular readers will know how closely I’ve been following the EA/Fifa (Fifa who?) fallout and I’ve been keeping keen eyes on every single development as it happens.

So when the new brand logo and lockup dropped earlier this month, well – I was excited.

Based on the ever-present triangle that has floated above FIFA EA Sports Football games for decades, and in a world of balls and boxes, this feels fresh and different yet already familiar. I really really like it. Great job, gang.

As David Jackson, VP of Brand at EA SPORTS FC put it:

“Triangles are the shape through which the modern game is most fluently expressed, from intricate passages of passing play, to the tactical genius of Cruyff. ‘Cause, effect, response’ are the three sides of how the game is played best. Triangles are also essential to EA SPORTS most famous football experiences, from the isometric viewing angles of our very first 8-bit experiences, to the player indicator symbol above every athlete in every game – even the smallest atomic unit of our games, the polygons that construct everything you seen on screen – are triangular.’“

Join the club at the official website or if, like me, you want to go deep on the branding side of how this came to be, this is an excellent post on all that.

It’s gorgeous.

Game news bites

• A playable pop up book!

• Xbox made a partly recycled controller ‘Remix special edition’ – this is a good precedent! More please!

• Memories of E3 (RIP).

• Netflix’s gaming ambitions continue to grow, this latest development hints at games moving from the mobile app (yes, you have games in your Netflix mobile app), putting them on your TV, then using your phone as the controller. Swish!

• Cyberpunk’s Ray Tracing Overdrive Mode is SIIIIIIIIICK.

• Go and see the Mario movie! It’s supposed to be great IF YOU REMEMBER IT’S A KIDS FILM FOR KIDS, apparently (I’m seeing it tomorrow – will report back). In the short-term, Jonathan is good on this.

• There’s a new Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom trailer out y’all.

• The global game audience has reached 3.7bn. Important note in this about the difference between the ‘core’ audience and the more mainstream ‘people that play’ audience. Something we’ve been using a lot internally at Diva and pleased to see it’s being picked up elsewhere.

• Related, Ukie released its UK Consumer games market valuation report earlier in the month (I did a mini-thread on it at the time). Main headline: 5.6% down overall but still 17% up on pre-pandemic levels.

The interesting thing about the Ukie thing is that it is REAL data. Instead of the Linkedin HYPE about ZOMG GAMING IS LIKE THE TOTALLY AMAZING (AND CLIO AWARD WINNING) THING YOU SHOULD ALL BE INVOLVED IN RIGHT NOW and the post-web3 nerds suddenly yelling about how they’re the most important people to talk to right now… the Ukie data actually paints a realistic picture of of the broader opportunity at large.

And that’s something real marketers should genuinely be trying to get their heads around. You can call me AT ANY TIME btw. You know who you are.

Video Games x Tipping

I think I mentioned this last edition but the Razer Kishi I picked up in the Amazon Spring sale really turned out to be a fantastic purchase.

Some people prefer the ‘Backbone’ but same same and, as throw it in your bag and forget about it until you need it portability goes, the general concept and execution is a lot lighter than a Switch or a Steamdeck (and considerably cheaper to boot).

It got me so into Dead Cells (picked up ‘free’ as part of Google Play’s ‘Play Pass’ subscription), that I ended up double dipping on console – getting the base game as part of PS Plus and then shelling out £20 for the complete DLC collection.

It reminded me a topic of conversation that came up recently in March when I appeared on a panel for JP Morgan (I haven’t written about this here yet, maybe I am now). We were talking about payments and how the concept and culture of tipping (while inherently US-centric in the level of expectation placed around it) does not exist in video games.

I made the point at the time that the player equivalent of tipping devs for their game is arguably what is known as in gaming nomenclature as the ‘double dip’ – buying a game again (oftentimes but not always) for another platform.

Dead Cells was that for me. I got the base game and DLC as part of a sub but I wanted to show the dev my true enjoyment so I ponied up another £20 to let them know. Spiritfarer, one of my all time favourite games, I’ve bought on ever single platform I own (a not uncommon among the hardcore ‘triple dip’). That game had such a profound emotional impact on me, I felt I had to let the developer know somehow. Double/triple-dipping was the way I did that.

Now what if you didn’t do that? What if on a digital store front, on Xbox or PlayStation for example, after you’d completed a game, you got an option to thank the devs further. I don’t know. There are other options, right? Of course there are. Buy more games. Buy merch. Buy the season pass. Whatever. I get it. But for the smaller fry, ‘buy the devs a cup of coffee’ – that’s something else, right?

It’s different way of viewing the developer/player relationship. One that I’ll gladly return to another day (more so if you’re reading this and think – yeah, actually, let’s make that happen).

What am I playing?

• Still bashing through Dead Cells (the Castlevania DLC – wheeeeee!)

• Picked up Terra Nil on mobile via Netflix Games. An excellent little game. And the concept art is terrific.

• I finally pulled the trigger on DREDGE (leader image of this week’s edition) and I am loving it.

• The kids are nuts into Cult of the Lamb (ahead of the DLC dropping, thanks for that, WASD (see FToF #344).

What are you playing?

4. DIVA DOES TOUGH MUDDER

Way back in 2013, this happened:

Me and my old Expedia UK team from Ogilvy London completed Tough Mudder and raised over £1000 for charity.

You can read: Team Ogilvy takes on Tough Mudder on Whatleydude.com – a blog post! What year is this?!

Rooting around in the cupboards this past Christmas, I found my old 2013 Tough Mudder t-shirt and thought ‘It’s 2023 this year, a ten year bookend to the last time I did this would be something wouldn’t it?’

And, well, one thing led to another and here we are.

At the last count FOURTEEN (!!!) muddy funsters from Diva have signed up to walk/run/climb/complete the 15k Gloucestershire Tough Mudder in August (only four months away – yikes) and the tension is building.

Earlier in the year, once we had our team locked – we each discussed what charity we would want to support as a team and, after a very quick/virtual show of hands we landed on War Child.

Diva has a history of supporting War Child (raising money through streams and charity events in the past) and, the combination of this year being the 30th year of War Child’s charity efforts alongside the ongoing situation senseless war in Ukraine, we felt this would be the right place to put our efforts.

So with that in mind, we finally got around to setting up our Justgiving page this week and while I absolutely acknowledge times are tight, if you’re able to sponsor us even just a little bit, it would be very welcome.

And hey, if you’re up for running with us – you can sign up here.

Please sponsor: Diva does Tough Mudder (will you be the first one?) 🙂

5. OREO + XBOX FTW X 6

Late on Wednesday night my phone started going slightly nuts as the OREO EU team picked up SIX Clio Awards for the Xbox ‘Cheat Cookies’ campaign and partnership.

You can see the case film over on the Clios website but for those wanting the detail, the strategy work for this campaign was literally the last thing I finished and handed over before I left to start my job at Diva.

At the time I was EU brand lead for Mondelez bakery for Publicis, part of a blended team of Digitas UK (strategy) and Saatchis Dusseldorf (client and creative), and we all worked so so so so hard to get this over the line.

Giving a 45min presentation on the cultural significance of the XYBA buttons to convince the bigwigs to make the not-insignificant investment on SIX different cookie embossments is not something I’ll forget in a hurry 😁 – and actually, thinking on it now, makes winning SIX Clios taste that little bit sweeter. 🙂

Well done to the whole team (from the dedicated blended international agency team to the bold multi-market clients across MEU) that played a part in this one. Well. Earned.

It takes a village, right?

BONUS SECTION

THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.

ENJOY.

• Ben Affleck’s latest, AIR, is getting rave reviews. This interview with the writer behind it has a lovely story in it about Affleck made sure credit was given where credit was due.

• Liquid trees are fine, actually.

• People putting ‘Look at the future of tech and AR!’ crap on Linkedin is hella boring. Except for this one.

• Remember when, oh I don’t know, way back in FToF #337, when I said Wal-Mart’s idea of launching TWO branded Roblox experiences at the same time was A TERRIBLE IDEA because, quote, doing so was ‘a great way of diluting your audience and your message and ensuring one or both completely fail.’ Guess what? They closed one down.

• Dungeons and Dragons is getting RIDICULOUS reviews. Here’s one of them.

• The placement of ‘metaverse’ on this chart is as pleasing.

• This, with Marcus, is lovely and excellent (good reading).

YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.

Well here we are.

Congratulations!

You made it to the end.

…

But our princess is in another castle.

See you next time,

Whatley out x

Things of note for the week ending Sunday April 2nd, 2023

INTRO

Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.

Welcome to #344 of Five things Friday. Thank you to all of you (literally none of you) that wrote back to tell me I got the number wrong on the last edition. I clocked it after I hit send and then changed the web version but couldn’t amend the email. So if you’re here and wondering what happened to issue #343 well, you’ve already had it – it arrived last week. OK? OK.

What else can I tell you?

It’s been London Games Week this week so a VERY BUSY WEEK INDEED (probably why I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon) and also a VERY ENJOYABLE WEEK AS WELL. More on that and more, below.

Speaking of below, shall we jump right into The Things?

LET’S GOOOOOO!

1. OK BUT JUST LOOK AT THESE MANTISES

I mean COME ON.

My Modern Met writes:

Macro photographer Pang Way captures the delicate dance-like movements of a variety of mantis species. From an up-close point of view, he depicts the insects as they balance on their long legs with wings splayed in a fan-like fashion. We’re able to admire all of their incredible characteristics, from the brilliant coloring to the delicate webbing over their wings. It offers a new appreciation for these elegant creatures that live throughout the world.

Uh huh. And they’re WONDERFUL.

2. MAD WOMEN

From Channel 4:

“Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of WACL, (Women in Advertising and Communications, Leadership) Mad Women (1×60 mins)  will, for the first time, explore the role women have played in advertising across the past century.

From the creation of Shake n Vac with its unforgettable jingle and the Levi’s launderette ad with Nick Kamen to the Flake girl in the bath and the bikini-clad women falling over men because of the Lynx effect; this film meets the pioneering women behind some of the UK’s most iconic ads.

Starting in London’s late 70s – in a world evocative of Mad Men – we meet those who broke into the industry and started to break down the stereotypes that had been in place for decades. We’ll discover the ground-breaking adverts they engineered and the battles they had to endure to get them onto our screens.

In a world now unrecognisable from the heady days of Mad Men, we’ll also meet some of the most senior women working in the industry today to find out what’s left in the world of taboo breaking. Is it the role of adverts to reflect trends or to create them and what can we expect next from the current generation of Mad Women?”

In.

3. THIS WEEK IN GAMING

tl;dr: WASD was great.

As I write this to you it’s Sunday April 2nd around 12:55ish. Yesterday and Thursday (with an amazing wedding in Nottingham in-between) I attended the superb WASD Video Games Expo in London.

Thursday was a work day and I didn’t get to play that many games but I DID have the enormous pleasure of giving an updated and super fresh update of the metaverse talk at the excellent London Dev Conference (that was being held in the same building).

After that I did managed a very quick go on the new Cult of the Lamb DLC, ‘Relics of the Old Faith’ – which is more Cult of the Lamb + some new skills and levels. Given Cult is immensely playable, is of course very welcome. And I also managed a handful of rounds on Street Fighter 6 – continuing to be my most anticipated game for 2023 (yes – really). The absolute highlight was scoring a PERFECT! round against my sworn Street Fighter rival (aka Diva ECD, Stuart O’Neill. DONE YA!).

Seeing the team on the ground meeting our friends and clients at Maze Theory, Bandai Namco, Gearbox (hello Have a Nice Death!), Ninja or Die, Super Rare Games, Activision, and more… well, it was just lovely. Follow that by an excellent Diva hosted/sponsored after first day show party, well… it was awesome.

We went back as a fam on the Saturday and the games we tried and enjoyed include:

• Heave Ho (riotous four player couch co-op fun)

• Road 96 Mile 0 (an skateboard runner with mental levels)

• Cult of the Lamb: Relics of the Old Faith (see above!)

• Alien Hominid (high energy platforming fun)

• Viewfinder (really something quite special)

• Street Fighter 6 (IT’S STREET FIGHTER)

• Stick it to the Stickman (hilarious mental beat’em up)

• Have a Nice Death (gorgeously designed platforming heaven)

We didn’t play any VR unfortunately but I heard v good things about Peaky Blinders (Meta Quest 2) and The Last Worker (PSVR2) more on the latter shortly…

Other gaming-related news/links of note:

• The truth about “gaming disorder”.
  Last week there was a whole bunch of scaremongering press about ‘hundreds’ of children being treated for gaming disorders. Headlines everywhere. Ex head of comms for Ukie, George Osborn (not that one) breaks it down.

• E3: cancelled.
  Sad to see but inevitable, really. Post COVID, post Geoff Keighley (moving in on the turf with Summer Games Fest), E3 never really had – or gave itself – a chance to recover. And let’s be honest, if you’re a developer or publisher who has spent the past three years doing controlled streams of your games announcements, why would you go back to a world where you’re breaking the backs of your devs to get a playable/buggy vertical slice of your game ready for an in-person event? That’s not to say that games events are over (obviously not with the success of WASD above and GamesCom last year (265k attendees!), it’s just perhaps the role of these events has changed, irrevocably. And there are those that have recognised this and changed with it and there are those that haven’t. E3 feels like the latter. GI.biz has more.

• This, from Heineken, is a great ad. People that play are everyone. People that play are everywhere. The fact this is out NOW and just ‘oh, here’s a covid ad’ makes it just that little bit more special, y’know?

• Fortnite now shows you how many people are playing on each island.
  This is good/useful data! Basically, with the roll out of UEFN (see last FTOF), this is an important way for Fortnite Creators to see how well their creations are doing – especially up against Epic’s own islands such as BR Solos, Duos etc. Yes, Epic is sharing its own numbers too. Hooray!

• The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was a REAL April Fool. Amazing.

• Xbox has stopped its £1/$1 Game Pass trial offer which is a shame (I used it a lot in presentations about democratised access to games) but that doesn’t make the service any less compelling – as I’m sure many of you already know.

I’ve run out of space to speak meaningfully about the BAFTAS but I will say ROLLERDROME picking up Best British Game was a high point for me – it’s such a great game. You can watch the full replay of the BAFTAs over on Twitch right now.

What am I playing?

• Still plodding through Marvel Suns (made it to Act 3 – wooo!). The game loop is really nice.

• I picked up Dead Cells after seeing the Castlevania DLC drop (Castlevania was a huge part of my early video game years on NES and SNES). A great little game that.

• Related, I also picked up a Razer Kishi in the Amazon spring sale – and it has become an instant luggage companion. Dead Cells is great on it AND best of all? It’s compatible with Game Pass. Yessssssss.

• C-Smash VRS on PSVR2 is excellent.

• And last night, after seeing a bunch of folk play it at WASD, I got home and immediately purchased The Last Worker. It’s really nice. Really nice. I’m pretty sure it’s on every/most platforms so go check it out.

4. THE MEH-TAVERSE

Because I am tired. Here are some more links about or relating to dead-trend-walking from 2022: ‘the metaverse’

• Wall Street Journal: ‘The Metaverse is quickly turning into the meh-taverse’

• Disney announced it was sacking its entire metaverse team. This is really sad and look, while I’m no fan of the rubbish and over-hype around the M word, anyone that crows about how good it is that people are losing their jobs is a dick. End of.

• Magnum here with its new ad: ‘Not available in the Metaverse’

I mean broadly, I really like this idea as a concept. Digital/animated character enters the real world via VR headset to experience real life – and the indulgence taste of a Magnum Ice-Cream. Strong Ah-Ha vibes. I get it. THAT SAID, I think the end line ‘not available in the metaverse’ is advertising for advertisers. A trap that could’ve been stepped over so easily. But they couldn’t resist. In doing so, it feels like the ad is about how clever they are vs how incredible it is to taste a Magnum in real life.

But hey, that’s just me.

• Apparently the metaverse is not dead (note: it would’ve had to have been alive at some point for that to be true), it’s just going to ‘take a while’ – don’t take that from me though, take it from Meta’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg.

• Oh and thank you to the (now seven different) people that have sent me this link: ‘The Future is a Dead Mall’ which basically spends just shy of two hours pulling apart the myth of Decentraland and The Metaverse.

5. ENDING WITH A MEME FOR THE TIMES

BONUS SECTION

THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.

ENJOY.

• Starting this section this week with an excellent critical analysis of the Finnish Baby Box’s journey into the liberal welfare state [PDF link] and what that means for progressive public policymaking.

• The UK Government has scrapped its NFT plans. Can’t think why.

• This is a decent profile of Brie Larson. I am a fan.

• I have had to uninstall Marvel Snap (again).

• A good overview of the updated rules around creators, content, and when to use the #Ad hashtag.

• Next: if, like me, you’re still using Twitter AND you use the web interface a fair amount, then this link is worth bookmarking. Only the people you follow, in reverse chronological order. LIKE THE OLD TIMES.

• Funko laying off Mondo SUCKS.

• I still love same dot energy.

YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.

I hope you’ve had a restful weekend and are gearing up for a nice Easter. I’m in Bristol at Diva HQ next week and two four day weeks to cram ten days of work into… so unlikely we’ll see a new edition of FTOF this side of it all.

I tell you what, let’s regroup after Easter and share stories. Deal? Deal.

Much love gang, thanks for reading.

Hit reply and tell me what’s up.

Whatley out x