Strategy Roundup | 8.6.2021
You Won’t Remember The Pandemic The Way You Think You Will, The Atlantic
This article is all about how our memories are shaped both individually as well as communally. It speaks of the challenges we’ve faced walking through a life period of hardship together, versus a “flashbulb moment” like that of the assassination of JFK. Through this life period, we will each tell our own version of the pandemic, we will each assign to it our own meaning, or own purpose.
“We’re already shaping our future pandemic narratives — the stories we will tell as individuals, as communities, as societies, and as nations about this epoch. The process of crafting these stories will help determine our resilience and well-being. How we tell our stories can transform how we move forward from hard times.”
The Verge, Apple’s new health features bring new focus to elder care technology
Apple’s new health feature, walking steadiness, and the ability to share health data with other family members, could be especially helpful for older adults. The first feature, the walking steadiness indicator, targets a major issue for older adults: falling. Falls are the leading cause of accidents, injury, and death for seniors in the US, and they’re responsible for billions in healthcare costs each year.
“There’s increasing interest in ways to keep older adults healthy at home. The COVID-19 pandemic showed that senior care facilities can be dangerous, and people generally don’t want to live in them, Berridge says. The new features from Apple highlight movement in that direction. ‘Moving the monitoring out of facilities and into the home is going to be a major trend.”
The Verge, Google announces health tool to identify skin conditions
Google’s latest healthcare venture will be utilizing AI To identify hair, skin, or nail conditions in a pilot the company hopes to launch later this year. People can take photos on their phone and then answer a series of questions about their symptoms. The tool then provides a list of possible conditions.
“We get about 10 billion annual skin condition queries. Of course, experts can help people determine if it’s something simple or indicative of a more serious illness, but there’s a shortage of dermatologists all over the world. DeSalvo hopes this tool can help get people accurate information about potential conditions, quickly, without having to spend hours doing their own online research.”
Washington Post, Even Snoop Can’t Save the Olympics
This article dives into the complexities of Comcast’s Olympic coverage. As cord-cutting becomes the norm, Comcast has split viewing over nined Comcast-owned channels and Peacock. There’s also coverage on YouTube, Hulu, the Olympics website, and the NBC Sports app. In addition to fractured viewing, making finding events early impossible, copyright issues making posting videos, GIFs, images, or memes of the Games on social media impossible as well. All these challenges takeaway a major component of the olympics: shareability.
“Comcast pays about a billion dollars to air each Olympic Games, and it understandably wants to get its money’s worth. But when the company and its partners are largely the sole providers of all the content coming out of Tokyo, there’s little room for creativity, for fandom. Events like the Olympics are perfect for Twitter reactions, TikTok duets, and Instagram stories. Some slip through the cracks, but for the most part, golden moments like Snoop’s disappear before getting the chance to go super viral.”
Media’s take: TV viewership, in its many forms, has never been more fractured. This fall, the media team will be taking a deep dive into connected TV distribution and how to best replicate traditional TV buying within the CTV space. It won’t be easy… but it is essential to staying successful, including within live events like the Olympics.
