đ° NoGood News | Vol. 61
đ° NoGood News | Vol. 61
The Apple Vision Pro launch, Super Bowl standouts, why we've moved to Substack, and more
Hi NoGoodies,
Before we jump into another round of the NoGood News, here's a quick TL;DR of what's below:
Duolingoâs blink-and-youâll-miss-it Super Bowl commercial
How did a 5-second ad become the most memorable ad of this yearâs Super Bowl?
What the Apple Vision Pro launch means
Apple has entered the chat.Weâve moved to Substack!
Hereâs why and what it means.
Ready? Let's get into it.Â
đ Duolingoâs blink-and-youâll-miss-it Super Bowl commercial
How did a 5-second ad become the most memorable ad of this yearâs Super Bowl?
Duolingo aired its first-ever Super Bowl commercial yesterday, immediately followed by a push notification reminding about 4 million Duolingo users to do their lesson.Â
According to Duolingo, on the day of the game, team members were on deck to send out the push notification at the exact moment the ad aired, and their engineers were on standby for errors and app crashes.Â
This allowed Duolingo to indirectly measure the effectiveness of the ad spot by tracking push notification click-through rates.
It also emphasized the importance of multi-channel marketing touchpoints, particularly since the Super Bowl and other big televised events have now become multi-screen experiences (e.g. scrolling on social media while watching TV).
Did you see the blink-and-youâll-miss-it 5-second ad?
𼽠What the Apple Vision Pro launch means
The long-awaited Apple Vision Pro has officially been launched.
This is a key milestone in the third wave of the extended reality (XR) market, and has huge implications for the tech, marketing, and growth worlds.
Hereâs what marketers should be paying attention to with this launch:
1. AR/VR is no longer a thing that Meta and a few smaller startups are trying to push. With Apple joining the race, the market, tech, and the race to mass adoption will likely take a new shape.
2. Brands need to explore how to exist in an AR/VR world.
AR/VR is accelerating in adoption and can no longer be ignored as a reality. This is a whole new territory for ads with the #2 and the #4 players in the ad market creating new realms for digital ads.
3. This opens up a new opportunity for immersive experiences.
AR could be an ideal medium to share exclusive, immersive, and hyper-personalized brand experiences to boost brand engagement and loyalty to a whole new level. This could include virtual stores for retail, virtual test drives for automotive, and a new realm for gaming.
The possibility of mass adoption is real â and you need to be prepared for it.
đ Weâve moved to Substack!
Hereâs why and what it means.
We have some exciting news for you: NoGood News is moving to Substack!
Why the move?
Weâve made this (big) decision primarily for you (our readers), to deliver a better and more streamlined reading experience to our loyal community.
Moving to Substack will allow us to:
Improve the design of our publication pages
Allow for more community features like discussion threads, comments and chat
Allow for great discovery through recommendations and collaborationsÂ
Our pieces will keep arriving in your inbox, as always, and if youâre already a member, your previous subscription has already been safely migrated over to our new Substack publication.Â
Our community has always been at the heart of what we do here at NoGood, so weâre excited about all the new ways that we can connect, collaborate and create as a team.Â
If you havenât already, check out our new Substack publication page, and stay tuned for more exciting updates to come.Â
đ Q&A with an expert
A bi-weekly interview series with the best in the game
Q: Why is the Super Bowl such a big moment for the marketing world?
A: Super Bowl ads are the most expensive ad units of all time at ~$7M for 30 seconds. For comparison.. a 30-second ad unit during the opening ceremony at the Olympics costs $725,000. Itâs likely because Super Bowl ads are one of the very few ad units that people genuinely look forward to seeing.
Q: What was your favorite Super Bowl ad this year?
A: If I had to pick my favorite ad from this yearâs Super Bowl, I personally think few did much better than CeraVe & Michael Cera. I was cracking up. My wife and I immediately agreed that âthis was it.â This was the best one so far. Itâd only be a matter of time before the Chiefs won in OT to seal the deal that the other winner of Super Bowl 2024 was CeraVe. For me, this ad put them on the map.Â
Why? So many brands use celebrities, but Michael Ceraâs incorporation was the best because I never felt that I was being pandered to by a celebrity influencer. After 24 hours, there were almost half a million results for âMichael Cera Ceraveâ on Google. Heck, Iâm even talking about CeraVe again right now! Hats off to them for this achievement.
âď¸ We wish we wrote this
A curated list of the past 2 weeks' must-read articles:
Say goodbye to trending sounds and viral dance â TikTok has gone mute
How Abercrombie went from Americaâs most hated retailer to a Gen Z favorite
Apple Vision Pro: your screen time is about to get a lot more intense
đ Keeping up on the socials
Because we know you like to stay in the know:
The ensuing drama over a $120 tote bag
What happened to BeReal â and who still uses it?
The music industryâs cold war with TikTok has gone nuclear