Tetris, one of the most iconic video games of all time, is hopping on the Web3 bandwagon. The 40-year-old block-moving puzzle game announced the rollout of a new loyalty program that will earn players in-game points they can redeem for real-world rewards like a one-month Apple TV+ subscription. 

The loyalty program was created by PlayStudios, maker of other popular mobile games like Sudoku and Spider Solitaire. It is launching alongside a new Tetris film which will officially drop on Apple TV+ on March 31. The film originally premiered at SXSW. 

PlayStudios has integrated its playAwards program with a wide-variety of entertainment and leisure brands, including MGM, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Wolfgang Puck, and now Apple. According to a press release, playAwards currently reaches 12 million monthly active users, a number the company thinks will increase once its rewards program is integrated into more of its mobile games.

To cash in on activities offered by PlayStudios’ partnered brands, and watch Tetris for free, players will can take on daily Tetris missions and challenges, winning redeemable points along the way. 

According to AppleInsider, players must earn 2,000 points to earn the free Apple TV+ subscription, which only takes a few moments. However, the free trial is only available for new subscribers and must be redeemed by June 8, 2023. 

The always smart and insightful Brian Wieser published an update this week on whether or not TV as we know it is dead or dying. Spoiler (from his article): It is not.

What has happened is that TV, like everything else, has evolved. I think we are witnessing the (slow) death of linear TV as we knew it. I include cable in this assessment as well. According to eMarketer, about 95 million Americans will have cut the cord in 2023. That is about one third of the total population, and an impressive statistic. That percentage goes up significantly if you look at a younger demographic in large population centers (with good internet).

According to the same eMarketer data, more households in the U.S. will NOT have a cable subscription this year, versus those that do (68.7 million households do not, while 62.8 million do). But these non-cable households are still watching TV. Or perhaps more accurately, “evolved TV” (let’s see if we can make ETV a thing!).

For advertisers, the combination of sound and vision is still the most powerful means to deliver a message. Of course the challenge is that buying eyeballs has become an incredibly fragmented “apples and oranges” process. There are bundled offerings across a combination of linear, cable, streaming, social media, etc. from just about everyone, while these bundles do not come with easily measured or easily comparable data to understand who you are reaching, and how often. Many offerings include walled gardens that make it even harder to compare. Many offer their own, unique (and not at all bad) metrics on top of standards like impressions or viewability.

Add to these factors the fact that many advertisers have eschewed annual plans and have switched to an always-on or continuous-plan strategy. The annual plan, with a beginning, middle and end throughout the calendar or fiscal year, was always an artificial marketing construct. It makes sense that budgets are set for a specific period as they are often determined by business results over an annual or fiscal year interval. But for consumers, their interest in milk, diapers or lip gloss is not magically reset at the end of the year, prepping their mind for a new campaign in the new year.

All this leads me to my (almost) annual declaration that although TV is not dead, we must end the annual ritual that is the upfront. ETV (I am sticking with it!!) content is no longer released in two seasons, as was the case in the olden days. And with campaigns less and less planned in annual determinations, the whole concept of upfronts, newfronts, mobile fronts or any other “fronts” is wholly out of touch with how marketing works in 2023.

Does it make sense for advertisers to negotiate deals with platforms? Of course it does. But these should no longer be associated with old-timey linear TV seasons. In my mind, the basis for these negotiations should be whatever the right time period is for the advertisers, and whatever the advertisers and platform wish to bundle. Volume, share and dollars will (continue) to play a role. Platforms can (continue) to bundle what the marketer really wants with some other stuff the platform wants to sell. And both must agree on metrics that will determine if what was bought delivered what both parties agreed to. Can we finally move on?

To promote its wine and spirits portfolio, Constellation Brands is planning to launch an original-series content studio in a multiyear, multimillion-dollar deal with global food, travel and home & design video platform Tastemade.

The company says the video content from Constellation + Tastemade Studios will be “inspired” by such brands as Robert Mondavi Winery, The Prisoner Wine Company, High West Whiskey and Kim Crawford.

Titled “Street Somm,” the first series will follow a sommelier’s travels and meals across the United States.

The goal is to “break through, inspire, and advance global wine and spirits culture with innovative storytelling formats spanning native social video and streaming television,” Constellation said in a news release.

In each episode, the “Street Somm” will journey to a new U.S. city to meet an “in-the-know local” to pair with in “creative and surprising ways—putting a fun twist on the right way to pair wine and challenging any preconceived notions about wine and food.”

This video sums things up by urging viewers to “open yourself up to new experiences.”

Constellation + Tastemade Studios will also develop and sell original series to other streaming platforms.

According to Constellation, Tastemade has a global audience of more than 300 million monthly viewers on all major digital, mobile and streaming television platforms.

“Consumers today are in the driver’s seat and choose to engage with brands that not only deliver high quality, great tasting wines and spirits, but exciting and engaging experiences across modern channels,” said Robert Hanson, EVP and president of Constellation’s wine and spirits division.

“Street Somm” will premiere on the Tastemade streaming channel later this year.

Other brands featured on Tastemade include Bailey’s Irish Cream, as seen in this St. Patrick’s Day tutorial for making Irish coffee.

The move comes after Constellation has spent the last few years pruning its wine and spirits portfolio.

Last month, investment firm TD Cowen wrote that the portfolio remains “challenged” and said it was “cautious” about the brand for the remainder of fiscal 2023.

Taco Bell is removing the Quesarito from its menus on April 19, but welcoming back two other items.

The Quesarito is a quesadilla-burrito hybrid that dates back to 2014 and is credited as a Chipotle invention. Last summer, Taco Bell pulled the item from its in-store and drive-through menus; it's only available now via its website or mobile apps.

Meanwhile, Taco Bell is once again offering the Double Steak Grilled Cheese Burrito ($3.49), which is topped with a blend of mozzarella, cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, and the Bacon Club Chalupa ($4.99), which includes grilled chicken, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, avocado ranch sauce in a chalupa shell.

Other additions include the Blue Raspberry Breeze and Wild Cherry Freeze drinks ($2.99) which are available with a twist of mango, pineapple, lime or passionfruit.

Those launches come while Taco Bell readies two regional launches.

The Cheesy Chicken Crispinada will be available in Knoxville, Tennessee for a limited time. That item is a pastry shell filled with shredded chicken and a blend of melty cheeses with a side of spicy ranch for $3.49.

In Birmingham, Alabama, $2 Double Stacked Tacos will be available in three different flavors: Cheesy Chipotle, Sweet Scorpion and Nacho Crunch.

Taco Bell’s willingness to diversify its menu is evident with its recent experiment with Mexican Pizza, which was brought back thanks to an online petition

Speaking of online petitions, someone has started one to save the save the Quesarito. So far, a few more than 100 people have signed that petition.

Google and the National Basketball Association announced updates to the NBA and Pixel Arena inside the official NBA app just before the end of the season. The playoffs begin on April 15, 2023.

The virtual space was jointly developed by Google and the NBA last season to connect the 99% of fans who have never experienced the NBA in a live arena. It is only accessible through a mobile device. 

The updates start with the ability to let fans roam freely, see each other’s avatars and check out the latest Google Trends based on what NBA fans worldwide are searching. The ability to roam freely around the space focuses on natural exploration.

Personalized features and content for avatars, as well as creative ways to view highlights and more mini games are available.

With the updated Avatar Builder, fans can add more natural skin tones from the Monk Skin Tone (MST) Scale, a 10-shade scale incorporated into Pixel’s Real Tone camera technology. Fans can unlock new virtual fashion and upgrade their avatar’s attire with over a trillion style combos inspired by futuristic streetwear and basketball culture. And each avatar comes complete with a Pixel 7 Pro in their color of choice to serve as a virtual guide to navigate the Pixel Arena.

A special guest appearance from an avatar of Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid introduces fans to the new Highlight (Re)Mixer, inviting them to “remix” 15 classic and new NBA plays.

For the NBA fan, the feature uses 3D-pose estimation to turn captured videos into 3D content, and then export them with rendering technology. The Highlight (Re)Mixer lets fans reenact the highlight and put their own spin on it with new camera angles and visual effects.

New games are available such as the NBA Shot Trivia and Baller Blitz, offered in single and multiplayer mode. Using Google’s machine learning technology and nightly NBA game stats, these games surface trivia questions that have meaningful historical context for the players and teams featured. 

The NBA Arena, a virtual space launched in 2022. The idea was to give fans a virtual experience based on real-time information from the games. App users can access the Pixel Arena through the app by selecting a specific game.

Flipboard, a digital news-reading app deemed “the social magazine,” has announced an Android integration with decentralized Twitter rival Mastodon, allowing Android users to browse posts from their Mastodon feeds and share Flipboard content in the app.

Earlier this month, Flipboard launched its Mastodon integration on iOS, allowing Apple users to follow any Mastodon user, hashtag or feed directly from Flipboard under “Connected Accounts.”

Now, Android and Apple users can see the most recent posts from their Mastodon timeline in their Flipboard For You feed and access feeds for their @mentions as well as their Mastodon bookmarks inside the Flipboard app.

According to Mastodon's head of communication Christel van der Boom, the integration is “just the beginning for Flipboard in the Fediverse.” While the Android integration uses the Mastodon API, Flipboard plans on “building a more interconnected internet” by using the ActivityPub protocol (an open, decentralized social networking protocol) to build services that work together across platforms, like Tumblr, which has adopted ActivityPub.

“As we embrace ActivityPub at Flipboard, we'll effectively allow anyone who's on Mastodon to follow a user on Flipboard, and to follow a Flipboard magazine, and vice versa,” explains CEO Mike McCue. “What ActivityPub enables is a common, open social graph.”

Flipboard's Mastodon integrations also mark a conscious turn away from Twitter, as the once-successful microblogging app continues to plunge into chaos under the oversight of CEO Elon Musk.

Between 2010 and 2012, McCue served on Twitter's board of directors and even considered buying the app at one point.

With Musk's plans to end Twitter's free API, McCue no longer sees Twitter as a viable option for Flipboard.

Engadget, referring to Twitter since Musk took over the company. “The writing on the wall is that I don't see [Flipboard's] Twitter integration lasting much longer.”

Mastodon became popular as a Twitter alternative soon after Musk took over five months ago. In less than two months, Mastodon’s monthly active users went from 380,000 to over 2.5 million. However, that number dropped to 1.4 million by late January. Since then, almost half a million more users left the app due to widespread confusion on how to use the app.

A 2022 Forbes article listed some of the potential negative effects of video gaming: low self-esteem, depression, lack of motivation and anxiety. So I was surprised to discover that gaming can actually be used as a tool against such conditions.

Gamification as medication? Yes, indeed.

“Medical practitioners often use games to improve the mental health of people suffering from anxiety, depression, and trauma pain,” reports Allied Market Research, which sees healthcare gamification as a $9 billion global industry by 2031.

Arcade’s “digital therapeutic” space-themed mobile game, StarStarter Rx, uses a cognitive training technique called attention bias modification to reduce a person’s social anxiety symptoms. The company announced results of a pilot study showing reduction of symptoms like worry during social situations in more than 90% of participants aged 22-65, with an average decrease of 33%.

Termed a “digital health device” by the Food and Drug Administration, StarStarter Rx runs through an Android or iOS app. The game “uses facial archetypes and gamification to retrain emotional and attentional patterns that can drive persistent feelings of social anxiety, worry, and distress,” Nayan Ghosh, Arcade’s vice president and head of commercial strategy, tells Marketing Daily. “Though the gameplay experience is relatively simple, it applies a dynamically adaptive algorithm to enable a personalized training experience for each user that’s also fun to play.”

“SAD is the most prevalent of anxiety disorders, more than twice that of generalized anxiety disorder,” said Arcade founder and chief science officer Tracy Dennis-Tiwary PhD in a press release. The number of cases has been rising recently, she noted, “as many are now re-acclimating to social situations after the isolation of the pandemic.”

Under a COVID-era FDA waiver that enables the game to be offered temporarily without a prescription, StarStarter Rx will launch on a limited clinical basis in April via primary care, collaborative care, chronic care, and behavioral health providers.

Meanwhile, Arcade aims for Food and Drug Administration approval of the game as a prescription-only treatment by the fourth quarter.

The makers of Jigsawdio, an audio-visual jigsaw puzzle device for Alzheimer's and dementia patients, received a $500,000 Science and Technology Transfer grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund prototype development and a use study.

“Statistics show that there are not enough caregivers to offer the personal attention to keep members of these populations engaged,” so Jigsawdio uses personal images and audio specific to each individual “to engage with the meaningful aspects of their life," Jigsawdio founder and chief executive officer Amy Young said in a press release.

In prototypes expected to be completed by April and then tested for six weeks by Indiana University researchers, the videos and audios are uploaded by users -- via an already approved iPhone app -- to an SD card that’s then physically transferred to a frame containing 12, 24 or 36 acrylic pieces, six of which play recordings that narrate the image in that part of the puzzle.

The frame does contain bluetooth and WiFi for future iterations, and an Android app is expected in the fall, Young tells Pharma & Health Insider.

The marketing plan is under development, she says, with “nursing home administrators and activity directors as well as individual caregivers  as our target audience.”

Moving to a different population than dementia patients,  the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has released a mobile card game designed to spark conversations about mental health among young people.

NAMI’s “Say It Out Loud” is designed “to be played in-person in small and intimate settings to help build connections and trust between young adults,” Jennifer Rothman, NAMI’s director of youth and young adult Initiatives, tells Pharma & Health Insider.

While the game can also be played virtually, we tried it out in a way for which it’s not designed -- as one-person solitaire -- and was asked such initial questions as “What makes you cringe?” and “What’s the best advice you ever received?”

But we had to stop play when asked to “Give the person to the right of you a compliment.”

"Say It Out Loud" was developed with the help of NAMI Next Gen, the alliance’s 10-member young adult advisory group.

NAMI is spreading the word about the game by leveraging its 600+ local affiliates and 49 state organizations, using social media, and sharing it with its young adult networks, including NAMI On Campus leaders at colleges and universities across the country.

Rothman said that NAMI is now tracking engagement metrics including number of times the game is played and shared, as well as increased attention via social media posts.

A NAMI teen survey in August 2022 found that about two-thirds of them (65%) felt comfortable talking about their mental health with the people closest to them, while nearly half (46%) said they are comfortable talking to their friends about it.

National TV advertising revenues will sink 4.4% this year -- a steeper drop than forecast in a previous projection, says S&P Global Ratings.

It estimates broadcast TV will sink 5.2% with cable TV networks losing 4%.

Broadcast TV’s bigger decline comes from the lack of Olympics programming this year compared to 2022 Olympics advertising results, which pulled in $1.1 billion.

The softer scatter market is a bigger factor.

“Our 2023 forecast assumes that the scatter market, in which advertising is sold on a real-time basis, remains choppy until the start of the 2023/2024 TV season because there isn't any key sports or other must-watch programming to draw in viewers until the start of the NFL season,” writes Naveen Sarma, credit analyst at SPG Global Ratings.

At the same time, for cable TV networks, the lack of added sports programming will contribute to accelerated viewership declines.

“Cable's weakness will result from rapidly declining audience ratings, which is putting downward pressure on inventory prices,” says Sarma. He believes “cable networks have limited ability to reverse this trend” due to the lack of sports programming available to those networks.

Local TV core advertising will fare a bit better than national TV ad revenues.

“We raised our 2023 core advertising forecast by 200 bp to a 3% decline. While we expect local TV advertising will decline during a recession, we expect the industry will benefit from easier year-over-year comparisons as the year progresses due to a meaningful crowd-out from political advertising in the second half of 2022.”

Sarma says some local TV broadcast groups “underperformed their political advertising expectations in 2022,” when budgets were shifted due to “more mobile PAC money” -- even as the overall TV stations marketplace experienced a record year in midterm political election spending.

Better results, says S&P Global, come from the expectation that local TV will see growing benefit from the resurgence in automotive advertising as car inventory continues to build. prior to the pandemic, the automotive category contributed 20%-25% of advertising revenue to local TV stations.

TV commercial misdirection can be a good thing for weary TV consumers insisting on celebrity-starring TV messaging pushing big consumer brands.

Celebrity-based, high-production TV commercials continue to be a major factor -- especially in big events like the Super Bowl, “The Oscars," and even the current March Madness event, the NCAA's Men's College Basketball Tournament. 

As it turns out, certain marketers really like the idea. But who really wants to pay those multi-hundred-thousand-dollar celebrity endorsements? 

One of the more intriguing celebrity-themed TV commercials happened some five years ago in New Zealand, which addressed this.

Skinny -- a mobile phone service in that country -- had a campaign in 2018 called ‘Famous Names’, showing real, ordinary New Zealanders who just happened to be called Ben Affleck,  Michael Jordan, Clint Eastwood,  Anthony Hopkins, Julia Roberts, and Sarah Jessica Parker among others.

It was kind of clever and got lots of attention to push its theme that this mobile phone service was inexpensive -- largely because it was not wasting money on huge athlete endorsements like the "more expensive Michael Jordan" commanding the sky-high price, according to the less-basketball-savvy New Zealander of the same name on screen. 

Celebrity-themed messaging comes to mind when watching TV commercials during current March Madness event on CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV networks.

Capital One has amped up its on-screen celebrity-attached brands by featuring a slew of celebrities -- sometimes all in the same commercial, featuring Samuel L. Jackson, Charles Barkley, Spike Lee, Magic Johnson,  and Jennifer Garner. Recently it added musician Willie Nelson.

While entertaining, it seems to TV Watch that this is some tough sledding. Consuming a number of these ads with the blur of celebrity exposure, TV Watch found itself forgetting that all this was promoting the use of a credit card. For me, it seemed like a bunch of well-known faces on the TV screen just having a good time and joking around.

No matter. One recent study says this still means celebrity brand ambassadors can improve a brand's value to the point of raising sales by 4% over its competition.

One USA Today analyst said the science is baked in here. “Because of the concept of familiarity, seeing a celebrity arouses our emotions. It connects us to the product and makes it memorable. Our emotions, more than any other thing, tend to drive our decisions.” 

Sure. But I'll pay off my TV brand emotions in cash once in a while.