Welcome to the 5 cool as sh*t people (Luke, Zak, Ash, Georgia and Drew) who joined us since last time! If you haven’t subscribed, be cool and join 217 subscribers here:
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#1 – Heinz ‘Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch’ sauce
Heinz's agile, creative marketing strikes again... This time jumping at the opportunity to connect with and ignite Taylor Swift's legion of fans. I think they're called Twifts, Sailor Wifty's, or Tizzle Swizzles... Something like that. Anyway, I digress... The TLDR is that Heinz saw her community frothing over a pic of her with a chicken nugget, ketchup and "seemingly" ranch sauce. OMG!!! Crazy right!!! They decided to bring that to life in a creative and fun way, generating the results they were after. Well played Heinz. 👏🏻
#2 – Marmite - Love It. Hate It. Get It On.
Marmite - Love it. Hate it. An innuendo-filled ad targeting youngsters, timed to Freshers Week (the start of uni in the UK). Based on the insight that 43% of 18-24 year-olds haven’t tasted the spread. As an Aussie-dwelling Brit, it may be controversial to say that I love Vegemite far more than Marmite, but I love Marmite’s marcomms way more… Up your game Vegemite! The Ashes of Marcomms (*The Mashes…?) is up for grabs! 🏆
#3 - Replica Studios
An Aussie-based AI-powered voice actor platform with a focus on the gaming industry. Introducing Replica Studios. Empowering creators to tell stories in awesome ways... Play around with the free tools on the site to see how it works. It’s pretty compelling when you think about the time and money it would traditionally require for this component of a game build. Shortly after launch, the game Star Wars: The Old Republic received a Guinness World Record for the "Largest Entertainment Voice Over Project ever." At that time there were over 200,000 lines of English dialogue. As of today, it’s over 370,000! 🤯
Whilst some are fearful that it will take jobs currently done by humans, I think it’s likely to be supplementary to that for the titans of the industry. Meanwhile, it will empower leaner teams to bring better games to the market, more quickly and at a lower cost. Feels like a win-win to me.
#4 - Adobe’s magical colour changing dress
This is an interesting development for the textiles industry. Given this is version 1.0, can’t wait to see how this develops over time. As Adobe puts it "By incorporating this technology into various surfaces like clothing, furniture, and more, designers can explore endless possibilities in terms of style. For instance, individuals can easily download and ‘wear’ the latest designs from their favorite designers." No mention of how this could effectively turn any textile into an advertising platform… 👀 💸 Pretty incredible...
#5 - Netflix House - Eat. Shop. Play.
An interesting announcement from Netflix who plan to open their first retail stores in the US in 2025. It makes sense, given the awesome IP they have and the subsequent revenue stream they could drive through experiential and merchandising, which they’ve already dabbled in. "It sounds part-theme-park, with a potential Squid Game obstacle course, part-diner, with both fast-food and high-end dining options, and part clothing store." Checkout the BBC’s recent article on how Disney took over the world... 🤔
The simple act of reading about an act of kindness can also give our love hormone (Oxytocin) levels a boost. So feel the love…
Starbucks workers raise over $40K for beloved barista after her car was burglarized ❤
Australia’s very own Haiku Hands banger ‘Not About You’ makes it into the Cool Sh*t Spotify playlist this week…
I watched this amazing Netflix documentary this week. Was emotive in ways I didn’t expect. Watch it!
I then found this incredible article about scientists finding a structure from before homo sapiens existed…
ICYMI - Cool Sh*t Vol. 41 - Meta, Arby's, Warburtons, Spotify, Nissin and more...
Cool Sh*t is typically written from the comfort of my own home, here in Sydney, Australia - Gadigal land. Always was, always will be. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The views expressed are my own.