Mike's Industry View - Issue #176
AI / Creativity
Spanish side become first team ever to buy a player with Bitcoin — www.msn.com The striker was unveiled by Spanish third division side DUX Internacional de Madrid, also known as Inter Madrid, after they teamed up with their new cryptocurrency sponsors to make a unique move.
Business/Marketing/Adv
So You Want My Job? S4 Capital growth officer Scott Spirit on teaming up with Sorrell — www.thedrum.com
Welcome to So You Want My Job? where, each week, we ask the people working in some of the industry’s coolest jobs about how they got where they are. And, along the way, we dig into their philosophies, inspirations, processes and experiences.
Members-Only Restaurants, Luxury Travel Embrace Subscription Models — www.bloomberg.com Subscriptions are fast becoming a way for pandemic-hit industries to get enough cash flow to hang on.
Interestingness
Peloton, Lululemon, Apple and others are betting the fitness-at-home shift is here to stay — www.cnbc.com Companies from Lululemon to Apple are betting that consumers are fully adjusting to working out from home, and the trend is here to stay, beyond the pandemic.
Are Videogames the Future of Remote Work? — www.wsj.com One day soon, you may hear a colleague say those ominous words: “The boss would like to see you in her castle.”
Wellness
It’s not just you: Why the current lockdown is having an extreme effect on mental health — www.newstatesman.com Britons are reportedly struggling more than at any other point in the pandemic. Why now? And what can be done to ease the mental health crisis?
Culture: keeping the lights on — makeworkbetter.substack.com
Last week I dropped an email to the list asking people to share what their firms have been doing to keep culture going. I got a wonderful response - both on the thread and on LinkedIn. Here are some of the highlights:
Platform News
'Hard graft': UK influencers scramble to justify exotic getaways in pandemic Stung by scepticism over ‘luxury business trips’ in a pandemic, influencers in Dubai are touting their ‘hard graft’
Signal and Telegram are also growing in China — for now — techcrunch.com
As fears over WhatsApp’s privacy policies send millions of users in the West to Signal and Telegram, the two encrypted apps are also seeing a slight user uptick in China, where WeChat has long dominated and the government has a tight grip on online communication.