Mint: “Microdramas are moving onto advertisers’ radar, with some brands going beyond conventional sponsorships and advertising to integrate their products directly into the storylines. The approach remains nascent, but advertisers are testing the format to build long-term engagement with viewers…Interest is growing as brands seek faster, lower-cost ways to create content that holds viewers’ attention across multiple episodes. Factors driving advertiser interest in microdramas include a shift towards brand-funded storytelling and integrations, repeat engagement through serialised storytelling, the growing use of vertical video, and the relevance of regional-language content, said Diwaker Chandani, managing partner at creator marketing agency Influential India, part of communications firm Publicis Groupe India.”
WSJ: “Booms need continuous flows of fresh capital to perpetuate themselves. History shows they can start turning into busts the moment the window to raise new capital closes. Tipping points can happen suddenly, or as a slow-motion capitulation. But we’re not there yet. Here is a signal to watch for in the meantime: See if the term “funding gap” returns to the market’s vernacular. Along with “burn rate,” funding gap became part of the financial lexicon in 2000, as the dot-com bubble was starting to deflate. Back then, burn rate measured how much cash a money-losing startup was blowing through each quarter and how many months it had left before it ran out. It was popularized by a famous Barron’s article in March 2000 that helped prick the bubble. A funding gap meant a company still needed investors to keep supplying fresh cash until it became self-sustaining—and that the chance to raise new money had already vanished.”
Bethany McLean: “At some point the house of cards that we’ve been building for several decades, will come tumbling down. It’s not just A.I. It’s the credit/usury industry. It’s military contractors. It’s insurance and communications and real estate and Crypto and Gambling and VC and P.I. and Hedge fund monsters. They are not based on value added, they are based on market manipulation. Labor and value have become orthogonal forces. When all this fake value finally comes home to roost, it will make CoVid seem quaint. We are treating the mega-companies like we supposedly treat our children. Everybody’s a winner… even when you lose.”
FT: “For years, in-house lawyers have wrestled with ever-tightening company budgets while trying to instruct the best lawyers to negotiate, defend and advocate for them. This has been achieved using a panel system — a roster of external law firms that are appointed as the go-to advisers, and usually refreshed every two to three years. Companies attempt to control pricing by making firms sign up to certain fee terms to have the privilege of being on the panel, while outside counsel get the security of repeat revenue. Now, AI looks set to swing a wrecking ball into that model.”
