Hey Must Readers, how is it the end of March already? I hope you have all been well.

Here are a few things I have enjoyed recently:
> My book of the month, Unreasonable Hospitality - a true page turner about going over and above in business & how it is possible (not just in the restaurant industry)
> TV show to binge this month: Paradise (Disney+) season 2 hasn’t disappointed its like a mini movie every episode, s1 e7 is the best TV episode in years!

Thanks for reading today & let’s dive in.

This is how rapper/singer Drake fronted the crypto casino Stake’s rise and popularity, by sharing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ bets he did or did not make and set up a partnership others have brought into their playbook. Stake is also famous for paying for clipping (turning longer form into multiple short form videos), paying for editors to create social clips targeting over a million views across social network and adding their logo on hundreds of videos. Clips with over 1m views usually pay between $300 - £1500 per million views.
FWIW, Mr Beast has a dedicated clipping company vyro that pays for clipping campaigns - in a recent campaign, paid $100 per 100k views ($1 CPM - cost per thousand views) for the podcast The Vergecast.
FWIW Stake also owns Kick the streaming platform - all a smart section of their content betting flywheel

I was frustrated with the overhype of AI flooding our social feeds, I wanted to address this & I put together a deck and talked through where we are really at with AI. Watch my walk-through above or download the deck here.

In a positive step, Val Kilmer starred in As Deep As The Grave, a new movie where the film studio used AI to complete scenes after his death. His family and estate signed this off, and by all accounts, it was done really well. In the future, we are going to see this more and more, stars and former stars allowing their likeness to be used in movies.

“But Gen Z doesn’t experience cultural time this way. They’re reacting to everything that has ever happened. Which is impossible to actually do. On the one hand, it might make you more cosmopolitan (though this is hard to do without a guide to help develop your critical intelligence). But, on the other, it ruins your ability to assimilate anything and reduces you to a quivering lump of uncertainties. It also reduces your own ability to create because your response to life becomes so indeterminate. You can’t figure out what to respond to.”

I was sent this by one of my favourite people, and it gave me joy and perfectly represented the hatred I have for stupid processes and getting that 1 - 0 win over the robots who make your life harder

“I sent them the Tsunami of Truth”

This is a really interesting read about body doubles and what movie directors want from their actors as much as their doubles. Way more than Joey’s hand twin, but fascinating to hear about their lives and what they’re actually needed for

Coach has been on a rocket ship lately, they hacked its next chapter of growth by starting where most brands don’t: deep, ethnographic listening to Gen Z and rebuilding its idea of “luxury” around identity, self‑expression and honest conversation. Those customer insights now drive everything from product and creative to store experience, turning narrative‑led campaigns like “Explore Your Story” into a scalable engine for Coach’s $10 billion accessible luxury ambition. Not a playbook everyone can or will copy, but one to remember if you work in a brand that needs to cut through and reimagine itself

& here is a good run-down by their CEO

The big question in Apple away from what is their AI strategy (which is perfectly playing out - let everyone spend billions and become the controlling device(s) where they fight to be primary supplier on) is who is going to take over from Tim Cook when he retires? This is an interesting look at John Ternus, who is a long-term employee trusted with running hardware, including iPad leadership and then in charge of all hardware like Macs etc. Disney had a long drawn-out process with 3 names strongly linked; John is the only real name mentioned.

How the world's best-selling author has diversified, collaborated & embraced evolving to carry on his legacy

It is rarely discussed - apps rarely make money, they struggle to gain downloads, they are costly, Android is difficult to build for all the different devices and Apple are famous for not helping with discoverability and their tax. This is a good look at the popular apps, how many downloads they have and the money they have made.

Not what you think, but it’s a great example of how short form should be used

“Going viral” is now an engineered outcome, powered by an army of AI-fuelled clippers turning a tight narrative into thousands of tailored hooks that saturate every feed. For CMOs and founders, the real game is holding a crystal-clear one-liner while you explode it into hyper-personalised noise, so every micro-segment feels like the message was made just for them.

Many years ago, reputation management was something only a handful of people could afford or specific companies would invest hundreds of thousands to remove or try to bump down articles, stories and reviews down the search results. Now it’s a game many play, but it’s spread across a much wider net and media types. Having worked on high-profile clean-up, aka removal side, it’s interesting to know (a) people didn’t know this happened, and (b) it happens way more than people think it does. This example is about Epstein…

I love this style of investigative work, a little ironic how smart criminals are tracked by their internet usage, reviews and Strava activities…

Prediction markets are everywhere and can basically bet predict anything. Not everyone believes this is a good thing, and in many cases its allowing underage people to predict sports scores, predict on the death of international leaders and many more events. This prediction market is being dubbed news 2.0 and although I think it’s smart framing - I don’t love the message it sends.

Here are two very good interviews, Peter Kafka interviews Wired journalist Kate Knibbs, whose beat is now prediction markets…

And Cheeky Pint: I love the cheeky pint format, great conversations you don’t feel like you should hear, but set in a mock pub in Stripe’s office over a pint of Guinness.

I love the Decoder podcast, it’s a behind-the-scenes look at companies, how they are set up, how they make decisions, often highlighting quirks of the CEO and the business. In this conversation with Superhuman (who has a famous email client and owns Grammarly) it got tense and awkward as Superhuman CEO Shishir Mehrotra had to answer questions around how his company created a feature that helps users write or edit like Nilay (the interviewer).

I have to say Shishir (guest) did a decent job in trying to toe the legal line and make it useful for the listener, whereas I’m not as sure Nilay (the host) could say the same (obviously, with his likeness being used without permission or payment being challenging for him). This is why I say media training isn’t helping most leaders going on podcasts - they are prepped for 3-8 minute interview segments for radio and tv and not for podcasts. Podcasters aren’t looking for gotcha’s; however, they are looking for a clip or two, so being able to be charismatic and control conversations with 3-5 stories or an insider story you wouldn’t normally hear is critical.

Here are some of the best pieces I have written and shared this month:

Hit reply (or email [email protected]) and let me know what you think, agree, disagree, or there’s a nuance I‘ve missed. Let me know your thoughts

Got any questions or comments on any of the Must Reads, or want to chat through Marketing, Growth or AI, get in touch.

I am coaching CEOs, CMOs & Product leaders and consulting.
I also run AI workshops, so get in touch by hitting reply or emailing me [email protected]

Thanks for reading

Danny Denhard