The breakout stars of the Women’s World Cup, New Zealand Rugby’s digital launch, the Planet of the Bass and the land of the monster trucks – find all that and more in the Trippant Takeaways, our weekly round-up of stories on communications trends in sport, entertainment and experience.
The Athletic on the stars of the Women’s World Cup
The Fifa Women’s World Cup has been setting new records for the past month – with co-host Australia’s semi-final exit producing the biggest television audience ever recorded for any programme by the country’s OzTAM measurement system.
Brunch plans in Spain and England will revolve entirely around Sunday’s final, as those two nations stop to watch what is sure to be one of the biggest sporting moments of the year. But what is next on the horizon for women’s football – and for female footballers? The Athletic has mapped out how this generation of players can become true global media stars.
New Zealand Rugby confirms NZR+ launch
Not long after things wrap up in Sydney this weekend, the best in men’s rugby union will take the stage for their global showpiece: the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
New Zealand are very slight favourites in a crowded field and, as ever, the All Blacks will be out to capture the popular imagination along with the big prize. Now, fans can follow their journey more closely than ever before. New Zealand Rugby has launched NZR+, a free digital media platform that will carry documentaries, podcasts and other exclusive original content that celebrates the best of the sport.
NZR+ kicks off with four-part series on the Black Ferns’ Women’s World Cup win last year. Trippant is incredibly excited to be supporting New Zealand Rugby as it reaches out to rugby fans across the globe in the next couple of months.
The Wall Street Journal on playing with Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi looked to have put the cap on an all-time great career when he led Argentina to a men’s Fifa World Cup win in 2022, and some might have expected the 36-year-old to rest on his laurels when he pitched up at the worst team in Major League Soccer this summer.
Of course, Messi has instead made a huge impact in the US, delighting supporters and changing the professional lives of less-heralded teammates like Finland’s Robert Taylor.
The Washington Post, CNN and The Drum on marks against X
No matter what they call it, X continues to have some very public difficulties. The social media company formerly known as Twitter is understood to have ‘throttled’ links to sites its owner, Elon Musk, personally doesn’t like, including The New York Times, Meta’s Threads, and Bluesky, the nascent independent service backed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
That hasn’t made it any more popular with partners: at least two brands have dropped deals with the platform after their posts appeared next to pro-Nazi content. It all only complicates the task of CEO Linda Yaccarino, who has been trying to reanimate advertising sales since her arrival in June.
The Guardian on fraying Threads
To the disappointment of almost no one, Musk appears to have backed away from a literal fight with his Meta counterpart Mark Zuckerberg.
Commercially, though, Meta’s Threads has not yet landed a concussive blow on X, either. After a rocket-fuelled launch week that saw it amass over 100 million users in record time, life has got decidedly quieter for the text-based newcomer. The real work of engagement lies ahead.
TechCrunch on Lyft and Uber’s ad play
The social media ecosystem may be in flux but with global economic pressures still intense, advertisers have not been short of other available digital space.
Ride-sharing service Lyft has followed rival Uber in selling ads within its mobile notifications, continuing a trend that looks set to continue as companies try to counter revenue shortfalls.
Business Insider on McDonald’s movie meal
McDonald’s is not exactly unfamiliar with product placement, and it shows.
To mark its tie-in with the upcoming season of Marvel series Loki, it has launched the ‘As Featured In’ meal – alongside a supercut of film and TV appearances that underlines what it means to have a culturally pervasive brand.
The BBC brings word from a bass-heavy planet
It’s the surprise pop hit of the summer, fusing affectionate nostalgia and some very 2023 consumption patterns.
Kyle Gordon’s Eurodance parody ‘Planet of the Bass’ began life as a TikTok short and has now been released as a full single. Its success, however fleeting, has inevitably fed the discourse about the modern media ecosystem, but it has also prompted a re-evaluation of one of the sunnier, goofier genres of 90s music.
A monster piece from the New Yorker
The world’s best-known literary magazine goes to watch really big trucks do jumps, and is delighted by what it finds. The New Yorker reports from Monster Jam, delivering a tale of dedication, wheel diameters and the right kind of dirt.
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