Am I the Drama?

WHY WE SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO THE DRAMA AT REDDIT

Reddit is one of the weirdest, most amazing, open marketplaces for ideas on the Internet, and the drama that’s going on there this week is a microcosm of a much larger trend:

1. Content fuels AI
2. Therefore databases of content are about to become worth a ton of money
3. Who should profit from that content?
   

At its core, Reddit is a series of forums (called sub-Reddits) where people can share content that they find from around the internet, and discuss/debate it with each other. There are so many of these micro-communities that you can find a hive of your people whether your particular area of interest happens to be personal finance, gaming, or Photoshop Battles.

The community-driven nature of Reddit is its greatest strength, and it’s also what’s driving the latest mutiny, as the users dig their heels in against proposed changes by the company’s leadership.

The thing about these companies is that, as much as they feel like they’re run by the users, they are ultimately for-profit businesses that are accountable to their shareholders. So, as Reddit prepares to go public later this year, it took a hard look at its financials and realized that a lot of users were interacting with it through third-party apps, so they’ve announced that they’re going to start charging these app developers as much as millions of dollars per year for access to its API.

On its face that may seem logical, if somewhat controversial, but here’s where they really kicked the hornet’s nest: In an email to its community, Reddit suggested that one reason for the change is to protect the community’s content from being used to train big AI models, and instead, Reddit would be packaging it up and charging for it.

That last point set off a firestorm among the users that has led them to shut down as much as 95% of the content across the site. The users believe that they were the ones who effectively built the site and contributed all of the content, therefore it is unjust for the corporate leaders to swoop in and profiteer from all of their hard work, and in the meantime shut down all of the apps they’ve built to solve problems that Reddit itself hasn’t been able to solve.

And yet, Reddit has never pretended to be community-owned. From day one it’s been a privately-owned, for-profit business that provides a free platform to users in exchange for the opportunity to monetize that platform.

The question is: Does that matter? Reddit is effectively worthless without its users. And so is every other content platform, all of which are about to become honey pots for AI companies that are looking for real live content that they can use to build better bots.

Reddit may be the loudest and best organized community, with a history of getting CEO's fired and changing internal policies with its various protest tactics, and that is exactly why it’s the place to watch, as the battle for content is just getting started.

Here are a few places to take a step down the Reddit mutiny rabbit hole:

• The Reddit blackout, explained — by VOX
• Here’s the note Reddit sent to moderators threatening them if they don’t reopen — by The Verge
• Reddit CEO's AMA turns into disaster — by Mashable

BRANDS & JUNETEENTH

GUIDES, IDEAS, AND EXAMPLES

June 19th has long been recognized among Black Americans as an occasion to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved people, but it was only 2021 when it received recognition as a federal holiday in the United States.

Given that this is just the third anniversary of the mainstream recognition of Juneteenth, it may not be clear to all brands exactly how, when, and where to talk about it.

To help you to answer that question for yourself, we’ve put together the following resources, each of which offers first hand perspectives, and some guidance about what not to do:

• Later’s guide with background, examples and 5 tips
• AdAge’s analysis of a survey of Black Americans’ on brands & Juneteenth
• “How Brands Can Celebrate Juneteenth Without the Cringe” — AdWeek

HOW RESTAURANTS CAN EARN GEN Z’S BUSINESS

DINING EXPERIENCE IS NO LONGER LIMITED TO DINING IN

A recent report by Marketing Dive about restaurants and Gen Z has lessons about the service industry, and business in general, that can be applied to pretty much anyone who’s looking to attract a more digitally-connected audience.

First, I feel like I should throw out this caveat, especially given the piece we wrote in The Brief two weeks ago called People Over Labels: Generational categories are often more harmful than they are helpful, because they attempt to paint millions of people with a single brush.

So when this article, and others like it, talk about Gen Z, I encourage you to focus on the specific characteristic that the writer is talking about, and in this case, it’s people who are highly digitally-connected (which not all Gen Z people are, but I digress).

Here’s what the report teaches us about connecting with that audience:

• They will do pretty much anything to avoid picking up the phone
• They are spending less time in restaurants, yet food is very important to them
• They like to create their own experiences with dining
• Take out and delivery is not just for convenience, it’s also for creativity
• They appreciate personalization
• They’ll reward brands that are good to their people, and to the environment

Read the full article here

TIKTOK’S AI AD GENERATOR

"AI won't take your job, it's somebody using AI that will take your job."

— Richard Baldwin, Economist & Professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute

Let’s hope Richard is right for digital advertisers, because TikTok just launched a tool that is going to start doing a lot of the jobs that, until now, were the exclusive domain of real, live humans.

Announced this week on Linkedin (of all places), Michael Fee from TikTok’s Product Marketing had this to say about the tool:

“TikTok Script Generator, a free TikTok ad script generation tool that helps advertisers in their creative development by providing script ideas containing hook, body and call-to-action scenes in a matter of seconds. Just provide a few inputs about your brand or product, then let the tool do its magic.”

To get access, go here (you have to have a TikTok business account and log in on desktop).

Read more about the launch from Search Engine Land

A FEW FOR THE ROAD

MORE NEWS TO KEEP YOU ON THE CUTTING EDGE

• SEMRush launches a free social media management toolkit
• This is huge for local businesses: Google Business Profiles will now autoplay videos
• Meta is trying to help us step up our content game by offering free Reels templates and other Creator tools
• TikTok launches a service called Open Applications that aims to connect brands and Creators and form more creative partnerships

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting