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Posts published in “Media”

The 2022 Cannes Film Festival Experience with Stern

In May of this year, 25 Stern MBA students, including myself, attended the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival as part of the “Craft and Commerce of Cinema” course in the stunning French Riviera. Professor Al Lieberman led the group along with Professor Paul Hardart, giving us a tour of the famous “Palais” and the festival grounds just moments after landing (what is jetlag?). 

Many people think the festival is just for movie premieres, but it is actually a major hub for those in the film industry. The “Marché du Film” attracts buyers, financiers, producers, distributors, and creative talent from all over the world. …

Historical Photography Preservation with NFTs: The Art Form of the Future? Ft. ArtHaus NFT 

On a crisp Friday afternoon in late October, as the leaves were on the cusp of exploding into orange flames, I walked into Madman Espresso to meet Hank O’Neal. 

I had first heard of Hank O’Neal a few months ago when I met Suhayb Zarroug, Randy Friedberg, and Franco Valentino to feature their NFT photography venture on The Oppy. Little did I know that Hank has been a prolific character in New York’s photography and jazz music scene for the past few decades, after he spent a number of years working for the Central Intelligence Agency. So what does an ex-CIA agent, renowned photographer, and record label owner have to do with NFTs? …

Bing Chen’s Ideas on Empowering Asian Communities

For this year’s Asian American Pacific Heritage Month, The Oppy wanted to highlight an Asian American leader driving real change in our community. We had the privilege to speak with Bing Chen, the President and Co-founder of Gold House– a collective of influential pan-Asian founders, creative voices, and leaders dedicated to systemically unlocking socioeconomic equity for new majority communities (fastest-growing but traditionally underserved) through unity, investments, and promotion. Chen attended University of Pennsylvania and previously served as YouTube’s Global Head of Creator Development and Management. He was a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, a Hollywood Reporter Next Gen Leader; a Hollywood Reporter Most Influential Agent of Change; ABC News History Maker; ADCOLOR Catalyst Honoree; Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader; Magic Johnson’s 32 Under 32 Leader; and Asian Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year.

Spotify and the Fight Against Vaccine Misinformation (A.K.A. The Joe Rogan Problem)

In May 2020, Spotify signed an exclusive podcast deal with Joe Rogan that is now rumored to be valued at $200 million, according to the New York Times. In the week following this announcement, Spotify’s stock went up 17%. The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) is Spotify’s most popular podcast in 93 markets and lays Spotify’s advertising growth in recent years at the foot of podcasts and Joe Rogan’s show in particular.

Concerns have been swirling around Mr. Rogan’s podcast since the beginning. In September 2020, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek addressed employees’ concerns around transphobic content on the podcast. “Others have concerns specifically over a recent episode,” Ek said at that time, according to Vice.…

Fun with Ricky Bobby: Stern alum Adam Grossman breaks down valuation

This month’s Stern Alumni spotlight is CEO and founder of Block Six Analytics, Adam Grossman. Block Six Analytics determines valuation for sponsorship and marketing opportunities in professional sports, and during The Oppy’s recent interview with Grossman, we asked him to give an example of this the only way we knew how: with comedians, racing cars, and mass-produced white bread.

[Full interview with Stern alum Adam Grossman]

Block Six Analytics measures the value of certain sponsorships, so I wanted to ask you about a thought experiment: Have you seen the movie Talladega Nights with Will Ferrell?

Oh yeah.

In that movie, Ferrell’s character Ricky Bobby is a NASCAR driver sponsored by Wonder Bread.

Dog Days for MoviePass: The Latest with the Subscription Movie App

MoviePass has gone to the dogs.

To be more specific, one dog. In its most recent email to its dwindling and irked subscriber base, the Director of Barketing, wearing a MoviePass scarf, explains “from time to time you may have had a ‘ruff’ experience with us but it turns out that I’m a dog and I can’t talk. What I do know is that I see these humans working like crazy to make MoviePass better and better for you as fast as possible.”

In the past, doggy error messages have eased customers’ frustrations for other tech companies. Take for example, Amazon’s 404 Error page featuring pooches of employees, which has been widely received as enhancing its coolness.…

Finding a home in Hawkins: using music to augment Stranger Things’ reality

The Stranger Things pop culture phenomenon is blowing up—and it’s not just happening organically. The marketing for the show’s season 2 release pulled out all the stops in a cross-platform, multi-experiential strategy, one that transcends the content’s original medium and finds a home in the musically referential.

Stranger Things, a Netflix original miniseries created by the Duffer Brothers, was first released in June 2016 to critical acclaim. Set in the 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, the show’s first season focuses on the disappearance of a young boy and how his childhood friends and family work to rescue him from a terrifying alternate reality, which is described by the children as “the upside down.”…

Robot democracy: how smart media can save America

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked…”

– Allen Ginsberg, 1955

“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads.”

– Jeffrey Hammerbacher, 2011

“We don’t care if you watch the show, we just want you to watch the commercials.”

– some VP on the A+E Networks trek, 2017

Nationalism isn’t a new idea. It’s back in vogue these days, but even the laziest of Google searches will tell you its roots stretch back, at the very least, to 19th century Europe. In the early 20th, President Woodrow Wilson became its most prominent American booster, advocating against 19th century imperialism and for the right of self-determination.…

A Few Thoughts on SXSW 2017

Through a B-School Student Lens, It Almost Writes Itself

Each year, thousands of people gather in Austin for one of the year’s highlight events for techie and creative types alike–and there’s no shortage of business insight for a Sternie to find in the shuffle. Here are a few points I couldn’t ignore:

SXSW was more of a logistic nightmare than it usually is.

In case Twitter hasn’t already made this apparent through one meme too many, people were panicking in Austin when they opened their Uber and Lyft apps to get around for SXSW. Austin voted to increase regulation on background checks for Uber and Lyft drivers in May 2016.…

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