Moo Deng: The sassy baby hippo helping conservation efforts
Moo Deng, a very rare baby pygmy hippo from Thailand, has captured hearts worldwide with her mischievous personality and little body that Today show host Hoda Kotb described as having “a distinct potato shape.” The public (and Team LEWIS) eagerly keeps up with her antics as she refuses to take her bath, tries to bite her zookeeper, and dramatically runs around screaming. She’s not just a baby hippo with a feisty personality and a cute, round body, though—Moo Deng is raising awareness about endangered pygmy hippos and inspiring brands, zoos, and fans alike to engage in conservation efforts.
Takeaways
Moo Deng’s global impact exemplifies how heartfelt connections can drive engagement and inspire action. Not every brand can have a beloved “spokeshippo,” but they can still create connections by prioritizing emotion-driven, authentic narratives. Moo Deng’s popularity began with a social media poll that chose her name (translated as “bouncy pork”), which is the kind of public involvement that fosters a sense of ownership and connection. By embracing emotional storytelling, building influencer collaborations, and championing sustainability, brands can create authentic connections with today’s conscientious consumers.
Written by: Leigh-Anne Borkowski
Moo Deng the most beautiful girl in the world pic.twitter.com/gTf9HTR0dk
— yammi (@sighyam) September 13, 2024
Movie theaters’ billion dollar ‘butts in seats’ strategy
The state of movie theater viewing attendance has entered its latest evolution post-pandemic and post-Hollywood strikes. After a major box office summer thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine, Twisters, Inside Out 2 and other hits, the top movie theater players are ready to invest billions to give movie-goers an upgraded viewing experience. With highly anticipated films like Gladiator 2 and Wicked contributing to the promising fall movie release slate, this billion-dollar butts in seats strategy could be the key to sustaining summer box office momentum into 2025 and 2026 – big movie years that are anticipated to rack in billions.
Takeaways
With the continued rise of straight-to-streaming movie debuts, many have been quick to count out the in-theater movie viewing experience. However, something that critics forget is that the pandemic-induced lockdown ushered many of us into our experience era. And like any other industry navigating consumers’ want to partake in every share-worthy activity, bringing this to life oftentimes requires innovation. As movie theater companies invest in enhancements like cutting-edge projection technology, immersive sound systems, upgraded seating, and improved food and beverage offerings, they are making a strong case for why people should see the latest blockbuster hit in theaters. And as Nicole Kidman put it best: “We come to this place for magic.” Good luck recreating that from your couch.
The promise of superintelligence
Earlier this week, Sam Altman, the man who ushered in the AI craze with the development of ChatGPT, declared that we are less than a decade away from developing superintelligence. In his blog post, he asserted that in a few decades, we’ll be able to do things that would’ve “seemed like magic to our grandparents.”
Altman attributes this next step in human evolution to deep learning and the fact that it gets “better with scale, and we have dedicated increasing resources to it.” Whether it be having a private tutor who can teach personalized curriculum to any student, or a personal assistant who can coordinate medical care for patients, the promise of AI transcends beyond what we thought possible ten years ago.
While Altman painted a picture of what could be, he did not shy away from addressing the potential downsides of achieving superintelligence either – such as changing the labor landscape forever. However, he did close with this compelling comparison: “Many of the jobs we do today would have looked like trifling wastes of time to people a few hundred years ago, but nobody is looking back at the past, wishing they were a lamplighter. If a lamplighter could see the world today, he would think the prosperity all around him was unimaginable. And if we could fast-forward a hundred years from today, the prosperity all around us would feel just as unimaginable.”
Takeaways
Technological innovations have a compounding effect: the more you innovate, the faster the next innovation will come to be. This is the very nature of AI as it trains itself on existing data and actions to learn how to better solve problems at rates that would be impossible for humans to do.
While the prospect of achieving superintelligence does have a laundry list of red flags, for many, it will drastically improve their quality of life. In the 1990s, if you would have told me that there was a device that fits in your pocket that enables you to watch whatever you want, speak face-to-face with whoever you want, manage your finances, and even talk on the phone while simultaneously ‘surfing the worldwide web’ without getting your eardrums blown out, I would’ve thought you were insane… However, that is now our reality.
Much like the invention of smartphones, superintelligence will come with good and bad. But when considering the true impact of innovation, AI superintelligence will far outpace what smart phones did for mankind. From advancing educational opportunities, to medical research, to solving the climate crisis, I feel fortunate to live in an age where I may see these advancements come to life.
Nintendo turns 135 years old
One of the most recognizable companies in the world, Nintendo, celebrated its 135th anniversary this past Monday, September 23rd!
While today’s audiences know Nintendo for creating some of today’s most iconic characters and franchises (Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda, Mario etc.), many may not know that Nintendo started as a playing card company. In 1889, founder Fusajiro Yamauchi started Nintendo by manufacturing “hanafuda cards — intricately decorated decks used for different card games in Japan.”
Over the next century and a half, Nintendo ventured into various lines of business, ranging from other card games to toys to video games in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Since the first release of the Game and Watch handheld system in 1980, Nintendo has sold more than 5.5 billion video games and over 800 million hardware units across its 32 different consoles.
While Nintendo’s products have drastically changed over time, they have stayed true to their mission: “to put smiles on the faces of everything we touch. We do so by creating new surprises for people across the world to enjoy together.”
Takeaways
As a big Nintendo fan (shout out to my Diddy Kong Racing fans – IYKYK), I grew up obsessed with these games and remain just as interested and captivated by these franchises even three decades later. There is a quality to Nintendo’s countless characters and stories that has kept consumers engaged throughout their 135 years. They have married this excitement with the ever-changing landscape of entertainment and technology to remain as well regarded and popular to this day.
Having your business stay competitive is challenging, especially when navigating technological innovations, demand from various stakeholders, and even more. What Nintendo has done well is build emotional connectedness to their brand, which drives consumer consideration and loyalty. Creative branding is the bridge, and we at TEAM LEWIS position our clients for long-term growth by bringing brand purpose to life. Learn more about how we do so here.
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