Hi there, Lucinda Southern, Adweek media editor, closing out the week.
If you’re a 12-year-old gamer, chances are you’re on chat app Discord, meeting in one of its 6.7 million servers (what it calls channels) to talk about the latest Roblox battles.
Dubbed “Slack for gamers” (and we know how highly valued that chat platform is for new owner Salesforce), ad-free Discord is reportedly close to doubling its value to $7 billion in less than six months, thanks to a pandemic-induced desire to virtually connect, not to mention the serious limits to leisure activities.
The platform had some unflattering headlines earlier this year due to its links to alt-right groups, but it’s cleaning up its act. My colleague Scott Nover takes a look under the hood at how it makes money, expansion plans beyond gaming and what its future in brand integration looks like.
Build a community, then monetize them. The deeper the connection, the more viable and variable the revenue lines can be, whether that’s merchandise, affiliates, organic brand integrations or in-app payments.
Also, say hello to Walgreens Advertising Group, the latest retail media network. Programmatic editor Ronan Shields takes a look at WAG, (where I am in the U.K., WAG has a bit of a different meaning).
Brands are trying to bulk up their first-party data, but the retail media network space is a little crowded, so it has work to do to get media buyers on board. Check out Ronan's analysis for the details.
With that, I hope you have a restful weekend. If you can, consider taking out an Adweek Pro Subscription to help support our journalism.
Thanks for reading!
Lucinda
