1. Disney Animation's latest offering, Strange World, bombed at the box office. The film only made $18.6m in its first five days and received a mediocre B CinemaScore. This is the worst opening for a Disney Animation Thanksgiving title in modern times after getting pummeled by poor word-of-mouth. This is also the first of the unit's films to
earn anything less than an A- grade from CinemaScore.. Overseas, Strange World debuted to $9m from 43 material markets for a global bow of just $28m..
2.Las Vegas is quickly becoming a top destination for sports fans.
The city has added NHL and NFL teams in recent years, and there are rumors that MLB, NBA, and MLS could be on the way. The NCAA also announced that Las Vegas will
host its first Final Four in 2028Sin City will host its first Formula 1 Grand Prix in November 2023, which comes after the Raiders relocated from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020. The city was awarded the 2024 Super Bowl and hosted the 2022 NFL Draft in April—and it's only a matter of time before they get another major sporting event: The Oakland A’s have scouted land there should they fail to reach a deal with Oakland city government on a new waterfront ballpark. If things stay
as they are, there's a good chance that Las Vegas could eventually host the College Football National Championship. LeBron James even wants to own an NBA team in Las Vegas—and while league commissioner Adam Silver has been wary of expansion, he has also said that adding teams is "inevitable."
3. The holiday shopping season is officially over, and we've got some good news: the holiday shopping season was a success!According to Adobe, online
sales hit a new $9.12B record in the US, beating last-year's record by 2%. Mobile sales increased by 48%, which is 4% higher than last year. Buy now, pay later increased by 78% compared to the week before. Electronic sales went up by 221%, toys by 285%, and exercise equipment by 218% compared to the average sales day.Adobe says e-commerce activity is expected to remain high during Cyber Monday as well. Shopify broke records too—reaching $3.36B in sales worldwide—the most lucrative
day in the platform's history. Shopify says top selling countries were the US and Canada, confirming predictions that spending would rise in the US while Europe tightened their purse strings… but were there actually more sales? Considering that product prices rose 10% on average, and sales went up 2%… were fewer items sold this year at higher prices?
4.So, Twitter is back on track with news that will help you run your ads more effectively!The
platform launched ad objectives and ad targeting options that should help you reach certain audiences more effectively.
Hello high intent, low cost: The conversion goal Website Conversions Optimizations (WCO) helps you promote offers to “users that are more likely to take certain actions,” such as subscribe or add to cart. WCO is 25% cheaper per conversion than standard campaign types, according to Twitter. NiceYou'll need the
Twitter Pixel or Conversion API (CAPI) set up to use WCO. Twitter also announced two updates to existing ad formats: Dynamic product ads are now optimized for privacy-first approach, delivering effective performance with fewer signals. Collection ads now allow you to share a hero image with a carousel of smaller thumbnail images below.
By the way, Twitter is relaunching the verification process but with manual authentication according to Elon
Musk.
5. Elon Musk has been pretty quiet about his plans for Twitter, but he's recently begun to outline his vision in more detail. In a new slide deck, Musk outlines his plan for Twitter 2.0, which will start with a round of layoffs at the company and then move into a hiring push to add more development and engineering talent to help realize Musk's grand vision for the company.
Musk has also put together a new pitch deck, of
sorts, which aims to clarify his current plan. It may end up being totally different or it may be indicative—we don't know for sure as yet. But he is slowly clarifying and honing in on specific elements.
6.It's the most wonderful time of the year — but it's also one of the most stressful times of the year. If you're an email marketer, you know that holiday shopping is incredibly competitive and that consumers are looking for deals and
discounts everywhere they look. That's why it's important to make sure your emails stand out. And if you have Gen Zers on your list, it's even more important! Gen Zers are planning to spend more money than ever this year — an average of $1,418 compared with $1,240 for millennials and $1,053 for parents. And they're planning to spend more on themselves: 39% of their budget compared with 31% for millennials and 37% for parents. But it's not just about how much they're willing to spend —
it's about how they'll spend it. While most people will be looking at social media or TV while shopping, Gen Zers are more likely to go mobile: 89% have made mobile purchases compared with 76% of millennials and 88% of parents.
So if you want to reach these customers in their prime gift-buying years, now is the time! (MP)
7.In an interview with Freakonomics that ran last week, Marissa Mayer said that one of the reasons search has taken a
hit is because there are so many more ads on a search page and less relevant content, which makes it harder for marketers to analyze data to determine who gets served which ad. She pointed out that when she started at Google, there were about 30 million web pages, but now there are likely around a trillion URLs. Google Search might have concerns that the value of its platform continues to decline in value, but another former employer -- Yahoo -- made an announcement today to advance
identity resolution, which could fix that problem.
8.While its new owner Elon Musk has blamed pressure groups -- as well as advertisers themselves -- for discontinuing advertising on Twitter, half of American consumers believe it was the right thing to do since he acquired the company and began making it an even more toxic place for brand marketers and consumers alike. According to a survey of 500 U.S. adults fielded by Pollfish
on Tuesday, 49% agree with the decisions of big brands to halt their Twitter ad spending, while 27% said they do not agree with their decision and 24% said they're not sure.
9.A Republican Senator is urging Twitter to correct "significant security failures" reported by whistleblower Peiter Zatko, the company's former security chief.Senator Chuck Grassley sent a letter to CEO Elon Musk on November 22, calling for the company to address
Zatko's claims that Twitter collects vast amounts of data on American citizens. "Twitter has a responsibility to ensure that the data is protected and doesn’t fall into the hands of foreign powers," he wrote. The letter comes several months after Zatko testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee about potential security lapses at the company.
10. Dotdash Meredith. is celebrating a major victory after a federal court ruled that
consumers who sued the publisher for renting their names out on mailing lists did not have a case because they had not suffered actual harm. The plaintiffs had charged that Meredith violated their rights of publicity under several state laws. But they failed to establish “the first element of standing: injury-in-fact,” the court ruled.The plaintiffs allege that Meredith “maintains a vast digital database” and that information on subscribers is disclosed to discloses its subscribers’
names “to data aggregators and appenders,” who provide Meredith with “supplemental information” about each subscriber. But in granting Meredith’s motion to dismiss, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger noted that they did not allege that their own names or addresses were actually sold to a third party. (MP)
