This Week In Daily Doses
This week’s daily dose is diverse, including how Instagram appear to be leveraging topical content in your feed through TV shows, actors and showrunners, sponsorship becomes more attention-based, streamers concentrating on more content post show completion and how prediction markets have partnered with LeBron and Sydney Sweeney to shape culture and acquire more customers and validate their services…
INSTAGRAM TOPICAL FEED IMPROVEMENTS
What: Instagram appears to be testing topical recommendations and feed improvements by showing big shows and connected accounts in your feed
Why It Matters?
In the fight for attention, social platforms are trying to keep you in feeds by connecting to important events, content and shows
Shows are gaining prominence in feeds when any interest is shown by dwell and engagement
Actors, producers and showrunners who are active are being shown in feeds and gaining engagement and account growth
Recommended accounts will gain more exposure and prevalence in feeds with more engagement around when sports or TV series are being shown, including fan accounts, TV insiders and authoritative accounts sharing their content
How To Use This Lesson:
Create moments that accounts want to be connected to, especially if episodic
Bundle content around an event or show; engage with connected accounts
Leverage EGC, fan accounts and ITK accounts to push the importance of their content
Be creative in how you tease information and run spoilers
Here is how I have mapped out how Instagram may be testing more specific content based on your engagement and how to connect actors, showrunners and producers to TV show launches and releases like Lioness on Paramount+
DELIVERY PARTNERSHIP KITKAT X DELIVEROO
What: Deliveroo and KitKat have teamed up for delivery promo in the post-order flow
Why It Matters?
Important screens and real estate matter in specific moments
By sponsoring post order you are front and centre of the tracking experience - often the most watched session
Partnerships and sponsorships are helping rapid delivery firms becoming profitable
How To Use This Lesson:
Consider how you could sponsor core moments in delivery apps - this is often for larger brands
If you are a brand that can be ordered, see where you can be added or inserted; your stockists can sponsor search results and in-store scrolling
Add other signals of trust; F1 works well for KitKat as a huge sporting event
Allow your brand to be creative and connect with delivery company’s branding
BE REMARKABLE - IS IT OK TO SHAPE CULTURE?
What: LeBron has signed an “exclusive partnership” with Polymarket, a crypto‑native prediction market where people trade on future events (e.g. “Will LeBron play with Bronny in 2026–27?”) It’s not a standard sportsbook deal. It’s an athlete attaching their brand to a markets-as-media platform: news, speculation and financial upside all fused into one product.
Why It Matters?
Sport as financialised entertainment: We’ve moved from fantasy to bets to options on everything (minutes, transfers, retirements, politics). Prediction markets are the logical next step.
Athletes as distribution: Platforms don’t just want ad slots, they want talent on the cap table who can move flows of capital and attention.
Blurring lines with traditional betting: For most fans, this feels like betting, even if the regulators see it differently. That raises real questions around harm, regulation and how “clean” an athlete’s image is.
Narrative control: When there’s a live market on whether you’ll play with your son, every interview, decision and rumour has a price attached. That changes how stories are told and consumed.
How To Use This Lesson:
Consider how platforms co‑opt stars to normalise new behaviours - fans will follow LeBron
When everything is a micro moment and monetisable consider how you integrate this
Think about how you can be between the fading line - between content, commerce and speculation is disappearing.
Watch out for the blowback: regulators, leagues and fan groups will define the real ceiling on this trend - bigger the player bigger the microscope
Net: prediction markets with superstar faces (like Drake playbook with others spaces) are likely to spread further; the question is whether they’re framed as playful forecasting tools or the next wave of always‑on gambling tools and culture shapers
NETFLIX TUDUM & POST COMPLETION CONTENT
What: Netflix post-series completion CRM campaign (I finished The Gentlemen season 2 the day before). Read their breakdown here
Why It Matters?
Shows finish and the platforms ask for review, there is hardly ever any follow up
Popular shows often leave viewers with questions and they often go to platforms like Reddit
Connecting viewers with the show and the characters depends on the relationship with the platform. Netflix is churning users - this will be a retention play others will mimic
How To Use This Lesson:
Don’t let something end when you think they have completed it
Serve good content and FAQ style questions to explain or re-peak interest
Tell character and actor stories post-season completion
Prompt sharing and conversation between viewers
GO THAT STEP FURTHER - HOW THE ACQUIRED PODCAST IS LEADING WITH VALUE TO LEAD THE BUSINESS PODCAST MARKET
What: CEOs favourite super long-form podcast, Acquired, goes that one step further with dedicated deep dive supporting content. Access the full guide here or listen to their pod through their website.
Why It Matters?
4 hour podcasts are dense in research; the Disney example took weeks to research, record, edit and promote, for many the analysis and timeline is vitally important, by adding supporting content to help the listener/viewer is critical to understanding complex and complicated decisions
As it is popular with CEOs it has to offer more than just a brilliant deep dive and strategic analysis going that step further is necessary
Well respected podcasts are free business courses for many CEO and founders - the value exchange is high, by making the value exchange higher, it sets them above other business podcasts and increases the trust
Acquired charges hundreds of thousands and millions to sponsor, adding supporting materials is another asset brands want to be associated with
How To Use This Lesson:
Go that step further: if you have invested weeks in content, share as supporting content and guides to listeners
Show you work - showing the archive, behind the scenes and the access they had with current employees and former CEOs builds an unrivalled level of trust
High value content is a shareable asset and allows listeners to use as a strategic doc/framework for colleagues and follow C-suite leaders
BRING BACK OLD GAMES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
What: Forest Green Rovers have brought back Spot the ball on their social media
Why It Matters?
Easy to engage with
Nostalgia works brilliantly for football fans
A constant game and theme to use, pair with a giveaway and its an event people tune in for / turn on the bell
How To Use This Lesson:
Go through old games, game shows and recreate
Tie into recent events, recent games and players to encourage engagement
Use variable rewards to keep fans/followers playing and engage back
Offer partners to sponsor or appear on the game for broader reach
WEAR SPORTS? SYDNEY GETS THE TARGET AUDIENCE
What: Novig sports prediction market brings on Sydney Sweeney as equity partner and creative director
Why It Matters?
While losing market share Novig brings in the perfect partner to promote their service
Offering equity brings more than basic advertising
How To Use This Lesson:
When struggling to cut through to competitors with much larger budgets bring in your target audiences symbol
Allow some creative freedom - ripping up the old rule book gives allows a lot more attention from outlets and platforms that didn’t cover you before - you must prepare for attention and some will be cancel brand narratives (ask American Eagle)
Use a statement like Novig x Sydney did, similar to wearing sports to boost attention
Don’t rely on platforms to boost ads like this, lean on customers and users to share in group chats…
The slightly more SFW ad below:
Enjoy the full 80 days coaching so far for free. You can access everyday at any time, through dannydenhard.com/dailydose, you can export as slides or PDF to share too.
