The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are more than a year away, but NBCUniversal has a head start—at least when it comes to pitching the game to advertisers.

Ahead of this year’s upfronts, NBCUniversal is already in active discussions with all of the major holding companies about opportunities for the upcoming Summer Games, Dan Lovinger, NBCUniversal’s president, ad sales and partnerships, told reporters on Tuesday.

While it is still very early in the sales process, ad sales are already “pacing well ahead” of where NBCUniversal was at the same point in time ahead of the last Summer Olympics in Tokyo (which were held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic), Lovinger said. While exact pricing information wasn’t shared, Lovinger said the Olympics will “continue to lead the pack in terms of pricing premium.”

“We expect continued engagement as the upfront discussions in the months ahead inspire advertisers to take note of one of the most exciting and engaging Olympic opportunities in decades,” Lovinger said.

Keep reading here.—KS

Sorry, Clubhouse, BeReal, and Dispo: There’s a new social media app bubbling up.

Lemon8, a photo-sharing app owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance, was one of the top 10 most-downloaded apps on the App Store last week. It had five million monthly active users globally as of last year, per the New York Times, and is being promoted by ByteDance as US lawmakers debate a TikTok ban.

Though it debuted in Japan in 2020, it made its way to Americans’ phones this year: According to Insider, it is “starting to build out its creator partnerships team in New York as it looks to expand.”

So what is it? On the App Store, Lemon8 is described as “a place for young creatives to share a diversity of content from fashion, makeup, food, and travel, to homewares, pets, and anything else you can imagine!” Many have described the app as a cross between Instagram and Pinterest.

• “While TikTok continues pushing into current events, trends, and live streaming, Lemon8 heads in the opposite direction,” venture capitalist Turner Novak wrote in his newsletter last month. “Evergreen reviews, lifestyle content, text, and photos starts eating into the use cases of Reddit, Instagram, and Pinterest.”
• ByteDance recently invited US creators to join Lemon8 through marketing companies it hired, according to the New York Times. According to Ad Age, the platform currently has “no ads and few official brand accounts,” though fake brand accounts have started popping up.

Zoom out: Lemon8’s splashy debut is reminiscent of other social apps that have blown up over the past few years, including Clubhouse and BeReal, though interest in both has waned.

Some people already seem to be skeptical of Lemon8’s staying power. Social media consultant Rachel Karten, who writes the newsletter Link in Bio, tweeted that she asked some of her subscribers for their thoughts on Lemon8 and whether brands should establish a presence on it. “Overall consensus is Lemon8 is owned by ByteDance so it likely won’t be the ‘new TikTok’ if TikTok gets banned. It’d probably be wrapped up in that drama too.”—JS

Duolingo, the language-learning app known for its stern and persistent push notifications, is also perhaps the brand most associated with TikTok.

Its owl mascot, Duo, has become an important marketing tool on TikTok, helping it gain more than 6 million followers, no small feat considering major brands like State Farm and Burger King have fewer than a million each. Fun fact: There’s not just one person who wears the owl costume. According to Katherine Chan, Duolingo’s head of global social and influencer, multiple employees have volunteered to wear it when the company films social media content featuring the owl.

Despite its large TikTok following, Chan does not seem to be overly concerned about a potential TikTok ban in the US. “We obviously have a lot of success on TikTok, but most importantly, we’re sort of doubling down on short-form video,” Chan told us, explaining that the app sees “potential” in platforms that it’s “not quite as active on yet,” like Instagram Reels or YouTube.

“In terms of TikTok…there’s a chance that it will get banned, at least in the US, but we feel like we’re ready to adapt.” In the meantime, Duolingo is continuing to eye the K-pop scene.

Continue reading here.—JS

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Stat: 84% of publishers surveyed by Digiday+ Research “said they will put at least some focus on growing their programmatic business in the next six months.”

Quote: “My professor said if our class got a TikTok to 1 million likes he would cancel the final!! Please like!!!”—The caption of a TikTok video posted by Sylvie Bastardo, a student at Chapman University who talked to the New York Times about the unconventional assignment

Read: “Why Cinnamon Toast Crunch and other iconic cereals are taking over the supermarket” (Fast Company)

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• HBO’s Sunday night shows are more important than ever