🍀 McDonald's Brings Back Uncle O’Grimacey And Their Green Shamrock Shake

In today’s newsletter we discuss McDonald's is bringing back Uncle O’Grimacey and their Green Shamrock Shake for St. Patrick’s Day, the NFL luring content creators to target Generations Z through Alpha, the new trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth just dropped, a new addictive trading app called Dub just debuted, NFT infrastructure provider Reservoir just raised $17 million dollars, and Luka Doncic loses mad loot with trade.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

🏈 𝐍𝐅𝐋 𝐀𝐝𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐂.𝐑.𝐄.𝐀.𝐌. 𝐀𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬

The NFL is going all in on luring content creators to attract new fans from Generation Z through Alpha to post content on YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.

With Super Bowl LIX kicking off in New Orleans this Sunday, hundreds of content creators have descended on the Big Easy to do what they do - create content.

Big brands including Nike, Microsoft, EA Sports, Carl's Jr., Gatorade, and Verizon are paying creators big time money to create content around all the celebrations, tailgating, and entertainment leading up to the big game.

The 2024 NFL season saw some of the highest ever viewership and engagement numbers for Generations Z through Alpha, and it all is thanks in part to bringing that content to the services that fans are used to consuming in on, including TikTok, Snap, IG, and YouTube.

With content creators and influencers increasingly playing a key role in the NFL’s marketing strategy, the league has partnered this year with creator agency Whalar to produce the NFL’s “Creator of the Week” and “Access Pass for Legends”.

And you don’t have to go much further to understand how the NFL is going after Generations Z through Alpha, than by choosing Kendrick Lamar to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show, produced by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.

To steal a line from the 𝐖𝐮-𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐧, maybe the NFL should adopt the slogan C.R.E.A.M (Content Rules Everything Around Me).

📈 Business

If you thought Robinhood’s trading app was addictive, then a new trading app called Dub, that is targeting teens, is going to introduce a whole new generation into the stock market. Dub is described as “an influencer-driven marketplace where users can follow the trades of top investors with a few taps. Think of it as TikTok meets Wall Street.” according to TechCrunch.

In an interview with the Detroit Business Journal, Dub’s 22 year old founder and Detroit native Steven Wang says the company “allows everyday investors to replicate the portfolios of emerging investment managers, famed hedge funds, or elected officials with a single tap. Dub’s affiliated broker-dealer, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and member FINRA, helps facilitate copy-trading, a fast-emerging investment practice suited to today’s investor.”

Dub recently raised a $17 million dollar funding from Tusk Venture Partners, Robinhood’s co-founder Nathan Rodland, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, former Federal Reserve Board of Governors vice chair Roger Ferguson Jr., OneRepublic Frontman Ryan Tedder, and Detroit Venture Partners. Also included in the funding is a $2 million venture debt facility provided by Silicon Valley Bank, which is owned by First Citizens Bank.

🎬 Entertainment

The new trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth just dropped, starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, and Luna Blaise.

Curious about the plot? Why bother! It’s a Jurassic Park movie with big dinosaurs. What else do you need to know?!?!

Ok fine, I’ll tell you, but it’s not going to convince you to go see the movie or not; you’ve already made that decision if you’ve watched the trailer.

From IMDB “Five years post-Jurassic World Dominion, an expedition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a groundbreaking medical breakthrough.”

I told you you’d already made up your mind.

I’m in! Who’s joining me July 2, 2025 when this comes out?

Check out the trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth:

🥤 McDonald's

If you’re into drinking green things, then you’re in luck this coming St. Patrick’s day season, because McDonald's is bringing back their green Shamrock Shake.

Every year for the last 50 years McDonald’s has brought back the Shamrock Shake, reviving their McDonaldland story of Grimace’s Irish uncle, Uncle O’Grimacey, who McDonald’s originally created in 1975 to promote the Shamrock Shake. Legend has it that Uncle O’Grimacey hasn’t been seen since the mid-1980s, but he may be making a comeback this year.

This year the milkshake will be back from February 4 - March 23.

Trivia question:

How many Shamrock Shakes has McDonald's sold since introducing the shake in 1970?

McDonald's has sold over 60 million Shamrock Shakes, or 1.25 billion ounces if your a stats nerd like me).

As they always do, McDonald’s will be donating a portion of Shamrock Shake sales toward the Ronald McDonald House Charities. This year they’re donating 25 centers of every Shamrock Shake sold.

🪙 Crypto

The NFT infrastructure provider Reservoir, which provides the NFT trading platform used by Coinbase, MetaMask, and Magic Eden has raised a $14 million dollar funding round, and is using the money to expand their infrastructure to new NFT marketplaces enabling them to integrate NFT trading.

NFT trading volumes fell from $12.6 billion dollars in Q1 of 2022, to $3.9 billion dollars in Q1 of 2024. It would seem 2025 is off to a good start, with trading volumes of $130 million dollars weekly.

🏀 Sports

The drama is still playing out after last week’s huge trade of NBA Forward Luka Doncic to the LA Heat from the Dallas Mavericks.

It turns out he was in line for a whopping $345 million dollar contract extension as a part of his eligibility for the NBA’s supermax deal. Right now one of his options is signing a long-term 4-year $229 million dollar extension.

Hard to feel too bad for the guy with those kinds of financial options, but wait, it gets even better.

If Luka Doncic were to wait and sign a shorter-term contract this offseason, he could then sign a contract totaling nearly $420 million that would begin in his 11th year as a NBA player. That obviously has risks associated with it, since he’s currently in his seventh season in the NBA and there’s no guarantee his body will hold out until year 11.

Luka Doncic has already made $109.6 million dollars in his last 6 years in the NBA, plus another $6-10 million dollars per year in endorsements, so my guess is he’s going to be just fine.

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.