This Week in #TVNews: Ad Week, Nintendo and Will Smith

Here’s the TV news we followed this week, from Advertising Week to Netflix’s choose your own adventure episode of “Black Mirror.”

• • Will Smith weighs in on data. This year, Will Smith, TI, Adrian Grenier and Bethenny Frankel were a few of the celebrity gets for Ad Week. The Prince of Bel-Air himself (and recently minted YouTube star) reminded us that we can’t forget the importance of human creativity: “Nothing is more valuable than your gut,” Smith says. “The metrics are there to help you train your gut because at the end of the day you have to make the call on the extraordinary.”
  • Does your brand have a purpose? After Nike’s successful campaign with NFL player Colin Kaepernick (the brand’s stock price reached an all-time high last month), other brands are interested in taking their own stand. As David Gaines of Wavemaker said during an Ad Week panel: “Be polarizing… People are more inclined to side with a team that has a point of view these days.” (See Land O’Lakes “feminist” take on “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”)
  • Choose your own Netflix adventure. The streaming company announced a foray into interactive TV, starting with an episode of “Black Mirror” will let viewers choose to follow a particular storyline. 
  • Gaming on your phone is going to get easier. Nintendo patented a phone case that basically turns your phone into a Game Boy. Polygon reports that “pressing a button on the cover results in contact with a touch panel beneath it, which is then translated into an action on the screen.” Nintendo also announced that it will release a new Switch model next year.

See highlights from last week here, and check back next week for more.