The AvA Connection

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You have full permission to push every meeting to after the holidays. But please open Wednesday’s newsletter because we sit down with Gabrielle Bird-Vogel who went from Talent Agent at WME to a Partner at Karly Kloss’ Klossy. One of the most requested interviews yet is finally happening.

💼 Looking for open Entertainment jobs? Scroll to the bottom of this email. Our Job Board now has 150+ early career Entertainment roles as well.

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The irony is not lost:

1) TikTok is jumping into the movie marketing game in a more formal way

Last Saturday, they showed the trailer of Supergirl to every user who logged onto the app across 13 countries. This is about to become the norm whether you like it or not.

2) Jay-Z is making a $500 million bet on K-Pop

Jay-Z’s investment firm, MarcyPen Capital Partners, partnered with Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management to launch a $500m joint venture focusing on Korean culture companies to help them scale globally. The globalization of music is still very early, and an area I’d be jumping into if I were looking for my next (or first) job in the industry.

3) Netflix continues to bet big on IRL

Netflix built a 100,000-square-foot space Netflix House in Philly as the first of 3 launching in US cities (Dallas then Vegas)

Why it matters:

Netflix is building a physical funnel. Free entry + ticketed experiences = top-of-funnel brand touch → paid IRL moments → merch, events, loyalty. This is the Disney logic.
IRL is the new growth hack in a saturated streaming market. When content is infinite and attention is cooked, owning a real-world destination gives Netflix something no algorithm can: presence, habit, and cultural gravity.
Because it used to be a Lord & Taylor Department store 10 min from my childhood home that I dragged my mom to to buy Abercrombie & Fitch polos (no one cares)

Credit: Kat Kendon/Netflix

4) Dominik jumping in here.. Speaking of IRL, the AvA Team want to Betches’, Betch of the year “meme gala” celebrating the most iconic moments on the internet

Think: Louvre heist (which also happened IRL in France + the memes) and the Coldplay kiss cam moment (to put it lightly).

This has been the year of digital to IRL: Publish Press hosted a massive event in NYC which had everyone form Casey Neistat to Steven Bartlett, Feed Me just had a party with Link in Bio, another huge Substack, and The Lighthouse by Whalar is now open on 2 coasts to bring creators together.

Ironically more and more the best way to reach an online audience is to build IRL community that creates a stronger connection with your digital consumers.

I think a new AvA IRL event is coming soon? Biggest announcement in AvA history is happening on Thursday!

Disney extends Jimmy Kimmel’s Late-Night show for another year into 2027. Things look to be back to business as usual.
WME brings on CAA duo as new Senior Partners in the Motion Picture Literary Department. Trevor Astbury & Matt Martin both spent over a decade at CAA, and a handful of clients will be making the move with them too. Things are getting spicy this holiday season.
Neon’s longtime Chief Marketing Officer is leaving the company. He has ran the campaign for Oscar nominees ranging from ‘Tonya,’ all the way to the latest Best Picture Winner ‘Anora.’

Every week we drop our favorite podcast & book recs.

Today we have Chelsea Handler award winning comedian and author on House Guest with Scott Evans. The two talk about going on tour, changing mindsets, and powering through insecurity by trusting the universe.

This is a great watch or listen for anyone who is looking to get motivated and excited about the progress they can make in a short time to supercharge their career, (+ who wants to hear about dating 50 cent.)