Instagram Shopping goes Global

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/19/after-launching-in-the-u-s-instagram-expands-its-shoppable-posts-features-to-business-users-in-eight-other-countries/

Instagram Shopping is now available globally on the social media site for apparel, jewelry or beauty brands opening up the channel to more direct marketers. Instagram first started testing the feature in the US last year before rolling it out to eight new countries this month including Canada, Brazil, UK, Germany, France Italy, Spain, and Australia. This is a big change for international retailers who previously had been restricted from selling through Instagram in the US. The feature lets marketers get in touch with their audience without buying ads but reaching their customers through their organic posts and allowing them to seamlessly tap and shop the product in just a few clicks. Currently the feature is limited to only single posts and not carousel or video posts but one can assume that Instagram will be building out the functionality for all post types. The key to ensuring the feature continues to be a success will be providing marketers with clear analytics so that they can easily track performance and see how many people clicked through or viewed product details. This type of feedback loop is important to improve content offerings. 

Google opening up to third-party reviews

https://marketingland.com/google-announces-third-party-measurement-expansions-mrc-nielsen-comscore-236517

Google has opened up to third-party reviews in the following three areas:

• Brand safety assurances and controls
• Verification that traffic on ads is real.
• That advertisers get fair value for their advertising.

Brand safety assurances and controls

Google is on track to hire more than 10,000 manual content reviewers to review the contents on its platform. In efforts to boost brand safety, Google is now confirming to standard put forward by JICWEBS (Joint industry committee for web standards in the UK and Ireland). Additionally, the company is simplifying the complex brand safety controls in YouTube today.

Verification that traffic on ads is real

In March 2017, Google announced that it is working with Media Rating Council (MRC) on getting certified  an additional 40 new metrics similar to accepted metrics like clicks and impressions. The goal is to work with industry leaders on bringing standards around acceptable marketing metrics.

Google is also expanding YouTube reach measurement from Nielsen and comScore. Nielsen mobile measurement on YouTube is extending to three new countries: UK, Germany and France. It is expanding comScore measurement for YouTube to nearly 13 countries. Finally, to help advertisers compare YouTube advertising to TV campaign performance, Google announced a new partnership with German TV ratings measurement group AGF.

On GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation),  May 25.

The newly enacted law protecting EU citizens will go live on May 25, 2018. The legislation protects EU citizens even outside of EU. Google is taking this very seriously and has put in place tools that users can use to download the data their personal data from Google and vet it using rival third-party applications.

Q&A on programmatic performance marketing (aka affiliate marketing)

https://marketingland.com/programmatic-performance-marketing-aka-affiliate-marketing-questions-and-answers-237058

A good marker is always in search of the best ROI or maximum impact for his marketing budget. What ever our goals are, there are clear differences between metrics we can gather between Email, Search, Display and Social marketing. The above article explores the headwinds and tailwinds programmatic marketing faces. Programmatic marketing or affiliate marketing are nothing but vendors that use computer programs to manage marketing budgets across different digital marketing channels.

1. Is affiliate marketing actually incremental to traditional marketing or is it cannibalistic?

Per the author, affiliate marketing is "marginally incremental" when measured within the online-only ecosystem. Affiliate marketing doesn't usually get credit for offline conversions because of lousy attribution models or tracking errors. Additionally, the price elasticity exhibited in media auction marketplace makes budget allocation all the more harder.

So, to truly understand the incremental value programmatic marketing adds to your campaign, you need to entirely shut it off and perform a A/B testing. Even then, there is always the challenge of measuring the tangibles. For example, you need to make sure that your affiliate marketers are conveying your intended messaging and positioning to your target audiences.

2. Have you found that customers gained through affiliate programs are of quality lifetime value (LTV)?

No, they are of lower LTV because you lack the ability to target specific customers.

3. Do your clients actually view affiliate as a growing category?

Clearly a yes, given the push to performance marketing or ROI.

4. Would you invest your money in the affiliate category if you were an investor?

Holy grail in digital marketing especially performance marketing is a central dashboard that does the following:

• Merges non-PII data with transactional data across every paid touch point.
• Overlays offline media and earned media.
• Lets one create either A/B or fractional factorial experimental designs.

The goal is to maximize both short and long term sales. This is easier said than done. Aggregating data from closed networks like Google Search, Facebook etc. is very hard and possibly a pipe dream. The minute these networks start sharing their data they loose their pricing power. 

Additional headwinds include:

• Mobile not being as trackable as desktop. Its getting better with apps tying location to retail purchases.
• Offline tracking still lacking. This problem can be mitigated with adoption of mobile wallets.

In summary,  A/B testing after completely shutting down your affiliate channels is the only option to understand their influence today.

GOOGLE CAPITALIZES ON WAZE

Blog Post 9

Google is exploring different channels to distribute content and advertising to its users. As the parent company of Waze, an application designed to avoid traffic, Google plans to use the platform and include pop up adds of nearby stores. This strategy is due to be successful by reeling clients giving them discounts to such stores. One of their pilot destinations, confirmed they had more than 5,500 drivers show up after adding a simple add on the traffic app.

Having already explored and tested the user base with stores such as Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, Waze is ready for phase two where they will go local and offer three types of advertising charging on a cost-per-thousand impression basis. Even though the user base is still in its growth stage, and the application already has agreements with others such as Uber, executives of the company are targeting this new idea as a way of monetizing the digital marketing space.

It is fascinating and quite scary to digest that marketing will slowly but surely be present in everyday and every channel. These giant companies want to understand user behavior, times in traffic, times at restaurants, commutes, and times at work and come up with ways to indirectly target users and reel behaviors or interests into specific stores. As a Waze user, I did realize that I had Dunkin Donuts pop ups on my phone screen when navigating on I-95, but now that I understand the strategy, I will be cognicent as to how a huge company capitalizes on users sometimes without them noticing. It is a brilliant move from Google and potentially could read to a virtual reality play in the future.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/28/google-owned-waze-launches-waze-local-ads.html

Adobe Study on Web Traffic Exposes Significant “Non-Human” Presence

Tech giant Adobe recently conducted a study on website visits, which found that more than a quarter of web traffic (~28%) demonstrated strong “non-human signals,” indicating that they likely came from bots, scrapers or click farms.

Adobe’s investigation covered a “handful” of travel, retail and publishing industry clients and specifically sought to uncover how much of their web traffic had non-human characteristics. The Company posits that with the bots and click farm data currently included in web traffic reports, digital marketers and advertisers aren’t getting a clear picture of site visitors and product purchasers and therefore have unrealistic perceptions and expectations of their audience. However, “by weeding out that misleading data, brands can better understand what prompted consumers to follow their ads and ultimately visit their websites and buy their products.”

The Wall Street Journal article reporting on Adobe’s study goes on to explain that the findings will help ad buyers exclude non-humans from future targeting efforts by allowing them to remove their representative cookies or unique web IDs.

Importantly, Adobe understands the value of such a capability, is but not yet monetizing a product to flag non-human web traffic. Instead, the Company plans to build a function into its current tools. While it’s not an altruistic effort by any stretch, it’s nice to see a Company attempting to use its considerable scale and influence to help improve internet transparency.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fraudulent-web-traffic-continues-to-plague-advertisers-other-businesses-1522234801

Blog #9: The Working Daypart

How many times do you check your phone at work? Or go online window shopping during a long team meeting? A recent AdAge article talks about this exact trend:

 "The Working Daypart consists of the hours spent at the office. This is when most professionals now determine what they are going to buy and even complete those transactions at their desk online or at a physical location near their office. They may not admit it in front of their boss, but this trend has advanced into a workday staple."

The article noted a 2017 Office Pulse study, showing that workers are spending more time doing non-work at work:

• 88% go online for personal needs
• 78% go shopping (online or in-store)
• 72% run errands

The above stats show that there is a whole world that marketers are missing out on. If consumers are shopping and browsing during the work day, how can marketers get in front of customers during that time? Perhaps they could:

• Place billboards in office buildings or common lunch restaurants- Ads are becoming more ingrained in our society, from airports, to malls, to schools, companies are increasing their marketing presence. Based on the changing behaviors of professionals, the workplace seems like the next space where we will start seeing ads more prominently
• Work with employers to establish partnerships- Many employers already offer employee discounts and corporate perks, however in my opinion those programs are underutilized because employees forget they exist. By including employee partnerships in a company's own profile or a reminder at checkout can increase conversions
• Push coupons or flash sales during the work day- To remain top of mind, companies can strategically push coupons during the weekday. To accomplish this companies need to analyze data to see if a customer has recently been searching for an item and then send a promotion for that item during the work day (especially during the lunch hour); this could lead to more sales.

Source: http://adage.com/article/media/brands-missing-important-daypart/312805/

Advertisers are leaving Facebook! (Spoiler alert: they won’t really leave)

http://thehill.com/homenews/news/380065-companies-pull-advertising-from-facebook-after-cambridge-analytica-scandal

https://marketingland.com/advertisers-didnt-leave-youtube-and-they-wont-leave-facebook-237063

The Cambridge Analytica scandal has caused some serious heartburn at Facebook over the last few weeks. Facebook is taking serious heat for exposing the data of some 50 million users to Cambridge Analytica without the users’ explicit consent, and the fallout thus far has been severe: the company has lost around $100 billion in market capitalization, the FTC is investigating the company and company leaders are being called to testify before Congress. But at the end of the day, Facebook is an advertising company, so the big question is… will advertisers up and leave Facebook?

Some news reports, such as the one from The Hill linked above, began to float the idea over the weekend that brands and advertisers were beginning the Facebook exodus. The report cites Mozilla, Pep Boys and Sonos as three of the household names that have suspended all advertising on Facebook. Of course, if a critical mass of companies followed suit and made the move permanent, this could be catastrophic for Facebook… but that doesn’t appear to be the case here.

As the article from Marketing Land states, advertisers really don’t have a Facebook alternative to turn to. There just isn’t another social media platform that can deliver the hyper-targeted audiences and conversions that Facebook can – except perhaps for Instagram, which, you guessed it… is owned by Facebook. And one thing that we have seen over and over is that as long as ads are working, advertisers will stick around. As stated in the MarketingLand article, “nothing makes advertisers stop buying successful ads. As long as Facebook delivers results, advertisers aren’t going anywhere.” So even the brands like Mozilla, Pep Boys and Sonos that have suspended their advertising will almost certainly be back as soon as the dust settles. There is a reason that they use the word “suspended” rather than “permanently ended.”

For a similar example, we have to look no further back than March of 2017 when Google “admitted it accepted hate preachers, neo-Nazis and other extremists into its YouTube Partner Program.” Brands were furious when they found their ads appearing next to extremist content, thereby funding it. The response was familiar: Google’s market cap dropped, regulators investigated, and advertisers suspended their ads and threatened to leave. But in the end, YouTube recovered quickly and the advertisers returned. After all, they didn’t have a comparable alternative to turn to.

So like YouTube, look for Facebook to experience some short-term pain. But once this episode is in the rear-view mirror, it will be nothing but a former blip on their radar.

A Look at the Future of 5G-Powered Smart Cities

http://www.adweek.com/digital/a-look-at-the-future-of-5g-powered-smart-cities/

With new networks being introduced in multiple cities, there will be actual steps to recreate the connectivity and integration of devices that we can have in our homes on a much larger scale. While still in it's infancy, studies are showing the impact that these new networks can eventually have on infrastructure, security, and many other aspects of daily life.

The systems are still far from being to bring conveniences that are portrayed in the movies but the new network and technology will enable some initial advantages outside the realm of power usage and security.

Being to further integrate customer habits, not just by their web searches but by monitoring the flow of people and integrating that information with AI and blockchain, there can be a new level of customization for targeted marketing. Also the ability to increase data speed at public events / venues (concerts, sporting events, airports) will enable marketers to integrate advertising campaigns with the events to increase engagement.

Although the integration of these new networks will not be wide spread for some time, the testing of them in large cities like Atlanta and New York, as well as tourist destinations like Las Vegas will give marketers a large base of consumers to begin trial campaigns for wider usage as the networks improve.

VR/AR vs. Data Marketing, Which one will you choose?

If we have to vote for one of the biggest news in digital marketing this week, the winner should be Facebook's data leaking crisis. For us, the students who are studying digital marketing for the whole semester, we understand why the platforms try so hard to collect the data of users and how the data could benefit their business. Data Marketing and VR were two hottest topics in digital marketing realm.

After reading the article below, I think if i need to choose one future trend of digital marketing, I would love to choose virtual and augmented reality over the data marketing which I used to advocate. The reason are simple.

First, virtual and augmented reality brings new experience to audience and provided add value. Some may help solve the space or time barriers for customers and made their purchase easier and more efficient. Some VR/AR itself became a new product that brings pleasure to audience. It is an innovative approach to audience.

Second, data marketing is more a trick on audience. When people understand the logic behind it, they will turn to boycott it. I've watched the news that explained why mobile payment was not popular in Hong Kong. One of the Hong Kong citizen mentioned that it reveals even much more privacy than credit card. Audience may go even trick the algorithm if they are super irritated. Then the marketing might be something useless and annoying to the whole digital world.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/03/21/digital-marketing-in-the-age-of-virtual-and-augmented-reality/#58ea189e66e8

x

Digital Marketing in the age of virtual and augmented reality

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/03/21/digital-marketing-in-the-age-of-virtual-and-augmented-reality/#4ae92e5566e8

Digital Marketing in the age of virtual and augmented reality

This article shares an interesting view on the changing digital marketing landscape. The article makes a case for advertisers paying more for fewer eyeballs in the age of ad blockers. Also, with the development of AR and VR technology, consumers have new experience platforms. However, these emerging technologies present challenges for digital marketers on ad placements and ability to reach the target consumers.

Consumers are looking for interaction. How do we as a marketer use AR, VR or other interactive platforms to both create brand awareness and customer loyalty will be key.

Second, the future is about creating experience. As we get more comfortable with these new technology platforms, there will be new and unique opportunities presented to reach the consumer. How companies leverage these emerging technologies to both captivate and engage consumer will decide the new winners.

Putting Netflix Insights to Work

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/302873

Clearly the data Netflix collects on its viewership is useful to Netflix - their ability to create and suggest content based on viewer behavior has changed the game as far as content development and consumption is concerned.

This article explains that this data can also be insightful for marketers. The classic consumer profiles/personalities that you are taught about in Marketing 101 can be significantly enhanced by using the audience characteristics and preferences for particular shows (or types of shows) and following those customers on their journey to other platforms and retail sites. Identifying their characteristics and which platforms and products they are likely to shop for can help for very specific and personalized targeting.

Specifically, the author suggests the following tips to use this data in a meaningful and profitable way:
1. Build out richer demographic profiles
2. Check out competitors' content
3. Personalize your messaging

Not only can marketers use this information to target on Netflix, but it can inform the digital marketing strategy across channels.

YouTube on top

In a recent survey published by Pew Research Center, YouTube is found to be the most popular social media platform among US adults, beating Facebook.

The study found that the number of adults using YouTube on their computers or on their phones is up to 73%, with Facebook at 68%.  Not surprisingly, social media usage was found to be highest among the younger demographic (18-29 years) at 88% and lowest among those > 65 years of age at 37%.

However, in terms of frequency, Facebook is most likely to be visited daily (71% of people) with YouTube coming in last (45% of people).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/meganhills1/2018/03/23/social-media-demographics/#38ac9848783a

Blog #8: Marketing to kids- the good and the bad

The digital world is no longer just for adults. According to an article in AdAge, 42% of children under the age of 8 have their own devices and their mobile usage is up almost 1,000 percent in the past several years. Despite its growth, the kids market presents new challenges for marketers. The article highlights the consumer groups that have been working to get rid of Facebook's Messenger Kids (a messaging app for kids as young as 6) and criticizing YouTube for having excessive advertising on its Kids app. There are different rules for marketing to kids. Although adults have become immune to ads, parents are more concerned with not only the content of kids advertisements, but also the content.

So what lessons can marketers learn from this article?

• Treat the children's market with sensitivity - Consumer groups and parents are very protective of children and there is a high risk that they may find an advertisement or campaign offensive or bad for their children  
• There is a lot of competition - The kids market is highly valuable. The potential of getting a child to become a loyal customer allows companies to capture higher customer lifetime value therefore there are a lot of other players in the market trying to target kids as well
• Parents should be seen as allies, not enemies- Although parents can be harsh, successful companies view parents as partners while engaging kids. Giving parents options such as parental controls is important to build the trust required to gain and maintain access to the kids market

Source: http://adage.com/article/digital/makes-app-great-kids-surprise/312687/

Pinterest Expands Shopping Ads for Retailers

http://adage.com/article/digital/pinterest-expands-shopping-ads/312780/

I think that Pinterest is the perfect digital advertising platform for any products related to visual expression. Whether that be housewares, furniture, art or fashion, Pinterest provides the ideal platform for both shoppers and brands. For shoppers, Pinterest becomes a visual search where they can scroll for inspiration, ideas and products to buy. For brands, they can easily target shoppers who are ready to buy, and they have a visual canvas on which to showcase their product. This is a win-win. With Pinterest, the ads aren’t a secondary annoyance for the user. They are a valuable part of the experience and the platform.

Pinterest and retailers seem to have come to a similar conclusion. Beginning soon, Pinterest will be expanding its “Shopping Ads” program. The program was piloted with a handful of brands last year, and will now be opening up to all. For retailers, the Shopping Ads program allows for extremely easy management of advertising campaigns. They can upload their product catalog and Pinterest will showcase the products “in context.” For example, users don’t see a single chair against a white background. Instead they see the chair in a decorated family room, providing more inspiration to users and more motivation to make a purchase.

Pinterest won’t be the ideal platform for all retailers or brands. As I mentioned before, products that have a strong visual element will benefit most from Pinterest’s visual focused platform. But for these types of products, Pinterest may be the best place for digital marketers to get bang for their buck.

Bringing Chronological Back

I became most aware of the changes Instagram had made to their feed shortly after the Superbowl. I remember scrolling through my feed and suddenly wondering why some influencers were posting recipes for Superbowl snacks after the event was already over. I quickly realized these were posts from 4 or 5 days earlier...and they were the 3rd post showing up on feed. "Why would they show me content that is no longer relevant?," I thought, "And what new stuff am I missing out on because it's being replaced by stale posts?"

It wasn't long before this became a fixation of mine. Every single time I opened the app I became more distracted by seeing how old the posts were rather that the content of the posts themselves.

I was elated to see that Instagram announced this week that they are moving back in the direction of reverse chronological feeds. That's not to say that they're returning to their old ways altogether, but they're at least doing more to bring more recent posts to the top of the feed. I understand that in their ad-supported world they need to be able to control the algorithms to make sure people are seeing the right ads, in the right quantity. Hopefully by bringing more current posts to the top, users will be more likely to spend more time scrolling rather than getting frustrated and quitting the app altogether.


https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/22/instagram-recent/ 

Digital Marketing Strategies in International Markets like China

We have been discussing about Digital Marketing strategies, ideas, landscape using social media. This made me wonder, what would a good Digital Marketing strategy be like for countries like China, where social media is heavily controlled. Venturing into the digital landscape in China is one of the most fascinating and unique propositions for savvy marketers. It’s a huge market with over 710 million internet users, according to China Internet Network Information Center—more than double the population of people in the U.S.

It is, however, wholly unique. Due to internet censorship by the government, well-known communication channels and social platforms in the U.S. have not been able to establish themselves in the region. This is an uncertain and very different context for foreign brands, from the U.S. and other countries, to market within. What is commonly referred to as the “Great Firewall of China” specifically blocks foreign digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Youtube. In effect, Chinese citizens without a VPN can only access authorized websites. One of the main reasons for this is that the state supports Chinese digital companies and has created an online environment where they can thrive without competition from the established foreign players.

Accordingly, domestic Chinese platforms dominate, more notably - Baidu, WeChat, Ren Ren, Alibaba, Tabao etc. It's a mistake to try and think of these platforms as "the Chinese Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp" or "the Chinese Google".  Perhaps at one point it was true, but now they have come into their own. WeChat is a messaging platform that is completely private.  If you see a photo or video shared by a friend and comment, only people friends with both of you will see that interaction.  Everyone else sees just the photo.  For businesses, official accounts can send out photos, articles, videos, games, audio messages, and chat with followers--all through a private conversation with each person. Businesses can also accept payment and do customer service directly through the app. With Baidu, SEO is a completely different beast.  The way the first page is structured is so unnatural that a heat map of will show users habitually clicking next page to find organically high-ranking content.

Following is a link outlining the strategies to implementing a Digital Strategy in China.

https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-around-the-world/how-to-get-started-with-digital-marketing-in-china/

How to Quit Facebook

When a platform has multiple entries in the New York Times on how to be deleted you should be concerned.

Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are in trouble due to the data of 50 million people obtained questionably by Cambridge Analytica. They will likely become the example by which other social platforms and apps will have to follow.

That said, the NYT makes an interesting argument - you can delete Facebook if you're just not that into it anymore, but what of all of the other apps and platforms that house you personal data? WhatsApp and Instagram are owned by Facebook, and Snapchat, Pinterest, Uber, etc, etc, all have access to your personal data, data you willingly provide each time you use it. Are you willing to give up the convenience to truly protect your privacy? And even if you are, is there a way to be sure that your personal data is not stored for eternity?

The answer is no, and it has become, as Zuckerberg declared in his interview with NYT, an issue of trust. When you can trust these platforms to house your information and not try to manipulate you with it, or sell it to someone who has malicious intent, everyone will feel more comfortable and trusting. Until that point, what is there to do? I suggest moderating your posting and add as little personal information as possible.

It's a sad state of affairs that is has come to this, something so sneaky and icky, really, but as with all new frontiers, someone is bad enough and regulation follows soon after. We will see just how restrictive it becomes.

Google looks to monetize product purchases

It seems like just about every business, big and small, has to ask itself: how do we compete with Amazon? In Google's case, it may just be able to steal some of Amazon's market share.

Recently, Google announced partnerships (or referral agreements) with companies such as Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Costco and Ulta Beauty. Traditionally, these companies have paid Google to advertise their products. Now, they've signed up to give Google a direct cut of their revenue on products purchased through Google searches and shopping cart. Furthermore, Google has integrated these capabilities across desktop, mobile, and its voice-automated smart home device Google Home.

It's an important shift for Google's relationship with big brands, and makes lots of logical sense for them. Google recognized that there was a major uptick in consumers' direct product searches on its site.

In these cases, consumers knew exactly what they wanted to buy, would search for it on Google, and in many cases, buy the product on Amazon. Google saw an opportunity to cut Amazon out of the picture.

While it's not clear how much more or less a brand would pay Google vs. Amazon, perception really matters here. Google sees itself as "an enabler of retail," not an enemy.

Perhaps the best way to summarize some retailers' perspectives on the Google-Amazon dynamic comes from Guru Hariharan, CEO of Boomerang Commerce:

"'Brands are looking at Google as the enemy of the enemy and that makes Google their friend.'"

It will be interesting to see how this battle unfolds. I would bet that Google's ability to capture specific purchasing intent will play to its advantage. 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-retail-exclusive/exclusive-where-can-i-buy-google-makes-push-to-turn-product-searches-into-cash-idUSKBN1GV0B0

March for Our Lives Social Media Takeover

As millions celebrated Valentine's Day this year, seventeen precious lives were lost to senseless gun violence at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Feeling let down by their adult representatives, the youth of America have taken to social media to fight for better gun legislation. On March 24th, youth from across the country will mobilize in Washington, DC together with music icons such as Ariana Grande, Vic Mensa, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson to urge leaders to support gun control legislation.

In order to amplify the event in DC, March for Our Lives has teamed up with Tumblr and Twitter so as to engage families that are unable to attend. Twitter, for example, is encouraging its audience to tweet with the hashtags #MarchForOurLives and #IWillMarch. These are tags that can be used across all other social media platforms to illustrate the value of this conversation to the American public. Conversely, Tumblr will be partnering with Everytown for Gun Safety, livestream the march as it happens. Additionally, Tumblr users will also be to express themselves using stickers, GIFs, and illustrations that the site is creating to honor the march.

Perhaps the most important element of the March for Our Lives social media and in real life protests is the actionability of the campaign compared to the Women's March on Washington and #metoo, which has led to the firing of a few high profile abusers but not driven a wide spread systematic change. The power of geotagging on social media will especially be helpful in making the case for gun control to politicians across different constituencies. Tumblr also has an action page where visitors can sign a petition for gun safety and register to vote.  

Below is a list of the demands being made by the youthful organizers of the protest to congress:

1. Pass a law to ban the sale of assault weapons.
2. Prohibit the sale of high-capacity magazines.
3. Close the loophole in the background check law that allows dangerous people who shouldn’t be allowed to purchase firearms to slip through the cracks and buy guns online or at gun shows.

Much like the black vote that swung elections in Alabama, the youth led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior, David Hogg, have also warned Capitol Hill that they will apply their voting power to drive the targeted change that they are looking for.

https://mashable.com/2018/03/22/march-for-our-lives-when-where-what-explained/#rv35lUZG7qqu

https://mashable.com/2018/03/22/march-for-our-lives-tumblr-livestream/#olgKvaNM7mqf

"New Posts" on Instagram to Address Algorithmic Feed Complaints

When Facebook's sister company Instagram switched from having a chronological feed to an algorithmic feed in 2016, nearly twenty-six thousand users signed a petition on change.org opposing the change. Similar to Facebook, Instagram explained that the move was aimed at giving users more relevant information based on their interests rather than flooding them with timely photos that they did not care about. 

In many ways, this was interpreted as way to bolster the site's ability to keep eyeballs long enough of the website for advertisers to seamlessly insert their products into feeds dressed as an "enhanced user experience". However, nearly two years later, Instagram is finally almost giving users what they want "new posts".

Rather than than go back to the original chronological feed, Instagram is introducing a new button similar to explore. Using "new posts", users will be able to view newer posts and still revert to the traditional feed to see which photos Instagram's algorithm thinks is best for them. This change was announced amidst the expansion of Instagram's shopping experience across four continents in eight new countries, namely: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. 

One business account user Lulus attributes sourcing 1,200 orders to Instagram because it allows users to replicate the " in real life" shopping experience by photographically illustrating how potential customers may pair outfits or providing satisfied influencer customers with the chance to show how to pull off Lulus outfits. While Lulus sounds like a small fish, bigger brands such as Nike (73 million followers), Sephora (12 million followers), Vans (8.2 million followers) and Lululemon (2.1 million followers) have jumped on to the Instagram shopping experience. 

When Instagram's shopping experience was launched in the US last year, users complained about missing timely sales that would get lost in the algorithmic matrix. The new posts adds a fresher touch to the storefront feeling that Instagram is going for as it partners with brands, small businesses and influencers to further monetize the platform. With "new posts" and global expansion, Instagram offers a platform that promises to continue disrupting traditional retail in an unprecedented way.

https://business.instagram.com/blog/shopping-on-instagram-goes-global/

https://www.wired.com/story/instagram-new-posts-feed/

Deal with the Devil? Facebook Privacy Breech Reveals Unknowing Personal Data Concerns

With Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg conveniently absent from the public eye since the Cambridge Analytica news broke over the weekend, Facebook faces serious allegations over a data breech, which compromised 50 million users personal information. This story and the surrounding reporting has grown from covering the single incident with Facebook to a broader dialogue about privacy concerns and the tradeoff consumers make every time they download or use an app.

When signing up for social media apps (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, etc.) and other personal convenience apps (Google Maps, Uber, Lyft, etc.), users are often unknowingly allowing the companies behind the apps to collect their personal information. This information is used to optimize the user experience (i.e. location sharing for Google maps), but the information can also be sold to other parties for their own use or worse, leaked through a data breech and fall into nefarious hands.

The Facebook story has (re-)opened our eyes to the concerns that come with sharing personal information. Ultimately, the question is whether or not users will scrutinize apps’ use of their personal information. One thing that is for certain is the government will step in and create regulations to protect the citizens. We have already seen this in the EU with the right to be forgotten and I imagine it won’t be long until we see some drastic measures taken in the US to curb companies’ ability to leverage user data for malevolent use.

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-cambridge-analytica-response/

Advertisers Are Spending More on Social Media Influencers, But Will They Sell Real Estate?

This article describes how some landlords are beginning to leverage the popularity of social media influencers on Instagram and Facebook for the benefit of their real estate holdings. For instance, Two Trees, a large owner of new residential buildings in Brooklyn, has hired actress/writer Tavi Gevinson to promote one of their buildings. This is an interesting development because the real estate industry has not typically been an adopter of trends in digital advertising and social media that cater to mass audiences, because the payoff is difficult to measure. Advertising efforts are more often targeted at people with a demonstrated intention to rent or buy, or lease space from a commercial perspective - in other words, companies advertise mostly in real estate publications or websites.  It will be interesting to see how this development unfolds and if the effort on Two Trees part pays off.  With such a mass audience for such a limited amount of units, it could be worth it if it leads to even only a few new renters/buyers. Residential landlords in New York will surely be watching this closely to see if they should follow suit.

https://therealdeal.com/2018/03/19/advertisers-are-spending-more-on-social-media-influencers-but-will-they-sell-real-estate/

YouTube Agitating (Users) for Change

It came out today that YouTube intends to “frustrate” viewers of its content by embedding more ads in its some of its music videos, thereby incentivizing users to pay for its soon-to-be-released subscription music service. The more ad-heavy videos will be targeted at “passive” YouTube users who leave YouTube open for hours at a time, treating it like a free music service.

Per AdAge and Bloomberg, the Company is “trying to prove that YouTube is committed to making people pay for music and silence the ‘noise’ about [YouTube CEO Lyor Cohen's] company’s purported harm to the recording industry” by violating copyrights and inadequately compensating artists and record labels.

Ugh.

On one hand, as Bloomberg notes, YouTube launching a paid music service will challenge Spotify's and Apple Music’s dominance in digital music. Though YouTube has been unsuccessful in launching paid music services in the past, CEO Cohen proclaims that this attempt will be different and very much appeal to “die-hard music fans.” On the other hand, amid the agitation this influx of ads will inevitably cause, I’m almost certain users will defect to free, and potentially less annoying, music services like Pandora or a limited version of Spotify.

The bigger and longer term question is, if this is what Google is doing with respect to music, when and how will Amazon (eventually) respond?

http://adage.com/article/digital/youtube-frustrate-users-ads-pay-music/312822/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-21/youtube-to-frustrate-some-users-with-ads-so-they-pay-for-music

Zuck and Sandberg Go MIA as Congress Summons FBook Leadership

Zuck and Sandberg Go MIA as Congress Summons FBook Leadership
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/zuckerberg-and-sandberg-mia-facebook-congress-is-like-wtf/

Facebook is an uncomfortable position - and they don't know how to respond.  After revealing that Cambridge Analytica had mishandled the data of 50 million plus users, Facebook dropped the ball on how to handle the mishandling.  What is interesting about this article is not the handling or mishandling of Cambridge Analytica, but the potential for regulation around user data and digital marketing.  As evidenced by the EU's implementation of GDPR, users are no longer comfortable accepting that the price of free tech is their personal information.  Companies are acquiring an absurd amount of data on users and do not have the systems or policies in place to manage this power.  

It took the auto industry over 50 years before seatbelts became a law.  Facebook has now operated for over a decade and a half largely unregulated.  In previous periods of innovation, it was believable that the cycle between the innovation and the regulation were longer.  Congress isn't going to let Facebook sit out any longer. 

With regulation, Facebook is going to have to reevaluate their business model.  If brands can't access user data to target hyper-specific ads, their WTP is going to decline significantly.  Facebook has already removed some of the power of brands, and regulation is only going to continue to accelerate the decline of digital spend.  It's no wonder that Zuck has sold more Fbook stock in the past three months than any insider at any other company.  

THE MANIPULATION OF THE SEARCH

Blog Post 8

Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet in recent years have consolidated as tech and consumer discretionary giants. Each on their own niche, and each with their own strength, have also started to overlap in order to gain momentum and capture more consumers from their competitors.

Amazon is probably the world’s largest retail store and the company has also managed to threaten other more traditional players such as Walmart and Target. However, Google is taking matters into its own hands and created a new program called Shopping Actions which allows customers to be redirected to traditional retailers, instead of directly to Amazon. Additionally, Walmart and Google announced they made an alliance where the search engine redirects customers to the retailer and avoids Amazon taking a piece of the pie. Reuters also announced that every time a customer asks “Where can I buy…,” not only the website will display Walmart first, but also via the Home Assistant in a similar matter to Alexa and Amazon.

Personally, I think that these alliances are necessary, but at the same time they manipulate consumer preferences. Depending on the item a customer is looking for, it might be easier to explore Amazon over Walmart, but since the customer will probable initiate the query in Google, the competitor has a few extra steps to make in order to complete that sale. From a digital marketing perspective, I believe that companies should begin exploring traditional channels once again because not only will these regain momentum via search engines, but who knows, Google might try exploring brick and mortar, just like Amazon recently announced with Books, and its latest acquisition; Whole Foods.

Source: https://mashable.com/2018/03/19/google-walmart-shopping-vs-amazon/?utm_cid=hp-r-5#GuJtWb0rQsqX

One of the Few Places I Am Pinterested in Ads

I do not claim to be a social media maven. Nor do I claim to be an advertising genius. But from a user perspective, one social media platform does ads right. Pinterest classifies itself as a visual search technology and it utilizes ads by playing them in the feeds of its users that it likely would be interested in purchasing.

Shopping Ads was rolled out this past summer in a pilot with a few companies to include Lowe's, Ulta, and Wayfair. My husband and I had just completed a move and I had been looking up shelving (to be fair, I was aggressively looking up shelving). In my feed, some options from Lowe's came up that looked almost identical to the aesthetic I was going for. To be fully transparent, I didn't end up buying it (Pottery Barn won, sorry), BUT I did end up buying storage options they had put in front of me. Unlike Facebook, which at times has a forced feel, Shopping Ads are seamlessly placed in front of me that are visually appealing and actionable.

With these ads being available to more retailers, it's going to be extremely exciting to see the platform evolve. It's doing something different in search that Google can't get its hands on as of yet. With these ads, the user doesn't feel attacked or stalked... it's a crisp, easy option to showcase product. And with it at the fingertips of hundreds of companies, I am eager to see its utilization.

http://adage.com/article/digital/pinterest-expands-shopping-ads/312780/

Cookies are Dying, But They Never Should Have Existed Anyway

There's a lot of pressure on cookies these days - most obviously in how GDPR restricts their use for online audience targeting. But GDPR isn't the first or last blow to cookies; as a basic targeting technology, they have struggled to keep up with the proliferation of new devices, formats and operating systems across which users are to be found.

In the future, other countries and regions will certainly pass legislation like GDPR. The EU was just first because of a more privacy-centric culture.

But should the cookie ever have been allowed to become the technology at the center of a multibillion dollar industry? No way. It was an epic hack and a cosmic mistake. Browser technology has evolved to allow it, but it's not as though cookie technology has its roots in an advertiser's desire to find its audience.

As discussed in this recent story from AdExchanger, some advertisers are ahead of the curve and already decreasing reliance on cookies for targeting. In this case, Dish has come up with a very clever way to ingest dozens of signals from a user agent and use those to make probabilistic approximations. It's not a new concept - for example, using IP to make a guess as to whether you're targeting the same user across devices is an old trick - but it's not often that it has come up as a way around cookies.

GDPR is an acceleration toward the end of advertisers' ability to count on cookies. More intelligent ingestion of other available signals, and even better, fully opted-in first party data are the assets around which to build an audience targeting strategy.

https://adexchanger.com/online-advertising/dish-uses-non-cookie-browser-data-recognize-online-audiences/

Digital Data and The Donald

Until this past week, few people knew who Cambridge Analytica was or what work the company did. Founded in 2013, Cambridge Analytica is a data company that offers service to change customer behavior. Their primary customers - and the ones that have gotten them in the news recently - have been political parties, and they claim to take huge amounts of consumer data and combine it with behavioral science to identify individuals organizations can target with marketing material. The main place they retrieve this data? Social media networks. And the main prize? Facebook.

Late last week, Facebook made an announcement last Friday that they were suspending the company from their platform after two major investigative stories were released that claimed over 50 million Facebook profiles were harvested by the company. And that data was used to build a program designed to influence Americans casting their ballots.

What does this have to do with President Trump? Cambridge Analytica was funded - over $15 million - by conservative billionaire Robert Mercer and Steve Bannon oversaw the board until 2016, and the company worked on the Trump campaign. The problem with some of the data harvested is that it was done, supposedly, illegally.

Harvesting data is nothing new, and utilization of this data to influence is also not new. And personally, I doubt this online campaign had more influence than others. But the issue that stands is that when other campaigns, such as President Obama's for example, utilized similar data, it was known to the user that it was being gathered. And that's a huge difference.

Going forward, how is Facebook going to ensure it protects the personal information of its users? I firmly believe that we should continue to use information available to influence... but those participating need to know that they are giving up the information.

http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/03/what-is-cambridge-analytica-and-who-is-christopher-wylie.html

How can blockchain boost brand marketing?

http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/3-ways-blockchain-can-boost-brand-marketing/

Blockchain has become quite the buzz word lately and many have discussed how it will dramatically change how we do business in the future. While blockchain is still in its infancy in the marketing industry, it can provide multiple benefits if companies can figure out how to harness it. 

The first area where blockchain can help is with ad fraud. With stats that up to 50-60% of ad clicks are from bots and not actually humans, marketers can use blockchain to verify that the person clicking on an ad is actually a human which will result in increased ROI for brands. 

The next application of blockchain would be in regards to user data and privacy. Blockchain could act as a digital rights management system that records in what instances users data can/can't be used. Users can decide to opt into those choices and can change their preferences at a later date if they are no longer getting value from sharing their data. This in my opinion is a big enhancement to how marketers approach user data right now in a binary fashion -- if you don't want to share information anymore then you have to terminate your relationship with the service altogether. 

The last application of block chain is for customer identity. Especially in the B2B space it is often difficult for marketers to tie an individual to the company they work for. Using blockchain, marketers can identify individuals using a public key tied to a unique business identifier. This identifier will allow marketers to track the individual and buying behavior in the context of their business. 

While all of these applications sound promising, I'm interested to see whether brands find the benefits of blockchain as outlined above beneficial enough to adopt and invest in this new technology. 

Blog 8: Police Using Google to Solve Crimes

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/18/report-police-are-increasingly-asking-google-for-area-based-user-data-to-solve-crimes/

For years, marketers have been using Google to find out more about their customers. Google can provide marketers a window into the search and consumption patterns of their customers. However, marketers are not the only ones using Google to work more intelligently; now the police are using Google to find criminals and solve crimes.

In Raleigh, police presented Google with warrants for information on mobile device activity from crime scenes. The request was not for search history, but for account data from Google Android devices and any devices running location-enabled Google apps within geographies around two different crime scenes. The data that the police sought from Google contained anonymized numbers and not specific texts or emails.

This is not unprecedented; police departments and courts from across the country have relied on Google for information that can assist in criminal matters. According to Google, it receives disclosure requests for approximately 80,000 users every six months and provides data roughly 65% of the time it is asked to do so. Although Google does not disclose what kind of data it releases, their cooperation with law enforcement on these matters is well documented. 

Although data sharing may well solve crimes and prevent future terrorist attacks, this newer trend will certainly concern Fourth Amendment advocates who claim that it violates user privacy and subjects people to unreasonable searches. This is yet another example as to how the lines between privacy and protection can blur. One is left to wonder how future lawmakers will balance the needs of law enforcement with the privacy rights of individuals as they intersect with services like Google.

SXSW: How AI is Impacting Creative Strategies

At the latest South by Southwest conference in Austin, discussions surrounding the impact of AI were front and center. One panel looked to the future of AI and marketing, and representatives from Home Depot and L’Oreal explained how AI has played an ever-increasing role in tailoring relevant content for visual searches on platforms like Pinterest. The panel also explored how AI has given messenger bots the capability to handle way more than just transactional conversations — now they can give product recommendations, subscribe customers for loyalty programs, and perform other aspects of customer care.

"For us, we really see [bots] as a future channel of shopping and commerce," said Rachel Weiss, VP of innovation and entrepreneurship at L'Oreal. "We make it so that it's a one-stop shop [and] the most effective and fast way that you can't do on any other channel, that you can't do on social and you can't do in a store."

The panelists articulated how these advancements in AI will impact marketers. “As with any industry disruption, these developments have unsettled brands' businesses as much as they've presented new opportunities for innovation and reaching shoppers,” says Peter Adams of Marketing Dive. The panelist from L’Oreal added that AI requires different backend systems, can come with considerable expenses, and requires different talent. Furthermore, AI is shifting KPIs for brands and requiring new ways to measure success around customer retention and satisfaction. While these difficulties and others make the implementation of AI challenging, the benefits (and soon-to-be necessity) of incorporating it into a company’s approach are becoming undeniable.

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Welcome to 2018, @Snapchat

Welcome to 2018, @Snapchat

Snapchat has finally given users, including brands and influencers, the ability to @-tag another user in a Story. This feature will make it easier for users to find and mention friends, and likewise, it will be helpful for brands — as any mention from an influencer will let his or her followers seamlessly find and follow the brand that influencer is promoting. Thus, companies and influencers everywhere are hopeful that the new @ feature will be an effective tool in driving follower totals and exposing them to new audiences.

“Tagging could help Snapchat better intertwine Stories and messaging, which now live in the same tab after the big redesign. Story tags could spark conversations that lead to the back-and-forth visual communication that Snapchat pioneered,” says Josh Constine of TechCrunch. “With Instagram having cloned and refined Stories, Snapchat needs to promote its best-in-class ephemeral messaging feature to stay differentiated.”

While Snapchat says that they’re just testing this feature and have not released any additional details, brands and influencers certainly hope it is here to stay. If the @ mention is indeed effective in driving follower growth, we may see brands invest more in their Snapchat presence in the future.

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