Snapchat Takes on Tik Tok

This article gives us a good introduction to Tik Tok and other social media platform’s influencer economy where “a handful of creators attract many millions of followers; those creators get sponsorship deals; and thus, the rewards go individual users follow a rich-get-richer distribution.”

 

Snapchat is challenging the status quo through their new feature Spotlight, the company’s own take on shortform video, by democratizing the financial rewards and build an engine for culture that benefits many thousands of people, rather than hundreds, using a new algorithm that replaces public follower counts, likes, and comments with something that more closely resembles a lottery.

 

The real opportunity for Snap here is that thousands of creators who don’t have millions of followers to make real money on the platform, either once or a large handful of times, and we never learn their names at all. That would be something truly new in social networks – intermittent financial rewards just for using the platform as intended. Obviously, Snapchat would benefit financially by creating a popular destination to show ads as well. ;)

 

You can read the full article here: https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/24/21612775/snapchat-spotlight-lottery-creators-tiktok

Is SEO Worth the Investment for Small Businesses?

Even if your company’s website only contains a few different web pages, search engine optimization benefits you in a myriad of ways.

To expand your business into an ever-increasing market, you need to look outward for an effective solution.

What can an SEO specialist help small business with?

1.     Optimizers improve a website’s construction by working to eliminate anything that can confuse algorithms and spiders.

2.     Some SEO specialists will make sure that your website is easily readable and appealing to potential customers. They can improve both website design and content.

3.     Utilizing keywords on your site to make sure that you get the right people visiting your site through a search engine.

 

Utilizing an SEO specialist can help your site appeal to a wider audience, increase customer retention rates and keep your website fresh.

While small businesses may have limited marketing budgets relative to large competitors, utilizing an SEO specialist can provide some serious bang for their buck.

https://www.boostability.com/content/can-seo-help-my-small-business

Walmart – the next “digital advertising titan?”

Walmart is trying to become a top ten advertising platform by expanding its Walmart Connect media network (formerly Walmart Media Group).  As part of this strategy, it recently acquired the IP and technology of an ad-tech solution company called Thunder.  This technology allows for self-serve display advertising and automation that makes it very easy to launch and fine-tune digital campaigns for a variety of advertisers.  As part of the acquisition, Walmart will also gain majority of Thunder’s current employees but not their existing contracts.  Acquiring Thunder helps to complete Walmart’s ad-tech suite as they previously integrated an omnichannel analytics solution over the summer (Performance Dashboard) and they are currently working with The Trade Desk to develop a DSP (Digital Signal Processor).

It’s an interesting move for Walmart given the current environment with the global pandemic, which has accelerated digital trends across the board.  Creative automation has gained momentum as marketers invest their spend in digital and it’s estimated that 11% of tasks at media agencies will be automated by 2023.  Without sharing specific numbers, Walmart stated that its ad revenues and total advertisers using its media network doubled last year but the major question that remains is if they’ll be able to compete in this space with the likes of tech giants Facebook and Amazon.

 

Article Reference: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/walmart-acquires-thunder-ad-tech-as-it-preps-self-serve-display-portal/594538/

Vaccine for UK Small Businesses: Digital Marketing

As the UK economy continues to sputter along, UK small businesses need to better utilize digital marketing to stay afloat. Small businesses make up approximately 99.9% of the UK private sector, and over the past 20 years, the growth of this market has run closely with that of digital advertising. IAB UK put together research that shows that 40% of the UK's small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are not using any form of digital marketing, however, would like help in utilizing this form of advertisement. In response to this research, IAB UK has launched an interactive online tool "that caters for campaign budgets between £500 and £5 million" to help SMEs unlock the values from digital advertising during these trying times. Well-known industry players weighed in as well on how they think SMEs can recover with the help of digital marketing, and their quotes are included in the link below.

IAB's interactive online tool is a great way for inexperienced digital marketers to learn how to increase sales and create value from advertising channels they have yet to explore. It is great to see company's offering free and easy-to-use tools to help SMEs as many of these companies continue to struggle.

Source: https://www.marketingweek.com/digital-advertising-small-businesses-recover-covid-19/

Nike's Virtual Outdoor Adventure

Article - https://www.marketingdive.com/news/nike-store-plots-virtual-outdoor-adventure-with-mobile-tech/594093/

Building off the observations from my initial blog post about the growing applications of AR in media, I recently came across this announcement of a real-world AR activation from Nike. It appears Nike engaged a retail experience agency to bring this digital augmentation to life in its flagship NYC store - aptly named the House of Innovation. This new activation mimics a 'treasure hunt' expedition that re-creates the physical experience of visiting Smith Rock State Park in Oregon via QR codes. In a retail landscape that has quickly had to pivot consumer engagement strategies to be socially distanced in a Covid-restricted world, it's interesting to see one of the world's largest brand's place so much confidence in its ability to re-attract consumers to physical retail locations. This new form of "phygital" marketing, where physical and digital elements are blended, is definitely something to watch in the experiential space and I think we will see more brands start to embrace new digital innovations to attract and retain customers.

Elon Musk: Influencer

 Article: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/29/elon-musks-tweets-are-moving-markets.html

Everyone is going crazy during this pandemic, for a variety of reasons. For those fortunate enough to not experience the worst of COVID, many are starting to feel restless and cooped up. One area where many are shifting their restless energy is the stock market. Buying stocks together, is now a form of community building. One of the most notable communities that has formed is on reddit, in a group known as r/wallstreetbets. Another more curious form of community building that has been operating under the radar but is just as if not more successful, are those of the Elon Musk fan club. As noted in the article, Elon has become a very influential and curious personality / influencer. Using twitter to share his fascination with memes, he's unleashed a new phenomenon, where any company he tweets about or a company with a very similar name, ends up having their stock rise immediately. The most obvious example is Gamestop which shot all the way to $483 but was hovering around $120 prior to Elon's tweet. Elon also recently tweeted for anyone to reach out to him via Signal (a messaging app) and Signal Advance, a small components manufacturer shot up 1100% the next day. Similarly, this past week, Elon announced he will be joining Clubhouse for a Q&A (an audio communications app) and Clubhouse Media Group (an influencer based marketing firm) had their stock shoot up over 50%. 

So how does the SEC regulate this type of influence? Can they even do anything about it? Is it that different than when notable wall street types would go on CNBC and push one stock or another? Social media has in a sense leveled the playing field, but it's also dialed up the crazy. I don't know what the solution is, but I do know I have signed up for elonstocks.com, a website that notifies you anytime Elon tweets about a company. 

 

Native Advertising - Outbrain

February 3, 2021

Article: https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/marketing/outbrain-advertising/

Disruptive advertising is a very strong subject these days. This article nicely sets the tone to what Native Advertising is, and what is the need to have it.

Nowadays, we are bombarded with ads, we see them everywhere. In our phones, in TV, on our computers, sometimes without even noticing. Little do we know how much work goes in to provide us the exact ad that we will be most possibly drawn to. 

Both publishers and advertisers form part of a network of ad inventory which is shared, analyzed and sold/bought, which in turn shows up in our devices. The goal of companies such as Outbrain is to act as the consolidator of such inventory and create the means to match publishers' sites and advertisers perfectly. They follow a PPC pricing strategy, so the more exact their algorithms are, the more money they make.

In particular, Outbrain focuses on Native Ads, which are articles which show up next to related information on the web or social media.

I wonder how this technology will evolve during these times where having the exact information that users will need is such a big thing.

Towards an ethical usage of consumer data

 

Now more than ever, consumers and regulators worldwide are becoming increasingly sensitive about how data are collected, gathered, sold and used. Big tech companies are reacting: Google is expected to phase out third-party cookies from its Chrome browser, while Apple prompts users to opt in before sharing data with app developers since its latest operating system update.

Those changes imply that in the future, it may not as easy for brands to target consumers as it is today. Some industry pundits see a near future in which “sustainable” data collection and usage will be part of a new ethical standard, comparable to emissions reduction and ethical sourcing.

Stricter data privacy standards and increased transparency around the sourcing and usage of users data may be good news not only for consumers, but also for companies. Consumers often do not know how their own personal information are used and misused; despite that, research shows that ~50% of consumers would be “happy to share” data with brands they trust (Edelman). Increased quality in data collection and gathering could also enhance returns on ad spend. Last but not least, explaining consumers how data is being used could be a marketing opportunity itself.

 

Reference: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/marketing-pr/are-you-using-consumer-data-ethically

Investing on Influencers? It is a Key Success for Hello Fresh

A few years ago, I remember using meal kit (Blue Apron) for the first time just because A. I had a great subscription offer, B. I was too busy going on grocery shopping but want to cook myself. Meal kit was a great solution for me at that time. However, given the great subscription offer which only lasted for 2 weeks and I was getting bored of choosing the meal kit every week, I quit in the end.

High customer churn rate is one of the biggest challenges for meal kit companies. Meal-kit subscriptions are expensive, they produce a lot of physical waste, and they are convenient for only a very specific subset of consumers: people who are too busy to shop for and plan meals but still have the time and motivation to spend 30-60 minutes each evening cooking dinner. Many customers would sign up  at a discount rate and then either switch to another service (for another discount) or just discard the idea entirely (I guess that's me).

Hello Fresh whom one of the largest meal kit company in the US was successful enough to use the digital marketing strategy. Attracting new customers by forming "Influencer Army." Interestingly, HelloFresh has fully embraced the potential of influencer marketing, hiring thousands of influencers and microinfluencers  across different fields and mediums. The investment in influencer marketing helped HelloFresh build momentum for more organic social media marketing efforts.

In this digital market world, investing in Influencer seems to be the new trend rather than investing into News papers or DMs.

https://www.extole.com/blog/how-blitzkrieg-marketing-turned-hellofresh-into-the-leading-d2c-mealkit-company/

Google's Ad Business Continues to be the Rocket Ship Producing Record Revenue

The majority of the upside for the firm was driven by the core advertising businesses as the search giant’s advertising units pulled in $46.2 billion, up nearly 22% from a year earlier

Search improved to 17% y/y growth (compared to 6% last quarter) 

YouTube accelerated to 46% y/y growth (compared to 32% growth last quarter).  

That combines for 22% core advertising growth, which is actually now inline/above pre-covid run rates.  

Impact from Covid was steep and sharp with Search bottoming down 10% in Q2, but the recovery has been just as steep given the the recovery in consumer spending, advertiser confidence, and acceleration of digital transformation across all industries driving more commerce activity taking place partially or all online.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-alphabet-googl-4q-earnings-report-2020-11612236441

Deep Learning will Change the Software Game

 

I am in the process of building a software company. I'm writing the back end code with a GenZ friend of a friend who is more in touch with his generation's preferences than I, the older and wiser millenial. It's a tedious process of GitHub iterations, Zoom calls, turning visions into reality, and further revisions.  

What if humans didn't have to program software and could rely on the abilities of deep learning to automate the creation of software? What if we didn't have to learn coding languages anymore and could let machine-driven algorithms write our software for us? Turns out we are headed in that direction. ARK Invest, a thematic fund manager that manages active ETFs, believes deep learning will add $30 trillion to the global equity market capitalization during the next 15-20 years. 

Deep learning techniques, when combined with human ingenuity, can power the way forward towards greater technological innovation. Software behind self-driving cars, drug discovery, consumer-focused apps, and conversational computers (think Siri) already use varying degrees of artificial intelligence. Waymo's autonomous vehicles have collected more than 20 million real world driving miles across 25 cities, including San Francisco, Detroit, and Phoenix. TikTok uses deep learning for video recommendations and its daily active user base has outgrown that of Snapchat and Pinterest combined. Smart speakers answered 100 billion voice commands in 2020, 75% more than in 2019. 

While hardware and software advances continue to drive down costs of AI training, the size of the AI models is growing much faster.  At 10x growth per year, AI training costs are likely to continue climbing as tasks grow in complexity. As a result, spending on specialized processors that can handle the increased model size are likely to account for the majority of the growth. 

Most impressively, artificial intelligence is expanding from vision to language. 2020 was the first time that AI systems could understand and generate language with human-like accuracy. Conversational AI requires 10x the computing resources of computer vision and is likely to spur massive investments in the coming years. 

Nonetheless, the deployment phase for deep learning as it relates to software programming will proliferate throughout the economy and benefit a large number of industries. Greater efficiency will likely be the result, as will disinflationary pressure as less human services are required. Who knows, maybe I won't have to write my software code, after all.

How can marketing be more exciting and effective for retail banking?

On a Saturday evening, I saw a stack of mails on the dining table. Looking at them, I realized all of them are from different banks trying to get me to apply for a new credit card or a mortgage loan, both of which were not needed for our family. I gave my husband a wry smile and said, "these banks really need to be creative in their marketing strategies." 

• Banks sit on a large amount of consumer profile and transaction data. If they were innovative, they could really extract valuable insights into consumer needs and have targeted and customized communication. 

• The pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns have already made banks shift as many service offerings to be online- and mobile-based. However, the way they engage potential customers is clearly still old school. The offers in the letters we received could have been a banner or floating window on banks' websites' landing page. By integrating marketing with digitalization, banks could tap a significant saving on cost and carbon footprints. 

• Another real problem of the traditional way of marketing is the traceability and measurement of the return on investment. 
• Suppose I need a new credit card, I may consider applying for one after I receive the promotional mails. However, these mails seldom provide me an exclusive offer that cannot be accessed through other channels (especially under the current cost-cutting environment). I would highly likely still go online and click on the "Apply" button to start my new credit card application. Such an application will by no means be associated with the promotional mail that arrived at my mailbox. 

• In comparison, in a recent marketing campaign of Google Pay, Google offered a $21 referral bonus each for the individual signing up and the individual referring early this year. Google could track the platform where the referral links were posted (e.g., WeChat, WhatsApp, etc.), how many people clicked on a referral link, how many were brought on-board, and how they made their first transactions (to be qualified for the rewards). In this way, everything is tracked, and the investment (on rewards) can be easily attributed.

In summary, the retail banks have many opportunities to innovate on their marketing strategies and make their marketing budget better spent. Leveraging advanced data analytics to extract insights on consumer needs, integration with digitalization, and increasing traceability and measurement are the few things retail banks can start exploring. 

HPE Launches Digital Marketing Pilot, Taking Lead Generation Into ‘21st Century’

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has launched a breakthrough digital marketing pilot program that provides partners with advanced customer analytics as part of a plan to drive digital marketing demand generation into the “21st century,” said HPE North America Managing Director Paul Hunter.

Hunter said he was “excited” about the new digital marketing demand generation program that involves just a handful of partners.

The program is aimed is aimed at connecting partners with buyers who are searching for specific business outcomes.

“We’re working with our digital partners to understand what searches are taking place, connecting keyword searches with our customers, and then sharing that opportunity with our partners,” said Hunter.

The pilot program defines specific partner expertise around areas like risk and compliance and then connects that expertise to customer searches, said Hunter.

“It is really taking our digital research and lead generation into the 21st century,” he said. “It is leading to a great number of new customer calls, building relationships with new contacts and new customers, and just really expanding the breadth of our relationships with our customers and bringing our partners into the fold to do that.”

HPE is working with a limited number of partners before it scales the program, said Hunter. “We’ve got a sizable investment we are making from a marketing standpoint,” he said.

“We are working with a few partners to make sure it is meaningful and that it can scale,” said Hunter. “Then we’ll build out the partners that we work with based on the opportunities that we see. That is really dependent on partners investing in the right areas. What I mean by that is having the capability to ‘cloudify’ an experience for customers.”

One of the companies in the pilot program is CBTS, No.33 on the 2020 CRN Solution Provider 500, the $1 billion HPE Platinum partner with 1,500 engineers and 2,800 technology certifications.

Steve Lankard, vice president and principal of the infrastructure solutions practice at CBTS, said the HPE analytics-based lead generation program is a breakthrough.

“HPE is using some pretty cool tools to find out the behavior of potential buyers and what those buyers are interested in and then they are sharing that information with us on those accounts we are jointly targeting, whether it is our installed base or acquisition accounts,” he said.

The new analytics program is a marked improvement over past lead generation efforts, said Lankard. “With these web analytics you can tell if the customer is looking on the web for certain types of topics and then we can try to target them with the solutions that HPE and CBTS can bring to those customers,” he said. “It is a new approach, leveraging analytics in prospecting and targeting. I am absolutely bullish that this is going to increase the success of the campaigns we are running with HPE.”

Hunter, for his part, said the key to the digital marketing lead generation pilot program is partners connecting specific solution sets with customer needs.

“It’s dependent on the intelligence of connecting your solution with a customer need,” he said. “The better the connection, the more scalable the insight, the better the return. It is something that has a lot of potential.”

Reference: https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/hpe-launches-digital-marketing-pilot-taking-lead-generation-into-21st-century-?itc=refresh

Startup Voxie Makes Text Marketing More Accessible and Scalable

Voxie is built around the thesis that email marketing open rates will continue to go down and SMS texting is a key part of the marketing toolkit. Voxie aims to make it scalable to implement a text based marketing campaign across your customer base and just raised $6.7M Series A in a recent fundraise from Engage Ventures. 

Voxie allows you to automate and personalize your texting campaigns. They also offer features to create a personalized feeling to the text such as allowing you to have a full 10 digit phone number vs the typical marketing 5 digit phone numbers. They are focused on making the text experience to feel like an actual human is reaching out to you, even if 80-90% of their text messages are automated. The goal is to create a white glove experience where each customer feels a hands on approach but in the background, it's a scalable and cheap software that any business could leverage.

Soon, Voxie plans to roll out a text message feature where you can purchase products inside the SMS text. They want to continue to close the gap of allowing people to purchase on their phone in the most convenient way. This new feature is called "Reply to Buy" and will allow people to turn SMS text messaging into a key conversion feature. 

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/07/voxie-series-a/

Doubling Down on Digital Transformation - Health & Wellness Insights

Digital transformation has been a buzz word for some years now, with some organizations being early adopters.  However, it is only recently due to the global pandemic that there has been a rapid acceleration to Digital first.  As the adage goes 'Necessity is the mother of inventions', this has proven to be the case in many industries - especially the Health and Wellness market.

With the rise of virtual meetings & event platforms, augmented reality, AI bots, there exists new and innovative ways for brands to experiment with direct to consumer interactions that were not feasible to implement before.

Stay tuned for more in depth review of digital innovation in the Health & Wellness sector...

Personalization: Where is the line between convenient, creepy, and concerning?

Every company today is focused on collecting data and building tools that help them understand their customers better.  Whether it is purchasing third-party data, tracking engagement with a website, app, campaign, or brand, or building tools that aggregate as much data as possible to best understand and communicate with clients, it is something every company strives to figure out.  And all of this in an effort to best market to you, the customer, in a way that resonates with you.  But in this effort to personalize every digital world you step into, where is the line between convenient, creepy, and concerning?

Working in technology, each time we implement a new tool or feature, we ask ourselves: what will the experience be for clients?  What data do we want to capture?  And how quickly do we want to turn that data into insights?  But the degree to which that is taken varies for companies, and depending on that, can bounce between convenient, creepy, and concerning.  When you search for a restaurant and ones close to you that you might like based on past preferences show up - that's convenient.  When you open a social media app and start seeing ads for things you feel like you were only thinking about - that's creepy.  When you search for a news article, and only see links to pieces by people who think like you - that's concerning.

As leaders and potential digital marketers, it is our responsibility to think about the implications of our digital actions, and how they might impact our clients and the world around us.

Trends in Digital Marketing in 2021

 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techradar.com/amp/news/digital-marketing-in-2021-what-to-look-out-for

It is surprising to me that privacy issues might be a major concern for digital marketing in 2021.  While this change could potentially make successful advertising more difficult for companies, it is also a clear indicator/reminder that customers’ needs/desires are ever-changing. 

I wonder how companies will adjust to the recommended contextual targeting, as opposed to PPC advertising and, perhaps less so, content marketing.

Here also is a quote from the article that I found interesting: “The impending loss of cookies is potentially a major issue, as so many businesses have become very used to using them as a primary source of insight on who their customers are, how they move, and how to find others like them.”

With Great Technology, Comes Great Reponsibility

Disclaimer: The intent of this article is to explore the use of digital marketing in campaigns. I hope you can appreciate the marketing strategies discussed regardless of your political views. 

By now, we all know that digital marketing is not just for brands trying to build awareness or sell products and services. Since 2008, politicians have incorporated digital marketing into their core campaign strategies. It's interesting to observe how these strategies have evolved over the last 12 years. An article from AdAge explores Biden's multi-faceted digital marketing campaign and its use of Gaming, Branded Content, Influencer Marketing, TikTok, and Facebook Page Partnerships.

Allison Stern, digital partnerships manager for the Biden campaign, acknowledges the need for Biden to compete with Trump on social media and discusses how finding the right partners online could deliver campaign messages authentically and at scale. 

"So much of marketing and communications is crafting the right message for the right audience. Our team focused less on the message, and more on the messenger. We worked to determine who or what is the right messenger to make this message most impactful with a very specific audience. We focused on using different voices, authentic to specific communities, and reaching people in their natural online habitat. Authenticity is easy to say as a buzzword, but the reality of execution is quite different. We achieved it and achieved it at scale."

"The Biden-Harris campaign was the first political campaign to embrace branded content at scale, including paid content partnerships with publishers like BuzzFeed, Teen Vogue, PopSugar, Pet Collective, Mitu and more. Biden entered the campaign at an extreme social media disadvantage to Trump and borrowing audiences from leading social publishers and influencers across the internet was a way to level the playing field."

I find the use of new marketing technologies in campaigns both exciting and scary. Greenfly, for example, is an app that provides images and suggested social text for users to share quickly and easily. 

"At the base of the broad scale influencer effort was Greenfly, an app managed by the campaign with a library of approved social assets, which influencers, surrogates, and everyday people (“brand ambassadors”) could easily upload to their social handles and share. 

...it does create a systematic way for Biden supporters (whether that be LeBron James or a campaign staffer) to share inspiring campaign art on Instagram with suggested social text in under 1 minute. If your social feed was flooded with Biden-Harris content it was not an accident, there was a sophisticated team with data, content, software, and relationships making this happen."

This reminds me of this summer when there was an abundance amazing artwork going viral during the Black Lives Matter movement. This kind of viral loop feels good to me because I believed in the message, but what happens when there are people creating content and messages for nefarious purposes? We've seen this before with Facebook ads during the 2016 election. Do you think that all new marketing technology companies will eventually evolve to have their own in house censorship teams? 

As they (some) say, "With great technology, comes great responsibility."*

Livestream E-Commerce in China

The rapid development of livestream e-commerce in China shocks people all over the world. Sales from live streams are expected to grow more than 100% in 2020 vs. 2019 to almost 9% of all online retail sales. It is well-known that China has the highest rate of e-commerce of any country which is over 35% of total retail sales (according to eMarketer). The emergence of live shopping has further improved the customer’s online shopping experience.

Take Austin for example, who is the most popular livestreamer in China, also known as “Lipstick King”. He has 6.5 million followers for his livestream in Taobao Live, and a nightly audience of 2 million viewers. Most of his followers are among 20-29, living in rich provinces, such as Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They love fancy things and keep up with times and pay great attention to cosmetic, food, travel, fashion.

One of the reason why they enjoy watching influencers' livestream to shop might be that it is a good way to know new and high-quality products’ real look, how they are used and also they can buy them at a large discount. Moreover, it is also interesting to listen to livestreamers chatting with celebrities in the spare time, which help them kill time when there are not many entertainment activities to join.

Most livestreamers have the characteristics of affinity, generosity and leadership. For instance, they will chat with celebrities they invite to build a relaxing atmosphere and they also can empathize with consumers and know what the customers like and dislike. Occasionally, they will send gifts to customers and negotiate with brands for larger discounts in live stream to establish the image of being generous.

An interesting fact - in Double Eleven Carnival Austin‘s Livestream there are impactful images and sounds stimulating consumers to make impulse purchases, such as beating gongs and drums and showing couplets with content like “come on”. (as the pictures show)

Note: Double Eleven Carnival is Chinese shopping festival, merchants will give a lot of discounts, just like Black Friday.

Article referenced: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michellegreenwald/2020/12/10/live-streaming-e-commerce-is-the-rage-in-china-is-the-us-next/?sh=75438bb96535

Is It The Right Time For A Social Media Detox?

                                                                                                                    Credit to: Harper's Bazaar

Earlier this month, Bottega Veneta, one of the most coveted Italian luxury brands, ceased to - socially - exist as it decided to delete its Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.

While the company has not clarified the reasons behind their unprecedent action, a fashion institution like Vogue has judged it "refreshing", while others have considered it a complete folly. 

Bottega's drastic decision signals a feeling of broader dissatisfaction and frustration by some traditional brands with social media. The relationship between luxury brands and social media has not always been smooth, and some have lamented limitations in the platforms' ability to talk to their customers in a tasteful, elevated manner, especially when it comes to retargeting and influencer collaborations. In addition, some brands are revolting against the increasing costs of social advertising, and against the increasing challenges in appearing in their customers' newsfeeds in an organic manner.  

Nevertheless, social media are ubiquitous, and have become even more essential in the global pandemic. As most consumers remained confined in their homes, the shift of eyeballs from offline to online has increased even further. Thus, advertising money followed. For many brands, social media became the only option of connecting with their customers in a meaningful manner, and there are good reasons to believe that this shift is there to stay. It is therefore imperative that luxury brands pursue strategies to remain relevant in the social age, and find creative ways to connect with their clients in a way that resonates with their brand image.  

Reference:

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/marketing-pr/should-fashion-break-up-with-big-tech