Holiday marketing in the pandemic

With thanksgiving holiday fast approaching, this holiday season is bound to be different for marketers and advertisers who are looking to drive sales while also being mindful of the current public health considerations. What are the key considerations for holiday marketing in the pandemic?

The article listed out 5 tips for local businesses:

1. Remind consumers of the value of shopping local and supporting local business

2. Up your gift card and e-gift card game

3. Offer easy and safe curbside pickup and delivery options

4. Send catalogs and postcards that offer online ordering options

5. Provide something of value such as free promotional item with purchase

Of these 5 tips, I found #3 to be the most relevant in the current trend as consumers switch to e-commerce and online shopping. Even though consumers will remain mostly loyal to brands that they had the habit of shopping at in past holiday seasons, having a hefty delivery cost or an unspecified/inconvenient pickup option will likely throw consumers off and force them to turn to other sites. Accompanied with the other tips, markets will have a better chance of staying on top of mind for local holiday shoppers.

In addition to the 5 tips above, marketers will also need to be mindful and considerate of using traditional concepts such as family get-together, big family celebration as their key marketing message, with the concern of spreading the virus in the current reality. It would still be okay to deliver an optimistic and festive message, but marketers will need to have the sensitivity to prevent turning consumers away.

Reference:

https://www.business2community.com/marketing/5-retail-holiday-marketing-tips-for-2020-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-02363551

COVID-19 Changes the Future of Shopping

While the world is currently watching as COVID-19 spikes continue to rebound all throughout the world, consumers are being forced to find new, safer measures to continue to make purchases.  U.S. consumers spent $21.7 billion online in the first 10 days of the holiday shopping season; equating a 21% jump from 2019.  The reason for this is due to the fact that 63% of consumers are no longer going into stores due to concerns over the potential health risks resulting from COVID-19.  These numbers don’t take into account the potential “unpredictable factors, including an economic stimulus package and lockdown restrictions” that researchers believe “if they materialize, we expect online spending to be even greater.”  

That said, many traditional retailers now need to employ omnichannel services to ensure they are able to continue to stay on pace with the strong e-commerce sites, such as Amazon.  While its been proven most vital to maintain a strong foothold within the e-commerce world, surveys have also revealed that “shoppers were also more likely to purchase from a retailer that employed omnichannel services, such as in-store appointments, curbside pickup and virtual appointments.”  The most useful option in providing consumers with the feeling of safeness when shopping has proved to be virtual appointments.  

 

The real question is… will these trends, such as online shopping, in-store appointments, virtual appointments, virtual wait line systems, contactless curbside pickups, etc., remain after the pandemic or are they just means to make it through?  Personally, I believe that the pandemic served as a catalyst to increase the importance of e-commerce and various omnichannel services but that these trends will continue to be of absolute importance for years to come. 

Source: https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/coronavirus-impact-online-retail/  

An example of Online-Offline-Merging in Japan

One of the trends in digital marketing is OMO. OMO, which stands for Online Merges with Offline, refers to a new retail marketing solution that incorporates offline business into an online one.

Rakuten, one of the dominant e-commerce and online retailing companies in Japan, and Tokyu established a new company to provide and seek new digital marketing solutions.

Tokyu is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. Its business includes a railway company and brick-and-mortar supermarket and department store. Rakuten and Tokyu aim to foster new purchasing habits and customer experiences by combining their assets and data in their operations. Some businesses just cannot be completed by one company but multiple companies can explore new business opportunities by leveraging on their strengths.

Amazon has had the largest market share of online sales in Japan until now, and we are watching to see if Rakuten can regain its market share with these new initiatives.

Source;
How to Successfully Merge Offline and Online
https://www.qminder.com/merging-offline-online/

Rakuten, Tokyu establish tie up to offer digital marketing solutions
https://japantoday.com/category/tech/rakuten-tokyu-establish-tie-up-to-offer-digital-marketing-solutions

Influencer-focused strategies continu to thrive in COVID-19 era

 Source: https://martechseries.com/social/influencer-marketing/study-covid-19-shakes-digital-marketing-influencers-remain-go-strategy/

According to SocialPubli recently published report, partnerships with influencers keep bringing tremendous value even during COVID-19 time. 90% of surveyed marketing professionals from 15 different countries agreed that influencer-focused marketing campaigns provided the same or better results than during pre-COVID era. Moreover, ~40% of respondents stated that influencer marketing is their top ROI marketing strategy. 

Marketers tend to partner with influencers having a followship of less than 100,000 users, which resonates with materials covered in class. Apparently mega-popular influencers are not as efficient in generating relevant impressions considering high costs of such impression and a large variety of follower profiles.

Unsurprisingly Instagram continues to hold leadership in influencer partnership, as 96% of surveyed marketers considered it to be their top choice.

Another interesting tendency identified in the survey is an increased confidence in quality and relevance of content created by influencers. Marketers increasingly prefer influencers to create their own original content without interference of internal marketing teams. Influencer content such as unboxing and review videos have already earned its place among top marketing strategies and now we can only expect to see new types of original and creative content created by influencers.

Sherwin-Williams Misses a Social Media Influencer Marketing Opportunity

 

Tony Piloseno was an Ohio University senior in 2019-2020 who had a part-time job at Sherwin-Williams (the paint and coating solutions company) where he worked in the paint mixing department. He started posting TikTok videos in December 2019 where he'd mix colors into paint cans. His TikTok channel quickly went viral and he gained over 1 million followers.

For months starting in March or April 2020, Piloseno had been pitching to Sherwin-Williams that his viral account was an example of social media marketing the company could do to build brand awareness with a younger audience. He got as far as getting in contact with someone in the company's marketing division, but was essentially told that there weren't any promotions happening at the time, so there was no need for Piloseno to pitch his idea further.

Eventually, in late July 2020, instead of Sherwin-Williams capitalizing on this influencer marketing opportunity, the company investigated Piloseno's TikTok account and fired him for making "these videos during [his] working hours" and wasting company equipment and properties - "gross misconduct". To Sherwin-Williams, Piloseno's videos were an embarrassment. 

From Piloseno's point of view, he was already mixing the paints for customers when he filmed, and as his TikTok page grew, he purchased paint cans with his employee discount to film with when business was slow. He was not stealing materials as the company accused him of, but Piloseno never got a chance to tell his side of the story to management to try and save his job.

At this point, Piloseno had amassed 1.2 million followers. After his firing, he continued to film his paint mixing videos in his friend's basement. While Sherwin-Williams missed out on this huge opportunity to build brand awareness and expand their customer base through social media, Piloseno can take advantage as he develops his own company to sell his own merchandise and his own paint colors. He's already got a huge audience to start with.

Source

What brand actions on social media are most effective in prompting consumers to purchase

 According to Sprout Social Index, brand actions that were most likely to elicit consumer purchase are as follows:

1. Being responsive (48% consumers are more likely to purchase)
2. Offering promotions (46%)
3. Providing educational content (42%)
4. Sharing interesting visuals (38%)
5. Being funny (36%)
6. Offering exclusive content (35%)
7. Providing behind the scenes content (27%)
8. Trash talking competing brands (10%)

Is the internet advertising economy about to implode?

 

Does digital advertising actually work? This interview points to a “subprime attention economy”. Most of the argument made by the author in this interview is centered on how it most tech platforms do not "back up" the claims they make in the correlation of purchases to actual conversions.

This is a thought I've had a lot through the class. The attribution of certain ads (especially when the benefit is merely "awareness) is weak. I think I am also within a generation that is very skeptical of ads. Perhaps a better argument would be that the type of advertising that is actually effective is shifting and varies based on the user.

Privacy Over Personalization

Source: https://www.conference-board.org/press/data-privacy-survey-nov2020

In my last blog post I discussed the recent surge in potential digital identification solutions as marketers desperately search for a tool to replace third-party cookies. These identification solutions are imperative to being able to deliver personalized marketing to consumers, with the ultimate goal of increasing conversion rates. However, these efforts may all be for naught if marketers do not start focusing on gaining back consumers’ trust regarding data privacy.

According to a recent study by The Conference Board in collaboration with Nielsen, more than half (57%) of US consumers would give up personalization in order to protect their privacy. In fact, 19% of consumers said that they switched to a competitor’s brand simply because they were concerned with the original brand’s data privacy practices. Unfortunately for marketers, this adds another layer of complexity to the already complicated arena of global data privacy rules and regulations. Consumers are clearly highly skeptical of brands’ intentions and very concerned about data privacy issues.

This is not only a US phenomenon, but also a global one as well. Although less than half, a still staggering 44% of global respondents felt the same way as US consumers. This signals that privacy protection concerns are not simply a US problem. This may make navigating the global world of marketing more complicated, but marketers need to directly address these consumers’ concerns if they want personalization to remain a viable option.

Top Trends in Social Brands Need to Keep in Mind

Consumers and consumer behavior has obviously changed throughout the course of 2020, and with that their preferences and expectations of brands messaging. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in social channels, especially with younger generations - specifically generations Z, and Alpha. Thus, brands need to be tailoring their marketing strategies as we move into 2021 to incorporate and consider trends that have been top of mind for these consumers, such as the below.

Social consciousness: The younger generations are more actively engaged than ever before on social issues such as mental health, equality, education, and climate change, and actively are on the lookout for brands that meet expectations in those areas - “Brands need to realize that they need to go well beyond just lip-service and do the work on creating an honest social impact. Based on a poll conducted by Forbes in 2019, 88% of consumers want to support brands that have social causes aligned with their product/service.”

Digital disinformation: Otherwise known as "fake news," this type of media has dominated conversations around social media and marketing for much of 2020, so much so that consumers are now more skeptical of social messaging than ever before. Brands need to put an emphasis on transparency in response to this trend, and practice careful brand monitoring to preempt anything negative or false going viral.

Conversational marketing: "Personalization of content" is now old news. The next step to connect with consumers is to turn a one-way marketing message into a two-way conversation. Brands need to make the extra effort to reach out and connect with their customers for feedback, with the ultimate goal of improving the customer experience, instead of simply driving sales. There are plenty of tools out there to create this two-way relationship. The recommendation is to utilize them and start listening.

Source: https://marketingtechnews.net/news/2020/nov/05/top-social-media-trends-to-drive-your-2021-marketing-strategy/

Top 3 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tactics

Try searching "best SEO tactic's" and you will be bombarded with opinions, paid services, and advertisements. A recent Google search for this very phrase yielded five large, paid search results before  displaying two actual search results, then four more paid advertisements.. On some level, you might use the search results page as a proxy for each service's potential impact on your business. If an SEO consultant can move their own results onto Google's Page 1 (where nine out of eleven results were ads), they might be able to do the same for you. 

After reading quite a few of these websites, blogs, and advertisements I've identified three common trends that web designers should keep in mind.

Create Relevant Content

It might sound overly simplistic, but well designed, relevant, easy-to-navigate content can serve as an extremely effective draw to your website. Plus, regardless of how well optimized your page is for search relevance, unless your content provides value to users right now, it may not generate value in the long-run. 

Identify Topic Clusters

With emerging trends often relying on a long tail of terminology, it might be best to design your SEO tactics around topical clusters, demographics, communities, or other broad targets to avoid missing out on ad campaigns targeting the wrong keywords or niche focus areas.

Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

Mobile web-browsing is booming, and search engines know this. Using tried and tested templates for mobile web design will help your company deliver a better user experience to mobile browsers, and directly impact your search relevance. 

How to advertise during the holidays in the middle of a pandemic

The holidays are usually time for predictable advertising. The ads are full of your typical holiday elements. You’ve got Santa Claus giving out presents representing the brand’s goods on his famous red sleigh. You’ve got families gathered around Christmas trees eagerly ripping open gifts of the company’s products. And you’ve got dancing models on screen prancing and grooving to the traditional holiday songs that fill the air while they wear the goods the company’s pushing. And that’s pretty much it – Santa Claus, Christmas trees, and carols.

But the pandemic complicates things. For one, the economy is down. People have lost jobs, money is tight, and stimulus checks have likely already been spent. Going into the holidays, COVID-19 rates have spiked and will likely only get worse during times when family gatherings are expected. Increase rates means that we are likely to go into another lockdown and businesses will continue to be negatively impacted. All of this means that families have less money to go around and spend on gifts. The holidays are more likely to be depressed than in previous recent years.

But it’s not just having fewer dollars to spend on nice things, it’s also the change in the gatherings itself. The holidays are traditionally a time where extended family gather and people travel miles to be at home with family. But this year, for many people, that’s not an option and it’s not safe for them to do so. They will need to make do with long distance connections, video calls, and phone calls. How do you capture the warmth and fuzzy feelings of the holidays knowing that many, if not most, people will not have that experience.

Images of extended family and friend gatherings would not only feel disconnected from the reality that people are facing, but it would also feel absolutely tone deaf. It would look like the company making a statement that perhaps the pandemic shouldn’t be taken seriously or that family time is worth the risk of exposing yourself and others to the virus. Either way, it’s a bad idea. 

So what do you do? One solution that Walkers Crisps used for this year’s Christmas advertisement is to capture a traditional element of the holidays and put it to use. Their advertisement was entirely based on the Christmas carol. More specifically, they substituted Santa Claus with a red van stuffed with baskets full of their new sausage roll flavored crisps. They substituted Santa Claus himself with a man wearing a Christmas hat and a onesie covered in images of sausage rolls. They put together a group of carolers who went door to door singing parodies of holiday music while they described how amazing these new crisps are. 

The genius in this advertisement is that they used a holiday element that is inherently pandemic friendly. All of the carolers were social distancing during their singing. They stood six feet apart on the lawns of the homes they visited. The leader rang the bell then stepped six feet back. But unlike most social distancing we see at restaurants and in stores, it didn’t look awkward. In fact, if you weren’t paying attention, you didn’t really realize that’s what they were doing. The ad made it look so natural.

The fact that caroling happens outside also leverages pandemic best practices. One of the things we’re encouraged to avoid during these COVID-19 times is indoor gatherings. But picking caroling, Walkers chose an activity that we can safely take part in and needs to happen outdoors. 

The other element they took into consideration is the lack of physical interaction in the gift giving. Part of the group caroling is that they left baskets of crisps on the doorsteps of the homes they visited. Had this ad happened a year ago, I’m certain that the baskets would be handed to the people whose homes they visited. But this year, they were dropped off and then the carolers walked away. The people at home waited a moment then picked up the crisps once the carolers were far enough away. Again, if you weren’t paying attention, you wouldn’t have noticed this intentionally pandemic-aware detail. But there it was.

As a consumer, I must admit that the ad did not make me want to try the crisps. The ad was designed for the UK audience who’s much more familiar with the sausage roll than the American audience. But as a digital marketer, I have to admire the way the ad successfully captured the spirit of the holidays, leveraged a popular and beloved part of Christmas, and still managed to incorporate pandemic best practices in their execution. Well done Walkers.

https://digiday.com/marketing/its-difficult-to-make-the-right-call-the-many-faces-of-the-u-k-s-coronavirus-era-christmas-advertising/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCpQ_DBiEpw

What social media platforms do to prepare for US election

We have learned from the 2016 US election that social media can have a powerful influence on people's political inclination and therefore the election results. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter were heavily criticized for not preventing false information from spreading. They were taken advantaged of by political groups to use advertising functions to reach people and spread fake news. Since then, social media platforms have made efforts to reduce the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. In the most recent 2020 election in November, here are a couple things that each social media platforms did to tackle these problems. 

Facebook has temporarily suspended all political ads after polls close on Nov 3. It also plans to label posts in case a candidate tries to declare victory prematurely. Additionally, Facebook is planning to change their algorithms to suppress viral content that spread fake news and encourage violence. 

Twitter also took action by putting a warning sign on top of every user's feed to increase awareness about fake news about the election - for example unconfirmed claims that voting by mail leads to election fraud, and posts that make claims about the election results before they're officially called. Twitter will also only rely on seven more trustworthy news outlets to determine if a race is officially called. 

Google and Youtube has also committed to banning any ads related to the elections after Nov 3. Google's search will display results from Associated Press and Youtube will elevate more credible sources such as CNN and Fox News. Youtube has also said that they will take down videos that spread misinformation about anything related to the elections.

TikTok, on the other hand, plans to change algorithm to reduce the discoverability of content that prematurely claim victory of any candidate.

Building an Email List

 A common way to build an email list is leveraging your website traffic pre-purchase / conversion. Many sites pop up with a request to add you to their email list in exchange for an offer - a percentage off your first order, early access to merchandise, exclusive offers, etc. 

Importantly, this allows you to collect an email address pre-purchase and retarget a larger audience. This increases initial and ongoing conversion beyond what you can achieve by waiting for visitors to complete an order before collecting their email. 

Digital can't do it all - at least in politics

 The 2020 election will be remembered for a lot of reasons, but one that may slip through the cracks is the enormous amount of money poured into digital advertising. Huge amounts of cash were poured into political advertisements and the physical ground game was neglected (particularly by the Democrats due to covid risks). What is clear from the underperformance between polls and actual performance on the Democratic is that a huge amount of digital political advertising was tuned out and did not drive increased turnout on election day. While digital remains an important tool in the arsenal, building a local physical team is critically important.

Future of CGI Influencers

Several influencers have been found themselves at the center of scandals that have led to most if not all of their sponsors to drop them (Myka Stauffer, Olivia Jade etc). This has led to the rise of questions of how influencers can potentially result in unfavorable brand association- especially during the rise of cancel culture. This creates the obvious question- will there be a rise in CGI influencers?

With almost 3 million Instagram subscribers, Lil Miquela is one of the most popular CGI influencers to date. She has partnered with Nylon, Prada, and Diesel in the past but her recent posts seem to be devoid of the sponcon that most influencers tend to post. Beyond the lack of controversies, the benefits of CGI influencers include the ability to reach a broader audience (they can talk in any language, travel around the world easily, and with simple tweaks can be made culturally relevant to many different consumers). Yet, because they're not real consumers might be less likely to trust their recommendations, and they continue to promote unobtainable beauty standards to impressionable minds.

Despite investment into the area and a crop of new CGI influencers popping up, the virtual influencer is unlikely to take over. What might be more likely is that influencers will create CGI avatars of themselves. Mascots, in particular, could be an interesting route- with people being able to follow Ronald McDonald or Tony the Tiger on instagram.

What Biden means for Big Tech

 With the election taking up majority of the airtime this week, I was interested in exploring what the election meant for Big Tech companies and their access to data. According to MIT Technology Review, technology policy is not a priority for the president-elect, understandably so as there are more pressing topics on his agenda, including a plan for COVID-19, economic recovery, etc.

Biden has previously argued for revoking Section 230, which shields internet companies from liability for the content that they host. However, it is unclear how this process will proceed. The previous administration under Obama was known to have a friendly attitude toward Silicon Valley, and this may continue to Biden’s administration. After all, Biden launched his presidential bid at a fundraiser hosted by a Comcast senior management member. Biden has also raised over $25M from internet companies and was not shy in asking Silicon Valley veterans to join his campaign efforts.

Source:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/11/10/1011902/biden-big-tech-plans-google/

Cottonelle Helps Consumers Roll with COVID-19 Challenges

 https://www.ama.org/marketing-news/cottonelle-helps-consumers-roll-with-covid-19-challenges/

At the height of the Coronavirus, consumers were hoarding toilet paper unnecessarily. Enter Cottonelle's #ShareASquare campaign. The campaign had three goals: 1) reassure consumers that there'd be more toilet paper supplied; 2) encourage consumers to share with their neighbors; 3) donate to COVID-19 relief efforts. "Cottonelle started by donating $1 million and 1 million rolls of toilet paper to the United Way Worldwide COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund." And then involved customers - committing to donating $1 (up to $100,000) when a social media user posted a personal #ShareASquare. The campaign "included television, paid media, earned media, influencers and social media" - even earning a shoutout on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The campaign was successful - with over 6,000 users sharing their #ShareASquare moment. This engagement led to Cottonelle's largest single donation in the company's history. And of course, a boost in the brand's customer awareness and perception. 

The future of marketing jobs

     As the marketing world evolves towards the digitalized era the people who once worked as marketers need to keep themselves updated about the new features and tools that the digital marketing enables, but this is no easy task. The increasing demand for specific skills in this area forces countless marketing employees, who have been working with their creative side for several years, to dive into a quantitative world and measure campaign results in a different way. The skills transition can be so hard that companies might want to hire a different set of people to perform some specific tasks, or even use contractors to manage their digital marketing.    

    This evolution is happening so fast that recruiting companies are facing challenges to fill all the vacant positions. According to Forrester Research, in 2019 digital marketing accounted for 35% of all marketing budget, achieving a $100B mark. In 2017 there were over 180,000 job postings for digital marketing skills but not enough people to fill them. Another problem was that companies realized a greater gap in the college education and the needed skills to work in digital marketing, as they would prefer students who have experience running campaigns. 

    Besides this shift in marketing skills, some experts bet that other jobs related to marketing will explode in the future, such as mood and empathy manager, data ethnographers, neuro A/B tester or sixth sense analyst. According to the Marketing Tech blog, the marketers of the future must have an "agile mindset coupled with an ability to adapt to consumer dynamics that can switch at warp speed".

    While it is uncertain whether these specific jobs will gain traction in the coming years, one point is clear: marketing jobs will keep changing as techonology evolves.

Sources: https://marketingtechnews.net/news/2019/aug/29/new-marketing-jobs-which-will-emerge-next-decade-creative-data/, https://blog.ladder.io/digital-marketing-jobs/#ja3yw178wamj9brv3smgxg

      

Alibaba and antitrust in China

Alibaba and antitrust in China

Single’s Day, a term coined by the e-commerce giant Alibaba, is a shopping promotion event for November 11 each year. Single’s Day shopping promotional events are increasingly adopted by brands globally. Single’s Day sales this year is projected to be $45 Billion despite economic impact of Covid 19. E-commerce shoppers in key Asia-based economies increase spending on tech and consumer goods following months of lockdowns.

Alibaba’s US-listed share price, however, fell by 8% today. This was because China’s market regulator has taken major step toward regulating tech giants in China, including Alibaba, Tencent, and Meituan. Until now, China has taken a relatively lax approach to anti-trust, compared to authorities in Europe and the US. Ant Financial’s blockbuster IPO was also postponed. Ant Group provides a platform for millions of smartphone users to make payments, borrow and even invest. 

 

 

References:

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/alibaba-blasts-singles-day-sales-record-in-first-30-minutes

https://www.ft.com/content/1a4a5001-6411-45fa-967c-0fd71ba9300b

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/alibaba-blasts-singles-day-sales-record-in-first-30-minutes#:~:text=Alibaba%20Singles%20Day%20Tops%20%2456,the%20world's%20biggest%20shopping%20event

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/technology/china-tencent-alibaba.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/03/technology/ant-ipo-jack-ma-summoned.html

 

 

The Unexplored Scope Of In Game Advertising

The rise of In-game advertising (IGA) (the use of computer and video games as a medium in which to deliver advertising) has been driven by 2 key factors – the increase in the number of children paying video games and the time spent on each video game as plots game offerings become longer and more intricate. According to DFC Intelligence, video game spending has risen more than twice what it was in 2011; from $3.1B to $20B. There is a growing opportunity for in-game advertising because it is the only platform where people are completely immersed in one activity. When gamers play a game, they tend to only play the game. Trends indicate that players do not do much multi-tasking which would split their attention away from the game.

In-game advertising has even replaced purchase price as a revenue model for some mobile phone games.  Advertisers see in-game advertising as a prime way to target the male 18-34 demographic, who are increasingly neglecting television in favor of computer and video games. Companies like Google and Microsoft have already joined the bandwagon and are offering interesting propositions of in-game advertising. Microsoft, which bought Massive in May 2006, is a leader in placing dynamic advertising in games. The market is filled with many smaller players, such as a company called Double Fusion. But it’s also attracting other big technology names, including Google, which bought AdScape Media for $23 million in 2007.

Unlike other platforms that have seen an inundation of Google and Facebook ads, gaming platforms are required to maintain a higher focus on user interface, user design and user experience. The threat off drop off following a poor single user experience is far too high of a risk for these companies who rely on network effects among customers, particularly for multi-player games. However, within the confines of these design parameters, the scope for monetizing ad revenue remains very high and relatively under-explored.