Facebook's Response to "The Social Dilemma"

In class this week, we discussed the Netflix Documentary “The Social Dilemma”. Given its popularity and critique of social media giants, most notably: Facebook. The company responded to the criticism with this post on their website: here

A CNBC news article commented on Facebook’s response poking some holes in Facebook's arguments. The one I agree with CNBC on is their critique of Facebook’s statement that users are not the product. Facebook constantly uses the “daily active users” as a key performance metric in earning calls and even goes so far as to provide average revenue per user. This further reinforces the conflict of interest that Facebook has when considering what is best for its users/products and what is best for the company.

I side with Facebook on its Election rebuttal to the documentary. The Cambridge Analytica (CA) scandal had rippling consequences for both Brexit and the 2016 US elections. The tools CA used have valid uses in regular business interaction but were abused by a malicious actor. Facebook acknowledged the mistakes made and have taken steps to prevent anything similar from happening. It is difficult to stop something from happening that has not happened previously, so its active effort to prevent something similar from happening again is the only reasonable expectation. There is always a cat and mouse game being played with almost every company and those who try to gain the system. As consumers we need to acknowledge and accept there is always going to be some risk.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/02/facebook-rebuts-the-social-dilemma-popular-netflix-documentary.html 

Have influencers become too powerful?

     

After watching The Social Dilemma, I am hung up on thinking about the spread of misinformation on social media. Most of the time, when people talk about this issue, they think about the extremist groups on Facebook, or the crazy Facebook friends you know posting nonsense. However, there's a corner of the internet that is potentially even more dangerous for spreading misinformation: influencers. 

While influencer marketing is a force to be reckoned with, especially for consumer companies,  there is a dangerous side to the power that influencers have cultivated. Influencers have a platform with followers who are looking for their guidance on all aspects of life. Several influencers have been using this platform to spread misinformation about US politics by sharing Qanon beliefs. Many of these influencers are sponsored by major brands like Nike, Lululemon, Nordstrom - who leverage affiliate and influencers networks to sponsor posts to identify these micro-influencers. For a micro-influencer campaign, these brands may not be vetting each influencer as closely as they might for a bigger influencer. Therefore, they are unknowingly attaching their brand to misinformation online. 

When we think about policy interventions to monitor and restrict misinformation on social media, it's difficult to think about interventions that can actual target these influencers. Influencers have the freedom of speech to say what they will to their followers. The responsibility is on the individual brands to ensure they are not sponsoring individuals who are a perpetuating conspiracy theories in our country. 

Hilton's new marketing campaign - will it be successful in a pandemic?

Hilton recently launched a global marketing campaign that encourages consumers to make new memories at Hilton hotels. The online videos and social content depict special moments consumers have been missing over the past 7 months that they can turn into new memories at Hilton hotels. Hilton surveyed consumers and found that travel is the most frequently recalled happy memory, and two thirds of respondents say they travel to create memories with family and friends. The campaign aims to inspire consumers to shift from dreaming of their next vacation, to actually planning it.

Hotels, and the travel industry in general, have been extremely hard hit by the pandemic. It looks like Hilton is positioning its hotels as the first travel expenditure consumers invest in after months of quarantining. 

As part of the campaign, Hilton is also emphasizing the safety protocols they have in place to make consumers feel comfortable with Hilton as their first travel experience – contactless arrival, room disinfection programs, and flexible booking and cancellation policies.

But are consumers really ready to travel as Covid-19 infection rates are increasing again around the country?  

https://newsroom.hilton.com/corporate/news/hilton-launches-new-memories-marketing-campaign

Will driftwell rocket to success?

Pepsi has been the second-place soda company for years, decades even. The blue cans with their American pride branding has never quite cracked through the ceiling of the floor dominated by Cocacola. To help it break through, it’s betting on breaking out. It’s entering a new category of drinks designed for the mind. This one is all about relaxation. This alone makes it interesting. It’s a huge contrast to the brand and promise of caffeinated beverages – to wake you up and give you energy. But for some reason, Pepsi has decided to go in a very different direction.

But besides this break from tradition, the most fascinating thing about the drink is in its branding. Gone is it’s bright red, white, and blue logo that stands out from aisles away. Instead, it’s using a navy blue, light blue, and yellow circle with the new brand’s name “Driftwell” slanted and scrolled at the top.

There are so many things wrong with this branding. The first is that the yellow circle is completely ambiguous. What is it? What does it mean? From the name “Driftwell,” it could very well be the moon. But it’s almost too bright for that to make sense. It looks closer to the sun. But that goes against the promise of rest and relaxation. Is it something different altogether? 

But besides its meaning, the symbol doesn’t feel like a logo. It has no essence of a mark. It doesn’t feel like something that can stand alone without a can, the navy blue waves, and the hard to read brand name to support it. If it saw it without all that help, I would pass it by and think nothing of it.

But let’s talk about the name, “Driftwell.” It does seem to represent the goal of the drink, which is to drift well. It’s all about relaxation, and drifting certainly captures that. But drinking something with the word “drift” doesn’t sound particularly enticing. But I can appreciate that coming up with a name that’s both enticing to drink but also captures the qualities of what your selling is a tough task. To be honest, I probably couldn’t think of something better myself. 

A comparison that’s been made to this product is to the drink Recess, which similarly offers a feeling of calm and relaxation. It sound intriguing, and they’ve certainly achieved the pastel, modern style and feel. But the branding there still stands out. The brand name is clear to read and as an up and coming brand, the modern style feels authentic. Seeing an industry giant known best for their loud, bold packaging copying the current wave of branding aesthetic feels forced. 

But perhaps this is a smart strategic move. In entering the space on the latest wave of relaxation drinks and leveraging a brand aesthetic that many are already comfortable with, they be well positioned to take their mass marketing dollars and use that machine to tell health-conscious beverages to the mainstream market. Only time will tell.

 https://marker.medium.com/how-pepsi-became-suckered-into-every-hot-branding-trend-8fd8b5840000

“The Social Dilemma” – Whistleblowing or Instilling Fears?

 

“The Social Dilemma” has remained on Netflix’s most watched list for the entire week, it is a documentary that features ex-employees of Silicon Valley companies, and aims to raise an alarming bell on the various ways technology companies and their services shape human behavior. I had a chance to watch the first half of the documentary, and was indeed alarmed – but perhaps in a way that was not intended.

I agree that social media is replacing more meaningful face-to-face interactions. However, this documentary makes many far reached imageries and hyperboles. While they do drive the documentary’s theme, I can’t help but think they are not being very partial.

For example, in the documentary, there was an imagery of 3 evil masterminds hiding in one user’s social media account, constantly calculating on how to sell the user the next ad or how to increase engagement from the user. Coupled with the eerie and suspenseful instrumental background music, the segment felt like a scene straight out of a horror movie. When questioned about this approach, the filmmakers said it was “…necessary to communicate in a way that appeals to a broad audience”. The documentary warns that social networks are using information to shape human behavior, but I can’t help but think the excessive imagery, background music and sound effects are also used to instill fears in viewers to push for the documentary’s agenda.

Another example is when the film condemns WhatsApp for spreading misinformation that inspired grotesque lynchings in India. However, I thought the film’s viewpoint was very skewed. It didn’t mention that WhatsApp is simply a messaging device, so misinformation spread was initiated by users – after all, it is WhatsApp users who sent the misinformation to others. Without the existence of WhatsApp, the same effect could have taken place through iMessage, then is Apple to blame?

I walk away from the documentary, alarmed at how popular it is and how people will perceive it. I hope viewers are not simply agreeing with the ideas laid out in the documentary, for that is doing the same as what the documentary claims that social media is doing to us – changing human behavior through partial information.

Source: 

https://www.theverge.com/interface/2020/9/16/21437942/social-dilemma-netflix-review-orlowski-sarah-zhang-memo-facebook-buzzfeed

Will TikTok Lead to the Rebirth of Multi-Channel Networks?

 In the early 2010s, traditional marketing companies were rushing to invest in Multi-Channel Networks (aka MCNs). Multi-Channel Networks functioned in a similar capacity to talent networks- signing new YouTube stars, connecting them to brands, and helping them monetize at scale. YouTube was considered the next big platform amongst Millenials and traditional companies had struggled to create platform-specific content. Companies like Viacom and Disney were rushing to purchase companies such as AwesomenessTV and Maker Studios. But, the MCN model wasn't built to last and in 2019 Disney indicated that they view Maker as basically worthless in their 10k. 

This rapid decline happened for a couple of reasons the main one being that MCN's had basically morphed into multi-platform production companies and were focused on signing YouTube stars at a massive scale and pooling the meager profit from their portion of the advertising cut. YouTube would send the money to the MCNs and then they would take their cut before distributing the money to their creators. The problem with this model is that many MCNs were portraying the total sum of money from YT as their cut instead of the percentage that we were keeping after sending the money to creators. On paper this made it seem like they were much more profitable than they actually were creating an unsustainable business model and a mad dash for potential investors. A former Maker exec who joined the company following the acquisition said this on Disney's $675 Million acquisition of Makers studio, “I was excited to be there — I thought it was going to be the next big thing, but when you started to poke around, it was obvious there wasn’t much there." 

As TikTok stars race for brand deals and monetization there is a window for a new form of MCN's to rise again. Creators will need teams of people who can help sell their channels to companies and figure out the best way to price their campaigns and companies might want a one-stop-shop in terms of reaching creators. One positive sign that MCNs might not re-emerge is that many TikTok stars have begun to be signed to talent and modeling agencies cutting out the middleman. Getting creator monetization to scale will be important for making sure that TikTok is here to stay as a platform as they an incentive for its creators to stay.

CTV advertising for B2B

I came a across a sponsored article on the MarketingLand.com website on how CTV advertising is primed for B2B. I found it very interesting, specially because it claimed that using CTV ads you can target a specific audience and track attribution.

To the best of my understanding, regular TV ads for B2B are not the best use of money because B2B audiences are very specific, for example, purchasing manager of YZ Company, and in many cases a human needs to be able to follow up to close the sale. If CTV ads allows you to do these things, it should be a good platform to boost a traditional B2B marketing strategy.

Nevertheless, I see the following challenges:

Getting the right information to target the right audience. Without access to their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles, I don't know how they are going to target the purchasing manager at YZ Company. To me this is the biggest challenge because paying to show a B2B ad to the wrong person is the closest I can imagine to burning money.

Clicks are limited to tablets or PCs, leaving out all the ads shown on TVs. This makes follow-ups harder as well as attribution, and without attribution, additional spending is hard to justify.

Source:

https://marketingland.com/ctv-and-b2b-3-reasons-why-connected-tv-advertising-is-primed-for-b2b-281980

Advertising on Amazon

While Google still dominates the online advertising market, it has seen Amazon grow to become a formidable competitor in recent years. The latest Amazon Advertising numbers show over 40% growth, making it the third-largest advertising platform in the world (just behind Google and Facebook).

So how is advertising on Amazon different from Google? 

1. All advertising on Amazon are for products that are actually sold on Amazon. This means that Amazon is not sending traffic away from their website, creating a win-win situation that generates revenue for itself and the product seller when users click on the advertisement
2. Amazon advertisements have a higher ceiling. Certain types of ads on Amazon has a minimum purchase of $100
3. Conversion rate of Amazon campaigns is higher than Google campaigns. This is because people who search on Amazon already have an intention to make a product purchase, while people search Google for more general information

Amazon offers a few standard formats for their advertisements:

1. Sponsored products – these appears when users search for a particular products. They can be pushed to the top, middle or bottom of the product results page depending on the amount of bids the advertiser puts in
2. Amazon display – these are pay-for-click options which shows up on Amazon marketing emails, side-bars of product search pages
3. Headline ads – these are banner ads that can advertise one or three products at once

Youtube Joins Google’s Attribution Model

Google Ads is now incorporating YouTube into attribution analytics. Last class, we spoke about Display and how it is sometimes difficult to properly attribute the cost of an ad to the interaction the client/user makes. For example, a user could have seen a display ad on a website, an ad on Instagram then googled the company and clicked through a search link. Multiple touchpoints drove the customer to engage, but without integration, the display ad does not receive the credit it is due. Currently, the attribution model is only available for Search and Shopping campaigns.

In the new beta version, Youtube will be incorporated in the “Data-driven” attribution model to better show advertisers where to spend money. People are hopeful that if Youtube integration is successful, Display ads could follow.

With this step, google further integrates its search ecosystem providing better effective data across its platforms. Since Youtube is the second-highest driver of search, this incisiveness advertisers to increase the spend on a platform they may not have previously used.

Article found here:

https://searchengineland.com/google-ads-brings-youtube-into-attribution-fold-expands-data-driven-attribution-to-more-advertisers-341972

The new gaming world

Because of the pandemic, people are gradually changing our entertainment habits and the way we spend our leisure time. Right now, on average people spend a lot more time on linear entertainment, including TV, than interactive entertainment, e.g. gaming. However, this gap might gradually be reduced in the future.

With much of the world staying home, the gaming industry is booming. Companies like Tencent and Facebook has been investing heavily in gaming companies. Nintendo reported a staggering 541 percent increase in profit from the previous year. People were obsessed with the company’s successful game Animal Crossing during the lockdown. In animal crossing, you are tasked with transforming a small cartoony island into a village. You get to focus on building things in a slow and peaceful way. The game follows the real-life time and gives you a sense of belonging and community.

Gaming has also become a new social network. People chat with friends about the games and get to play games with their friends. Games are also increasingly tailored to female, especially mobile games.

 

Reference:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/technology/facebook-app-gaming.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/business/everyones-lockdown-obsession-with-animal-crossing-lifts-nintendos-profits-to-1-billion.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/arts/animal-crossing-virus.html

 

So, what will the latest iPhone cost you?

Analysts and investors have long anticipated the new iPhones as a boost to flagging sales of the company’s main product. 

Apple stuck with a proven pricing model for the new devices, releasing the entry-level phones for $700 and up and higher-end phones starting at $1,000 — both prices in line with previous years.

Apple might have been able to hold prices mostly steady this year by no longer including headphones and a power adapter, a psychological marketing tool. The company said it was an environmental decision but it also likely saved it money and will cause many customers to buy extra accessories from Apple.

What is different this year is that Apple will sell four iPhone models, up from its typical three in recent years.

At the entry level, the iPhone 12 Mini will start at $700 and iPhone 12 at $800. People will still have a $700 option, but it will be smaller.

On the higher end, the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will start at $1,000 and $1,100, identical to last year.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/13/technology/apple-iphones-5g?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

What's the deal with Gen Z and wearables?

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/content/gen-z-fastest-growing-generation-among-smart-wearable-users

For the context of this article, I will start by defining the age brackets in the study. Generation Z, or Gen Z for short, are the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Gen Z are born between 1997 and 2012 whereas millennials are born between 1981 and 1996 and Gen X are born between 1965 and 1980 and baby boomers are born between 1946 and 1964. 

As Gen Z consumers enter the workforce and earn more disposable income, we expect this group to adopt new technology, including the most recent smart wearable devices. Data by eMarketer has shown that this year, the number of Gen Z smart wearable users will grow by nearly 17% to 12.8 million. In contrast, smart wearable users across Millenials, Gen X and baby boomers are expected to remain flat in the US from 2020 until 2024. Note that smart wearable users are defined as individuals who wear accessories or clothing that have the ability to connect to the internet at least once per month. 

It is important to note that currently millennials continue to lead the pack in terms of adoption however, Gen Z is closing the gap, as adoption among the generation is growing the fastest. In fact, emarketer expects Gen Z to surpass Gen X by 2023.

In my opinion, two main reasons explain the data seen by emarketer: a) Gen Z is less risk averse and does not necessarily mind having its data shared for the purpose of enhancing lifestyle including comfort, fitness etc.; b) Gen Z is more acquainted with the idea of using social media at an early age and has had more exposure with technology including more developed versions of wearables at the workplace but also in its upbringing. 

How Digital Marketing can boost your company recruitment

    In this constantly evolving world most companies are going through digital transformations, especially focusing on gaining efficiency and increasing sales. Digital marketing, which clearly targets the sales increase, has usually been one of the several levers that comprehend these digital transformations. However, companies are also starting to use this lever to target potential recruits and enhance their talents. Several tools, such as social media posts, LinkedIn job ads and google for jobs, have been evolving to help companies attract the right candidates and there are even some companies that offer these services nowadays, help one design a digital marketing campaign specifically to attract the right talent.      

    Social media has been used to advertise job openings for a while, but what some recruiters fail to realize is that using their own Instagram or Facebook pages only reach candidates that follow them, but these same candidates probably are also following the company's website as well. Therefore, throwing a campaign focused on people that are looking for jobs can definitely boost the amount of curriculums the company receives and shouldn't be too expensive. LinkedIn job ads are also a formal tool that has been perfected over years to specifically target recruits. This is specifically powerful to attract talent that might not be actively searching for jobs but can perfectly fit the job vacancy a company is offering. Lastly, google for jobs is the tool a company should use to target candidates that are actively seeking a job, as they have now integrated with several job board sites and will pull related job opening right into the search results. 

    There is so much potential on digital recruitment marketing that some companies are specialized in offering these services. At WebFX, for example, they claim that when companies do not properly advertise job openings they will not have enough applicants, what can result in either a longer period without that needed person or in a bad cultural fit for the company. Therefore they propose to identify the audience, help to create an impactful job listing, place in the most beneficial platforms and analyze results for the companies that hire their services. Marketing Essentials has a similar approach, where they use "PPC, social media, email, video, chatbots and more so the right applicants find you first and you hire the best candidates".

    Besides the tools and companies mentioned above, several resources, free and paid, are already available to companies that want to boost their digital recruitment, what became even more essential during the pandemic.  

Sources: https://www.topfloortech.com/blog/digital-marketing-for-recruitment/#gref, https://www.webfx.com/digital-recruitment-marketing-services.html, https://mktgessentials.com/expertise/recruitment-marketing/

Importance of the FAQ page in Digital Marketing

 Importance of the FAQ page in Digital Marketing

Ref Link: https://moz.com/blog/how-to-faq-page

FAQ pages are a common source for most content blogs and services to re-direct customers to an action page. These pages help not only in decreasing load for customer support team but to shorten customer buying journey and build trust signals. It improves site internal linking meaningfully and creates a more effective sales funnel.

Key tips for making your FAQ page work successfully are:

1. Monitoring the FAQ search

2. Tracking user paths through the FAQ page

3. Monitoring "People also ask" rankings with Google

4. Monitoring customer feedback

Ikea will buy your unwanted furniture

For the first time since creation of the Swedish giant, clients will have the opportunity to sell the furniture they don't want anymore. The way it works is that clients will submit and online request and, for each item a client sells, they get an Ikea card that will give them one year to buy another item from the company. The values Ikea will pay will depend on the item and its state but it can go up to 50%. The campaign will run around the time of Black Friday, thus becoming Buy Back Friday and its part of the company's efforts to have a more sustainable and environmentaly friendly mindset. Peter Jelkeby, UK and Ireland country retail manager stated that "Sustainability is the defining issue of our time and Ikea is committed to being part of the solution"

Challenges with advertising on streaming channels and connected TVs

Earlier this week, Sahil Patel authored an article in the Wall Street Journal titled "Brand-Safety Firms See a Big Opening in Streaming TV." The article focuses on a key issue confronting many brand managers that are grappling with the opportunities and risks of advertising on streaming platforms and connected TVs.

While viewers are increasingly consuming entertainment content via connected TVs and streaming platforms, advertisers often lack visibility into where their ads are appearing in these channels. Many streaming ads are bought through large automated ad marketplaces, and most auctions include inventory from a broad (and opaque) range of sources. In connected TV advertising, only 23% of auctions use identifiers that comply with IAB standards.

This lack of transparency represents a big risk for advertisers, who have insufficient visibility to optimize campaign ROIs and lack the tools to prevent message creep that exist in other digital advertising channels. Brand safety firms and ad networks are both benefiting from this risk in the short term, which their services aim to mitigate. In the long term, until streaming services can provide greater transparency, targeting, and attribution, the category will not reach its full potential as an advertising medium.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/brand-safety-firms-see-a-big-opening-in-streaming-tv-11602237600?mod=business_minor_pos8

Differentiating your D2C brand

               Even before the pandemic, we were living in a time with new direct to consumer brands being created by the dozens in every possible category. The loss of physical retail over the past six months has only accelerated these trends. With the emergence of so many D2C brands, startup marketing teams are struggling to attract customers at reasonable acquisition costs. Search advertising and paid social media advertising which traditionally drove sales have become too expensive to accelerate growth for companies with limited funding. Luckily, social media is still here to help as a strong growth driver. Organic media and a content focused approach can allow brand loyal customers to share your message and recommend products to friends. This content approach can be accelerated through partnerships with social media influencers with relevant followers that will increase reach growth for the brand.

Korean Boyband BTS Risks Brand Partnerships After Political Statement

If you're like me, you've had multiple exposures to the amazing South Korean boyband BTS - from their memorable MTV VMA's performance, NPR Tiny Desk Concert, to Fila, Hyundai and Samsung commercials. I've really enjoyed watching this group's rise to fame and have their music stuck in my head constantly! Brands have done an amazing job of partnering with and capitalizing on BTS' success.

Unfortunately, what comes with fame is the need to be careful as a celebrity or brand when speaking about politics, especially when it comes to international affairs. An example of this is when BTS made a faux pas at a recent event while accepting an award. According to the New York Times, the leader of BTS mentioned the shared suffering of Americans and Koreans commemorating the Korean War. Internet users in China allegedly took offense to this statement because they believe that Chinese sacrifices should also be mentioned. 

One fan commented on Weibo, "They [BTS] should not make any money from China. If you want to make money from Chinese fans, you have to consider Chinese feelings." Other users accused BTS of trying to play up to US audiences. 

This incident has become all too familiar: brands and celebrities not being sensitive or culturally aware when engaging with countries like China. Promptly after the statements and corresponding anger from China, Samsung promptly removed their promotions with BTS from their websites. Fila also scrubbed all of their associations with BTS, a partnership that has existed for the boyband since 2019. According to South Korean news outlets, Hyundai Motor Group had also removed any references to their BTS relationship. 

BTS is not the only group that has unintentionally caused upset in China. For example, NBA came under hot water for posting support on Twitter Hong Kong anti-government protests. Separately, Dolce & Gabbana came under intense criticism for releasing creative which had racist and offensive Chinese stereotypes. These are just few of many examples of brands making mistakes when communicating in regards to China. 

What do you think about the backlash BTS is facing? Is it fair for brands such as Samsung and Fila to distance themselves? How can brands avoid similar backlash as they try to appeal to China? 

 Google employees fear the use of the A-word   

After the government investigation over Antitrust, Google employees have been avoiding to discuss the antitrust implications over the company.

A candidate allegedly sent a question - after an interview - asking about the Antitrust implications, and although that did not eliminate him from the process, that question was viewed as inappropriate and certainly affected his prospects with the company.

The fact that insiders are not talking about it is surprising. Google employees are known to be very vocal when they do not agree with some companies moves, but know they are having yearly trainings to avoid getting in trouble with regulators. Some say they just don't care as the Antitrust suit does not affect they daily job, some just say it is fear.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/technology/google-employees-antitrust.html?auth=linked-google

Advance your career in digital marketing The Edge Academy is the industry’s premier online education platform in data-driven advertising

There are free Udemy courses related to digital marketing provided by Trade Desk. which I found quite interesting.

link attached here:

https://www.thetradedesk.com/edgeacademy?&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=edge

The Trade Desk is a technology company that empowers buyers of advertising around the world. Founded by the pioneers of real-time bidding, The Trade Desk offers a self-service technology platform to manage data-driven digital advertising campaigns. Buyers can create highly personalized ad experiences across various channels, including display, native, video, audio, and social, and on a multitude of devices, including computers, mobile, and TV. Advertising campaigns powered by The Trade Desk take advantage of market-leading targeting capabilities, full-funnel attribution, and detailed reporting that illustrates the consumer journey from initial impression to conversion. Headquartered in Ventura, Calif., The Trade Desk has 23 global offices across USA, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit: http://www.thetradedesk.com.

YouTube Ads for a Political Era

 Joe Biden's most recent ad on youtube's home page had a record-breaking 10 million impressions, a first for the Biden campaign. Trump's campaign has similarly purchased screen time on youtube's home page, reserving precious page time in November the day before the election. The ads are on autoplay, making them unavoidable. 

This strategy makes sense and will continue to be one of the most important aspects of political ads since youtube is the world's largest search engine. Not only are campaigns investing in home page ads, but they also are flooding youtube videos with their campaign ads as well. Beyond these ads, campaigns are now working with youtube influencers who come with their own user lists ranging from the thousands to the millions. The rise of right-wing bloggers has become so prominent, that they can literally influence an election, and getting their sponsorship, is the most valuable ad there is. 

Campaigns are also trying to reach more niche audiences on youtube by placing ads on cooking shows and other non-political content, hoping to reach viewers who would otherwise never see their ads on television or in papers. 

However, this ability to influence an audience that may not even realize they are being targeted and influenced has brought scrutiny to youtube, and critics are concerned that the company is not prepared for the election and how users are taking advantage of this. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/youtube-2020-why-politics-have-exploded-video-platform-n1240160

Food Blogs and the Tempting Trap of Ad Publishing

 The world of online food bloggers is vast... and mostly unprofitable.  It ranges from very small publishers, often just through existing platforms like Instagram or Facebook, all the way to huge independent publishers like Food52, and individual home cooks like Deb Perelman (Smitten Kitchen), Dana Schultz (Minimalist Baker), and Tieghan Gerard (Half-Baked Harvest).  Unlike celebrity chefs who got their start via cooking competition shows like Bake Off, or who rose through the ranks of professional cooking organizations like Bon Appetit or Cooks Illustrated, these publishers are independent.  They have built their following online organically, by publishing content frequently that is relevant for the growing segment of home cooks.  Buoyed by the pandemic and the need for home cooking, one might guess that this career path is an easy way to make a living.  The basic math is that if customers want to consume this content, advertisers will pay for display ads on their websites.  If bloggers keep churning out attractive content for consumers, they will be able to rake in the proceeds as they scale their audiences.

However, even as display advertising spend increases, it's not going to these relatively static, small, desktop-based publishers, according to e-Marketer.  Instead, dollars are moving to the big players, in more programmatic spending.  Further, consumers are moving away from desktop towards mobile and other connected devices like TV and voice channels (despite a short-term increase in desktop usage during the stay-at-home orders this year).  This requires a more sophisticated digital marketing strategy from these smaller bloggers, who do not (necessarily) have the scale and expertise to position themselves dynamically in mobile-optimized or TV experiences.  Finally, many advertisers are moving to programmatic marketing buys, which prioritizes buys at major publishers, and leaves lower quality advertisers to buy inventory from these smaller scale publishers.  This is putting downward pressure on advertising revenue from the previously attractive display ad stream.

In response to this pressure, we are now seeing independent food bloggers seeking other revenue streams, since they can no longer rely on digital marketing to pay the bills.  The obvious choice for recipe publishers is to move into cookbook publishing, which is a challenging path for those not already succeeding in terms of awareness and popularity.  In the age of traceable purchasing, many independent publishers have sought sponsorships to promote products in exchange for a cut.  This serves to increase sales for the sponsor partner, but it does not appear to be a major revenue driver. A newer avenue has been a push into e-commerce.  Food52 continues to experiment with in-house designed physical goods for the kitchen, and has seen great success with these initiatives.  Just last week, Tieghan Gerard of Half Baked Harvest has launched a partnership with Etsy to offer holiday gifts hand-made by Etsy producers.  Unlike Food52, these products are not designed and manufactured by the publisher, but they are more integrated than a simple sponsorship model.  

As pressure on digital advertising continues, we can expect to see more independent publishers expand outside of content creation and into other revenue streams like e-commerce.

Honda Launches New Brand Campaign

Honda has recently started a new brand marketing campaign focused on its SUVs and trucks. The campaign highlights its vehicles including the Passport and Pilot SUVs and the Ridgeline pickup truck. Honda's goal is to portray its SUVs and trucks as more rugged. The impetus is because the market for trucks is expanding, and although Honda's vehicles have always had excellent capabilities, the company wants to demonstrate that the SUVs and trucks "can face most any challenge en route to that next great adventure."

The campaign will be executed across multiple channels. The first will be commercials featuring actor and WWE superstar John Cena, who is the new voice of the brand. John Cena was chosen because of his popularity, particularly being known for toughness and strength which fits with the image Honda is attempting to give to its SUVs and trucks.

Commercials will be featured during high-profile national sporting events, such as the NBA finals, NFL games, and college football games. They will also be on cable networks including TBS, Bravo, and TNT, as well as streaming platforms such as Hulu, NBC Universal, Watch ESPN, and FOX Sports Go. The campaign will also reach media platforms such as Amazon, Spotify, and Tripadvisor, as well as social media platforms such as Pinterest, Snapchat, and Reddit. The campaign will additionally include a Spanish-language version. 

I believe that this will be an effective campaign for Honda to increase its SUV and truck sales if the market for these vehicles is increasing. John Cena is a very popular brand ambassador who definitely personifies strength and toughness. It also appears that Honda will effectively reach its target audience (assuming to be outdoorsy, nature-loving individuals) by having advertisements across sports channels, broad media platforms, and social media.

Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/honda-gets-rugged-in-new-brand-campaign-301149146.html

PepsiCo speeds up shift toward streaming, digital as holidays loom

 In the midst of the pandemic quarantine, the consumer giant made the decision of investing in streaming marketing, shifting away from traditional methods. 

So far, Pepsi Co has stated campaigns are now much more targeted and that they can leverage consumer data in a way it was not possible before. To support this, they've announced an increase in net sales of 5.3% in Q3 results.  

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/pepsico-speeds-up-shift-toward-streaming-digital-as-holidays-loom/586733/

Tech Monopolies

In July 2020, House lawmakers questioned the CEO's of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, accusing the tech giants of gathering and exploiting monopolistic power. Google's Sundar Pichai, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Tim Cook, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos each faced a series of questions about their business models and competitive landscape, often posed by elected officials with seemingly little to no background in digital products or marketplaces. 

In a particularly funny example of this lack of background knowledge, when Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin asked Mark Zuckerberg why Facebook has removed specific content, Zuckerberg responded "Congressman, well first to be clear, I think what you might be referring to happened on Twitter, so it's hard for me to speak to that." 

The lawmakers do raise some relevant concerns though. Google maintains a dominant share of the Search industry (over 90% of U.S. search volume); Facebook operates three of the world's most downloaded mobile applications in Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram; Apple's App Store provides iPhone users with a convenient platform to download and update apps, but with no real competition; and Amazon has created a marketplace for countless small business owners, many of whom become direct competitors. 

Each tech company has created immense value for the U.S. and global economies, but with considerable trade-offs. Their success often comes at the expense of their smaller competitors. We, as their consumer base, need to understand this trade-off, along with the ramifications of its continuation before we act quickly to either push for the break-up of these giants, or allow them to operate as they do today. 

Microsoft Pushes for More Competitive App Stores... but Where is the Line Drawn?

     Following last week’s release of House lawmakers’ report accusing the four largest tech companies (Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google) of anticompetitive practices, Microsoft has publicly committed to 10 principles for how it will operate its app store. As part of these 10 guiding statements, Microsoft promises not to block competing apps from its Windows app store or block access to third-party app stores, and to only charge “reasonable” fees to developers and not penalize them for the types of payment systems they use for in-app purchases. These statements align with the ideas championed by the Coalition for App Fairness, a group of developers (including Spotify and Epic Games) that is trying to take on Apple’s anticompetitive practices and high fees (30%) charged to developers. While these principles do not represent a significant policy change for Microsoft, which has a more open app store than Apple, it does draw attention to the different ways that tech giants can model their app store businesses and, perhaps, highlight the more ethical versus less ethical ways to run an app store.

    That said, Microsoft has explained that these core principles will not apply to their Xbox gaming systems, which they argue are sold for little/no profit and are only profitable because of the game purchases (systems that run Microsoft Windows or Apple iOS, on the other hand, do not depend on app purchases to be profitable since the technology itself is sold with high margins). While this makes sense from a business perspective, in many ways it seems like a way to rationalize business choices that have already been made. Microsoft said that their 10 app store principles were designed to “to promote choice, ensure fairness, and promote innovation”—why should choice, fairness, and innovation go out the window because the company has chosen a different pricing model for one of its products? If Apple significantly lowered the price of its iPhone, would the scrutiny around its app store practices go away since Apple would be more heavily dependent on app revenue? While I am not disagreeing with Microsoft’s choice to have a more open Windows app store compared to its Xbox systems, perhaps the pressure it is putting on Apple to have a more open app store is unwarranted—after all, it’s part of Apple’s business model.

Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/technology/microsoft-mobile-applications-competition.html?auth=login-email&login=email , https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/10/09/microsoft-takes-shots-at-apple-in-new-app-store-pr/ , https://9to5mac.com/2020/09/24/coalition-for-app-fairness/

Applying Lessons from the Presidential Campaigns to Marketing

 In the referenced article, Forbes interviews Christina Mautz, the CMO of Moz, about responsible marketing. When I think of marketing, I think of the end goal of converting audiences into consumers and sales. Christina notes that marketers aim to change consumer behavior and having that ability brings on great responsibility. Marketers must take this power seriously and market to their audiences in an ethical manner.

Before reading this article, I hadn't considered how lessons from class could apply to the presidential election. In the article's example, presidential candidates may leverage technology to blast thousands of messages with variations on wording to assess which wording is most affective based on the clickthru rate. This is no different than marketers conducting an AB test and providing two versions of an ad in an experiment to assess what version of ad is more effective.

As Christina notes, the current election (and the elections before that) are dominated by clickbait ads and headlines. As the reader, I always approach this media with a healthy dose of skepticism, but how many readers do the same? Christina concludes that it's up to marketers to practice responsible marketing, which can be summarized in three steps. The marketer should understand the target audience, empathize/educate the audience, and respect the audience's privacy. These steps seemed like common sense to me, but it's shocking to think about how many companies disregard these guidelines in their campaigns. Personally, I avoid making purchases from companies that utilize these questionable practices, such as emailing misleading promotions or sending communications at excessive frequencies. 

I hope that politicians and marketers will consider the responsible marketing guidelines in the future. Until then, we as an audience must approach each communication with a healthy level of skepticism to discern what is actually true.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2020/10/10/responsible-marketing-in-the-age-of-presidential-campaigns-and-pandemics/#6963ecb61e51

How does YouTube rank videos?

For those who want to use YouTube as a means to market their own content, it is important to take a step back and understand into detail how YouTube ranks its video searches.

Keywords, number of subscribers to the channels and number of views are important measures, but they have lost relevance after other factors were incorporated to YouTube's ranking algorithm. In addition to these three factors, five other are worth of attention: CTR, ADV, video length, comments and resolution.

- Number of views: although not the main factor, number of views is considered for YouTube rankings.

- Keywords: keywords have lost relevance after YouTube's algorithm got more sophisticated. Although they still play a role, other factors are considered first.

- Subscriber count: a channel's subscriber size has a moderate impact on video rankings. But subscription driven videos have a higher ranking.

- Click Through Rate (CTR): the platform shows videos on one person's home screen based on how many times other users clicked on the same videos and found them useful. Title, description and thumbnail impact CTR directly.

- Average Duration View (ADV): videos that have high CTR not necessarily have a high ADV. The ADV assess the success of the videos based on how long people watched it. If the majority of people click on a video but does not watch it until the end, its content might not be relevant. 

- Video length: YouTube focuses on longer videos, in order to increase the amount of time people spend on the platform.

- Comments: the more comments a video has, the more engaging it is considered.

- Resolution: higher resolutions help videos rank higher. Besides being easier on the eyes and, therefore, more likely to be watched in full, an HD video give more credibility to the video, since the publisher was willing to invest more in the content production.

Anyone who is interested in producing video content for YouTube should invest time to boost these characteristics on their channel.

Source: https://marketingtechnews.net/news/2020/oct/08/understanding-the-eight-metrics-youtubes-algorithm-uses-to-rank-videos/

What will happen when Chrome drops the Cookie?

Google announced early this year that Chrome is seeking to roll out its Privacy Sandbox by the year 2022, which has caused quite an uproar in the online advertising community.  The reason: this project will drop support of third-party cookies, which as we know are used extensively in digital marketing for click attribution, conversion tracking, and more.  Google obviously stands to benefit from this, as advertisers will need to use Chrome's native toolset.  However, I'm curious about whether this will lead to the demise of the HTTP Cookie as quickly as many believe.

According to Statista data, Chrome currently leads market share for internet browsers worldwide, accounting for about 65% of the market:

This is likely due to the overwhelming prevalence of Android phones worldwide as compared to iPhone, whose default mobile browser, Safari, comes in second place.  My question, though, is what Apple & other browser developers' response will be to this announcement.  The nice thing about the HTTP Cookie is its transferability across all browsers; each implemented Cookie support, and so ad developers needed only to worry about a single protocol going forward.  Google may be developing a more secure and privacy-focused solution to replace the Cookie on Chrome, but will Apple do the same for Safari, or Mozilla for Firefox?  And if so, what will the implementation look like; will it be common across all platforms?

We have some time to see how this plays out, with two years still to go before the Privacy Sandbox is released, but one thing is for sure: the world of user tracking across various mobile and desktop browsers is in for a big shake-up.

Automation in Marketing

 This week in my Bridging the American Divide class, we're discussing automation and the benefits and the darkside of it. That got me thinking about how automation has affected marketing. After all, every single topic we have covered in Digital Marketing class stems from something that was automated before, whether it's email marketing to lead generation. The initial reaction to automation creates a lot of job loss, which is true for lower skilled workers, but more jobs are also created. Search engine optimization specialists, digital marketing experts, and even this class show the new category of jobs. 

It's also a fun thought experiment to compare and contrast the difference digital marketing has made. The sheer reach of digital channels is enormous, efforts that would have cost many man hours of work. Marketing is truly one of the best examples of the powerful effects of automation. People get more personalized messaging, productivity and retention are higher, and everything is tracked. 

Facebook to ban hate speech

 

Will this spark the social media platforms in finally monitoring anti Semitic hate speech and bullying:

Facebook announced today that it would expand its policy on hate speech to include information that denies the existence of the holocaust or blatantly distorts truthful information regarding the events that occurred. This change is supported, it is noted, by the large rise on antisemitism and alarming amount of ignorance regarding the Holocaust, where a recent survey of US adults between 18 and 39 believed the holocaust is a myth. 

This is one social media platform out of many that has had an increase of anti-Semitic attacks and posts in the last few months and likely even longer. TikTok, specifically, has a large amount of anti-Semitic accounts and attacks that occur daily, but nothing is done about it.

These events bring into question the power of these social media sites for bad and evil in addition to the good (for brands, companies, social lives etc.) Should brands take a stance against platforms that do not actively punish those who are using these platforms for hate and bullying. When will consumers demand more of the brands and be more conscious of their purchases, especially if these brands remain on platforms that support these actions. It is important to note that as the consumer becomes more conscious of what they are buying and the messages that these brands stand for, it will be important to watch how the rest of these social media platforms respond. 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/12/tech/facebook-holocaust-denial-hate-speech/index.html

Making Digital Marketing Interactive

 

An ad is always going to be more memorable if it inspires action from the consumer. The average consumer is bombarded with thousands of ads in the visual frame each day and at the end of the day, they may remember none of them. Maybe a catchy slogan would be memorable the second time they see it but if the ad is interactive and gets to consumer to click, swipe or type something, it will be memorable the first time. There’s a lot of experimentation happening here.

Brands are making content interactive by playing around with quizzes, polls, augmented reality and even 360 videos. Giveaways also encourage participation and tagging of friends and referrals. When digital advertising is interactive, there is an opportunity for consumers to connect with the brand in a genuine and authentic way. It allows consumer to be part of the decision making process of the brand and inspire the brand to create more meaningful products for the consumer. 

As a brand interactive content can be a great way to get more accurate consumer data and really understand who their natural audience is and how engaged their audience is. The data can help determine future innovations, new and relevant messaging and even identify white spaces

The death of 3rd party cookies drives retailers to think longer term

With Third-party cookies gradually on the decline, many companies are having to find alternative ways to reach and understand their customers online. Digital advertising powerhouses like Google, Amazon, and Facebook are leading the way in providing companies a platform to engage an audience. However, leveraging one of these large players services may mean giving up access to valuable customer data. This was never as prominent of a concern given the use of third party cookies. However, in order to survive the digital advertising age once third-party cookies are banished, retailers are looking to invest in their own digital advertising tools to build their first-party data for long term growth. 

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/how-kimberly-clark-navigates-a-digital-ecosystem-where-every-ad-platform-is/586451/

Google’s Problematic Acquisition of DoubleClick

 In April of 2007, Google completed a deal to buy DoubleClick for $3.1B, growing their already massive company and further extending their digital reach. This deal also brought forth questions around how anti-trust laws should be used for tech companies and whether Google is in danger of taking over too much market power. The Justice Department and state attorney generals have since had investigations going around Google and whether the company has cut off competitors with their empire and addition of DoubleClick. The Justice Department has been planning to file an antitrust lawsuit against the media giant, citing the potential evidence on whether Google skews search results to favor its own products and has used its expansive reach to shut out rivals. This potential lawsuit is bringing into the light questions around whether the country needs a more pre-emptive approach for handling large tech corporations and their purchases of other companies. If they were to change the law so that spinoffs were forced if one corporation made too large of an acquisition, Google’s purchase of DoubleClick would have never been possible.

 

How is AI making its way into Marketing

 

AI has become a critical component firms worldwide (not only tech firms) and is now an indispensable tool for those who wish to continue to thrive in an increasingly competitive world.

Market research accuracy has leaped forward with the technology. “Emotions lead spending”. And now it is becoming increasingly easier to identify this emotions of target audiences and personalize campaigns accordingly.

Such campaign customization can also be done in almost real-time and with at scale personalisation.

Adobe were the most recent to add AI features to its digital marketing software which allow to better target ads based on previous content.

https://cmo.adobe.com/articles/2016/2/how-ai-is-making-its-way-into-marketing.html#gs.i01av3

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3621498-adobe-adds-ai-features-to-digital-marketing-software

Miguel Fernandes

Japanese police have gathered images from social media for safety

Japanese police have gathered images from social media for safety.

Japan is said to be the safest country in the world. This is said to be because of the low crime rate, the high arrest rate, and the police's diligence. However, the article reports that the police have been using a facial recognition system to match images from private security cameras and social media. In other words, individual travel memories and group photos on Facebook Instagram were unknowingly accumulated into the police database. This movement could lead to an invasion of privacy and violation of human rights by state authorities.

As The Social Dilemma on Netflix illustrates, personal information and privacy on the internet is now a major controversial issue. Casually uploading a picture of you and your friends out to dinner to Facebook could be a major risk in the future. Would you accept it for your and public safety? Or would it be the same for Amazon to suggest products based on your preference? Shortly, Facebook may suggest supplements by judging your face from your group photos. But would you continue to use social networking sites?

More information can be found in this article.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/09/13/national/crime-legal/japan-police-facial-recognition-system-criminal-probes/

https://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/128437.php

“The sudden, jarring shift to an audience more frequently online will leave behind many lasting effects on how businesses reach their target audience.”

“The sudden, jarring shift to an audience more frequently online will leave behind many lasting effects on how businesses reach their target audience.”  While the pandemic definitely wasn’t the impetus for an influx of chatter around digital marketing, it definitely will bring on and even stronger focus going forward.  Following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, 56% of business leaders have reported utilizing digital tools, whether its SEO, PPC, etc.”  On one hand, given the fact that we are currently in a recession that many report as being as bad as the Great Depression, businesses are hoping to decrease spend.  On the other, “40-59% of large national brands intend to increase their ad spends across digital channels.” That said, it’s important that the budget is spent in the most promising way moving forward, and that doesn’t mean you need to have a “dedicated agency or a large advertising budget to make your mark on the digital realm.” 

There are a few marketing tactics that businesses can not only take care of internally, without hiring an outside or specific marketing team, but that also won’t break the bank.  These also reportedly provide the most benefit, regardless of the businesses size: 

1) Update your google my business listing: while this seems minute, it can have drastically beneficial aspects.  If you, as an internal person within the business, must maintain this listing to ensure you aren’t reliant solely on the general public. 

2) Bolster your presence on social media on the “correct platform:” depending on where your clientele is focused, use that channel to increase potential viewings.  “For example, a Main Street clothing boutique might find little use for a LinkedIn profile, while a steel bar fabricator might feel out of place on Pinterest.”  Also, businesses should be conscious of the age group they are targeting, thus allowing them to focus on the appropriate channels. 

3) Respond to reviews appropriately: something that potentially may not be as intuitive is the importance of responding immediately to positive reviews, while waiting a bit longer to respond to negative reviews.  “Do not incentivize” positive reviews as many platforms tend to penalize businesses for that.  For the negative reviews, it’s important to ensure the reviewer believes that their feedback has been taken into account.   

 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/10/12/digital-marketing-tactics-all-businesses-should-use/#1c8b8fd2f7ef 

The Dark Psychology of Social Networks

Upon watching the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma", I went on to read a couple of more articles on the topic. One interesting article that I came across is an article on The Atlantic called "The Dark Psychology of Social Networks", which focused on the psychology behind how a world with social media changed the way individuals and societies behave.

One concept mentioned in the article is moral grandstanding, which describes "what happens when people use moral talk to enhance their prestige in a public forum". Grandstanders dial up moral charges and scrutinize every word spoken by their opponents, which obscures nuance and truth in the process. One other phenomena mentioned is the invention of News Feed, the "Like" button, and "Retweet", which flattened the hierarchy of credibility and enabled the frictionless spread of content. Such functions have led to fake accounts and extreme posts that are used by bad actors to spread misinformation and polarize users.

The article went on to offer three suggestions that social media platforms can employ to limit the negative impacts. (1) Reduce the frequency and intensity of public performance. (2) Reduce the reach of unverified accounts. (3) Reduce the contagiousness of low-quality information. These suggestions were offered in late 2019, but it is a relief to see that a lot of these suggestions have already been put in place, or started to be introduced, by social media platforms. Twitter, for example, has started putting warning messages on tweets containing misinformation on COVID-19 as well as election and voting, including those posted by president Donald Trump. Just last week, Twitter introduced a set of changes that include discouraging users from retweeting posts without adding their own commentary, and showing prompts with links to credible sources for tweets that are labeled as misleading. These actions and the increasing awareness on the impact of social media gives a promising sign to mitigating the many issues that are mentioned in the documentary and the article.

Reference:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/social-media-democracy/600763/

https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/09/twitter-retweet-changes-quote-tweet-election-misinformation/?utm_medium=TCnewsletter&tpcc=TCdailynewsletter&guccounter=1

Should the KPI of influencer marketing be ROI or awareness?

This article suggests that influencer marketing is slated to cross $22 billion in revenues by the end of 2022. With COVID, we have seen large consumer shifts from retail to ecommerce and a rise in mobile app-based sales. The big question is—should brands focus influencer marketing efforts on ROI or building awareness. It is much easier to track ROI these days with all the ad metrics and analytics tools at our disposal, especially as stages of the purchase funnel converge and considerations and purchase often happen within essentially one step. However, awareness is increasingly important with such saturated markets and consumers inherently drawn to the familiar. Consumers often rely on word of mouth and recommendations from friends and family and crave more of the how-to-tutorials than product offers/promotions content. Consumers turn to influencers for guidance and have an appetite for awareness messaging and companies should market accordingly.

https://martechseries.com/analytics/roi-vs-awareness-influencer-marketings-billion-dollar-question/

How Big Tech Anti-Trust Regulation Can Change Marketing

How Big Tech Anti-Trust Regulation Can Change Marketing. 

Big tech companies are stronger today then they have ever been. The past 20 years has seen the rise of the internet economy and clear winners such as Google, Apple, Amazon & Facebook have emerged. While there is no question these companies have created tremendous economic opportunity, concern abounds that they might be too big. Specific claims include that Google and Facebook has monopoly power and that Apple & Amazon have sustained competitive advantages and strong market power. The risk these companies pose is the ability to block competition, thus limiting development of new ventures and potentially using monopoly power to adversely effect consumers. There are lots of economic and regulatory issues to be worked out but I would like to pose one specific scenario and how it would effect marketing. 

A Shift In Data Property Rights   

One of the potential regulatory responses to the power of big tech is shifting the property rights of data to the consumers. Today these rights are held with the companies and consumers give permission to these firms to collect the data. Shifting the property rights of this data to the consumer could attach a monetary value to personal data that a consumer could then sell back to a firm that would like to use it for marketing and performance. From a regulatory standpoint, this would allow new entrants to enter a market by large data purchases. What this could mean for marketers is twofold. The first is that companies will have very different data set for different customers. CAC would vary tremendously between customers based on the data they provide and that would alter the effectiveness of an ad delivery. Second, this would limit their ability to initially estimate your return for a campaign and then deliver a consistent campaign. The data would not be as consistent, would be more expensive and thus would greatly increase the costs of a campaign.

A final note is that with change, opportunity follows. A new frontier provides new opportunities to differentiate marketing campaigns and new  industries to form such as consumer data exchanges.   

How Search and Digital Marketing are Changing - and How We Should Adapt

Amidst the changing climate, most businesses are doing everything they can to build up their digital presence, as many consumers have shifted their consumption online. At the core of the digitization of these companies is demand for SEO, or search engine optimization.

There are a few trends that are emerging in the market that marketers should look out for when planning their shift to digital:

1) The traditional customer journey is changing. Companies that used to rely on trade shows and field to field meetings, like IBM, Adobe, and Salesforce, are now forced to turn their attention to almost purely online means of garnering interest and creating content. They are investing heavily in their websites, as well as virtual connections, to make up for the loss of what consumer would gain from in person events. 

2) Marketers are needing to widen their range when looking at metrics to see trends in search. It is important to not be too narrow with metrics or it will be challenging to capture important Business Intelligence to understand shifts in the market that help inform search strategy. Marketers should invest time and money into understanding user data, as well as market data.

3) Real time data is becoming more and more critical. COVID has drastically changed consumer behavior, and marketers need to be highly attentive to the changing needs of consumers by regularly collecting data, and making sure that the data they are looking at it up-to-date. This will enable them to respond quickly and adapt with the changing climate.

4) It is increasingly important to look at granular data, not just overall trends. Valuable insights can be gleaned by looking at specific shifts in consumer behavior and search to see where opportunities lie. 

5) Businesses are changing their strategies with the rapid increase of online shoppers. As many shoppers spend more time and money online, physical retailers are needing to change their strategies. Q4 will present an opportunity for marketers to dig deep to understand user intent to pivot their strategy for the upcoming holiday shopping season.

Dreaming of Ocean Spray

 This week, Tik Tok debuted a new ad campaign that leverages the footage from a recent viral Tik Tok video. The video was made by user Nathan Apodaca who was lip-singing the Fleetwood Mac song "dreams" while drinking from a bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice. The commercial "duets" Apodaca's video with Mick Fleetwood's remake of his video. Since the original video went viral, Ocean Spray's sales have spiked and Fleetwood Mac's song is at its all time high on streaming platforms. 

Neither Ocean Spray nor Fleetwood Mac could've engineered this viral moment, but both got very lucky that their brands / bands happened to be front and center at the latest cultural moment on Tik Tok. Ocean Spray even gave Apodaca a free truck filled with a supply of Ocean Spray because of how well their brand has been doing since the video. A few interesting digital marketing components stand out here: 

First is that this seems to be Tik Tok's attempt to create more goodwill for the brand, and position Tik Tok as pivotal to current pop culture as they try to stop Trump from banning the app in the US. However, I wonder if Apodaca or Mick Fleetwood are being compensated for being in this ad campaign, or if Tik Tok has structured their platform such that they own the rights to all videos on their platform. If they are in fact not paying either of them for being featured in the commercial, wonder if this ad campaign will lead to the intended good will Tik Tok is seeking.

Second is that Tik Tok seems to be a platform that is redefining organic marketing. Historically, organic marketing for brands happened through word of mouth - where friends share with their friends their recommended brands and at a much slower pace. With the advent of Tik Tok, many brands can be benefit from viral videos that can leave to instantaneous organic marketing benefits. It will be interesting to see if brands try to engineer these viral moments by creating unique Tik Tok ads that they hope can get the same reach / create the same buzz.

The CTA

 An important part of many digital marketing efforts is getting a consumer to take the action you want. This is referred to as the "Call to Action" or "CTA."  Some common examples are the button at the bottom of a retailer email that says "shop now," and the prompt on an Instagram ad that says "visit website." 

Some common guidelines for CTA's are to make them clear, colorful, and compelling. Oftentimes, you can A/B test CTA's to figure out what works and what doesn't. Some best practice tips are linked below:

https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/cta-best-practices

Podcast advertising has a business intelligence gap

 

Advertising on podcasts seems like it has a high return on investment. I personally listen to a lot of podcasts and always catch myself when I am on a website, about to buy a product, because the podcast host did a plug for it. I almost always at least check out the service or product.

But, the author of this article, clearly makes an argument of how murky the return on podcast advertising actually is. The reason why is not that's it's not working (or so we think). The reason why is that there isn't a standardized way of measuring the impact of ads on purchases. The basic measure of what a view constitutes is still being debated.

The article made me wonder why Apple and Google and other podcast distributors haven't already made "a play" in this space. It would seem like a logical next step for Google to offer ad analytics for podcasts directly distributed via Android.

We'll see what happens!

The Omni-channel Evolution

 The Omni-channel Evolution

In today’s landscape, even before COVID-19 hit, one fo the biggest and fastest growing marketing trends among brands was adopting the omni-channel approach.  Now with COVID making it more difficult for brands to reach their consumers through more traditional offline channels, the omni-channel and connected digital approach is more prevalent now than ever.  

When a brand’s marketing channels are not connected, not communicating with each other, and not agile enough to update across each other in real-time, that can lead to setbacks beyond just being able to reach potential new customers.  COVID-19 has shown us that a lack of omni-channel strategy and capabilities can lead to retention problems.  There has been a recent shock to brand loyalty. With the change in customers’ shopping behavior comes a change in needs and a change in limitations.  Looking at some of McKinsey’s findings in their article “The Great Consumer Shift”, we find that 36% of consumers are trying new brands that better meet their new-normal needs and limitations. The most relevant key drivers of this brand-switching trend are availability of products, convenience and accessibility of products, and value (i.e. better pricing and promotions).  By both leveraging their current capabilities (i.e. location and inventory information) and injecting investment into high-powered analytics, brands have the capability to connect the dots and harness those key drivers across channels.  This will make brands (that can afford it) better able to provide streamlined accessibility to products, real-time inventory information, and personalized promotional offers to consumers. People want personalization across every touchpoint, ensuring that their money is being spent effectively according to their preferences.  

In a world where we as humans are all scrambling to navigate our way out of a huge crisis but we still have important consumer needs, having a personalized shopping experience handed to us means there’s one less area where we are feeling around in the dark.  The growing expectation among consumers for the future is that personalization and customization will exist across ALL CHANNELS, and that their customer experience will be unified.  According to BCG article from June 2020 (entitled “Three Personalization Imperatives During the Crisis”), brands can leverage this trend by activating just-in-time personalization.  This can be achieved by using advanced analytics and increasing test-and-learn capabilities, and will enable brands to sense quick shifts in demand in real time.

But to do it right, brands need to invest in technology and data analytics capabilities that can enable omni-channel to work the way it needs to work.  For brands with hefty capital investment budgets, it is in their best interest to adopt an omni-channel marketing and engagement strategy in order to stay relevant and competitive.  And the question remains: what of those brands that cannot afford the investment?  Who will get left behind as the necessary shift to omni-channel continues?

 

Sources:

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-great-consumer-shift-ten-charts-that-show-how-us-shopping-behavior-is-changing

https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2020/three-personalization-imperatives-during-covid-crisis