Fortnite's Potential to Change Digital Advertising

     

    The video game industry is quietly taking over the media landscape. In the past, many have thought of it as a niche part of the entertainment industry but today it's larger than the movie and music industries combined and it's still growing. Even though it doesn't get the attention of either of the aforementioned industries there are over 2 billion gamers worldwide which accounts for 26% of the population. Additionally, the market demographics are expanding- people are playing games earlier and later in life and the gender split is almost equal. Amongst Gen-Z in particular (a segment often targeted by marketers) free to play, platform-agnostic games (such as Fortnite) have grown so much that media giants such as Netflix see them as their greatest competition for time spent on media. The constant touchpoints of many of these games (pc, mobile, tablets, and console) also give them almost unlimited potential for marketers who want to be top of mind.

    While advertising has successfully permeated most types of media, there has been some trouble launching successful in-game video game advertising. While ads are tolerated in free-to-play mobile games, they result in backlash for premium paid games such as NBA 2K19 which received backlash for adding unskippable ads. 

    As advertisers have started experimenting with new platforms- several companies have found success with Twitch- the live streaming platform for Gamers. Many of these campaigns have looked more like traditional influencer campaigns- with companies sponsoring the videos of Twitch influencers in order to reach Gen-Z audiences. Yet, these videos suffer from the same issues as a traditional influencer campaign, they don't allow for the brands to expand on brand personalities or capitalize on organic social media trends or movements as quickly. 

    There has been some recent success that shows how brands could use Fortnite to gain attention and amass brand love from players. One example is Wendy's, who launched the "Keep Fortnite Fresh" campaign in 2019 effectively blurring advertising and entertainment by having Wendy's Avatar play Fortnite on Twitch. Using Fortnite's newly launched "Food Fight" game they amassed over 1.5 million minutes watched of the avatar destroying burger meat in freezers. Other brands have relied on personalized skins or customized and crossover events to gain audience attention. Disney in particular has relied on both with Avenger skins and weapons being available for purchase as well as a Fortnite x Avengers crossover event where players could collect the infinity stones and become Thanos. Other packaged good brands have sponsored Fortnite themed content- with Dollar Shave Club, Honey, and Casper all experiencing early success with this model.

    Streaming platforms for gamers and games such as Fortnite have the ability to change advertising. The question will be is will the structure look more like traditional advertising platforms (such as television or radio) or will the technology, data and targeting abilities of internet-enabled gaming create a more digital advertising like environment. As the space opens up it will be interesting to see exactly how it grows and changes.

Three Lessons from a Covid-era Blogging Novice: The benefit of existing platform communities over SEO

When Covid-19 and the ensuing shutdown started in earnest in March 2020, the internet seemed filled with people starting new hobbies: baking sourdough, taking at-home virtual yoga classes, planting basil, and learning new (off-the-wall) skills like hula-hooping and roller skating (see: Sasheer Zamata).  But some tried to expand further than just the casual exploration and personal-instagram-post brag - some tried to start their own following, their own blog, and their own community.  Yes, I was one of these people, and here are three key learnings I took from the experience:

First, differentiation.  As with traditional product strategy, an online blog must be value-add beyond what is available in the current landscape.  The internet is full of at-home bloggers talking about their personal lives, and the volume of content creators creates an unclear hierarchy of quality.  The marketing adage goes, "You've got to be someone's top choice:" if the product itself is merely a copycat of every other sourdough-starter-how-to, it's doomed before starting.  As an ex-consultant and an MBA candidate, I (obviously) created a 15-slide pitch deck, circulated it for feedback among peers, and settled on a name, a positioning statement, and an initial slate of posts.  Differentiation, done.

Second, content generation.  I then shifted my focus to actually creating posts, and needed to decide on where and what to post.  Video accounts for over 60% of downstream internet traffic (source: Cisco), and holds consumer engagement better than static imagery or text.  But, video is much more labor intensive, so in my extra-curricular experiment, I went with text and images.  I created a website on WordPress, and posted my *differentiated* content weekly for a few weeks.  Once I got Google Analytics up and running, I accessed my page's traffic stats and saw... nothing.  No traffic. Content, check.... but if someone writes a blog and no one is there to read it.... you get the point.

Third, earning a community (and the benefits of scaled platforms).  At this point, I saw two options: either lean into the independent website, and drive traffic through SEO (by registering keywords and building in links to other sites I referenced to boost page rank), or find an already-built platform to access consumers interested in my content.  Google / SEO would have been a necessary step if I were selling products, or needed traffic to my individual webpage to generate business, but since I was only focused on a blog (or the dissemination of information), I chose to pivot to an existing platform with existing users: Instagram.  I created a page, and started posting daily.  Though my posts were shorter and less sophisticated than what I could provide on WordPress, the content was surprisingly similar, and allowed me to post more frequently.  Instagram was built to refer connections and followers to one another, so its algorithms were surfacing my content to interested parties (outside of surfacing it to my existing network).  Similarly, the use of hashtags on Instagram function very similarly to SEO keywords, and are customizable per post.  The user-interface of Instagram, the access to my existing social network, and the ease of discoverability all made my choice to disseminate content primarily through the social platform much more successful.  

Personalized Data-Driven Marketing

 The increased emphasis on privacy and restrictions on third-party cookies are fueling the growth of a more personalized marketing strategy. First-party and second-party technology-driven omnichannel stack have been crucial to growth in order to obtain and retain customers who are constantly bombarded with new content.

This article talks about personalizing interactions and creating original content in order to navigate the post-Covid word on a tight budget. The three winning strategies to achieve personalization at scale are:

1. Invest in the technology stack

2. Tap into creative messages and media optimization

3. Focus on utilizing first-party data.

For additional information please see the link to the article below:

https://www.adexchanger.com/data-driven-thinking/the-new-frontier-for-personalized-data-driven-marketing-success/

Social Media and the F-Factor Scandal

F-Factor is a high-fiber diet founded by registered dietitian Tanya Zuckerbrot. In addition to its private practice in NYC, F-Factor produces a line of protein bars and powders. This summer, a major controversy emerged when a fashion influencer, Emily Gellis, started using her personal Instagram account to share testimonies from F-Factor consumers who experienced detrimental side effects from consuming F-Factor products, including hives and rashes, severe bloating, GI distress, hair loss, and migraines, to name a few. Gellis believes her platform is a “voice for the voiceless,” and Zuckerbrot believes Gellis has created a “smear campaign.”

Social media has played a major role in the development of this story and several digital marketing themes/questions stand out:

1. Instagram can make and break: Zuckerbrot has 20+ years of experience helping clients manage their weight through the F-Factor diet. In addition to her private practice, Zuckerbrot shares her F-Factor philosophy, recipes, and advice on her public Instagram page, and as a result, has amassed a major following and community – there are countless F-Factor inspired Instagram accounts, proudly boasting #ffactorapproved to their posts. Many well-known lifestyle influencers gained traction as F-Factor Ambassadors for Zuckerbrot. And yet, all it took was one Instagram influencer, who never tried the products or the diet, to jeopardize Zuckerbrot’s entire business and morality. 

2. Reputation management and brand transparency: Patrick Ambron’s presentation in class last week focused on personal brand management and the services his company offers to help people clean up their social media pages and delete incriminating information. Should companies be able to do the same for their businesses? An interesting finding from the F-Factor scandal has been that there are no negative reviews online – the company deleted any negative reviews from Google searches and social media. While Gellis has exposed 10,000+ stories from affected consumers, Zuckerbrot claims her company has only received 50 complaints in its history. Does a company, especially one in the nutrition/health business, have a responsibility to be fully transparent with its consumers? Should they be able to delete negative reviews for the sake of reputation management?

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/style/f-factor-diet-instagram.html

https://www.instagram.com/emilygellis/?hl=en

 

Covid-19: The Brand Managers Dilemma

It is 8:30 in the morning, you have just woken up or maybe you have already been up exploring the latest fitness trends. Either way, you receive an email from your boss. The request, budget exercise. As a brand manager, you have seen this before. The leadership group meets on Monday and the next morning you are asked to come up with a few budget cut scenarios by the end of the day. Normally, the reason can be a multitude of things; Sales are slow in your group, maybe its just a fire drill or there is a new investment opportunity approaching. Traditionally, your not overly concerned that your budget will actually be cut. You propose a scenario that you planned for, which cuts items that you never intended to spend agianst anyway. However, now it feels different. Your costs are already down, due to travel restrictions, but new consumer behaviors are becoming more established and your company needs to adjust. As you begin to think about items you did not plan to cut, you think about a few key things. What has changed since March? How do consumers find your product and has it changed? How do your consumer buy your product and has this changed as well?  

Brand mangers are faced with these questions and scenarios every day since the pandemic has disrupted our normal life. Cutting budgets around key areas of your business is never easy. What I have found in my experience and with consulting my network of fellow marketers, is that cuts happen at the top of the funnel and then work their way down. For brands that are sold through online marketplaces, this means pulling back on search and social media and focuses closer to the point of purchase through Amazon. For service based companies, this means focusing less on social, podcast and outbound sales and more on search and client services. There are various implications to this shift, but this adjustment makes sense. It is every marketers dream to serve an ad as close to purchase as possible. It also happens to be the easiest ROI to prove. This is the justification most firms will take. In addition to focusing on easy ROI channels, larger firms are navigating a tense social environment in the US and budget cuts can be a useful tool in taking a stance. The recent boycott of Facebook is an example of a convenient stance to solve an inconvenient budget problem. Overall, as a brand manger, it is key to understand what is most critical to driving your success. These times offer opportunities to level set you budgets and focus on the one to two critical channels that matter.          

A Bland World

The venture capital-funded ecosystem of consumer startups are increasingly looking more similar... almost identical.

Enter blands. Blands are startups that seek to disrupt a status quo, with aspirational anti-corporate values, yet have a blaring duality to them as multiple entrants claim to be unique in product, groundbreaking in purpose, and singular in delivery. 

Some of the buzziest startups of Silicon Valley have triumphed from this model, including Harry's, Oscar, Away, and Warby Parker. They promise to cut out the middle man, position themselves as underdogs, offer a cute brand narrative, and are ineluctable.

As champion exists decline in the consumer products startup sector, a handful of companies stay winning. The digital marketing design agencies, like New York-based Red Antler, are behind the lion's share of the brand identity of these businesses. They offer a "business in a box" approach, packaging startups with the boilerplate tool kits necessary to capture consumer capital. 

Personally, I've been growing increasingly tired of this landscape. It feels like the bulk of the "use of funds" on a consumer product startup's deck is for "advertising on the 6 train". This is why I was delighted to read this op-ed published by Bloomberg last week about consumer fatigue. We need a change and we need it now.

Source:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-09-07/welcome-to-your-bland-new-world-of-consumer-capitalism

Can an Innovative Digital Marketing Campaign Save Halloween for Hershey?

Candy company Hershey & Co. is no stranger to digital marketing, targeting customers with banner ads based on data-driven segmentation and sending reorder reminders to loyal shoppers. Hershey also aims to magnify “seasonal opportunities” through mobile and web channels with eye-catching Christmas and Halloween displays.

But what about this Halloween, with cities across the country banning parties and large gatherings and advising against trick-or-treating? Halloween, normally the biggest season of the year for US candy sales ($4.6 billion in US candy sales last Halloween season), seems in jeopardy.

Hershey is aiming to address this crisis with a new digital marketing campaign through the launch of the website https://www.halloween2020.org/. In partnership with public health experts and partner retailers and alliances (e.g., Spirit Halloween, National Confectioners Association), Hershey has put together a “heat map” of the country, color-coded by COVID-19 transmission rates with a list of suggested Halloween activities (many involving candy) curated by color code. For example, in “red zone” hot spot states like North Dakota, the website recommends a Halloween candy pinata with the family or a candy scavenger hunt around the house. With these recommendations, Hershey is trying to establish a new place for candy this Halloween amidst our “new normal”.

Notably, the website has almost no Hershey branding (with the exception of a small note: “For more sweet and simple Halloween ideas, visit the Hershey Halloween Happiness Hub”). Rather, users see a large logo for Harvard Global Health Institute under the heat map and an even larger logo at the top of the page that says “Halloween like we’ve never seen". By taking an unbranded approach to the campaign, the goal is to define new occasions for candy of all kinds and build the category, which, if successful, will benefit not just Hershey but competitor candy companies like Mondelez and Nestle as well.

However, the ROI of this new unbranded digital campaign remains to be seen for Hershey and its partners; only time will tell if the campaign can save Halloween 2020 for these confectioners.

Sources: https://www.wsj.com/articles/hershey-maps-trick-or-treating-risks-in-hopes-coronavirus-wont-scare-off-halloween-sales-11600097275, https://www.halloween2020.org/, https://www.thehersheycompany.com/content/dam/corporate-us/documents/pdf/2018AnalystEvent_PostVersion.pdf

Using Digital Advertising to Turn Non-Voters into Voters: Facebook Defectors Turn Trump Playbook Against Him

I don't follow politics too closely and I never had. That has changed a lot in the lead-up to this year's election.

I now have an opinion. But, now I wonder how I formed this opinion and what influence what I've read online, via social media and news outlets has had on it.

I read the article The Facebook Defectors Turning Trump’s Strategy Against Him (https://www.wired.com/story/acronym-facebook-defectors-turn-trump-playbook-against-him/), which was what led to this wondering.

A couple of takeaways that I had:

• Facebook's digital marketing tools are quite robust - being able to A/B test and modify ads very quickly are powerful.
• Access to and knowledge about the tools are important. The article suggested that Trump's campaign "stumbled upon" the tools, when working with Facebook. And, the article suggests that this gave Trump an advantage. Is the solution equal access to these tools or banning the use of the tools outright?
• Using digital marketing/advertising to target the long-tail comes across in the article. Every vote counts, and the ability to tailor an add to even 10 people is worth it to these campaigns. I wonder if Amazon does the same with product offerings? I'm sure they do.
• Traceability of the ad to a vote (like a purchase) is still an art. It still has not been "figured out" on Facebook. I bet this could actually strengthen Facebook's value proposition. If attribution was possible, I bet the allure of Facebook to advertisers could actually fade.

Which of Today's Accelerated Digital Marketing Trends Will Have a Lasting Impact?

A lot has changed given the current circumstances but it seems many of these shifts have favored the digital world. The question we face now is what will last?

1) Investment in Dynamic Creative Technology Platforms

This dynamic technology allows different users to see versions of ads that are unique to them. I think this will continue to grow as more and more companies employ AI technology and will require less manual effort and time. Users will constantly be reminded of the products they just viewed and be more likely to make that purchase.

2) Accelerated Shift of CPG Brands to E-Commerce

DTC is on the rise for CPG even among the older and less technologically inclined cohorts and the ease of the experience will encourage repeat use of these platforms and online purchase in general. We’ve already seen this flow through to media buying in shifts in spend and focus to digitally enabled marketing platforms.

3) An Exponential Increase in Digital Sales for Some Industries

Consumer daily behavior has changed in this time of COVID and their online purchases have reflected this new normal. It will be interesting to see if consumers continue to spend more on healthcare, food delivery or DIY home goods (and do so online) as we move farther away from this pandemic lifestyle. 

4) Increased Investment in Attribution-Based Marketing

Attribution-based marketing has been on the works for a while and is especially important now when companies are forced to think more critically about how they are spending their marketing dollars. With many companies moving to more frequent budget updates (from yearly to quarterly forecasting) they are looking to data to inform and facilitate these quick decisions.

Takeaways

I think these are all great candidates for lasting impact because many of them are automated, data infused, or dynamic versions of what we were already doing successfully. The questions that rise in my mind are: Will the consumer see through or be bothered by the dynamic ads that know too much about them? Will automation leave room for creativity or might it actually free up time and energy to foster creativity? Will our reliance on digital and shift in marketing spend miss a whole group of consumers who are not engaging in this way? Will this approach appear inauthentic for certain brands and what choice will they make? I’m curious to see how the world of digital continues to evolve.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/08/17/accelerated-digital-marketing-trends-that-will-have-a-lasting-impact/#4156f00371f5

BOO: Will COVID Cancel Halloween?

As we reach late September, I couldn’t help but notice Halloween is starting to appear at the forefront, from Paper Source’s robust Halloween display on the Upper West Side to headlines about “Karen” Halloween masks (eek!).

This led me to ask myself: How will brands react to a major consumer and cultural event taking place squarely amongst a pandemic, social movements, an election, and extreme weather patterns? As an $8B holiday, will Halloween actually be canceled, or will we experience the holiday with new norms? 

To get a glimpse of what to expect, I wanted to highlight what some key players are doing. 

HERSHEYS

According to the National Confectioners Association, last year’s Halloween candy sales reached $4.6B, making it the largest sales moment for candy. Because of this importance for the business, not even a pandemic can scare Hershey’s away from marketing efforts around the holiday. Phil Stanley, Hershey’s global chief sales officer told the Wall Street Journal, “We’re taking a proactive approach. We’re really focused on helping consumers find creative ways to celebrate with treats, even though trick-or treating is going to look different this year.” Part of their efforts includes spearheading the development of digital maps and guidelines to help people assess safety precautions with celebrating Halloween based on their location. Hershey’s worked with the Harvard Global Health Institute to create this, and they are sharing safety tips in line with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s social-distancing guidelines. Hershey’s is also cutting back on assorted bags of candy typically used for trick-or treaters and instead focusing on smaller bags for enjoyment at home.  

MARS WRIGLEY 

To fuel a social-distanced Halloween, Mars Wrigley will launch Treat Town, enabling users to virtually trick-or-treat. Through the digital experience, consumers can earn redeemable credits to go toward candy purchases. They are also partnering with the National Safety Council to devise guidelines for consumer safety due to the pandemic, should they forego the app experience. "The virtual Mars Wrigley Treat Town Halloween experience demonstrates how we're reinventing our business to bring better moments and more smiles to consumers," said Anton Vincent, president of Mars Wrigley North America. 

PARTY CITY

Party City has quickly adapted to new at-home celebration consumer habits. “While everything was and is still being canceled we found people still want to celebrate,” said Party City CEO Brad Weston. Because of this, Party City’s digital marketing efforts and e-commerce are already orange with Halloween promotions. The brand has developed party guides and checklists to enable customers to make it easy to still plan parties in new ways. Weston predicts that parades and driveway parties will be popular for Halloween as they have been during the pandemic as consumers find new ways to celebrate. 

I’d love to hear from you! As marketers, what are your Halloween plans? Are there any brand/corporate activities not on here that marketers should be aware of? Karen Halloween Mask: Yea or Nay?

Sources: 

• https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/karen-halloween-mask-scariest-thing
• https://www.wsj.com/articles/hershey-maps-trick-or-treating-risks-in-hopes-coronavirus-wont-scare-off-halloween-sales-11600097275
• https://csnews.com/mars-wrigley-launch-digital-platform-enabling-virtual-trick-or-treating

Digital Marketing and the Art Market

    The art industry, more than most, relies on in person experiences. Traditional media channels are often used to advertise a particular exhibition, and interested clients generally physically visit the gallery to view the artworks and experience them in real life before deciding whether to make a purchase. With the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever the art world must adapt and go digital, which includes digital marketing strategies. 

    For example, take the new art auction app "Fair Warning", which was launched in June. The concept was revolutionary: auction one high-caliber artwork at a time through an app, offering no opportunities for the public to view the work in person and all bidding done online through your phone. How did the app manage to take this groundbreaking, digital concept and turn it into a success, selling a Basquiat for over $10 million? Leveraging digital marketing techniques certainly contributed. The founder took to Instagram, advertising the work to over 26k followers, and creating buzz that could then be re-posted throughout the network of art enthusiasts. 

    Fair Warning is just one example of the art world's transition to online platforms. The Art Basel art fair had to move fully online this spring as well, utilizing digital strategies to promote the fair and allow customers to view the artwork offerings. In order to succeed, and ultimately stay relevant, these galleries and institutions will need to employ the digital marketing techniques we are learning in this class. For example, using SEO techniques to make sure their gallery is high on the Google results list for the artists that they show. 

How influencer marketing- Super KOL- works in China

China has a very unique influencer market terms of customized influencer platforms, credible influencers, high ROI sales, and many more. Closed influencer networks created a more interconnected influencer-brand-follower environment. There are two super KOL expand its follower numbers and influence during the pandemic and with huge economic power.

• 'Lipstick King’ Li Jiaqi

In a little over four years, 28-year-old Li Jiaqi rose from being a shop assistant at a cosmetics store to become China’s top beauty influencer. With over 80 million followers across social media, Li has created an online empire that generates more revenue than many shopping malls and listed companies.

Dubbed the “Lipstick King” in Chinese, Li Jiaqi is primarily known for using live streaming sessions to try on a variety of makeup items, especially lipstick. He set the record for selling 15,000 units of lipstick in five minutes in 2018.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Li collaborated with state broadcaster CCTV to promote agricultural products from Hubei province, the initial epicenter of the outbreak. He also frequently participates in promotional activities that aim to help farmers and alleviate poverty, which can generate tens of millions of yuan in sales per live stream session. His tireless charity work has boosted his reputation and strengthened his fan base.

• 'Queen of goods' Weiya

In 2017, soon after Weiya started to be a “live broadcast e-commerce”, 70 million sales were sold in a live broadcast; in 2018, Weiya set a record. Within two hours after the Double 11th, the sales reached 267 million. Tianchao 300 million yuan; Double 11 in 2019, Weiya’s sales exceeded 3 billion yuan, and the number of viewers in a single live broadcast exceeded 40 million …

Here are Weiya's 14 skills to sell 3 Billion Yuans of Products in 1 day:

1. The first thing about live streaming, the draw
2. Preview all product offers
3. Collect user needs
4. Turn “shortcomings” into “advantages”
5. Expand the audience of the product
6. The tone is flustered, the rhythm is in place
7. Talk about user experience and dispel user doubts
8. Guide to give away, increase the number of customers
9. turning surprises, stepped offers
10. limited time, limited, price
11. Good at festivals and fancy trailers
12. Elaborately “build” the live broadcast room to restore the scene with high intensity
13. Strong supply chain, focusing on product selection
14. Create a sincere “personal design”, and carry home-made goods

Sources:

How influencer marketing works in China
Trending in China: ‘Lipstick King’ Li Jiaqi Settles in Shanghai, Prompting a Rethink of ‘Talent’
Chinese superKOL WeiYa uses 14 skills to sell 3 Billion Yuans of Products in 1 day

Video Game Ads - The New Marketing Frontier?

 As I read through Chapter 2 of the textbook and the discussion of search engines as the major player in digital marketing, I wondered about other new mediums that advertising can utilize. This reminded me of a recent article regarding a public uproar over the placement of in-game ads for UFC 4. Gamers that already paid $60 for the game were greeted with full screen, unskippable ads during gameplay. They were understandably upset, and EA ultimately backtracked to remove the ads.

While EA was unsuccessful with this attempt, I wonder how long it will be before such ads are accepted as a part of video games. The ads can pull similar levers that have made digital marketing successful in the search engine space. The appeal is certainly large as your audience is filled with coveted demographics, the cost to insert the ads is likely minimal, and the consumers are likely to spend several hours in-game, which creates many opportunities to display ads. Given these facts, I think in-game ads are inevitable, but developers must find ways less intrusive ways to introduce them.

The reading discussed the importance of optimizing content as a means to facilitate web traffic to the site. In the textbook's example, a site provides instructions on how to tie a bow tie. A retailer could capitalize on the webpage's traffic to generate sales on their own products. Perhaps video games can use a similar idea and make the ads "useful" to players. Their character could have the opportunity to gain endorsements for various real-life brands and appear in the ad, making it more palatable for gamers.

As an avid gamer myself, I hope that ads stay off of video games. I'm curious to hear everyone else's views on the topic.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/09/09/ufc-4-ads/

Digital Marketing Trends in the Beauty Industry

Digitization is revolutionizing marketing strategies and techniques across virtually all industries. One such industry that is especially experiencing this is the Beauty industry. Digital technology now allows companies to give consumers enhanced shopping experiences from the comfort of their homes or on-the-go on their mobile phones. A couple of the biggest digital marketing trends in beauty in the past few years include:

1.) Use of Augmented and Virtual Reality: Companies are using augmented and virtual reality to determine the optimal customer experience in stores. For example, L'Oreal has a Beauty Lab in its NYC HQ with virtual reality technology to show what the customer journey will be when they enter stores. This allows them to see how to improve product merchandising and packaging.

2.) Video Content: According to statistics from Pixability, makeup tutorials now account for 68.5% of views for beauty videos. Consumers appreciate that they can learn makeup application techniques and see how the makeup they are considering looks when applied on video. 

3.) Influencers on the Rise: Beauty companies are increasingly using social media influencers as brand ambassadors. Similarly to the video content, consumers want to see how products look, and it resonates with them even more when they see the products on "real people." Partnering with the right influencer helps brands set a tone for their products. 

4.) Disrupting Traditional Business Models: The beauty industry is no longer all about trying on products in crowded shopping malls. Digital marketing has fueled the rise of subscription-based models like Birchbox and Ipsy which send different packages of products each month.  

5.) Marketing to Men: According to certain studies, sales of men's skincare products grew by 7% in 2019. This has largely been attributed to the rise of social media and Youtube influencers that have male audiences. Sustainable increases in sales of men's beauty products will still, however, require more market research to understand consumer personas and desires.

Sources: https://verbbrands.com/news/thoughts/top-5-digital-markeing-trends-in-the-beauty-industry/ ; 

https://www.reach3insights.com/blog/beauty-marketing-trends-2020s

Luxury retailer hopes to emerge from bankruptcy through digital transformation

According to a news article in Adweek, Neiman Marcus is preparing to emerge from bankruptcy through a reorganization plan that will provide time and resources to complete its ongoing digital transformation strategy. Central to the strategy is a new digital marketing campaign called "Neiman's State of Mind". The new digital marketing campaign will not only provide avenues for the retailer to engage with its consumers, but also serve as a hub for its e-commerce efforts. Other digital initiatives include personalized appointments with stylists as well as added tools in the Neiman Marcus app.

The retailer's digital transformation efforts in hoping to emerge from its bankruptcy speak to the importance of digital transformation and the peril of failing to do so in this era. As traditional brick and mortar retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus face the increasing competition from digital native online retailers like Net-a-Porter and Farfetch, the former has to transform itself to keep up with new consumer needs and habits. As mentioned in the last lecture surrounding the 4P's - consumers today chase after unique products that speak about their beliefs and personalities, and it is important for retailers to offer curated digital content that piques their interests; as consumers become more savvy about comparing pricing and discounts online, retailers need to have pricing algorithms built in that justifies its relevance to consumers; not to mention the continuous investment required in building out both the online (website) and offline presence (store) as well as the mix of marketing channels including search, display, social media, and offline venues that continue to engage with the consumers. 

As Neiman Marcus prepares to emerge from its bankruptcy, how well it handles the digital transformation plan will be key to its future success.

Reference:

https://www.adweek.com/retail/neiman-marcus-digital-transformation-bankruptcy-emergence-plan/

How TikTok Algorithm Works

        TikTok, a Chinese owned viral video sharing platform, has been the fastest growing social media app in 2020. Recently, U.S. government began to consider TikTok as a national security concern and warned that the platform will be banned in the U.S. this September. TikTok’s only opportunity to remain in the country is to find a U.S. buyer, which would store all sensitive data from U.S. users locally going forward.             

        With acquisition proposals for TikTok U.S. from prominent corporations, such as Microsoft and Oracle, most disagreements began to revolve around one TikTok attribute in particular: the algorithm. U.S. buyers want TikTok’s secret algorithm to be a part of the deal, while ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, is not keen on selling it.

        Many attribute TikTok’s rise due to its unique algorithm, which is loved by both TikTok creators and viewers. TikTok creators find it as the easiest platform to find fame while viewers are entertained by personalized video suggestions. Listed below is a summary of how the algorithm operates from creators and viewers point of view as partially revealed by TikTok and speculated by many prominent news sources.

 

TikTok Algorithm: Creators

• When any new video is uploaded, TikTok shows it to a small number of users in between popular videos
• TikTok tests the performance of the video with those users (based on likes, comments, shares, and number of followers gained) and if the video meets the performance threshold, TikTok continues to show the video to more and more viewers
• Any video can get unlimited number of views if it continues to perform well based on Tiktok’s performance metrics, thus providing an opportunity for any creator to find fame on the platform 

TikTok Algorithm: Viewers

• The system recommends content by ranking videos based on a combination of factors – starting from interests expressed by a new user and adjusting for things a new user indicates they are not interested in
• TikTok continues to evaluate the user’s account based on their video preferences (what they like, comment on and share) and each user’s interaction with a video is accounted for in ranking videos and showing them to the user
• TikTok confirmed that each viewer’s video suggestions are personalized and two users can never have completely the same video recommendations on their ForYou pages

Capturing Gen Z in the blink of an eye

One of the biggest challenges for brands, particularly legacy brands that have been around for a long time, is how to best connect and engage with Gen Z.  They are the digital-native generation, and develop relationships with brands that are meaningful, that help them develop and define their personal style.  So how can brands without a digital-first presence hope to capture the generation that could most influence their futures? 

A new study from Snap and Kantar delivers some interesting insights that are quite surprising in terms of the way Gen Z consumes digital ads, that could prove very useful for all brands, legacy or brand new, digital-first or not.  The study shows that even though Gen Z consumes less advertising than older generations, Gen Z’s retention and recall of what they do see is very strong.  They can generally remember a skippable ad better than Millennials and Gen X, and are likely to even remember it when they consume it for less than two seconds.  

What this means for brands is that there is a lot of opportunity that can be unlocked if digital advertising is shorter, more grabby, and much better tailored to the Gen Z consumer.  Gen Z develops earlier, more meaningful relationships with brands than older generations, and being the youngest adult consumers have the most longevity potential, so now is the time for even the least digital brands to leverage Gen Z’s rapid information processing and digital nativity to move the needle in terms of ad spend ROI.  

This is a bit of a separate issue, but one thing I am still curious to know (and see play out) is how legacy brands that are just starting to move their sights toward Gen Z plan to re-structure their brand messaging in order to capture them, if at all.  If they key to capturing Gen Z is “communicating brand and product messages as early as possible,” how much will legacy brands have to re-calibrate their brand identity to do so?  Is this more likely to come in the form of brand extensions, new products that are Gen Z focused, or more general brand restructuring?  If it is the latter, presumably brands will be leaving a portion of their loyal consumers behind in the process, so what is more beneficial? In many cases it may be a choice between abandoning the “old” to a degree in order to engage the “new”, or maintain and grow the old with the hopes that what is gold can stay.

 Source: https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/gen-z-shows-higher-ad-recall-than-older-age-groups-snap-study-finds/584956/

How SaaS Marketing is different from Every Other Type of Marketing

 Source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-saas-marketing-is-different/

Digital marketing for SaaS businesses is quite unique compared to other industries. SaaS companies offer a solution to a complex problems and it is important to find a customer-channel fit strategy to generate leads. The article identified several inherent advantages of SaaS marketing that companies can leverage. 

1. Giving away free stuff is actually a good thing 

If you were selling physical product, giving away "free stuff" is not an usual strategy. But due to the complex nature of SaaS product, giving away free prodcut is exactly what SaaS marketing should do. The "free trial“ is a strategic marketing strategy for SaaS customer acquisition and onboarding. 

The free model has many iterations - free trial, free trial with credit cards, 90-day free trials... The common feature is free and it is an important part of any SaaS marketing strategy. 

2. The sales cycle is remarkably short 

B2B sales in general has very long sales cycles. But in SaaS world, the sales cycle is extremely short. Quoting from Peter Cohen, managing partner of SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors:

"When [SaaS customers] need a solution, they do some online research, maybe ask a colleague, try the solution or watch a demo, and then buy. The whole process might take a few days, maybe a few hours. There’s no long, drawn out sales engagements, RFIs and RFPs, head-to-head “bake-offs,” contract negotiations, blah, blah, blah. Customers find it, they see it, they like it, they buy it. Done."

The reason why SaaS product sales cycle is so quick is the nature of software itself. Softwares are constantly changing and evolving. If the sales cycle is too long, the software would have many iterations and update throughout that time. 

3. Your greatest asset is your information 

Most SaaS is designed for the purpose of providing information. The essense of marketing is to communicate information out to potential clients. The main job of SaaS marketer should be to provide information that leads to the source of greater information - the SaaS product. 

4. Yor customers are long term

Most revenue will from existing customers. If you could increase your customer retention by only 5%, you can increase your business's profitability by 75%, say researches at Bain. It is crucial for SaaS marketers to understand the customer retention rate and lifetime value. Also, focusing on customer retention is more important than on customer acquisitions. 

F&B chains drop branded menu items

In the last month, two major food & beverage players - McDonald's and Dunkin' -  dropped limited edition, branded menu items, a marketing tactic that neither brand has employed in the recent past. These chains seem to be trying out new marketing plays in order to engage younger (mainly Gen Z) consumers.

McDonald's is now offering the Travis Scott Meal - a fully loaded quarter pounder, with fries, BBQ sauce, and a Sprite (Scott's favorite) for a limited time. McDonald's hasn't offered a branded menu item since the McJordan Burger in 1992. According to interviews with McDonald's, this campaign was a year in the making and will not be the first of its kind. As McDonald's struggles to reach Gen Z / Millennial customers (likely due to younger generation's adoration for competitors such as Chick-fil-a), Scott allows McDonalds to connect with a younger audience. Scott's fans skew young and are highly engaged with him on various platforms (he has over 3 billion streams on Spotify and 33M followers on Instagram).

 

Dunkin' now offers the Charli - Tik Tok star Charli D'Amelio's go-to order -a Dunkin' Cold Brew with whole milk and three pumps of caramel swirl. This seems to be Dunkin's first foray into branded menu items. Charli is Tik Tok's biggest star - with over 80 million followers (that she has cultivated since only last summer). Charli is a native New Englander (from CT) so her connection to the brand is authentic. Like with the Travis Scott Meal, this menu item allows Dunkin' to appeal to a younger audience and achieve a "cool" factor, given the 16-year old's influence over Gen Z. In fact, Charli's die-hard fans were already ordering her go-to order in her honor before it became a menu item.

 

It will be interesting to see if either McDonald's or Dunkin' is able to cultivate a new consumer base a result of these promotions and/or if they are able to drive any material sales lifts. It seems like the Travis Scott Meal and the Charli' are just two of the many branded menu items coming our way!

5 digital marketing trends for 2020

Image source: https://baerpm.com/2019/01/17/augmented-reality-marketing-in-2019/

Article source: 
https://programminginsider.com/5-digital-marketing-trends-for-2020/

In the article the author argues that 5 particular marketing trends stood out in 2020:

1. Voice search

With an increased adoption of voice searches, more and more companies started enhancing their Search Optimization Strategies to this new mode. Content is built based on phrases that users would typically say instead of the traditional keywords

2. Interactive content

Increased use of virtual/augmented reality, interactive videos and other interactive platforms is driven by companies desire to generate more customers' engagement. Apparently immersive content allows customers to feel involved and creates a differentiating competitive advantage.

3. Video podcasts

Podcast format revolutionized the way people want to obtain information. Nowadays even radio moved to video podcast format which apparently allows better connection between customers and podcast hosts/guests. As a result, podcasts enable new ways for companies to interact and connect with their customers be it through their own podcasts or through product placements on other partners' podcasts

4. Augmented analytics

Progress in data science enabled through various machine learning techniques and increased computative power started transforming marketing efforts, with much more targeted and automated campaigns

5. Shopping through social networks

Social networks generating tremendous amount of customer engagement first turned into advertising channel and are now becoming a sales channel

I do agree with all the trends but interactive content trend resonated with me the most.

Effectiveness of interactive content strategies was demonstrated in class through LEGO example, through hype generated after Netflix Black Mirror: Bandersnatch episode, Tinkoff Bank's loyalty program posting relevant stories and not even trying to cross-sell, and many other examples. Moreover, as a consultant I have recently worked for a leading telecom operator in Europe with a task of building loyalty program which would generate the engagement, which would interact with customers instead of simply enabling cellular network. Thus, I also truly believe that in future we will see more and more companies competing for a new currency, "people's engagement", which supplies them with data, generates loyalty, and opens up new marketing channels

Are CGI created models authentic?

The digital world of social media is constantly changing and transforming the way consumers are influenced. It’s not always easy to find the perfect social media influencer for a brand to collaborate with. In order to maintain authenticity, the influencer chosen has to be a true fan of the brand and its products, embody the brand ethos and have a following that is relevant to the consumer the brand is trying to reach. There’s a lot of rules and regulations, not to mention an inherent risk in a social media campaign going of plan when the influencer has full control. To combat these issues, some creative marketers are now choosing to create their own brand ambassadors using artificial intelligence. Virtual influencers, entirely computer created and generated with CGI are allowing companies to have full control over influencer marketing. They can control everything from the physical features of the “person” to the person’s personality, and everything in between from fashion style to food preferences.

 

Completely believable digital personas can be created and presented to the world through the lens of social media, Facebook, Instagram and so on. These digital creations can be singers such as Lil Miquela to supermodels such as Balmain’s Shudu Gram. These digital models are so believable that no one could of guessed otherwise, unless the creators revealed the truth. These digital personas become the face of brands, music labels, fashion houses and influence the world through their messages in the digital realm, with a team of marketers behind all that is put out into the world.

 

If the goal of using influencers is to have authentic content that represents the brand, do CGI created models take away from that authenticity? Not only do these virtual influencers, give brands more control, save them time from finding the right person to work with and reduces risks of backlash, virtual influencers also have a more engaged audience. This engagement is partially due to novelty but also because of the full control the marketers have in carving out the most effective messages. On the flip-side, will consumers want something that is more real? Will they want an opinion that comes from a real person, as opposed to a marketing team?

The 14 most exciting digital marketing developments of 2020

 Link: https://builtin.com/expert-contributors/14-most-exciting-digital-marketing-developments-2020-so-far

2020 has seen a prolific acceleration of digitization trends - some long overdue. Overall acceptance for digital interactions and collaboration tools has gone up.

As a result, companies have had to adapt their digital marketing strategies to customers’ ever-changing needs. Although this situation has been challenging, it has also already led to incredible innovation.

Key innovation in 2020 so far are, Rise of: Virtual events and conferences, interactive content, podcasting, personal branding, print on demand and e-comm, Google's updated ad platform, omni-channel marketing, personalized email marketing, AR/VR, AI powered ads, voice interaction, chatbots, mobile first SEO and the creator economy. 

Keys to Effectively Employing Data-Driven Digital Marketing

Not all customers are the same. Companies are leaning towards data-driven digital marketing which can offer, among other benefits, a more personalized user experience. Using data to make marketing decisions can help brands connect better with individuals in their customer base, which in turn will help their conversion rates to increase sales, improve app download numbers, or meet other targets.

Below are four action items that can set the stage to help brands come up with ideas to allow them to understand their customers better.

1. Make it a team effort: make sure the entire team is involved in deciding what data-driven marketing services the company wants to offer. If some team members are new to this space, they should be trained in data-driven methods by those who are more well-versed. This will create a collaborative environment for strategizing together.
2. Revisit the lead generation strategy: use data already accumulated to focus on the right leads, manage those leads, and thereby help promote your brand's growth. Using data in this process will ensure leads convert at a higher rate because brands will already be focusing on the leads that have a higher probability of working out.
3. Create high-quality content: companies need their content to genuinely resonate with their audiences. Using the data they have on hand, they can see what kind of content better catches their users' attention and allows for a deeper connection with their audiences. With content that is more carefully planned, customers will find the brand to be more believable and trustworthy.
4. Personalize the user experience: data can be used to create targeted messaging and email plans, track user flows, and address different types of customers within a company's larger consumer base in targeted ways. Customized services strengthen the connection a brand has with its customers and again bolster the brand's credibility factor. 

 Source

Reaching the "Underbanked" Population

 The term underbanked refers to the population group that relies on cash and alternative assets to perform transactions, rather than traditional banking services, such as savings accounts, loans, mortgages, and credit cards. These households do not have access often because they prefer not to, or do not have access to affordable and convenient financial services options. Estimates for the number of underbanked people are hard to pinpoint but the phenomenon is certainly not new. The FDIC in 2017 estimated that 8.4 million households or 6.5% of the overall population falls in this category. CNBC estimates that 1 in 4 Americans are unbanked as of 2019. Generally, this group has sporadic and lower household income, lower levels of education, and little access to credit. This group is as needy of the government stimulus as any, but unfortunately, definitively fall into the bucket of receiving the $1,200 stimulus at a later period from their lack of a direct deposit account. Interestingly, studies show that this group typically has access to digital smartphones, presenting an opportunity to provide a channel to reach this group. There has been a huge boom in awareness around the issue, in large part because of the COVID-19 crisis acting as a catalyst

Speed is critical for the underbanked, and one proposed solution has been to deliver the stimulus checks via mobile payment solutions. Although not as widely adopted in the United States, mobile payment solutions are nothing new. The narrative that Europe has been several steps ahead of the US in terms of payments is nothing new, and China’s widespread usage of WeChat Pay and AliPay has been a game-changer. Mobile wallets are a cheap, low-risk solution for companies to provide digital financial services for hard to reach populations, even enabling digital payments in areas in which internet access is hard to come by. Rural locations employ QR codes to send money, requiring only an internet connection on one side of the transaction to move money around. These similar technologies can be used in partnership between tech giants with payment services such as Samsung or Apple and with the government.

This idea is gaining more traction. Maxine Waters of the House Financial Services Committee Chair and other members of Congress have begun to float the idea, claiming widespread benefits in economic recovery. Digital Assets such as cryptocurrency are another potential option in this case.

A few more SEO considerations

We've read about some of the standard SEO tactics one can employ to improve their rank with search engines, such as basic page layout, keywords, etc.  Having spent some time working as a software engineer for a large online travel site, I figured I could call out a few more (potentially lesser-known) considerations we had to be mindful of to maintain a strong SEO presence:

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are a navigational tool usually added near the top of a page to help a user show where they've been on your site, usually with arrows indicating the navigation path, with internal linking to previous pages.  You can see an example here at the top of a TripAdvisor hotels page:

Breadcrumbs are great because they're user-friendly, and help Google categorize where on your site a certain page might be located.  If these accidentally got removed, it was a big deal.

Lazy-loaded content

Often times websites will have content hidden behind a click, contained in a dropdown or a tooltip.  This is a great way to make your page layout easier to navigate, but you have to be careful; as we've read, Google can ding you for hiding content on your page.  If a bug was introduced on your site and the dropdown became unusable, you might get penalized for including content on the page that was inaccessible.  By lazy-loading content (downloading content only once the user tries to access the resource), you can ensure you're never loading any unreachable content, with an added bonus of quicker page load times.

robots.txt

Google will only ever crawl so many urls to index a specific site, so you want to optimize how your pages are being indexed.  At my old company, we had SEM-specific pages: pages that were specifically built for PPC traffic.  We didn't want those to be crawled, because that would take away from the SEO of our other non-PPC pages.  So, we added a little file called robots.txt (a web-standard text file read by search engines), which told Google not to crawl those specific pages.  This essentially prevented SEO cannibalization from our other pages that showed up in the natural search results.

NYFW in the Digital World

 Like so many other major events of the year, New  York Fashion Week is adjusting the current times of being in the midst of a pandemic and a largely digital world. NYFW, which is occurring this week, usually brings thousands of models, celebrities, and other A-listers to the city and to the designer shows, where people sit side by side in close quarters and attend after parties with no social distancing.

While some designers are moving forward with socially distanced shows, many others are choosing the digital route to showcase their new collections. Many of the virtual events are being broadcast through a new digital platform called Runway360 created by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Many people are choosing to see the benefits of digital shows, including the more sustainable features as well as the ability to reach more viewers than what is normally possible. Smaller designers are also able to showcase their collections without fighting for time slots and venues that more prominent labels are booking, and they have more room for creativity without the usual costs. Younger audiences are also being reached through the involvement of apps like TikTok, which is taking part in its own fashion month through partnerships with major designers.

While the fashion world has been making the shift to digital for a while now, this disruption to one of the most valued traditions does raise questions about what other changes are to come.

Brands Should Communicate Authenticity During a Crisis

    A recent market research study conducted by Hawk Partners during the crisis revealed how consumers' perceptions and expectations of brands have changed during the pandemic. A majority of those studied claimed that authenticity was more important now than it was before the onset of COVID-19. The study detailed that authenticity could be defined by the following dimensions: Brutal Honesty, Unapologetic Transparency, Constant Consistency, Values-Driven, Explicit Morality and Being an Expression of Who I Am. Amongst the above, honesty seemed to rate the most important.

    There could be many explanations for such a shift, however the most likely is that consumers are more engaged with current events and reading more about brands in the news, perhaps because they have more time on their hands, or perhaps because they are constantly looking for direction on how to navigate this new world - a world of overwhelming speculation and uncertainty, where nobody is really sure about much.

    Either way, this has created both a need and an opportunity for brands to meet these new consumer expectations. Brands should take this cue and tailor their marketing efforts to emphasize authenticity. They should outline their core beliefs if they haven't already, and communicate them to their target audience. They should do so with honesty and humility, and act on those values to follow through. Consumers are smart and they're also ruthless - they won't hesitate to drop brands if their expectations are not met.

Link below:

https://hawkpartners.com/brand-authenticity/understanding-brand-authenticitys-impact-during-a-crisis/

Walmart+ and Documentary-Style Ads

Source: https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2020/09/10/a-different-kind-of-ad-campaign-for-a-different-kind-of-membership

On Thursday September 10^th, Walmart launched its first ad campaign for Walmart+, its new online membership service. The first commercial features 22 families experiencing many moments of typical family life, from the everyday to the significant ones. To capture these (and many more) interactions, the filmmakers acquired over 100 hours of content.

While Walmart is no stranger to content marketing, this campaign marks the brand’s first documentary-style ad campaign. They are betting that this authenticity will create a strong emotional response that consumers will associate with Walmart and will translate into higher e-commerce sales in a time when the big box retailer continues to compete with Amazon. Other brands, such as Verizon and Prudential, have successfully leveraged documentary-style ad campaigns in recent years as part of the broader trend in increased content marketing over traditional advertising. As consumers continue to value transparent communication from brands, documentary-style ad campaigns will likely only increase in popularity.

Short article on inbound vs. outbound strategies

Forbes posted this article last week, which struck me because of the parallels to the inbound vs. outbound strategies presented in the Chapter 2 of the textbook (on SEO/SEM). It's a short piece, but interesting how it aligns with the themes in this week's reading - that we should focus on making websites easy/efficient for an engaged customer to find, and offer rich content once they get there.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/09/10/the-2020-guide-to-inbound-marketing-versus-outbound-marketing/#1416fd003032 

"Viral misinformation is spreading faster than the virus itself"

"Viral misinformation is spreading faster than the virus itself."  According to a study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, "researchers found 2,311 reports related to possible Covid-19 misinformation and of those reports, 89% were classified as rumors; 7.8% were conspiracy theories; and 3.5% were stigma."  

So the question becomes... how do we know what to believe and where should we find the most reliable sources of newsworthy information?

While many of the myths that went rampant on social media may today seem to lack any real believability, a few months ago, when the world was undergoing utter turmoil, these rumors may have gotten under many readers skin.  Whether it was that "poultry eggs are contaminated with coronavirus" or "drinking bleach may kill the virus," the average reader/viewer didn't know what to believe.  Some believe it was because of the absence of readily available information from the CDC or Coronavirus Task Force while others think its the idea that people now use social media sites, like Facebook, as newsworthy information sources.  Either way the abundance and spread of misinformation is believed to not only put people at higher risk, but also to make the doctors' jobs harder.  

A report published on August 19th explained that Facebook is "failing to keep people safe and informed."  Thankfully, there are people out there trying to counteract this misinformation and disinformation:

""Thanks to our global network of fact-checkers, from April to June, we applied warning labels to 98 million pieces of COVID-19 misinformation and removed 7 million pieces of content that could lead to imminent harm," the statement said. "We've directed over 2 billion people to resources from health authorities and when someone tries to share a link about COVID-19, we show them a pop-up to connect them with credible health information.""

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/business/coronavirus-myths-social-media-doctors-trnd/index.html 

When Marketing Campaigns Get Personal…

With digital marketing channels expanding and today’s consumer constantly evolving, many companies are finding themselves having to rethink their marketing budgets and resources in an attempt to keep up with the latest trends and optimize for performance. One of these latest trends is Personalized Marketing.

Whereas traditional marketing relied on one (or few) marketing campaigns to speak to an entire audience, personalized marketing tools allow companies to speak to each consumer differently.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled tools look beyond basic demographic data and continuously learn from traffic trends and individual shopping behavior to deliver real-time customized (yet consistent) experiences for consumers across the broad landscape of channels from social media to e-commerce. The best part, it’s all automated! 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/09/09/three-steps-to-using-automation-to-keep-personalized-digital-marketing-alive/#3c49058625db

Nike is Setting the Standard for Omnichannel Loyalty in Every Industry

Article:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2019/12/26/nike-is-setting-the-standard-for-omnichannel-loyalty-in-every-industry/#723068af1ebb

Per last week's class discussion, Nike is one company that has a very seamless omnichannel experience across its website and mobile apps. The apps' abilities to build community, solicit feedback, provide workout inspiration and a great digital shopping experience foster unparalleled loyalty, with each of these capabilities becoming even more important during COVID-19. In reading this article, I thought about a recent shopping experience with Nike.

I regularly use the Nike Run Club app for the Guided Runs feature and to track my mileage. In this app, I can see how many miles I have run with my Nike running shoes. The app sends notifications about other possible running shoes I might like based on my purchase history and running patterns. When I click on these notifications, I am taken to the Nike app to browse further, and to have other products recommended for me. After a few days of pondering whether to purchase new running shoes or not, I receive a notification from Rakuten, a coupon app, letting me know that Nike is having a sale, and that I could receive 8% cash back for shopping there. I click on the Rakuten notification, and am taken directly to the main Nike app, where I both purchase the running shoes, and an additional item from their sale. My entire customer journey in purchasing running shoes involved Nike - from working out, to researching running shoes, to making the actual purchase. Every point of the customer journey was also digital - I did not have to step into any brick and mortar location to browse shoes or learn about sales. I will continue to be loyal because I enjoy that all of my purchase history, wish list, and workout history is stored with them. My one critique of their omnichannel strategy would be to combine all of their apps into one - especially since the shopping experience is best on the main Nike app.

GoLingo

 An interactive plush toy that is going to teach your children a new language in a fun way. 

Is Social Media going to get Cancelled?

 

Is Social Media Going to Get Cancelled?

https://www.beautyindependent.com/social-media-this-week-dangerous-climates/

“Can’t live with it, can’t live without it,” seems to be the association with Social Media these days. With the increasing amount of time spent at home, many consumers feel addicted to their phones and specifically social media accounts. Throughout this pandemic, we have seen social media at the forefront of conversations and as a source for news and education for many people. It might have been on our minds for a while, but now more than ever people’s awareness is heightened over the pros and cons of these trends.

Most recently we’ve seen government regulation with EU’s fight against Facebook, government threats such as Trump’s interaction with TikTok, data breaches or hacks, harmful content and even a new Netflix documentary begin to “influence” how we and all our favorite influencers are interacting with the toxicity of social media.

As more people and influencers focus in on the harmful relationship many have with social media, should we be nervous about its long-term future? More specifically, if I am a brand who focuses on these platforms for commerce, or someone who uses these tools to make a living, should I start thinking about what could be next?