Marketing In the Digital Age: News Round-Up (week ending Mar 9, 2018)

Ever find yourself talking about something and then see an ad pop up on Facebook for it?  Is Facebook listening to you through your phone's microphone.  No, it just really feels like they are. 

Why It Feels Like Facebook Is Listening Through Your Phone

Summary: Mic check: Facebook has gotten so good at offline and online tracking that the ads you see feel like it has tapped into your phone's microphone.  Facebook uses a system of techniques to best suit ads to you, be it location based through your phone, pixels, or tying offline data from stores' loyalty cards to your online behavior. 

Opinion: The level of ad tracking can get creepy. I figure if I am going to get ads, though, I may as well get ones that may actually serve me well.  If you're not into that, you can go into Facebook settings, accounts settings, and turn off interest based ads.  Similar on your iPhone, settings--> privacy--> advertising--> limit ad tracking.

Snap Releasing Version 2 of Spectacles

Summary: Snap announced it will be releasing a version 2 of its Spectacles due out in fall of this year.  The new glasses will now feature two cameras with a price point of $300 (up from $130 for version 1).  This is after a $40 million loss on the first version of Spectacles, with many glasses sitting unsold.  

Opinion: When Snap changed its tagline to "a camera company," one would have expected better camera products.  That has not been the case, and this seems like an instance of throwing good money after bad now. 

Brands' Ads Unknowingly Ran on YouTube Channel InfoWars

Summary: InfoWars right-wing founder Alex Jones was reprimanded last week for claiming victims of the Florida shooting were actors.  Now, CNN discovered brand ads from companies like Nike, ClassPass, FOX, Acer, and more were running on the channel without their knowledge. 

Opinion: Keep your blacklist and whitelist channels up-to-date!  Set a calendar reminder if you have to in order to protect your brand identity and integrity.

FOX Aims to Cut Ads to 2 Minutes Per Hour by 2020

Summary: FOX Network Group's ad sales chief announced a goal of reducing TV ad time to two minutes by 2020. In 2017, the average time was ~13 minutes on broadcast and 16 minutes on cable. FOX would likely have to charge a lot more for ads given the reduced inventory.    

Opinion: This will price a lot of companies out of the market.  For those that could afford it, I imagine the effectiveness of the ad and recall would increase given the limited time.  

Facebook Signs Deal to Stream 25 MLB Games

Summary: Facebook announced exclusive rights to stream 25 afternoon games on Facebook. 

Opinion: With broadcast TV on the decline, a shift to online viewing threatens offline revenues for traditional TV even more. The shift, however, is reflective of migrating consumer behaviors. 

Marketing in the Digital Age: News Round-Up (week ending Feb 23, 2018)

The tweet that cost $1.7B... Kylie Jenner tweeted out that she no longer uses Snapchat, and the market price tumbled staggering $1.7B.

Kylie Jenner Wipes Off $1.7B Market Cap for Snap

Summary: In addition to above, Citigroup downgraded Snap's stock to a sell primarily based on the redesign launched last week.  

Opinion: Words are powerful.  As marketers, we have to carefully choose what we put out in the world to represent brands and ourselves.  

Maybelline Asks Followers If It Should Quit Snapchat

Summary: Maybelline tweeted out a poll asking its followers if it should leave Snapchat.  After 6,000 people responded, Maybelline deleted the tweet.  A spokesperson from Maybelline said the tweet was made by an individual and does not reflect the views of the company. 

Opinion: Good week for Twitter, bad week for Snap.  This example is why it's important to put a seasoned professional in social media who know the effects of their power.  Oftentimes, which may or may not be the case at Maybelline, marketing professionals put millennials mistakenly in place simply because they grew up with the technology and not because they have the skills to master the job.  

Black Panther Highest Grossing MCU Film in First Week

Summary: Black Panther took in $292m in North America during its opening week, which is higher than any other Marvel Cinematic Universe title. 

Opinion: Being a woman of color, it's not often that I see someone who reflects either of these fundamental aspects of me in mainstream media.  I hope the success of having a quality film with an actor of color as the lead opens the eyes of brands that there is still money to be made when exercising the social good of diversity. 

Google Puts AR on 100 Million Phones

Summary: Google released its augmented reality, ARCore, to its 1.0 release to bring the technology to over 100 million phones.  The company said it will be bringing ARCore to Samsung, Huawei, LGE, Motorola, ASUS, Xiaomi, HMD/Nokia, ZTE, Sony Mobile, and Vivo. 

Opinion: I think the potential for AR is so much stronger than VR in our current state, and it's often overlooked by industries as a powerful marketing tool.  With VR, there is still too much education, content, and devices needed in circulation to make a true effect.  This integration of AR into everyday devices gives marketers a powerful tool to share experiences about their products.  

Marketing in the Digital Age: News Round-Up (week ending Feb 16,2018)

In this week's edition of Marketing In The Digital Age, there have been lots of updates and redesigns to Google and Snap which will affect marketing planning.  How will your company evolve with the changes? 

Snapchat Redesign Under Fire From Consumers

Summary: Snapchat took to a redesign earlier this week, which launched a petition signed by 1.1m+ users and counting to go back to the old look.  A complaint highlighted by CEO Evan Spiegel said a user complained that celebrities used to feel like a friend but they don't anymore with the new ways Stories are presented, to which Spiegel responded, "...exactly. They're not your friend."

Opinion: Ouch, Spiegel!  Why wouldn't you want a key differentiator from dominant competitors in the space?  Even though Snap's earnings were better than expected this week, it still has a ways to go to stay on top of its business and colossal giant Facebook.

Google's New Ad Blocker

Summary: Google rolled out a new ad blocker to help mitigate annoying ads, like ones where sound automatically plays or ads you can't close until a certain amount of time has passed. Google is essentially blacklisting sites that violate the terms and also blocking all ads on the violator's site.  With a major source of its revenue coming from Google Ad Network, Google is taking this preemptive measure to keep people from installing more aggressive ad blockers that hurt revenue even more.

Opinion: Although it may be painful to some advertisers with annoying ads in the short run, the move helps advertisers since Google is helping keep the door open for ads to be seen still.  

Google Emails to Upate Automatically

Summary: Google unveiled it will roll out a demonstration of dynamically updated emails, which would allow for emails to be continuously updating with information and greater interactivity.  An example could be automatically updated flight info in a booking confirmation email.  The feature is coming out of Goggle's AMP, Accelerated Mobile Pages, division, which strips out technology to make pages load faster.

Opinion: There have been instances where I have needed original information from an email, and I wonder how these automatic updates will affect the flow of information.  Web developer critics are also saying that this gives Google too much say in the way the web operates.  

MARKETING IN THE DIGITAL AGE: NEWS ROUND-UP (WEEK ENDING FEB 9, 2018)

This week's Marketing In the Digital Age edition focuses on marketing gone wrong, from a women's snack to tasering a dead rat.  I will leave us, though, on a positive note of creative Instagram monetization.  

Hollywood Director Using a Twitter Poll

Summary: Director McKay posted a twitter poll asking fans a question about casting for his upcoming Nightwing film.  

Opinion:  There is a right way to use social media, and then there's this way.  The qualities McKay references are not mutually exclusive.  Moreover, being Romani is central to this character's identity, and this alludes to the possibility of eliminating his original ethnicity.  Please tweet responsibly. 

Logan Paul Temp Cutoff From Revenue on YouTube

Summary: After posting many questionable videos, the tasering of a dead rat, encouraging followers to participate in the Tide Pod challenge (eating laundry detergent), and the leading one of which was filming the body of a person who committed suicide, YouTube announced it would temporarily suspend ads on his channel (translation: no ad revenue on his channel).

Opinion: Even though Paul took a one-month hiatus after filming the suicide and spoke about mental health awareness, YouTube should have taken action then to suspend the YouTube star after this initial incident.  The dead rat and Tide Pod challenge  should have only furthered that suspension.  As we have seen the results from the 2016 elections, for better and worse, platforms need to be more involved in what is being broadcast off their channels.  The suspension is at least a positive step towards that, and I hope to see a reasonable level of moderation continue. 

Doritos for Women

Summary: Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi announced Doritos would be releasing a line of Doritos aimed at women because they snack differently.  Women apparently do not want a Dorito that crunches loudly or leaves a cheesy film on their fingers.  

Opinion: This was surprising to me for a company with a female CEO.  Although it may be true we snack differently, having a CEO come out and say they were building a version of the snack aimed at women seems dated.  A better approach could have been announcing the release of the product and letting the market gravitate towards what it wants.  

Chinese Influencers Create Own Brands

Summary: Instead of using social channels to promote other brands, some Chinese Instagram influencers have used their popularity to promote their own brands. Haiyan Fu ("Ava") and Nikki Min teamed up to create their own fashion line, Ave & Nikki.  American influencers have begun to dip their toes into this, but China has already developed a robust market around it with a projected worth of the influencer economy at $15.5 billion (yes, USD).  Part of this is the ease at which Chinese social media sites (Weibo, WeChat, etc.), allow for e-commerce transactions, while Instagram and other US platforms have yet to offer this option.  

Opinion: These are smart influencers.  If you are promoting something, why not promote something you've created and monetize that?  It expands commerce and markets.  Could their success be a window into a similar function being built into Instagram and other platforms in the future? 

Marketing in the Digital Age: News Round-Up (week ending Feb 2, 2018)

Why isn't Google or Facebook threatened by Amazon's projected $8 billion ad business in 2019?  Because they will be playing in different playgrounds... 

Instagram Is Turning into Facebook and That's Bad

Summary: Instagram is getting transformed into many of the facets its big brother Facebook has: ads are increasing in frequency, seeing recommended content from people you don't know, and even showing when users were last active.  

Opinion: This article was the opinion of the author, and I agree with many of the points made.  Instagram was built as a different platform from Facebook, and it's why its popularity grew.  Morphing it into another version of Facebook will strip away the reason why people use Instagram.

Amazon Ad Business

Summary: At a projected $8 billion in revenue by 2019, Amazon's ad business still isn't a threat to Google or Facebook. Why?  Because as Google and Facebook are looking to pull dollars from traditional media spending and digital ad budgets, Amazon is focused on the trade promotions arena (think in-store promotions, coupons, and samples).

Opinion: With the mass amount of data Amazon already has on its customers, moving into this new ad world can surge new life into the trade promotions arena by expanding advertisers spends in this area.  

Snapchat Launches Snap Store

Summary: Snapchat has launched a store in its platform, which you can find by searching for it or via Snapcode.  You can buy t-shirts, hats, and merchandise with Snap branding on it.  

Opinion: I've never been a fan of buying clothing or merchandise that sports a brand's name.  I feel like I should be paid to advertise for them instead of the other way around, but, hey, if it's your thing, the Store is waiting for you.   

Marketing in the Digital Age: News Round-Up (week ending Jan 26, 2018)

Like what you just watched? Consider a tip of $3... 

Facebook Tipping for Live Gamestreamers

Summary: Facebook Live is launching a monetization strategy allowing viewers to tip a minimum of $3 to creators on their desktop site.  If you are gamer who is reading this, you can sign up here. 

Opinion: This is a great way to get even more creators using Facebook Live.  It incentives more creators to use Facebook Live over competing platforms.  

Twitter AI Photo Recognition

Summary: Twitter will use an AI technique called "saliency" to zoom in on the part of a picture where a user is likely to look to make. Meaning, instead of only seeing a cat's neck when you first upload a pic onto Twitter, AI has learned what most people will focus on and will provide for that as the center of the image.  

Opinion: It's a good move towards improving user experience, but there needs to be a lot more improvement to see a noticeable shift in user engagement. 

Google's Local News App

Summary: Google is testing a tool, Bulletin, that will allow users to publish local news stories and events.  

Opinion: Even though this will be on a local scale, Google will hopefully be integrating checks to prevent contributions towards fake news. 

Super Bowl Advertising Costs and Rejections

Summary: An ad in the Super Bowl will run a pretty penny, at least $5 million pretty pennies to be exact for a 30 second ad.  The NFL rejected an ad from AMVET using hashtag #PleaseStand in reference to players kneeling during the anthem.  NFL spokesperson said the ad was rejected stating the Super Bowl "has never been a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement."

Opinion: Having worked tangentially on a Super Bowl ad, it's definitely not a spend to be taken lightly.  Make sure your ad is unique, to put it lightly, and have clear awareness goals in mind when creating the ad.  

Marketing in the Digital Age: News Round-Up (week ending Jan 19, 2018)

All of marketing seems to continue to be on the Facebook newsfeed change this week.  Facebook announced that it will prioritize content from friends, families, and groups.  I didn't think much of it since Facebook is largely a pay-to-play space for brands to make a meaningful impact already.  This change only (slightly) amplifies media, brands, and publishers paying more for ads. 

Zuckerberg warned his change would have people spending less time on the platform, though I think it's a way for Facebook to charge even more for ads (thus adding to overall revenue). A few articles have expressed just that, leading into the first story in our News Round-Up this week...

Facebook's Newsfeed Changes Is About Getting You To Click The Ads

Summary:  See above 

Opinion: See above

Spotify Launches New Podcast

Summary: Spotify announced it will release podcasts with visual elements.  At launch, they will feature content from Buzzfeed, Cheddar, Gimlet Media, and others, including Spotify's own original content.  

Opinion: I'm not quite understanding the appeal of this since I thought the point of a podcast was to sit back and listen, not watch something. 

KFC's Meditation Ads

Summary: KFC launched a series of videos focused on mediation, mindfulness, and affirmation.  Central to the videos are KFC's pot pies. 

Opinion: This feels like a thinly veiled attempt at capturing the newly legalized marijuana audience in California, though I have yet to come across media coverage making this connection. 

Marketing In The Digital Age: News Round-Up (week ending Jan 12, 2018)

Ikea wants you to pee on their ads.  Well, not every ad, but a specific ad to reveal if you are pregnant and receive a discount on the product shows. 

Hulu Subscriber Base Growth for 2017

Summary: Hulu's subscriber grew 40% over the previous year, which still leaves a big gap from Netflix's base of 52.8 million. 

Opinion: Will this lead to more cord cutting?  Having tried several live TV streaming services, YouTube TV, Hulu Live, and DirecTV Now, the services still leave something to be desired.  The stream often cuts out and each service has its limitations on what channels are available. 

What Is Snapchat Now That Story Sharing Has Stopped Growing

Summary: Instagram Stories has halted growth from Snapchat's most promising moneymaker, Stories.  Prior to Instagram Stories, Snapchat grew 17.2% compared to last quarter's growth of only 2.9%. 

Opinion: It's good to have competition and alternatives to Facebook/Instagram, and I was rooting for Snap.  Sadly, it seems it will continue on this downward trend given other functionalities introduced, like Snap Map live location sharing and geo-tagged content search have continued to decline.  

Pee On This Ikea Ad To Find Out If You Are Pregnant

Summary: You pee on a section of the ad to see if you are pregnant and, if you are, you get a discount on the product shown in the ad.  

Opinion: It has me talking about it here as a marketing update so it's done it's job at innovation, and there could be other applications for this from a medical standpoint in the future.  But, ew.

The Subliminal Trick Netflix Uses to Get You To Watch More Movies and TV Shows

Summary: Most people make their viewing decisions based on the image since it is less of a time commitment than reading about the work.  Because of this, Netflix serves up different key art to you based on past watching behaviors.  For example, you may see Good Will Hunting pop-up in your recommended section.  If you were a viewer of romance based content in the past, you could be served an ad of Matt Damon and Minnie Driver kissing.  If you watched a lot of comedy in the past, you could get served an image of Robin Williams for the same film. 

Opinion: I think this offers a way to cater to individuals.  Different individuals may be drawn to the content for different reasons, so I think it's smart to offer different pieces of art from the same film to attract different people.