Social Marketing

An examination of Facebook and Instagram campaigns measured by Kantar Millward Brown finds longer-term brand impact is boosted when brands communicate in a more personable and human way. How do you do that? Think of the audience as human beings to be engaged not targets to be cajoled.  by Nigel Hollis

In the fifth and final episode of our “Critical Challenges” series, we dig into the topic of brand safety, featuring highlights from our one-to-one interviews with top marketing executives from around the world.

Today’s marketers are in constant competition for consumers’ attention – not just with each other but also with people’s social feeds.  Consumers have more ways than ever to discover, research, purchase and promote products and services, but what content and sources do people seek out, trust and find most influential?

The influencer marketing space shows no signs of slowing down. But to have a successful strategy, brands need more than just celebrity endorsements. Identifying the right influencers is a science that relies on complex data, not just the number of social media followers a user has—that’s why influencer platforms are becoming key components of companies’ marketing stacks. Rob Trauber, CEO of apparel brand Johnny Was, and Zackary Cantor, director of decision sciences at digital marketing company GlobalWide Media, spoke with eMarketer’s Maria Minsker about the value of influencer marketing technology.

Today’s connected world is driving a ‘consumer trust divide’ between suspicious minds in developed nations and more accepting attitudes in emerging countries, according to Kantar TNS’s latest Connected Life research.

For young Americans in the dating scene, a new epidemic has emerged – digital dating abuse.

The use of social media and technology for sponsorship activations are topics of keen interest for the ANA Sponsorship & Event Marketing Committee.

The findings indicate a growing consumer preference to make purchasing decisions based on their social media activity, a reality that favors B2C companies.

I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day and he suggested that pre-roll ads on YouTube were getting longer. Then he suggested that this was part of a deliberate program to inure people to watching ads on digital devices. I have to admit I found both claims surprising but maybe he is right?  by Nigel Hollis

Hispanicize Media Group announced the appointment of Joe Uva as Chairman & CEO of Hispanicize Media Group (HMG).

A survey of online shoppers found widespread use of brand manufacturers’ websites—with millennials more likely than average to frequent brand sites.

An August 2017 study from CivicScience, an online polling company that surveys consumers on their favorite websites and social networks, found that very few US internet users have made a purchase based on ads they saw on social platforms, like Facebook or Snapchat.

Data from social media analytics and monitoring service Sprout Social revealed that many US internet users believe social media has given them more of a voice to expose unfair treatment from brands and be more critical of them in general.

The report provides detailed data and in-depth insights on mobile apps, which now drive the majority of digital media usage in the U.S.

Amisha Gandhi, head of influencer marketing at the software giant SAP, wanted to inject more value into the company’s Leonardo Live event centered on digital innovation and transformation. She invited five top influencers to participate in the two-day conference, which took place earlier this summer in Frankfurt, Germany, and attracted 1,500 attendees, including C-level and senior digital executives.  By Matthew Schwartz

Video didn’t kill the radio star. In fact, radio has recently seen record numbers across some coveted demographics, reaching 92% of Millennials each week. Nor did television kill the theater star, as the success of Hamilton attests. Even so, it seems that the birth of any new technology or media will stir predictions about the impending demise of its predecessor.

Consumer demand for streaming services has opened the door for new players. Snapchat has signed development deals in the past year with Walt Disney’s ESPN, Discovery, the NFL, A+E Networks, Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting, and Vice Media. Twitter recently signed on to stream several sports leagues, which is on par with its strategy to carve out their share of the live streaming category. Facebook will stream 20 MLB games for free this season. And YouTube TV is now streaming live TV for cord-cutters around the globe. But it’s not just social networks looking to capitalize on the popularity of streaming. Comcast now allows its X1 customers to stream Netflix seamlessly from their service.

Social media is deeply embedded in our culture and has emerged as a leading indicator of overall media consumption.  Its burgeoning power can be vividly seen when assessing the consumption patterns, habits and trends of Gen-Z.   By Graeme Hutton

So a couple of weeks ago I sounded off about Facebook’s plans to enable sound automatically in its New Feed. I suspect my reaction is not that unusual and that advertisers still need to think about how their video is going to communicate without sound.  by Nigel Hollis

Investors have banged Twitter pretty hard of late. Criticized for flat user growth, the company’s stock has dropped as much as 13% during recent midday trading.  Despite this, users in Latin America have made the platform an integral part of their social media consumption habits.