E-COMMERCE
We did say this is coming, right?
Livestream shopping.
We’ve mentioned it several times this year. It’s a trend in Southeast Asia and Saudi Arabia, and it’s becoming more and more common in Western countries as well.
Walmart is one of the big players to jump on this, with the help of TikTok.
They had a test in December that went well and now they’re planning another livestream shopping event.
It will take place on 11th March starting at 9pm EST on Walmart’s TikTok channel.
Now, if you’re thinking that you’re not Walmart (or maybe you are, let us know if you work there!), you should still try and take advantage of this trend.
Maybe not on TikTok… You might prefer another social media app. But you certainly don’t need TV-quality production. Don’t sleep on this format!
SOCIAL MEDIA
What did you make of the Burger King fiasco?
We had some interesting thoughts from you…
John – FB Ads specialist from No79 Design – is wondering if Burger King UK actually intended for the first tweet to be so impactful: “I fully believe they meant to generate an engaging conversation as part of the thread, but did they intend the first tweet to be so impactful?”
He also reminded us this is not the only time Burger King did something like this: “Burger King do not often shy aware from shock tactic marketing, the Chick Fries being a direct comparison to ‘Women belong in the kitchen’.”
Ash – e-commerce director at Bush Planet – has a clearer stance: “It’s a very old cliché and has been used in communication several times. Yes, as a worldwide fast-food chain, they have the context to use it but they probably shouldn’t… They pay lots of creative heads and can come up with something fresh in minutes. Do better, Burger King!”
And Gina – Digital Content Marketer at ReThinc – notices an important fact: “Nobody is talking about the actual scholarship program…They didn’t bring up the scholarship program until HOURS later in the thread of their first tweet. Most people didn’t even see they announced the program! Now, it almost looks like a reaction to backlash from the first tweet. The sentiment was there (I guess) but the execution was a fail for me, dawg! Do better, BK.”
The Crew’s roundup: Most marketers understand the desire to go viral and that Burger King most likely didn’t have bad intentions. But the execution definitely doesn’t get a passing grade.
SPONSORED BY OUTBRAIN
The fastest way to become a certified native advertising expert for free
Native advertising is powerful, yet still doesn’t get enough attention. You’ll find thousands of Facebook advertising groups and forums.
But native media buying still seems to be a skill that just a few selected individuals have mastered. Yet, it’s an amazing diversification channel, especially for performance-driven advertisers.
So, how can a native media buyer go from noob to advanced real fast?
Straight from the horse’s mouth.
By horse, we mean the Outbrain Academy. After countless successful Outbrain Academies hosted across the globe, there’s now free on-demand training so that you can learn at your own pace and convenience.
This is what you will go through in the free course:
- Module 1 – The native advertising revolution
- Module 2 – Smartly diversify your media mix
- Module 3 – The Best Solution by KPI
- Module 4 – Creatives for success
- Module 5 – Advanced native advertising strategies
- Module 6 – Outbrain 101
This course gives you the concepts, tools, and best practices you need to get the best results on native.
Whether you are new to marketing or have experience already, native ads will be a skill you want in your arsenal. Become a certified Native Advertising Strategy Expert.
MARKETING
Are we doing customer personas all wrong?
We started having doubts after reading this post by Rand Fishkin.
And he does have a point here.
Let us ask you a question: When was the last time you used your customer personas?
Well, if the answer is “a long, long, time ago”, then you got it. And the problem is that customer personas are not built by keeping in mind the goals they are going to achieve.
The process of creating personas is more or less this one:
Gather data → Create the customer personas → Use them in your marketing initiatives
When you follow this process, you come up with personas that, very often, contain information that doesn’t have any business application. And it gets still worse when you create personas by filling out templates you find on Google.
So, what should your customer personas contain?
- The information your team (or client) needs to effectively do their job
- Details about that information’s source and accuracy
- Enough breadth to represent the range of individuals covered by the persona
- Segmentation of those personas only when there’s a relevant need to target, build-for, or market-to individuals in those groups differently
Here’s a summary of the process that Rand Fishkin suggests:
- Create a list of the applications your personas are going to serve.
- Only include the elements you need to effectively do the job.
- Back each data element with its source and relative accuracy, so you don’t mislead and can support, refine, and update conclusions.
- Publish in whatever format works for you. If you like cute photos and cool names, use them. But if you prefer structured bullets, go for it. Your “persona” doesn’t need to look anything like a person, if you don’t want it to.
We squeezed the content to the bone, but if you’re in the need of defining your customer personas, Rand Fishkin’s post will be helpful.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
INSTAGRAM: Thanks to Matt Navarra, we know that Instagram has added a “Captions” sticker for Stories which you can use to auto-caption videos.
GOOGLE: After Flights, Google makes hotel listings free in Google Travel.
TWITTER: They’ve earned their TAG… Twitter has received the Brand Safety Certified Seal from the Trustworthy Accountability Group.
TWITTER: If you promote tweets, you can now select who can reply to them.
FACEBOOK: The feature everyone’s been eagerly waiting… Not! Facebook is testing the option of sharing Reels from Instagram to Facebook.
ADVERTISING: With privacy and tracking being a big topic in the industry as of late, IAB Tech Lab reveals their proposed standards.
BRAIN TEASER
I am served at a table, in gatherings of two or four. I’m served small, white, and round. What am I?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
This is the point where the Facebook algorithm knows you better than your spouse
You probably had your fair share of “How did they know that?” reactions to Facebook’s newsfeed, right? Whether an ad or other recommendation… We’ve all been there.
Thanks to Nico Nuzzi who shared this on Facebook, we found out it takes 300 likes for Facebook’s algo to know your preferences better than a spouse.
The research was done by University of Cambridge and Stanford University. Using a sample of 86,220 people, they discovered:
- With 10 likes, Facebook knows your preferences as well as a co-worker.
- With 70, it knows them as well as a friend.
- With 150, as well as a parent or sibling.
- With 300, as well as (or better than) a spouse.
Surprised? Intrigued? Scared?