YOUTUBE
I spy with my little eye… products in this video
Not wanting to fall behind the e-commerce trend, YouTube is testing automatic product detection in videos for people watching videos in the US.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because this feature was mentioned before in mid-2020 as well.
If YouTube gets good at this auto-detection, they have quite the strong value proposition for brands.
Imagine product placement like the “old days” in movies but with YouTubers and a dedicated section to buy.
Let us know if you spot it. As mentioned, this test is running in the US only at the moment.
Facebook explains how it tries to tackle misinformation
Here’s a number: 1.3B. That’s how many fake accounts Facebook blocked between October and December 2020 across their apps.
And though it’s a big number, they definitely didn’t catch them all.
The 1.3B number is just one piece of the whole puzzle, though. Facebook has also been dealing with deceptive behavior, misleading content and harmful content.
Guy Rosen, the VP of Integrity at FB explains it more in this post.
Perhaps more important than that is how a global update will limit the reach of profiles and groups.
Roger Montti from SEJ put together a good breakdown for this.
While this is done with good intentions, we can’t help but think about how many false positives regularly come up – and how it’s likely for Groups’ reach to decrease over time as Facebook locks things down… We saw it happen before with Pages, so it wouldn’t be a surprise.
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Affordable user-generated content videos at scale, without breaking the bank
Let’s introduce you to Billo, a platform that makes it stupidly simple (and cheap) to create user-generated content (UGC) videos at scale.
You don’t have to look for customers or influencers. You don’t have to shell out all your budget… And most importantly, you don’t have to worry about performance. Video ads from Billo are high-performing and generate better returns than alternative options on the market.
Lego, Danone, L’Oréal, Onepiece, and over 2000 e-commerce brands used Billo to save time and costs on UGC videos, and generate more sales.
How does Billo work?
- You create a free account.
- Choose between an existing task like showcasing product inboxing, highlight real use cases, show the moment of the purchase and so on. Or create a custom task.
- Select one of the over 3,200 pre-approved creators.
- Just pay a $59 flat fee for each video.
- Use the video ad in your ads, website, social media accounts, or wherever you want.
Billo will automate your UGC video production, so you’ll have more time to focus on running ads and other strategic tasks. And you’ll also save money along the way.
MARKETING
Breaking down a leaked internal branding document from a $1.8B company
In 2019, Business Insider got their hands on a leaked branding document from Peloton. It was right after a PR disaster caused by a Christmas ad that was labeled by the public opinion as sexist and dystopian.
You can download the internal document here. But Brendan Hufford took to Twitter and listed some points all marketers can learn.
Ready?
+ The first point is Peloton’s brand wheel: The goal is answering four fundamental questions that will help define the message of the company:
- How would I describe the product?
- How does the product make me feel?
- How does the product make me look?
- What does the product do for me?
Answering these questions creates the most common communication and marketing entry points. And according to Brendan, this helps address 3 core objections customers have:
- Internal – Am I this kind of person?
- External – What will others think?
- Product – Is the product good?
+ One part of the document shows that they always show the product in use, and there’s never a stale product shot.
+ A message that comes out several times is that the work is hard, but they don’t talk people down. Instead, they communicate that Peloton makes the hard work easy.
+ A visual tip: All their creatives must contain that post-workout afterglow to describe the positive feeling Poloton provides. It’s a feeling that all of us want to feel.
+ Community: People often misinterpret their audience and community.
- Audience: the product helps them.
- Community: people help each other.
Peloton bridges the gap between people and community. They let you attend a workout class from the comfort of your home, so you can still enjoy the presence of an instructor and the push that other people give you.
The interesting thing here is that while we are talking about a huge company, these lessons can be implemented even by small businesses.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
WHATSAPP: If you’re a “fast listener”, you’ll be glad to hear WhatsApp is testing a speed up feature for voice messages.
SEO: Want to get your YouTube videos more space in the SERPs? Check out this tip from John Mueller.
FACEBOOK: You may soon be able to use a ‘Green Screen’ feature on Facebook Stories, if current tests end up going public.
CLUBHOUSE: If you want to know what changes Clubhouse has planned for the future, check out this TechCrunch piece about their recent Town Hall.
SEO: In 2020, zero-clicks Google search rose to 65%. In June 2019, they represented 50% of Google searches. This piece analyzes the reasons and the solution businesses can follow.
BRAIN TEASER
I have no life, but I can die. 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.
Get to work on your new Ps
Product. Price. Promotion. Place… Did we get it right?
Maybe, but maybe not.
This old marketing concept is certainly still useful but the Ps are sometimes updated to fit better with the brand.
And just like most concepts in this industry, it can certainly cause a polarized reaction.
Well, let’s bring all sides together for a good laugh with this “Four P Regenerator” by Mark Ritson.
It’s a hilarious take on a 60-year old concept.
We got “parole, placenta, porous, projection”. We’re not sure how we’ll implement those but… What did you get?