Instagram wants to better connect creators and advertisers
Yesterday, Zuck & Co. announced three upcoming Instagram features:
- Creator Shops: The plan is for creators to be able to sell products directly on Instagram.
- Affiliate marketing: “Facebook will build an affiliate program that will let creators earn a cut of sales from the products they recommend”, Zuckerberg said.
- Branded Content Marketplace: The plan is to connect influencers with a smaller following and brands for sponsorship deals. These deals are happening already, mostly between bigger influencers than brands. This marketplace will create a kind of “creator middle class”, according to Zuckerberg.
What this means for advertisers: More collaboration opportunities. Today, you can only do direct contracts with influencers if you want to partner with them on Facebook or Instagram. You’ll have more streamlined ways to work with creators once these features are launched.
You may send them a product to promote, and Facebook can keep track of the affiliate sales. If you do sponsorship deals, you will also be able to make decisions based on first-party Facebook data rather than requesting engagement data from influencers.
ADVERTISING
Spotify increases its podcast ad inventory
Spotify has just launched a bunch of monetization features for podcasts.
The key feature is the ability for podcasters to place certain episodes behind a paywall and charge a subscription fee for access. Yay, creator economy!
However, near the end of the article, there is another feature that is just as important, if not more important, to advertisers: Spotify expanding its audience network, which was launched back in February 2021.
What the Spotify Audience Network is: Think of Facebook Ads, just for podcasts. It’s a marketplace matching advertisers and podcast creators. Spotify can do this quite effectively because they have data on millions of podcasts and their audience.
The idea is for you, as an advertiser, to choose your target audience by demographic or interest. Then, choose your placements and start serving ads on podcasts. After getting started, you can track your ad performance and see what’s bringing the highest ROI.
What’s new: Starting May 1, Spotify will open up its Audience Network to new creators.
What this means for marketers: More podcasts where you can advertise.
This is especially important if you have a niche product in a market with independent, niche podcasts. With this change, podcast ads may suddenly become a viable acquisition channel for you.
SPONSORED BY QUICKFRAME
The ultimate guide to thrive as a marketer in a privacy-first online world
The world of digital marketing and advertising is drastically changing. And not in a way that makes it easier…
Users are becoming more conscious of how their data is being used and are demanding stricter rules. And governments are taking action, imposing new consumer data privacy regulations that are shaking the industry.
Everyone will need to rethink their acquisition and creative strategies and incorporate novel approaches.
Understanding what the rules are and how they affect your business is the starting point for developing new strategies. With this goal in mind, QuickFrame created a 32-page guide that dives into:
- A timeline of how the privacy landscape has evolved over the past 5 years, so you can better understand the forces behind the changes and finally have a clear idea of what’s happening in the industry.
- Easy-to-digest summaries of major regulatory acts and how tech companies are responding.
- The solutions currently being explored to retain some aspects of granular targeting.
- How you can revamp your creative production approach to get data and insights to fuel your advertising strategy in a privacy-friendly way.
COPYWRITING
How a finance app wins users over by roasting them
Fintech, for its nature, is a serious and relatively boring industry. It’s not like selling ice cream to kids. And it gets even more difficult when you’re a fintech company trying to communicate with Generation Z.
Cleo, on the other hand, does it exceptionally well. Earl Myers, their head of content, explains how.
Here’s a little background: Cleo is a budget assistant app that has been downloaded by four million millennial and Gen Z customers.
And they established a distinct voice in the fintech industry. They are daring, irreverent, and purposeful. They also, (almost) literally, roast their customers. And it works incredibly well.
But roasting is just one of the elements that make their voice unique, and here are all of them:
- Cleo comes with a ‘roast mode’. Their chatbot is not dull like Siri. It shames you by using GIFs and harsh burns about how much you’ve spent and how little you’ve saved. Beyond roast mode, Cleo maintains a sarcastic voice across all their messages.
- Never be boring: Their FAQ section is made of clear and concise articles. But, they’re full of bold personality.
- Taking a stand against inequality: Not only Gen Z consumers want brands to take a position on social and political issues, they want companies to take action. Cleo doesn’t stop at publishing posts. They created a campaign called “Random Acts of Relief”. It allows financially stable users to donate cash to the ones struggling with their balances.
These are the traits of Cleo’s unique voice. Let’s see how their team creates it.
A look under the hood
- Cleo’s team spends a lot of time developing rules around their personality and sense of humor. One of them is that Roast Mode is not the default setting. Users must give the chatbot permission to bash on them.
- Empathic approach: Cleo aims at delivering relevant messages, without being pushy.
- Creating content to feed the AI is a new discipline. And Cleo’s decentralized system allows them to remove engineering bottlenecks when feeding the AI.
- They hire writers that can live and breathe Cleo’s brand essence.
Cleo is the example of how a unique tone of voice can turn into a USP (Unique Selling Point). And if you’re interested in developing a unique voice for your brand, this post may help you.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
ADVERTISING: Adobe joins the cookie-crumble race to provide an alternative to third-party cookies.
GOOGLE: The search engine is experimenting with a box that displays more specific searches.
MICROSOFT: Bing is also testing related search suggestions in a sticky footer.
APPLE: The company will shut down apps that reward users when they enable tracking.
INFLUENCER MARKETING: Taylor Lagace wrote a Twitter thread giving out some tactical advice on getting started with influencer marketing.
BRAIN TEASER
Why did the student eat their homework?
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.
Meme Overload
If you’re a meme addict, we have a new drug: this handy tool which lets you “research” plenty of memes online.
Jokes aside, this can be a really good tool for generating creative ad ideas. For example, if you’re selling socks, there are some really interesting ideas you can, um, borrow.
Our only criticism is the lack of NFT memes, I mean, c’mon, what year is this? First quarter of 2021?
On the other hand, Elon Musk has no shortage of people trying to poke fun at him.