Today in Digital Marketing - 105: Jen, Stop Pouring My Beer Down the Sink!

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Thursday, February 27th, 2020. Happy Dominican Republic Independence Day. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. Today, how to get 5 billion views on TikTok. The one platform we thought was immune from stories is no longer immune. How do you market your product when it's the same name of a global virus? And YouTube considers opening up advertising on specific channels. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Well, shit. It finally happened to me. Facebook has banned one of my pages because of what it says were multiple violations of their ad policy. And that page is the page for this very podcast. This is the same issue I told you about back on the 18th of this month. The only ads that the page ran were boring, short video ads of a guy in front of a microphone. Not even me, just some stock video. Clearly, the ads didn't violate policy. So, of course, I appealed it, and today I got their ruling. Still banned.

Starting point is 00:01:06 And because it's Facebook, no real explanation, except this generic you did something against our ad policies. And no, they didn't tell me which specific policy they think I violated because, A, they never do. And, B, I never violated any. To put this in perspective, and I don't usually talk about our agency's clients here unless I have their permission, so I sought out and received that permission today. One of our clients is a satire news site, kind of like a regional version of The Onion. Just yesterday, they wrote an article claiming that blood would be flowing out of the city's taps because Public Works was using satanic rituals to purge themselves of evil. And as we do, we boosted that satire post. It went to review at Facebook and, hey, no problem. And that post is running just fine

Starting point is 00:01:57 as a promotion as we speak. To put an even finer point on this, the image in the post is a tap with blood pouring out of it and a photoshopped version of the city's website claiming that this fake story is indeed real. So, for those taking notes, marketing podcasts bad, fake news about satanic ritual bloodletting good. Ridiculous Facebook news number two. Last night, some people on Twitter were reporting that their large scale Facebook ad campaign reporting was a total and complete clusterfuck. One person showed that their Google Data Studio was reporting ROAS at 1.39, while Facebook was reporting the same campaign at 0.59. Now, sure, we expect to see small differences between the analytics platforms. That sometimes happens because of a mismatch of attribution windows, stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:02:52 But this, this was a huge difference. And then one guy said Facebook was reporting his campaign at a 1.1 ROAS. He refreshed the page and suddenly it jumped to 1.8. What? Then for the hell of it, he refreshed again and it it jumped to 1.8. What? Then, for the hell of it, he refreshed again, and it went down to 1.15. Each time he refreshed, he got a different ROAS. At one time, it claimed it was over 2.1. Listen, despite how I started this episode out, I don't like to hate on Facebook.

Starting point is 00:03:21 I really don't. They have an exceptionally powerful and complex ad platform, and bugs happen. But these are huge bugs. And if we can't trust the data or get our pages ad-banned for no reason, these are the kinds of things that will force digital marketers

Starting point is 00:03:38 off Facebook and onto other platforms. Meanwhile, Facebook has quietly updated its terms of service for its advanced mobile app measurement program. So now, if you are an app marketer, you can no longer use device level data for any purpose other than measuring campaign performance. So what does that mean? It means if you market a mobile app, you can't use any of that data to run ads, retarget people with ads, redirect with tags, and a few more things. And there's more. Quoting Marketing Land,

Starting point is 00:04:09 The immediate implications for advertisers are still uncertain, but the move is nonetheless concerning which is why measurement partners are key for enterprise advertisers looking for an independent assessment. With the updated terms, even measurement partners will be barred from sharing device-level data with stakeholders, which includes advertisers. So while it's a minor change on the mobile ads front, it lays the groundwork for a bigger push to bring advertisers even deeper into Facebook's walled garden. Can we trust Facebook to grade its own homework? Next time someone says, yeah, TikTok is cute. I don't really think there's a marketing opportunity there, but it's fun. Send them this podcast episode. A campaign for Little Caesars that ran as a follow-up to their Super Bowl TV ad. First, the Super Bowl ad. It starts with a pizza guy delivering a pizza. Little Caesars delivery. That's the best thing since sliced

Starting point is 00:05:20 bread. Cut to the headquarters of the fictional Sliced Bread Company. Employees then desperately try to glam up Sliced Bread. Eventually, all hell breaks loose. Everything is fine! I've been following this turkey for a month. Sliced Bread is toast! I know there are concerns, but everything's fine. I've been following this turkey for a month. Sliced bread is toast. I know there are concerns, but everything's fine.

Starting point is 00:05:52 And back to the doorstep with a new person getting their pizza delivered. Little Caesar's delivery. Best thing since sliced bread. I know. America's best value now delivered. Pizza, pizza. It's a great ad, but the real impressive work came after in the TikTok extension of that campaign. Little Caesars hired four TikTok influencers to post a video of themselves answering their door to a Little Caesars delivery. And just to explain, if you're not familiar with TikTok culture, one of the most common things to do is your own video riff on a pre-recorded audio track. So in this case,

Starting point is 00:06:26 the audio track that Little Caesars seeded is of a woman with a kind of Valley Girl accent, as she says, Little Caesars delivery. That's like the best thing. And then the influencer does their own take on it. Portable chargers. You can literally charge your phone anywhere. In this one, two guys are looking at a mobile charger while a third walks by holding a huge section of a wall with an outlet into which his phone is plugged. Can I try that? I just checked the hashtag that Little Caesars is using for this campaign. Hashtag best thing since.

Starting point is 00:06:57 Five billion views. Billion. And almost every single one using that same audio mentioning the brand. Little Caesars VP of Media told Marketing Daily, quote, it's all about awareness at a level much higher than a traditional initiative we might have for a limited time offer or something of that nature. In many ways, the challenge is not only with finding eyeballs, but finding eyeballs in an environment where they are engaged with your content

Starting point is 00:07:22 so that they actually take something away, unquote. If you are a data kind of person, and I hope you are, you might want to download Conviva's great database of TikTok brand performance benchmarks. It just came out this week. It also has tips to improve your content performance. There is a link in this episode's description to that study. Yes, TikTok influencers are doing great business, so much so it might make you think that YouTube influencers are sort of looking like the hapless boomers of the social world.

Starting point is 00:07:53 But fear not, as they are doing just fine. Social media today has a piece up about YouTube influencers being turned into toys, physical toys that you can buy in a store or I guess online. One example, Blippi. So much to learn about, it'll make you want to shout, Blippi! Hey, it's me, Blippi! Ooh, and it's nighttime, and we're in a parking lot. There's so many stores. All right, so let me describe this guy. He's probably late 20s. He's unshaven often, but I don't know, maybe that's like scruffy hipster way he's wearing a blue shirt with bright orange suspenders comically large orange glasses and

Starting point is 00:08:31 a blue and orange beanie honestly i would look at this guy normally and think like buddy low effort like pick it up a bit but what do i know becauseppi has millions of subscribers, and now his own toy is available at the retail level. There's Let's Dress Up Blippi, which is suspenders, glasses, and a piece of elasticized fabric that they claim is a hat. There's a box of 10 Blippi boxes, which are colored cubes with numbers on them. There's a Blipp, UK, and China found that kids are now three times more likely to want to be a YouTuber than an astronaut. The top earner on YouTube last year was an 8-year-old toy reviewer named Ryan. Speaking of YouTube, you might have wanted to advertise your brand on a specific YouTube channel, which mostly you can't really do. Just like how you can't tell Facebook, hey, only show my ads on this particular brand page.

Starting point is 00:09:32 Like Facebook, YouTube sells people, not channel space. But that might change. The Verge reported today that YouTube has quietly set up a pilot program that lets digital marketers buy space directly on and directly from specific YouTube creators. This program is said to be very small and only hooked up with creators who already have relationships with brands. Actually, this has been a thing for some specific YouTube channels, bigger channels like NBC, for a while now. Pretty much since the beginning, back 10 years ago, NBC and some other large partners have been allowed to control where the ads come from. So what is behind this?

Starting point is 00:10:11 Well, YouTube might want to get in on some of the ways creator channels have gotten around their limited ad options, like brand sponsorships or other monetization options. No word officially on when or if this program will be available for us marketers on a larger number of channels. The Dow is now down nearly 900 points. That is just over the course of the last 34 minutes.

Starting point is 00:10:36 All of it connected to the coronavirus. Today, the Dow Jones suffered its worst point drop in history. The Toronto Stock Exchange crashed so hard that it closed two hours early due to technical malfunctions. All because of the current coronavirus fears. Now, this is not a story about coronavirus, but I am married to a public health microbiologist and she would like me to remind you that today alone, the flu, the regular old flu, will kill more than 150 Americans. So what is the connection to marketing, you ask? A lot, if what you market is Corona the beer. The beer, of course, has nothing to do with the virus.

Starting point is 00:11:16 But that didn't stop them from pushing out a short video on Twitter promoting their new seltzer. The cans appear to be washing up on a beach with the headline, Coming ashore soon. And I don't know, you could read into that a play on the fact that the virus appears to be coming over from China. It could just be coincidence. That's what Corona claims. A spokesperson says, quote, our advertising with Corona is consistent with the campaign that we have been running for the last 30 years, unquote. She's talking about the beach imagery here, which, you know, true, they have used forever. Still, it adds a bit of complexity for Corona's marketing team as they try to keep themselves out of the virus debate. Just today, a PR firm released a study showing that while only 4%

Starting point is 00:12:00 of Corona's regular customers said that they will stop drinking it. Fourteen percent said that they would stop ordering Corona beer in public. And worse, the survey found that 16 percent of Americans who drink beer are confused about whether the Corona beer brand is related to the virus. Google searches have spiked since January the 18th for the terms beer coronavirus, which you see in yellow there, beer virus, which you see in blue, and corona beer virus, Jesus. which you see in red. The CEO of the PR firm that did this study said, quote,

Starting point is 00:12:38 there is no question that corona beer is suffering because of the coronavirus. Could one imagine walking into a bar and saying, hey, can I have a corona or pass me a corona? While the brand has claimed that consumers understand there's no linkage between the virus and the beer company, this is a disaster for the Corona brand. After all, what brand wants to be linked to a virus which is killing people worldwide? Unquote. For the record, the PR firm in question, called 5WPR, counts among its clients a craft brewer which has sales in California. So far, no word from Corona the Beer that they are going to change their marketing strategies. LinkedIn is the latest platform to hop on the Stories bandwagon.

Starting point is 00:13:25 Stories, those vertical videos that are used on Snapchat and TikTok and Instagram, blah, blah, blah. Hopefully soon I'll have to stop explaining what Stories are. Well, now soon they will be on LinkedIn. Here's how their head of product described how they think they'll be used. Quote, the sequencing of the Stories format is great for sharing key moments from work events and the way Stories opens up new messaging threads

Starting point is 00:13:44 makes it easier for someone to say, and by the way, I noticed you know Linda, could you introduce me? Unquote. When news of this started circulating on Twitter this morning, nearly all the replies that I saw were categorically negative. Then again, as the LinkedIn executive said, the youngest generation in the workforce grew up with the stories format and are comfortable entering into conversations in a full screen ephemeral format. And so friends, it's come to this. It's the millennials world. We are just living in it. Some late breaking news just as I was wrapping this episode up. Facebook's ads platform, I know, I know, I know we're back here again.

Starting point is 00:14:27 Their entire ads platform started reporting major disruptions on their status page. They aren't saying what is causing it, probably won't. But in case you're a conspiracy theorist, today was the day that CBO was supposed to begin rolling out more widely. Incidentally, you can always check the status of their ads platform. That page is at status.facebook.com slash ads. Well, if you get value from this daily news show, please rate and review this podcast, especially now that Facebook will no longer allow me to advertise the podcast. You'll find a link in this episode's description that makes that a simple one-click. Follow me on social. Links to my channel and our agency are in this episode's description.

Starting point is 00:15:07 I'm Todd Maffin. See you tomorrow. What the fuck are you doing? Get back now. What do you mean, get back? Get the fuck back now. Why are you pouring my fucking beers down the sink? Because I'm getting rid of the virus in this house.

Starting point is 00:15:21 What do you mean, the virus in this house? Look at my fucking virus. Stop pouring my fucking beers down there. No. I'm taking these back. No, wait, no. Before you get this fucking virus. Jen, why are you pouring my beers down?

Starting point is 00:15:32 You're off your head. Because of the coronavirus, Maggie. I've got money in this house. Jen, it's got nothing to do with it. Stop pouring my beers down the sink.

Today in Digital Marketing - 105: Jen, Stop Pouring My Beer Down the Sink!

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