Today in Digital Marketing - 190: Dude. You Forgot the Organics.

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Starting point is 00:00:18 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Today, some new Google Ad features coming to the platform you use. at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. free courses on community management from Facebook. It's Thursday, July 9th, 2020. I'm Todd Maffin, and here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing. Yesterday afternoon, Google released version 4 of their Ads API. An API is just a bunch of code, sort of the backdoor to their ads platform, a door that third-party tools use to help you place your ads. So when a new API is out, it follows that within a few days or weeks, most third-party tools will have added the new functionality to

Starting point is 00:01:10 their platform as well. And that new functionality brings things in this case like local campaigns, support for retrieving and reporting on the ironically named smart campaigns, support for account level optimization score, and keyword planning. If you are a developer and you're upgrading from any previous version, some of your code may break as some endpoints have changed. If you're still using version 1 of the API, you have until July 29th to change your side of the code. The American grocery chain Kroger will soon be playing customized audio ads in its 2300 locations. The ads, of course, promoting products that you can buy while in the store.

Starting point is 00:01:53 They're building out this private audio network and plan to launch it in the next couple of weeks. And how, you ask, are they customizing the ads? Here's how. Each shopper, when they enter, will undergo a quick and painless implant of a microchip just under... No, I'm just kidding about that. They're not personalized ads. They are customized ads. Ads customized to factors like the current weather outside each store, or what local events are happening. The system is being built out by Vibenomics, which says it will be in 8,000 convenience and grocery stores by next year.

Starting point is 00:02:28 That said, though, I mean, how far away are we from truly personalized audio ads? Maybe using some kind of hyper-directional speaker array that aims specific audio content at each person? The military already uses this kind of technology as a weapon. Or maybe consumers will be offered a temptingly large discount in exchange for attaching their phone to the store's Bluetooth network, which will then drop ads personalized to them. Well, I think it's all a terrible and creepy idea. And as a marketer, I can't wait. One of the things I find interesting in the podcast space is just how bigger and bigger brands are entering with their own podcasts. Slack has one, Zendesk has one, Dell has one, all tech companies. So, you know, I guess no surprise. In fact, these days, it's almost a requirement now of large tech companies to have a podcast.

Starting point is 00:03:21 We are starting to see it now expand to even larger firms, those outside the tech space. The Kraft Heinz company, for instance, launched its first podcast series this week. It's called Table Stakes. It's hosted by the New York Times' travel writer. And to their credit, it absolutely fits in the ethos of today's podcasts, which is to say, it sounds like a public radio show. How's it going? How are you guys doing? Yes, I'm one of the drivers of the Wienermobile. In the first episode, the host interviews the two-person team that drives Oscar Mayer's Wienermobile around the U.S. Marketingdive.com notes that, quote,

Starting point is 00:03:56 Kraft Heinz is cracking into the branded podcast market at an interesting time. The packaged foods company has experienced a sales boost due to the coronavirus pandemic as consumers fall back on easy prep comfort foods. However, podcast listenership took a hit earlier this year with typical listening occasions like commutes on hold, though signs of recovery have emerged, unquote. A recent survey found roughly half of people aged 12 to 34 reported listening to a podcast in the last month. Heads up, if you are a third-party Amazon seller in the U.S., the company will soon require you to display your business name and address on your profiles. This starts September 1st. Sellers already have had to give this information to Amazon.

Starting point is 00:04:47 But of course, until now, it hasn't really been visible to consumers. Well, come September 1st, it will be. This has actually been the norm now for a while in Europe and Japan and Mexico. Oh, and here's something that'll make you feel old. Amazon's marketplace, that third-party selling site, it's now 20 years old. It accounts for more than half of Amazon's overall sales. Here's one for the social media managers out there. Facebook this week launched some new community management courses to its Blueprint learning platform. The courses are free, and here's what they cover. Building an online community, best practices for managing audiences,

Starting point is 00:05:24 serving relevant content, engaging and moderating a community, and measuring and analyzing community success. As with everything you hear on this podcast, there is a link for more information in this episode's notes. Well, it is National Flag Day in Chile. There are about 19.5 million people who live there, about the same population as Romania. One of Chile's largest

Starting point is 00:05:48 countrywide protests happened last year. It was started by high school students as a coordinated subway fare evasion campaign. My new antenna for my radio scanner just came, so I have got an enjoyable evening of listening to the local garbage collection crews ahead.

Starting point is 00:06:06 So yesterday their garbage was taken, but not their organic. Yeah, I don't know why, Mel. Obviously, I just missed it. Okay, I just have to email them back, so can I let them know you'll get it at one point today? That's if I get through my route. I'm actually serious. I'm actually excited by this. God help me. I'm Todd Mapp and talk to you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - 190: Dude. You Forgot the Organics.

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