Today in Digital Marketing - A String of Zeros

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Starting point is 00:00:18 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Today, Android devices are the latest to lock up ad tracking, the Facebook ad placement you can't afford, why Zuckerberg is betting big on measuring your biometric data, and a Canadian media icon relaunches on social media. It's Thursday, June 10th, 2021. Happy Orthodox Ascension Day, Romania. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here's what you missed today in digital marketing. So, Apple's taken away all our ad tracking. Facebook is barfing out nonsense called modeled conversions. At least we all still have Android, right?

Starting point is 00:00:58 Well, funny story. Today, word that Android devices will soon join the We Hate Marketers party too. Quoting MarketingDive.com, the new change specifically prohibits developers from accessing a non-consenting user's unique advertising identifier, called an advertising ID. Developers previously could access advertising IDs regardless of whether a user opted out of personal ads. So, weird. Gaining information on device usage to share with advertisers.

Starting point is 00:01:30 The new update removes this identifier when a user disables personalization in their Android settings. Developers who attempt to access the identifier beyond this point will receive a string of zeros. This tracking change affects apps on Android 12 starting in late 2021 and will expand to all apps on devices that use Google Play, that's Android's App Store, by early 2022. The move mirrors Apple's recent IDFA changes and further limits advertisers' abilities on mobile, unquote. So, just in case you were having a good Thursday, there you go.

Starting point is 00:02:08 By the way, if I ever start up a marketing parody band, I am 100% naming it a string of zeros. You won't find this placement in Facebook's Ads Manager, but it's a real thing. A complete takeover of the entire Messenger app. They launched their first ones last month, promoting a Star Wars film, and this week, an even deeper integration launched for yet another

Starting point is 00:02:35 of the Fast and Furious films. How many are they up to now? Like 45 of these films? It's crazy. When you start a Messenger conversation with the franchise's Facebook page, the interface changes. A branded background pops in, there are new effects, and a really clever second screen experience, much like that old pop-up video show on the American Music Cable Channel VH1. You tell it you're ready to watch, and you hit a let's go button at a very specific moment at the start of the film, essentially right after the movie

Starting point is 00:03:02 studio's logo fades out. If you do that, get the timing right, the bot will occasionally jump in with behind-the-scenes trivia, pithy little comments, and even a quiz or two, like, how many cars do you think showed up for the casting call for these race scenes? The answer is 700, by the way. To be completely accurate, in theory, you wouldn't need to pay Facebook anything to pull that second-screen experience off, other than whatever you'd pay a third-party messenger bot tool. You just set up a really long conversation thread with timing points. It's the full screen messenger branding that is obviously a paid option, and my guess, one that none of us can afford. Reports say Facebook is developing hardware that can detect your arm movements and translate those into some kind of augmented reality experience with special glasses.

Starting point is 00:03:54 Because, you know, Facebook's the company I'd trust with direct access to my biometrics. This piece of hardware, if leaks circulating around the net are accurate, is a watch. A watch with a camera. Actually, two cameras. One on the front, and one on the back. And, you know, I know you're thinking, wait a minute, a camera on the back of a watch?

Starting point is 00:04:16 Like, wouldn't that just be blocked out by you know, my wrist? Well, no. Because apparently this watch will be designed to snap off, and then attach to things like backpacks, sport helmets, and so on. So maybe more like a GoPro camera that you can store on your wrist, quoting socialmediatoday.com. The watch-like device would be able to read muscle commands as they move through your arm, which it then translates into triggers to respond within the digital environment. The process uses EMG or electromyography, which translates electric motor nerve signals via sensors

Starting point is 00:04:51 that detect such as they travel through your limbs. It seems that Facebook's watch will be about much more than just telling the time, and with the concurrent development of its AR glasses, it may end up being a far more significant device than many had anticipated. AR is gaining momentum fast, with predictions that it will soon become a key connective component, helping to merge our on- and offline worlds even further, unquote.

Starting point is 00:05:18 The Verge reports that Facebook is planning to sell a basic, non-AR version of their smartwatch next summer for around $400, eventually building those AR features into later versions. The real question is, will anyone buy it? There's a big difference in trust between Apple and Facebook. Will consumers just assume this is more about Facebook capturing even more personal data? Some new data from Facebook and Kantar suggests brands aren't doing enough to take advantage of one of the key drivers of purchases online, that being the convenience factor.

Starting point is 00:06:07 The research looked at how digital media is disrupting the modern shopping process and what retail brands and marketers need to do to capitalize on that. Quoting the report, Given that the main driver of shopping online is convenience, this is an indication of how much further online shopping channels have to go before being a reliable replacement for offline shopping. Consumers have high expectations and are not willing to lower them when online shopping. The research mostly focused on buyers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, so there's a little bit of a skew there, probably toward more reliance on digital devices for online purchases, but there are some takeaways that are clearly universal. Again, quoting the study,

Starting point is 00:06:32 In Hong Kong, fuss-free checkout is a basic requirement. One in three will abandon their carts if checkout involves too many steps, while another one in three expect the payment authentication process to be fast and require no action from them. According to Nielsen Global Consumer Loyalty Study, only 8% of consumers consider themselves committed loyalists to their favorite brands. With the variety of choices presented in consumers' lives today, coupled with rising spending The study has a really helpful chart actually showing what Facebook now considers the six universal drivers of brand love. Today's premium newsletter has that chart and a link to the full study. Do you have business insurance? premium newsletter has that chart and a link to the full study. financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com.

Starting point is 00:07:50 Be protected. Be Zen. Fellow Canadians, Much Music is back. Much Music was the MTV of Canada. Actually, MTV did have its own channel up here called MTV Canada, but nobody watched it. Actually, brief side note here for a moment. Much Music, too, actually tried its hand in the U.S., offering, you guessed it, Much Music USA, which started in 1994. It was basically a simulcast of the Canadian program,

Starting point is 00:08:12 but with American ads thrown in. It ended up rebranding as Fuse back in 2003. Anyway, up here we all watched Much Music for our dose of music videos, celebrity interviews, and concerts. It's hard to explain how significant Much Music was on the culture of the time. And then Bell Media bought it, started transitioning it away from music, loading up the channel with cheaply acquired comedy and reality shows. About eight years ago, they took the music off of Much Music.

Starting point is 00:08:39 So now it's just called Much. It's kind of a low-quality cable channel. But the good old days are coming back on July 7th. Not to television, but to TikTok. The company says they'll have everything from tentpole events to live performances to even some of the old channel's iconic shows like Video on Trial, Intimate and Interactive, and Much Music Spotlight. They have not yet announced their lineup of VJs and personalities,

Starting point is 00:09:05 but I swear, if they don't give Strombo at least one walk-on cameo, heads are going to roll. And three small Google things to wrap up. First, hot on the heels of a damning report in the New York Times, Google said today it will change its search algorithm to demote websites that publish unverified or slanderous claims about other people. They say this mirrors the approach they've taken with victims of non-consensual explicit content, sometimes known as revenge porn. Google says they're testing it now, but a follow-up by the New York Times has already found some changes for the better.

Starting point is 00:09:42 Second, Google is bringing its Search Central Unconference event back on June 21st. This is, of course, a virtual event, and as an unconference, the session topics are set by the attendees. You might know this as an open space format. Sessions will not be recorded, and they are limiting the attendance numbers. So if you are interested in going, you will need to fill out an application form. It's pretty easily Google-able, Just Google Search Central Unconference. And third, Google has a new API out for Google Ads.

Starting point is 00:10:11 Yes, another one. They released version 7 just like six weeks ago. Well, today, version 8 of the Ads API is out. It now supports things like cross-account bidding strategies, label retrieval, call ad info support, cart data support for conversions, and smart campaign support. This is an API, so this is something developers use to build functionality into their third-party platforms. But just in case you are a developer, or you're keen to learn what may be coming to your third-party tool of choice,

Starting point is 00:10:39 now you know. We have a classified ad from a listener here. Want to represent leading brands in the fitness industry, including NordicTrack and ProForm? We're now hiring for a social media advertising strategist to join our team. The pandemic bolstered the at-home fitness industry, and we are growing like crazy. Looking forward to having a talented marketing leader join us with some very exciting initiatives. Thank you. Don't forget, our first Twitter space is tomorrow at 3 p.m. Pacific. That's 6 p.m. Eastern and 11 o'clock at night in London. Sorry, Londoners.

Starting point is 00:11:30 Topic will be iOS 14.5, actually, and everything around this stuff, right? The new Google Android stuff, Google's flock, Facebook's ridiculous model conversions. We will get into it, so bring some alcohol. That's all I'm going to say. The only way to find this Twitter space, by the way, is to follow my Twitter account, which is at Todd Maffin. You'll find a link in this episode's notes to follow me there. For people who need.

Today in Digital Marketing - A String of Zeros

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