Today in Digital Marketing - An AI Bot Wrote This Episode's Title. (Or Did It?)

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Thursday, January 12th. Today, TikTok moves the bar on influencer marketing again. AI is now writing more than you think it is. Twitter tells advertisers, like it or lump it. WordPress just opened up a whole lot of ad placements. And new analytics from YouTube are on the way. I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. TikTok wants even more of your influencer marketing dollars. The platform is taking creator-led advertising up a notch by launching a new Talent Manager Portal. This lets talent managers oversee and execute brand deals for their clients. The new portal will also let managers negotiate contracts on behalf of their talent, manage deal flow, handle creative feedback, and review reports and analyze performance metrics.

Starting point is 00:00:46 With the expansion, TikTok now caters not only to content creators with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers, but also to those with celebrity-level followings. As TechCrunch points out today, many TikTok stars have signed with talent agencies, hence they would want their reps to review brand inquiries and negotiate deals on their behalf through this kind of a portal rather than doing it themselves. TikTok noted talent managers will have access only to their clients' marketplace accounts, not the creators' actual TikTok accounts.

Starting point is 00:01:14 But you can't play with it quite yet. TikTok confirmed the portal is currently in alpha testing and for the time being, invite only. Well, we all knew it was coming. ChatGPT is now being used to create ads. And I wasn't expecting Ryan Reynolds to be the ambassador of ushering in a new era of AI-generated ad campaigns. Earlier this week, the mobile network company Mint Mobile dropped a new ad featuring co-owner Ryan Reynolds reading a script composed by chat GPT. In case you're curious, here was the query he used. Write a commercial for Mint Mobile in the voice of Ryan Reynolds, use a joke, a curse word, and let people know that Mint's holiday promo is still going even after big wireless companies have ended theirs. And here's what

Starting point is 00:02:04 the AI came up with. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here. Eerie. First of all, let me just say Mint Mobile is the shit. But here's the thing. All the big wireless companies out there are ending their holiday promos, but not Mint Mobile. We're keeping the party going because we're just that damn good.

Starting point is 00:02:20 Give Mint Mobile a try. And hey, as an added bonus, if you sign up now, you'll get to hear my voice every time you call customer service. Just kidding. That's not really a thing. And stay classy, everyone. That is mildly terrifying, but compelling. We knew about AI writing this because, well, Reynolds said it did. But AI copywriting is making its way into our

Starting point is 00:02:45 landscape in ways that are a little bit sneakier. A journalist this week noticed that the tech news site CNET has been using AI to write articles about financial advice for months. At least 72 articles, maybe more. The pieces do have some fine print saying that, quote, this article was generated using automation technology and thoroughly edited and fact checked by an editor on our editorial staff, unquote. And it seems like it's working, at least for SEO, at least in the short term, quoting The Byte. Based on the reporter's observations, some of the articles appear to be pulling in large amounts of traffic in spite of Google having vowed to penalize AI-generated content last year. A talking point being adopted across the industry is that it frees up journalists and other staff from having to write tedious recaps. In reality,

Starting point is 00:03:38 it's hard to believe that the technology would forever be limited to cure a tedium and never intrude on real writing jobs. Now, looking at the explainers CNET has generated using AI, it looks like that goal post has already shifted and may never return. Twitter is not giving advertisers much reassurance when it comes to brand safety on the platform. The news site called The Information reported yesterday that Twitter executives have warned top advertisers to get used to Elon Musk's unpredictable behavior as the company continues hemorrhaging ad dollars. According to the report, Group M, the world's largest ad buying company, has cut spending on Twitter by up to 50%. As a result, Twitter executives are reportedly

Starting point is 00:04:25 becoming increasingly desperate to bring in fresh revenue as prior ad spending dries up. The report said that some have even suggested to ad buyers that their jobs are on the line unless those buyers spend more. Advertising, of course, was by far the most significant source of revenue for Twitter before the takeover, but since Musk's reign,

Starting point is 00:05:07 some big advertisers have chosen to put a pause on their campaigns. No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Automatic, the company that owns both WordPress and Tumblr, has extended the availability of Tumblr's Blaze ad tool to WordPress sites. The tool lets users turn existing content into ads that can run across Automattic's network, which includes millions of blogs. WordPress users can now go to WordPress.com slash advertising, select a site, and promote content with Blaze. If your WordPress site

Starting point is 00:05:43 isn't hosted on WordPress.com, you can access Blaze through the Jetpack plugin. Here's how it works. With the Blaze Campaign Wizards, you can design your ad by letting the wizard automatically format content into an ad. You can customize images and the text. Then you select your audience, select your campaign dates and a budget.

Starting point is 00:06:02 Finally, you finish by paying with campaigns billed weekly based on how many times an ad is shown. Once the ad is running, advertisers can check its performance in the campaigns tab of the advertising page. The company said Blaze is currently only available to users with English as their primary language. Data nerds rejoice more analytics are coming to YouTube as it continues to push

Starting point is 00:06:27 shorts. The platform announcing several updates yesterday. First, it's adding a new element to YouTube Studio that will display a breakdown of subscribers gained by type of content. It's worth noting you could access this information via YouTube analytics, but the update here will bring the data to the front, making it a little easier to see how each video and format is contributing to your channel growth. The YouTube Studio app is also adding a new display of what content your audience is watching across format types. The new format will break down viewer history by shorts, videos, and live streams. Now, for shorts specifically, the platform is rolling out a new option that will let Shorts creators select a frame from their video to be used as a thumbnail during the initial upload

Starting point is 00:07:10 process. This option is currently only available on Android. YouTube is also experimenting with its member recognition shelf display, which features selected avatars of members on channel pages. The company says it's testing extending the member recognition shelf to video descriptions on mobile, where it would be part of the info card section, the goal to increase new member signups there. And finally, the platform is adding video thumbnails and content length to YouTube Analytics advanced mode. And finally, now you can cry

Starting point is 00:07:44 during your next Google Meet with your boss. As long as you cry with emoji. Google is finally rolling out emoji reactions for its online video conferencing platform. Now, Google Meet will let you silently send reactions to colleagues during calls, like the heart, thumbs up, thinking emoji, and a bunch more. To my disappointment, the middle finger emoji did not make the cut. Okay, reporting back on the fancy Bluetooth mug. I'm returning it.

Starting point is 00:08:15 It's not that it doesn't work. It works fine, but it doesn't really do anything different than my $10, 15-year-old coffee warmer, hot plate thing. So maybe the solution is to get another $10 coffee warmer because this $200 mug is ridiculous. It's going back. Thanks for listening. I'm Todd Maffin. See you tomorrow. Les remèdes à quoi ça sert Tout d'un temps y'a rien à faire Viens

Today in Digital Marketing - An AI Bot Wrote This Episode's Title. (Or Did It?)

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