Today in Digital Marketing - Aug 5 — Instagram Reels: A Digital Marketer’s Guide (Ep 208)

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's show, it's here, Facebook's answer to TikTok. Will Instagram Reels make it into the hearts and minds of young consumers? Also, Google changes its mind on the impact of negative reviews, the strangest brand extension you've ever heard of, and the hugely popular ad platform I guarantee you're not on. It's Wednesday, August 5th, 2020. Happy Crayfish Festival Day, Sweden. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital,

Starting point is 00:00:30 and here is what you missed today in digital marketing. Yes, it's here, Facebook's version of TikTok. It's called Instagram Reels. Interesting timing for sure. Good timing, I suppose, since TikTok and the Trump administration are currently in a pissing match. But bad timing since Facebook is currently under the microscope for anti competitive behavior, such as, oh, I don't know, taking a competitor's app and just straight up

Starting point is 00:00:57 copying it like they did with Snapchat and like they are apparently doing a TikTok. Anyway, Instagram Reels, it's here. And it should be in your app in the next few hours or days, that is to say inside your Instagram app. 50 countries, including India, Brazil, France, Germany, the UK, basically all the countries that they could get the music rights in. So what does it mean for digital marketers like you and me? Well, if you have been sitting out the whole TikTok thing, creating one of these videos is quite a bit different than making a regular video or an

Starting point is 00:01:30 Instagram story. With TikTok, and now Reels, you shoot a series of very short clips and then chain them together, and if you want, overlay music and audio on them. Now, if you're a B2B brand selling, I don't know, industrial lubricant to Fortune 100 oil companies, this probably isn't your thing. But for any direct-to-consumer brand, especially those targeting an under-40 age demo, creating one of these might be a good skill for you to have. There are a few differences between TikTok and Reels. The latter can only do 15-second videos, whereas TikTok can go up to a minute. And there'll be a new space within Explore to showcase popular reels. And you'll get a notification on Instagram if one of your brand's videos are featured there, which is a nice touch. Unlike Stories, these videos won't

Starting point is 00:02:15 disappear after 24 hours. There will be a new tab in users profiles where they will live. If you want to see if you have it, open the Instagram camera. That's the one you use to make a story. And you should see two options at the bottom, stories and reels. If that's not what you're seeing, hold tight. The update will roll out to you soon. All that said, just because Facebook copies an app doesn't mean that app is dead. Snapchat, for instance, is alive and well. And I always hear stories about really good results from brand advertising campaigns. Last month, the company reported a 17% year-over-year increase in daily active users. That brings them to 238 million. Those are daily users. On the digital marketing front, today they updated their Snap Focus education module about unique audience reach, and they've added some more specific detail on Snap's regional audience

Starting point is 00:03:09 numbers, giving you a better sense of how popular Snapchat is in different regions. One thing to note, as Social Media Today reported, the numbers there are what Snapchat calls addressable reach. That's how many users your campaign could potentially reach over 28 days. That's not the same as monthly users, because it includes things like people who are out of town, users with multiple accounts and so on. This Snap focus thing is their learning platform and is worth having a look if you think Snapchat might be part of your media buying mix. All this stuff, TikTok, Instagram Reels. I know, I know, it's all old hat for you. You're a pro.

Starting point is 00:03:50 You're in all the digital marketing spaces. Facebook, Google Ads. Hell, you're even paying the ridiculous CPC rates at Twitter and LinkedIn. But I'll bet I know one quickly growing platform that you're not on. Animal Crossing. Yes, the Nintendo game that was lucky enough to launch right at the start of the pandemic lockdown and saw huge numbers pile on. 13 million copies sold in its first six weeks. I'll be honest, so many people were talking about how great it was that during one brief evening of weakness, I started looking

Starting point is 00:04:22 for a Nintendo Switch. If you haven't seen it, you are the only human on an island that is inhabited by 10 cuddly animals. It is a kid's game. At least it was when the first version launched in 2001. But those eight-year-olds who were playing it back then are 27 today. So I guess little surprise that major consumer brands are already paying Nintendo to get in front of those millennials again. For instance, the toilet paper brand Cottonelle and Venus, that's Gillette's women's razor line, they're both in there. The razor brand alignment comes from a number of so-called skin-inclusive designs that you can apply to characters in the game, such as freckles,

Starting point is 00:05:01 cellulite, scars, acne, and stretch marks. Even skin conditions like psoriasis are in there. And then there's the toilet paper integration. I'm not going to go into big detail here. Let's just say that players can poop fruit. There's a sentence I never thought I'd be saying here. Oh, and it's not just them. Gucci, Dior, Burberry, they're all in there too. What a time to be alive. Those of you with very small businesses might be familiar with the payment dongles from Square. They plug into the headphone jack or power jack of your smartphone and you can swipe credit cards. This has made the lives of countless farmer market vendors and small family businesses so much better. Well, this week came word that soon you might not even need that dongle,

Starting point is 00:05:51 at least on Apple devices. The company confirmed it has acquired MobiWave, which has built a way for shoppers to tap their credit card or smartphone on any other phone to pay for something. No dongle or tap pad needed. It works with the NFC chip that iPhones have had since 2014. NFC, that's Near Field Communications. Reports say Apple paid about $100 million for this startup, which is based in Montreal. Go, Canada. Apple never talks about their acquisitions, but they do a lot of them. Some recent buys, the weather app Dark Sky,

Starting point is 00:06:24 VR broadcasting company NextVR, and Fleetsmith for enterprise device management. A bit of a correction, kind of. The other day I reported that a Google engineer said having negative reviews on sites like TripAdvisor or Yelp or Google Reviews won't hurt your position in the main Google search engine. But yesterday, that same engineer during his regular weekly online public Q&A session backtracked a little. Now he says, if you have a whole lot of negative reviews, then yeah, it actually would take that into account. So it sounds like a handful of reviews, what say a normal business might get from day to day time to time should be no problem but if you are just swamped with a whole pile of negative reviews that

Starting point is 00:07:10 probably is hurting you on google and finally if you've ever launched a brand extension or been responsible for repositioning a product you'll know that the marketing of that repositioning a product, you'll know that the marketing of that repositioning can sometimes be tough. Sometimes it just doesn't fit. Enter Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, or as we call it here in Canada, KD, that's Kraft Dinner. What is the brand extension there? They say, hey, it's not just for dinner anymore. So start their day with a bowl of Kraft Mac and Cheese for breakfast. It's the same Mac they love, but 100% more breakfastier. Because you 100% need a break. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for breakfast. For the win-win. Yes, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is launching a breakfast version.

Starting point is 00:07:59 As far as I can tell, it's literally the exact same product, just with the word breakfast on the box. If your jaw dropped at that factoid, As far as I can tell, it's literally the exact same product, just with the word breakfast on the box. If your jaw dropped at that factoid, wait until you hear the results of a study of 1,000 busy parents that Kraft polled this quarter. They say, and I'm just going to say here, I don't believe this at all, but whatever. They say 56% of those parents fed their kids mac and cheese for breakfast more often during pandemic lockdowns than in previous months 56 percent come on mac and cheese as a solution to parents are busier now first of all are they really busier but more to the point like cooking mac and cheese takes way longer than pouring milk into a cereal bowl.

Starting point is 00:08:46 The world is going crazy, friends. And apparently we marketers are leading that charge. Well, a short episode today and out a bit earlier than usual because I have been up since 4.30. We added a fairly big new client this week and it is all hands on deck to onboard them, do the engagement auditing, setting them up on our platforms, all that stuff. And hey, I try really hard to make this podcast a good use of your time. Short and punchy, not much rambling.

Starting point is 00:09:13 So if you find this kind of format valuable, I'd really appreciate it if you'd take a moment to rate and review this podcast. It really does help more people find it. And I've made that easier for you than you think. There's a link in this episode's notes that will take you right to the review page of your app. As always, full transcripts to each episode are at todayindigital.com and follow me on social media. All my links are in the notes. I'm Todd Maffin that leads to you

Starting point is 00:09:45 between daylight and a dream straight and true yet spiraling when nothing's as it seems

Today in Digital Marketing - Aug 5 — Instagram Reels: A Digital Marketer’s Guide (Ep 208)

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