Today in Digital Marketing - BeReal Careful

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, October 7th. I'm Todd Maffin. Today, is the real-life photo app a little too real-life? Reddit rolls out a big upgrade for media buyers. If TikTok's so good, why is it bleeding money? Amazon makes a surprising about-face on automation. And finally, no more meta advertising policies. They are gone. Sort of. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Well, it is the newest app that everyone's copying, but a new report suggests you might want to be a bit wary. An interesting piece up on Digiday today looks at why the photo app BeReal poses very real security risks in the workplace. The app's entire concept is to capture the real part of someone's life. It sends notifications at random times of the day to prompt users to capture their surroundings with front and rear cameras. But some security experts are warning that if the notification appears while someone is at their work computer, that could lead to a privacy breach. Their suggestions?

Starting point is 00:01:03 If you're going to use this app, close the tabs on your computer first. It may seem obvious, but if your employees are using B-Real at work, this might be a worthwhile discussion to have. In the app, it's not uncommon to see images of people's computer screens during the work week, such as their inboxes or assignments they're working on. Of course, that can lead to bigger problems, as it's basically opening a portal to hackers. One security expert believes that it's inevitable that scammers will take advantage of users

Starting point is 00:01:31 if they find a weak spot. The Digiday piece notes that while employers will have to hope that the majority of their employees who use the app are mindful, there are other ways to take action to prevent privacy breaches, like updating social media policies and educating staff about security risks and phishing. So be real,

Starting point is 00:01:49 just not with your company's confidential info up on your monitor. Reddit is hoping to get a piece of your media budget this quarter, the platform rolling out new updates to its ads manager this week. First, it is adding live support chat to provide direct access to Reddit's support team for ad campaign related questions. Next, the platform will roll out a new pixel helper tool in the ads dashboard that provides guidance on how to integrate the Reddit pixel to measure campaign performance. The platform has also made several updates to its ads manager interface, including an audience manager tool that lets users create, edit, delete,

Starting point is 00:02:29 and reuse audiences across campaign, a new post library, which will store your ad creative in one place. Also, advertisers can now update the creatives of an existing ad right on the edit ad page, and a redesigned estimates tool, which will provide you with impression and click estimates for your ad group, along with estimated audience reach.

Starting point is 00:02:50 Finally, Reddit has expanded its targeting options by adding over 1000 new targetable communities. Well, you win some, you lose billions. TikTok parent ByteDance's operating losses exceeded $7 billion last year as it spent heavily to maintain its rapid growth. This according to newly leaked financial reports shared with employees. Leaked only because the company is not public. And that also explains the delay in us getting this information. That said, the report showed that an operating profit was produced by ByteDance in the first quarter of this year, suggesting that one of

Starting point is 00:03:29 the world's most valuable startups might be turning the corner after years of losses. But the company is still bleeding billions in cash due to astronomical spending, according to the Wall Street Journal, even with revenue up nearly 80% to more than $60 billion last year. Among costs, ByteDance reportedly spent more than $19 billion on selling and marketing expenses in 2021. Other factors offsetting its rapid revenue growth include research and development spending and market value changes on a range of convertible securities, giving us a grand total of $7 billion in the company's operating loss across all of 2021. That is more than triple its loss in 2020.

Starting point is 00:04:10 ByteDance refused to comment. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? 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 point is 00:04:34 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Amazon's belt tightening continues. This time, it's kicking its little blue delivery robot Scout to the curb. Well, off the curb. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that the e-commerce giant was pumping the brakes on the program and its team. However, an Amazon spokesperson recently responded by saying that the company isn't killing the robot altogether, just scaling

Starting point is 00:05:00 it back. They added that through its tests, aspects of the program weren't meeting customers' needs. Bloomberg noted that the company's decision to ditch TestingScout is part of a company-wide move to cut down on more speculative investments as growth in its core retail sector slows. And that will, of course, bring us to the lightning round. Meta warned more than a million Facebook users today that their accounts may have been compromised

Starting point is 00:05:27 by third-party apps on the Apple and Google app stores. The company says it identified more than 400 malicious apps disguised as games, photo editors, and other utilities that are designed to steal people's Facebook login information. Earlier this week, Twitter started rolling out the edit button in select markets. As of yesterday, Twitter says it is now available in the U.S. to premium subscribers.

Starting point is 00:05:51 The Horizon isn't looking too bright now for the metaverse. According to leaked internal memos, Horizon Worlds, Meta's flagship metaverse app, is suffering from too many quality issues, so bad that even the team building it isn't using it much. The team says it will remain in a quality lockdown until the end of the year to, quote, ensure that we fix our quality gaps and performance issues before we open Horizon to more users. And finally, it is the end of Meta's advertising policies. They are no more.

Starting point is 00:06:23 That is because they've been renamed to Meta Advertising Standards. What's changing? Nothing. Just the name. Because that's what advertisers have been asking Meta to spend its time doing. Am I right? I know it seems like we've had a lot of long weekends in the past few weeks, and we have actually. Here in Canada, we had two federal stat holidays last month. One day of mourning for the Queen, the other for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This weekend, of course, it's Thanksgiving. What's that, Americans? Yes, Thanksgiving happens this weekend.

Starting point is 00:07:01 At least here, I understand you folks do it next month on obviously the wrong date, but whatever. You do you. That means Monday is a holiday here. We will not be here. We'll be thinking about you. Today in digital marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Tsunamic First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is Steph Gunn, production coordinator Sarah Guild, podcast music licensing by Source Audio, ad coordination by Red Circle, and not many people know this, but our theme composer, Mark Blevis, is one of the world's foremost experts on outdoor media.

Starting point is 00:07:37 You know, billboard advertising. I've always told him he should get into digital, but like he said to me this morning, you see them on the freeway, don't look like a lot of fun, but don't you try to fight it. An idea whose time has come. I'm Todd Mappin. Have a restful weekend, friends, and I'll see you on Tuesday. The girls inviting round and round we go You rush like lightning but you're taking it slow The girls inviting round and round we go

Today in Digital Marketing - BeReal Careful

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