Today in Digital Marketing - Born Digital, Raised Brand-Savvy

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Friday, August 4th. Today, meet the generation redefining brand loyalty. TikTok tests privacy-aware campaigns, Amazon's ad sales were stratospheric, and X marks the spot. Wait, how come we can't see the spot anymore? I'm Steph Gunn, sitting in for Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in Digital Marketing. Bye-bye, Big Bird. A new study from marketing agency Razorfish has found that Generation Alpha, that is kids aged to 13 years old right now, favors adult-focused brands over kiddie brands even before they reach their teens.

Starting point is 00:00:39 The internet has played a big role in speeding up the generation's brand maturity compared to previous generations. Before the age of six, more than 40% of alphas have already used a tablet, and more than half have used video game consoles before they turned seven. According to the study, three quarters of eight to ten-year-olds are already thinking about mental health, which will likely become a major driving force behind brand affinity and purchase consideration. And though this might surprise you, nearly three quarters of alphas say they prefer spending time outdoors and reducing tech usage to manage their mental well-being.

Starting point is 00:01:18 For marketers looking to target this demographic, the study advises recognizing Gen alphas' accelerated brand maturity. Don't think of Alphas as younger Gen-Zs. They're already more Gen-Z than Gen-Z at a younger age. TikTok is developing a new privacy-aware ad targeting tool for marketers called PrivacyGo, which the company says will let advertisers match their CRM data with TikTok's audience insights in a secure way. This week, Business Insider reported that the process will function like a data cleanroom, where two parties share data, like email addresses and sales information, in a protected digital space. This ensures that the information can be used for ad targeting without compromising privacy regulations,

Starting point is 00:02:06 as neither party gains access to the other's data. According to TikTok, the process will use the same method the U.S. government uses to analyze census data. TikTok is currently testing Privacy Go and plans to make it widely available soon. So while TikTok is taking a step towards privacy-focused ad targeting, it's also giving users in Europe the option to step away from personalized content, which could impact your brand's reach. In response to the European Union's Digital Services Act, the platform announced today that it will soon let users turn off the personalized algorithm behind its For You and Live feeds. Users on those feeds will see popular videos

Starting point is 00:02:52 from their region and worldwide, rather than content targeting their interests. But the Following and Friends feeds will appear in reverse chronological order. These changes align with the legislation's rules that require large online platforms to provide opt-out options for personalized content, which usually involves tracking and profiling user activity when viewing content recommendations. TikTok will also start excluding European users aged 13 to 17 from ad campaigns that target them based on their online activities,

Starting point is 00:03:24 eliminating the need for manual opt-out. Amazon's earnings have been released and its ad business is thriving as the digital ad market continues to show signs of improvement. Yesterday, the e-commerce giant reported that its online ad division brought in more than $10 billion in sales in the second quarter, a 22% increase from the previous year. Overall sales for the quarter grew 10% year over year. Amazon's online advertising now represents about 7% of the global digital ad market, according to Insider Intelligence. Alphabet and Meta continue to lead with 30% and 20%

Starting point is 00:04:03 market share, respectively. During the past year, however, CNBC notes that while Amazon's advertising business has experienced growth, Meta's core digital ad business has declined due to Apple's privacy updates still affecting its ad platform. As a result, some companies, especially retailers, shifted ad budgets from Facebook and Instagram to Amazon's platform to boost sales. 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. X has changed the way it presents ads on its platform by making them look more like regular posts in your feed, which I'm sure won't sound any alarms with the FTC.

Starting point is 00:05:04 The previous promoted tag, which was prominently displayed at the bottom left of ads, has been replaced with a much smaller ad label located at the top right of the post. The platform is also experimenting with an updated ad display format that makes the main image look much more like a regular visual attachment with a subtle in-image URL marker indicating the ad link instead of a separate call to action bar. Current FTC regulations state that all ads must be clearly and conspicuously signaled in-app. The updated ad tag could still be prominent enough in this respect, but as Social Media Today points out today, the combined changes might not pass

Starting point is 00:05:46 the FTC sniff test. A couple of small updates. First, Google confirmed an issue with its ads platform yesterday that was affecting most advertisers all day. Advertisers were getting notices saying, Google ads can't complete your request right now. Please reload this page to try again. The issue is now fixed. Next, Meta's Twitter rival Threads has seen a staggering decline in daily active users, dropping more than 80% since its release a month ago, according to new reports from two different data firms. Engagement has also plummeted with data indicating time spent on the app in all available markets peaked on July 6th at about 14 minutes a day. By August 1st, that time had been cut to two minutes. And last but not least, TikTok competitor Triller

Starting point is 00:06:38 has teased its plans to go public for quite some time, and now the short-form video platform seems to be on its way. The company filed an S-1 this week looking to directly list on the New York Stock Exchange. And finally, Siri might soon be able to read your lips. A new patent application from Apple yesterday outlines a system for determining whether motion data matches a word or phrase to fix the woeful voice recognition issues plaguing Siri. Instead of using the device's camera, it would use motion sensors to track your every mouth twitch, neck, or head movement to decode your speech. This system could potentially be integrated into iPhones, AirPods, or even smart glasses using motion sensing technology to capture users' facial cues. This means Apple might need a lot of data

Starting point is 00:07:34 on how humans use their mouth parts. Pucker up. Not much going on for me this weekend i'm pregnant and as of tomorrow i will be officially full term so it's kind of hard to make plans for the long weekend when you know you could have a baby at any moment and yes monday is a holiday in canada but Todd will be back with a special deep dive episode. Everything you need to know about auditing a meta ad account. Today in digital marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Stunamuk First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is me, Steph Gunn. Production coordination, Sarah Gilt.

Starting point is 00:08:26 Music licensing by Source Audio. and ad coordination by Red Circle. And not many people know this, but our theme composer, Mark Levis, actually manages one of the largest Google ads budgets. So when the site went down yesterday and I tried to tell him in the staff meeting. He interrupted me saying, Don't speak. I know just what you're saying. So please stop explaining. Don't tell me, cause it hurts. Thanks for listening. I'm Steph Gunn. Todd will be back with that special Deep Dive episode on Monday. Cause you and I, we were born to fly.

Starting point is 00:09:02 Fly with our hands up to the sky There's nowhere left to hide You and I were born to fly

Today in Digital Marketing - Born Digital, Raised Brand-Savvy

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