Today in Digital Marketing - Brain Rot.

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Thursday, September 5th. Today, the kids call it brain rot, some marketers call it gold. Here's what you need to know about the TikTok trend everyone's talking about. Plus, free trials or demos which convert better. We have the latest video performance data, and a huge media spender decides which agency will get its budget. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. I remember when I first saw the TikToks. In the top half was the content I

Starting point is 00:00:34 was expecting, a creator talking about whatever. In the bottom was what seemed to be a completely random video of someone moving through a Minecraft world, or flipping cars in GTA 5, or a slow motion video of someone cutting through an impossibly colorful cake. Maybe you've seen them too. They seem to be getting more popular on short form video platforms like TikTok, and they're part of a category of content being called brain rot. In this form, these posts, sometimes also called overstimulation or content sludge videos, feature split screen formats with two unrelated videos playing at the same time. The idea is to grab viewers attention in a world where people are constantly bombarded with stimulating media. The format is said to have originated on TikTok, where users are served an endless

Starting point is 00:01:25 supply of short, algorithm-driven videos. Now, some big advertisers are starting to pay attention, like candidates in the upcoming American elections. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris's campaign is using them now. One ad features a narrator highlighting Harris's experience with a clip from a stump speech. And down below is a 3D animation of colorful balls rolling on a track. Another ad uses the same format, but with a spinning chrome shape in the bottom half. The campaign has spent a few hundred dollars on each ad, which have been viewed tens of thousands of times. 404 Media has a great piece about this whole thing today, and it suggests that despite the effort,

Starting point is 00:02:08 it might not be having the effect that campaign hopes. Quote, It's not surprising that the Harris campaign would cater to a very online audience, given the campaign initially being embraced with joyful memes about coconuts and Kamala's brat summer. But while these ads are technically copying the format of other viral social media posts, they don't appear to be going massively viral organically, and I certainly wouldn't say they come off as authentic.

Starting point is 00:02:37 They read as political ads that are obviously trying to appeal to a specific audience, in this case, Gen Z and the terminally online, unquote. When marketing B2B software, many vendors rely on either free trials or demos to convert prospects into buyers. But which works better? New research from Obility, a B2B SaaS agency, has found free trials drive more form fills per impression than demos. The researchers analyzed more than 11,000 responsive paid search ads from January of 2023 to August of this year.

Starting point is 00:03:18 The ads offered either a free trial or a demo. The vendors included both Obility clients and non-clients. The total spend on ad was more than $20 million. As for the results, a demo call to action generally had higher conversion rates, but the free trial call to action drove a higher click-through rate. Specifically for non-branded campaigns,

Starting point is 00:03:43 free trial calls to action nearly doubled the click-through rate. Specifically for non-branded campaigns, free trial calls to action nearly doubled the click-through rate compared to demos. We have all the data and a breakdown in a table in today's email newsletter, which you can find at todayindigital.com slash newsletter, or sign up for free by just tapping the link at the top of the show notes. Short form video is getting a little longer and consumers are here for it. According to a new report from social video analytics company Tubular, the research found that short form videos are getting longer on both YouTube and TikTok. YouTube clips over 30 seconds in length are up 40%.

Starting point is 00:04:20 On TikTok, the trend is moving toward even longer uploads with clips between one and two minutes also on the rise. That said, super short video clips still dominate uploads on TikTok, but engagement with these clips is waning. This suggests users are favoring a new extended version of short form content. When it comes to emerging content trends, viewership is up in the beauty and music categories. Interestingly, business and finance saw a significant rise in the app, with topics like home ownership at a young age and viral finance tips gaining traction. The report also provided an overview of key trends across the major social video apps.

Starting point is 00:05:01 Instagram's engagement has skyrocketed by a third. Facebook video uploads increased by almost two times, comments on TikTok increased by almost 5%, and viewership on YouTube rose by 15%. We have a copy of the full report in today's email newsletter. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more.

Starting point is 00:05:41 It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A. Well, as the trend toward longer short form videos

Starting point is 00:06:01 gains momentum, YouTube is stepping up its game for shorts creators by rolling out new options for customizing thumbnails. Now creators can select a frame for their shorts thumbnail and apply text and filters to modify the image. You cannot still, however, upload custom shorts thumbnails. A shorts thumbnail editing has been a popular request. YouTube says that those thumbnails just aren't as important as regular video thumbnail images because short clips are typically discovered through the full-screen Shorts feed. The company added it is working to bring more options to the feature next year.

Starting point is 00:06:40 A couple of updates from Google. First, Google Ads seems to be rolling out a new tab in its image assets library called Merchant Products. This tab displays images uploaded to your LinkedIn Google Merchant Center account. Google Ads also has a new feature in the AI image editor within Google Merchant Center feeds that lets you import product images directly into your Google Ads account. The images will be stored and accessible in the Google Ads asset library. Here's how it works. First, you link your Google Ads account

Starting point is 00:07:10 to the Google Merchant Center. You then import your images from Merchant Center into the asset library. Note that edited images will not be saved back to the product feed, only to the asset library. For Performance Max campaigns, you can include up to 20 images per campaign, which might limit the number of images you can import from Google Merchant Center. Late last year, Amazon's mammoth global media planning and buying account,

Starting point is 00:07:41 valued at more than $2 billion, went up for review, and the results are finally in. The e-commerce giant has decided to split its media business between two industry giants, Omnicom and WPP, rather than selecting a single agency. WPP, as in GroupM, will manage Amazon's media business in the Asia-Pacific and European regions, Omnicom will oversee the Americas, dealing with a larger chunk of media spend overall. According to Convergence data, last year Amazon spent $2.6 billion in North America and $133 million in Latin America. At the same time, though, the e-commerce giant only spent $1.6 billion in Europe and only three-quarters of a billion in the Asia-Pacific region. However, Digiday reports today that sources close to the decision suggest cutting convergence estimates in half for a more accurate read on what the two holdcos will actually have to spend,

Starting point is 00:08:36 as Amazon does some measure of investment in-house. Meanwhile, IPG, the previous incumbent on all Amazon's business, didn't lose out entirely. The company will retain AWS, Amazon Ads, and Amazon Business. And finally, YouTube Studio has added a new website visit goal today for video promotions, letting creators drive traffic to their site and measure it. Over time, you will be able to track the site visits that you are generating on the promotions tab in YouTube Studio. So I am not 100% sure what's going to happen tomorrow. Steph, for the first few weeks back is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, which means Monday and Friday. It's just me and Friday is just me.

Starting point is 00:09:25 And I am feeling awful. I'm switching meds, which, you know, is never fun. I was taking a med, which turns out to actually have been a psychiatric medication. I wasn't taking it for that reason, but it had a really nice sedative effect since I've had long-term insomnia since I was a child. So I've got a better pill to help with that. But the coming off of the pill that I've been using for insomnia, coming off that pill, I think because it was actually a psychiatric med, is no fun. I guess those of you who've been on psych meds before will know what this is. So it's all sorts of nausea and sore muscles. And I just I feel like I have the flu, even though I'm missing

Starting point is 00:10:06 like half of the symptoms. So yeah, today's just kind of been gross. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Maybe I'll be through it and everything will be fine. It's possible there won't be an episode tomorrow. It's possible there'll be a hybrid where I'll feel up to writing the script, but not up to actually voicing the podcast. In which case, God help me, I might have AI read the podcast tomorrow. It'll be an adventure, you and I, either way, tomorrow. So we'll see. Stay tuned to see how terrible I sound with a voice clone, I guess is what I'm saying.

Starting point is 00:10:39 But cross fingers, hopefully this will go away with the help of, I don't know, more sleep or something. All right, that's it for today. Thanks for listening. See you in some form, maybe tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Brain Rot.

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