Today in Digital Marketing - Cat, I Farted 💨

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Monday, December 18th. Today, the deal is off. Adobe will not add Figma to its design lineup. YouTube postpones its plans to measure co-viewing, how this Saturday will shape up for last-minute holiday shopping, and the reason French people still giggle a little when you talk about generative AI. I'm Todd Maffin.

Starting point is 00:00:23 That's Ahead, today in digital marketing. financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Adobe has given up on the acquisition of the design tool Figma. The two companies today announcing they've canceled the deal that would have seen Adobe shell out $20 billion for the company, half in stock, half in cash. The original deal was announced in September of last year to fairly widespread derision. Adobe had tried in 2020 and then again in 2021 to buy the company and got turned down both times. This deal that took

Starting point is 00:01:18 was for double Figma's estimated valuation at the time. But the reason for the deal's cancellation? Government, specifically European antitrust regulation. Quoting from Adobe's news release, Although both companies continue to believe in the merits and pro-competitive benefits of the combination, Adobe and Figma mutually agreed to terminate the transaction based on a joint assessment that there is no clear path to receive necessary regulatory approvals from the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority, unquote. The acquisition would have eliminated one of Adobe's big rivals in the design space. Figma has been beating Adobe's web design tool XD, which Adobe appears to have been phasing out recently. Adobe will pay Figma a cool $1 billion in termination fees.

Starting point is 00:02:07 Adobe shares were up 2.2% this morning. YouTube is postponing work on co-viewing measurement. That's the tech they were working on that would give marketers more accurate data when multiple people are watching a single video stream together. The decision comes after facing resistance from ad buyers who said they weren't convinced the numbers would be reliable.

Starting point is 00:02:34 Specifically, marketers were concerned about a lack of transparency. They say YouTube's methodology lacks the same visibility compared to other measurement companies like Nielsen. Skepticism arose from YouTube relying on its own data instead of industry standard third-party measurement. But the big problem is that measuring co-viewing is messy. Quoting Digiday.com's great coverage of this today, quote, typically it's based on a panel

Starting point is 00:03:00 of select audience members and then projected across the total audience using what's called a co-viewing factor, like 1.6, to multiply the number of impressions served by the factor representing the average number of people likely watching on the other side of those impressions. Squishy as that math may be, it's been acceptable enough for measuring traditional TV ads, which are largely evaluated based on broad age and gender categories. But given the level of audience targeting that advertisers are accustomed to on platforms like YouTube, agency executives are unsure how accurately co-viewing measurement will count,

Starting point is 00:03:38 or, more to the point, not count, viewers according to a campaign's targeting parameters. For example, if three people are watching together, but only one is part of the advertiser's defined target audience, then ad buyers don't want to be charged for the other two viewers, unquote. YouTube said this delay to the last quarter of next year gives them more time to work on all of this, plus try to bring third-party validation to the table. Earlier this month, we reported on a report from the local SEO agency Sterling Sky that found a store's ranking in Google's local SEO services, like Maps, is affected by whether

Starting point is 00:04:19 that store is open when a user searches. If you're open, you're more likely to appear in the local pack. If you're closed, much less likely. Now, Google has confirmed the report. Danny Sullivan, Google's rep to the SEO industry, said on social media, quote, the team tells me we've long used openness as part of our local ranking systems,

Starting point is 00:04:40 and it recently became a stronger signal for non-navigational queries. This might change in various ways as we continue to evaluate the usefulness of it, however, unquote. What he means there by non-navigational is when you're looking for a product category rather than a brand name, so like lawyers or web design companies, rather than the name of a specific store. So then the solution is to just list your store as open 24 hours a day, right? Maybe.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Danny Sullivan again on social media, quote, I wouldn't recommend businesses do this given the ranking signal may continue to be adjusted, unquote. So they might crack down on that in the future. Do with that as you will. I don't know how I got to be this age and didn't know that there was a marketing name for the Saturday before Christmas. I just knew it as the, oh crap, I forgot a gift for my wife again. I better get to the mall day. Turns out there are so many forgetful spouses. There is indeed a name for that day, Super Saturday.

Starting point is 00:05:50 And the National Retail Federation in the US says 142 million people will be shopping, both online and in person. But that's actually down from last year's 158 million. Another interesting trend, people were a little better at getting their gifts together this year, almost half said they've already done their shopping. This weekend's big winners are expected to be clothing and accessories, followed by toys, gift cards, and media items. As for after Christmas, 70% of those polled said they'd be back out buying things, driven partially by the post-holiday sales, partially to redeem gift cards found in stockings, and 16% will be there to exchange gifts they didn't like. All told, consumers are expected to spend an average of $875 this year on gifts, food, decorations, and other small holiday purchases.

Starting point is 00:06:40 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. 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.C-A.

Starting point is 00:07:15 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 at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. For the last year, TikTok has had software for brands and agencies that wanted to make their own special filters and the likes. It's called the Effect House, a desktop tool that lets you build your own prediction games or make up overlays and so on. Now, TikTok says you'll be able to make effects for the app directly from within the app without having to download for desktop.

Starting point is 00:08:01 Just like with Effect House, you can start with some pre-made templates and pick from any of the 2,000 or so assets they have. You'll be able to set triggers like tap screen, smile, wink, and so on to build interaction-based randomizers and mini games. TikTok says you'll need to update your app, which I did and still don't appear to have this, so perhaps it's still rolling out. But once you do get it, you'll find it in the effects tray under a new tab called Create. Also, a new tablet view. TikTok has updated its app

Starting point is 00:08:31 to be nicer to people with tablets like iPads. Previously, the app just scaled itself up, but this morning they announced the screen will reformat itself a bit more intelligently. A sea change in the way brands view agencies according to data from the marketing consultancy R3. In the past, agencies, particularly the big ones, have relied on locked-in agreements known as agencies of record. Basically, it's an honorific, meaning we handle everything for this brand. But as the digital marketing landscape evolves

Starting point is 00:09:05 and becomes more fragmented, the concept of everything is becoming less appealing. Brands these days are increasingly looking for agencies that specialize in areas like TikTok or influencer marketing rather than one big pool of services. And while there's certainly value to having people who are well-versed in a very specific area of your marketing, do you lose something by scattering your overall brand messaging over a number of partners?

Starting point is 00:09:33 R3 says year over year, there have been almost 30% fewer media pitches, and the revenue from creative pitches has remained flat. So what are brands looking for? R3 says it expects to see more agencies merging next year and coming up with different partnership structures, like the way opposing political parties sometimes form coalitions to win government. Small agencies might group up

Starting point is 00:09:59 to offer a set of services. And so the new agency might look a lot like the old agency. A new setting launching this week in the Instagram app might help with combating brand impersonation. It's a new toggle switch in settings called Allow Profile Picture Expansion. Now, if you want, you can turn that off. Currently, if you go to someone's Instagram profile and tap their profile photo, it'll expand to full screen. This presumably part of Meta's efforts to make their apps a little less welcoming to creeps.

Starting point is 00:10:34 Of course, this wouldn't prevent someone from screenshotting your brand's profile image, upscaling it in some photo editing tool, cleaning it up a little. But it does add a few steps to trying to get a copy of your logo or photo. And finally, as you might know, I live in Canada. You might also know that Canada has two official languages, English and French. I'm on the West Coast, so we don't use a lot of French. You see it on all our grocery products and it's all over our airports and stuff, but most of us out here in the West don't really use a ton of French. That said, I do know the basics, and since my whole family are Quebecois, all the swear words, too.

Starting point is 00:11:15 Most of them have to do with the Catholic Church for reasons that are too long to mention here, but I will tell you about one very amusing one, to fart, which is pronounced péter. If you want to say, I have farted, you'd say, j'ai pé-té. And if, for some reason, you'd want to let your family's cat know that you just farted, you'd say, chat, j'ai pé-té. Which might explain why French people giggle a little when they have to say the name of the leading generative AI tool, ChatGPT. Yes, the name sounds nearly identical to Cat I Farted in French. So, pour one out for all the French TV anchors who are forced to report on the technology and try their best to not start laughing when they have to say,

Starting point is 00:12:01 Is Cat I Farted going to take your job? Follow us on social media. We are almost everywhere. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads, Mastodon, Blue Sky, Post.Nude, Spoutable, Snapchat, and Pinterest. Go to todayindigital.com slash social or tap the link in the show notes. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Cat, I Farted 💨

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