Today in Digital Marketing - Instagram Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, September 28th. Today, the big one is here. What the Amazon monopoly lawsuit means for digital marketers. Also, Facebook's under fire for alleged ad discrimination. Microsoft launches a retail ad network. And Instagram proves once again why we can't have nice things. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. 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.ca. 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.

Starting point is 00:01:12 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. We knew it was coming and it has arrived. The American trade regulator, along with more than a dozen state attorneys general, have launched a large antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. Like the Google case currently being tried, this one alleges that Amazon unlawfully used its market dominance to cut competitors out of the loop. The chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said in a statement this

Starting point is 00:01:50 morning, quote, Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them, unquote. For its part, Amazon said, quote, if the FTC gets its way, the result would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers, and reduced options for small businesses, the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to do. The lawsuit filed by the FTC today is wrong on the facts and the law, unquote. So what exactly is this case about? The lawsuit alleges three things. First,

Starting point is 00:02:33 that Amazon punishes merchants who offer lower priced products on other commerce platforms, that it restricts which merchants are eligible for prime shipping benefits, and that Amazon is unfairly changing the results of searches on its platform to favor its own products. This is one in a series of lawsuits and investigations. In June, the FTC sued Amazon for allegedly tricking consumers into signing up for its prime service and making it difficult to cancel. It's also reviewing its acquisitions of robot vacuum maker iRobot and the entertainment firm MGM. So as far as what changes for digital marketers, really nothing, for now at least. These cases take years to wind through the courts. While we might see a small pullback in a company's usual aggressive market moves,

Starting point is 00:03:22 this isn't expected to have any kind of day-to-day effect on the job marketers and media buyers do. Until, of course, there's a verdict, then all bets are off. Meanwhile, a California court has ruled that Meta can be sued over allegations that its advertising algorithm is discriminatory. The suit started with a 48-year-old woman who was trying to use Facebook to find an insurance provider. She sued the company three years ago, saying Facebook's ad platform didn't deliver her any insurance ads because of her age and gender. The case has gone

Starting point is 00:03:56 through a whole series of administrative procedures, one court saying a federal law shielded Meta from responsibility, but now an appeals court overturned that, saying the action violated civil rights law. Microsoft Today announced it has launched a new ad network for retailers, and it will even play nice with other private retail marketplaces if retailers are using those. Their news release was about like 90% self-congratulatory and effusive quotes from executives, so it was a little hard to actually find any real details here. We did request an interview with a product manager, but didn't hear back. As far as I could tell, this new pool will provide placements in Search, Native, Display, and Connected TV.

Starting point is 00:04:38 Microsoft said Sky's omni-channel marketing platform will be the first third-party platform integrated into the Microsoft ad network for retail. 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. New data from Insider Intelligence has provided an updated look at where U.S. consumers

Starting point is 00:05:20 aged 18 to 24 spend their time online. Their report released today was a collection of recent studies. TikTok, as you might expect, is in the top spot as measured by time spent and by a lot, 58 minutes a day there compared to 38 minutes for Instagram and 30 minutes for Snapchat. That said, they do show Instagram still growing its time spent watching numbers. More than three quarters of that group get their breaking news from social media. That's more than any other generation. And they're not opposed to ads. Far from it, in fact. A February study found 72% of Gen Z consumers were receptive to ads on social media. Only 47% were okay with ads on streaming TV. When they're done

Starting point is 00:06:06 with social though, people aged 18 to 24 are more likely than others to take a break, but they're also quicker to come back. In most cases, those pauses are less than a week. A link to all the study sources is in today's newsletter, which you can subscribe to for free by tapping the link in the show notes or going to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. And that will bring us to the lightning round. A new audio player designed for pre-teens is on the market. The maker is Story Button. It can play podcasts specially designed for young people and was made by a podcaster. And parents might like this.

Starting point is 00:06:43 It has only buttons, no screen. Webmasters can now opt out of having their content used in Bing chat until there is an industry-wide solution. Microsoft says it will use meta tags in web code to handle this. A new study published today in the Journal of Interactive Marketing found that sending texts to credit card users, reminding them how much money they've spent each day, actually increased how much money people spent. Researchers believe this is because the reminders somehow create a sense of urgency and make people more likely to make impulse purchases. And SurveyMonkey has launched a new forms designer, which includes pre-built templates, conditional logic, and integrations with other popular tools.

Starting point is 00:07:26 Links to the full details of these lightning round stories are in today's free newsletter. Again, tap the link in the show notes to subscribe for free. And finally, Instagram ruins everything. Well, maybe not everything, but certainly one small street in Vermont. The street is host to the Sleepy Hollow Farm, which looks beautiful in the fall. Colorful leaves, bright red barns, contrasting gravel roads. It looks like something AI would dream up if you typed in autumn landscape. But thanks to hordes of snap happy Instagrammers, the town has closed the road leading to the farm, citing overcrowding and poorly behaved tourists.

Starting point is 00:08:07 Locals say people regularly block local traffic with their cars, obstruct emergency vehicles, and even relieve themselves on the lawns of the private property. One Instagram post even showed a route to take which would bypass the security cameras there and get them onto the property. And one clerk at the local general store told media, quote, Unfortunately, some people have taken it to the next step, where residents have come home and tourists have been on their porches having lunch. See, this is why we can't have nice things. Girl, I need ya. Are you going to the party tonight? Cause I need to know ya.

Starting point is 00:08:47 On the show tomorrow, a surprise move from YouTube on ads beside controversial topics and Snapchat gamifies agency pitches in the most adorable retro way possible. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. So listen, in the skies there's a comment out your eyes

Starting point is 00:09:04 yeah Every time I look at you Bye.

Today in Digital Marketing - Instagram Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

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