Today in Digital Marketing - It’s Over. The Influencers Are Taking Over BeReal. 🦈

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, May 3rd. Today, influencer invasion. Has BeReal finally jumped the shark? Clever ad placements from Peacock, Roku, and Snap. Whether sending gifts to your B2B clients works? LinkedIn will now write your cover letter, and YouTube has some bad news for brands whose accounts were suspended. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today, Digital Marketing. I'm Todd Mathen. That's Ahead. Today, digital marketing. BeReal, the social media platform fueled by authenticity and targeted to regular non-famous people, has launched a feed dedicated to famous people. Instead of exchanging photos with friends, the new feed, called Real People, exclusively shows what athletes, artists, and influencers are up to. The company says the new curated timeline offers a collection of real, unfiltered glimpses into the daily lives of high-profile people from around the world. Users can engage with the content with a real emoji as they scroll through the feed.

Starting point is 00:00:58 They also, of course, have the option to hide or report the posts. It's a strange decision by the app, which was once seen as the anti-Instagram, a place gloriously devoid of influencer culture. You might think that this will bring a new era of advertising opportunities and brand partnerships to the app, but that's not the case. Be Real has made it clear it is still not a space for brands. Quote, real people isn't about influencing, amassing likes or comments, or promoting brands. You won't see photoshopped pictures, product recommendations, or ads disguised as posts, unquote. The feature is currently being tested in the UK and can be accessed through the Discovery tab. Well, the new version of the upfront season called New Fronts is in full swing. And with that, Peacock, that's NBCUniversal's streaming service, introduced four new ad formats yesterday.

Starting point is 00:01:51 First, Spotlight Plus ads that let a brand take over a show across all platforms, contents and screens. Power Break ads. This is a new type of pause ad that appears when a viewer pauses a movie or TV show. According to the company, Powerbrick ads use data to dynamically customize a brand's message, like color, language, or creative, to connect with different audiences. Three, marquee ads. These ads, which were originally built for Linear, put a sponsor at the center of the action in streaming sports by integrating them into the scoreboard or other premium

Starting point is 00:02:25 placements beyond athletics. And fourth, must shop TV. This is its shoppable ad format, which lets viewers purchase products directly from programming. Streaming giant Roku also unveiled some new ad placements yesterday, including advertising on the home screen, original content, screensavers, and a bunch more. Streaming service also rolled out new discovery options that let brands host content in areas like home and garden and sports experiences. In terms of specifics,

Starting point is 00:02:56 the company launched its new AI feature that uses contextual search to find relevant plot moments that match a brand's message and then places ads alongside that content in real time. Finally, the platform also introduced a primetime reach guarantee, which assures brands they will be able to reach more TV households in primetime than the average program airing on a top five cable channel on traditional TV. And Snapchat also announced some new ad products at New Friends yesterday, including its plans to start monetizing its new AI chatbot. The company

Starting point is 00:03:34 confirmed it is testing sponsored links in conversations with its MyAI tool that connects users to brands relevant to their conversations. For example, if a Snapchatter asked where to have dinner, my AI could return a link sponsored by a local restaurant. Snap says it's in the early stages of testing this feature. This is a feature we've also seen Bing experiment with. Snap also announced it's bringing ads to Spotlight, the platform's TikTok-like feed. The ads will appear between

Starting point is 00:04:05 posts as users scroll through the feed, just like TikTok and Reels. Finally, Snapchat is launching a new ad placement called First Story, which lets advertisers reserve the very first video a user sees. 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.

Starting point is 00:04:39 Get customized coverage today, starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Is sending gifts to your B2B clients a worthwhile investment? A new survey by Sendoso, which we should note is a provider of gift sending services, found that while 95% of company decision makers felt overwhelmed by the number of people trying to get their attention, 80% said that receiving a gift from a vendor influenced their decision to take a meeting. Again, worth noting, this data comes from a company

Starting point is 00:05:09 that specializes in B2B gift sending, so take that for what you will. And to ensure that your gift doesn't end in the trash, Adweek reported today that B2B marketers have found corporate gifting to be successful when it's data-driven. Sendosa's platform, for instance, tracks website clicks and conversions on a company's site

Starting point is 00:05:27 and uses the information to send personalized gifts based on the recipient's interests. It then tracks the gifts back through marketing automation platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot, letting gift senders measure their effectiveness. According to the company, Streaming Platform Masterclass used its services

Starting point is 00:05:44 to create gift packages for its prospects, which improved win rates by 40%. And Meta observed an increase in meetings for its workplace development team within the first six months of using the gift-sending platform. LinkedIn's pinging subscribers are about to have an AI-powered personal assistant for their job applications. The professional network is trying out a new tool that auto-generates personalized messages for users to send to hiring managers to initiate a conversation. The generative AI collects and uses data from several sources like the user's profile, the hiring manager's profile, the job description, the company of interest. LinkedIn warns, though, that as with all of its AI tools, it's important to double check the results. The feature is currently being rolled out to premium subscribers. YouTube has announced some changes to its partner program application process

Starting point is 00:06:44 that will impact content creators and brands that have been rejected from the program. Previously, rejected brands could apply to the program every 30 days, regardless of the reason for their rejection. But starting June 3rd, rejected channels will have to wait 90 days before reapplying. If a creator or brand is rejected from the partner program a second time, they will also have to wait 90 days before reapplying. If a creator or brand is rejected from the partner program a second time, they will also have to wait 90 days. This change applies to channels already in the program as well. But it doesn't affect the company's appeal policy, and channels will still have 21 days to appeal rejection and suspension decisions. YouTube adds this applies only to channels that are suspended from the program for violating its policies. While most creators and brands are unlikely to violate partner program

Starting point is 00:07:31 rules, those who do may face a 90-day suspension if they fail to address those concerns. And finally, Reddit added some new options for sharing posts yesterday. First, Reddit posts can now be shared to Instagram stories as stickers. The process for sharing Reddit links on messaging apps has also been updated to automatically convert them to a visual preview format similar to the Instagram stories sticker. Post sharing options have also been updated to default to frequently used sharing channels. And finally, Reddit has launched a new embedding tool for publishers, which simplifies the process of displaying content on external sites. By entering the URL of a Reddit post, the tool generates an embed code with the appropriate formatting for post display. Nothing to say here. Thanks for listening. I'm Todd Maffin. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - It’s Over. The Influencers Are Taking Over BeReal. 🦈

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