Today in Digital Marketing - Let Us Read All Your Emails Because Reasons: [YES] [NO]

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, June 30th. Today, marketing misstep. How Shein's influencer snafu has implications for your next creator campaign, while the U.S. introduces stricter rules for collaborative campaigns. And Pinterest's new idea is equal parts brilliant and terrifying. Could it cause a backlash in its user base? I'm Todd Maffin. That's Ahead. Today, digital marketing. It seemed like such a great idea. Xi'an, the Chinese fast fashion brand, which got insanely popular on TikTok and Instagram, invited a bunch of influencers recently to tour some of its factories in an apparent move to counter labor exploitation accusations that plagued the company.

Starting point is 00:00:46 Flew them to China, put them up in swanky accommodations, paid them. So, little surprise when the Shein video had clips like this in it. I think I went in there not expecting the best conditions for the workers. But I was pleasantly surprised how clean it was. Like some of the workers were waving at us and smiling. It's super organized. So it kind of like was on par with my expectations, the hopeful expectations I had.

Starting point is 00:01:15 So I really enjoyed that. But when the influencers came home and Shein's videos started rolling out, the backlash started. And many of those influencers who at the time seemed impressed by the brand and its apparently ethical practices changed their tune. The first thing I want to make abundantly clear is I have terminated my relationship with Shein upon returning from the trip and I will no longer be aligned with them or work with them in any capacity now or ever in the future. I made a mistake. I made

Starting point is 00:01:46 a huge mistake. The creator's explanations were not well received. Some of the comments on that video included, where's the apology for actively promoting a brand that does so much social, ethical and environmental damage? And he said you did your own research. There are several reports and documentaries showing the truth. You literally did nothing. And you're you did your own research. There are several reports and documentaries showing the truth. You literally did nothing. And you're just mad you got caught. Sorry, friend, not feeling sympathy for you being wined and dined by sweatshop owners. And inevitably, users started sharing parody videos about the whole thing.

Starting point is 00:02:20 When brand trips turn into brand slips, especially as big a slip as this one, it has a bigger impact than just this campaign. Indeed, Digiday reports today that Sheehan's influencer controversy could change how brands work with creators across the entire industry. Quoting the report, Fuffle has agency executives questioning the benefits of using creators and influencers to restore brand image. And it remains to see what ripple effects, if any, will take hold of the influencer marketing space after the dust has settled. For the most part, consumers trust influencers. However, consumers are more savvy than they've ever been, scoffing at inauthentic partnerships in which influencers are accused of selling out for ad dollars, unquote. We know intuitively that it's not good to lie. Marcus Collins is a marketing professor, former head of strategy at a large New York agency and author of the book

Starting point is 00:03:15 For the Culture, which looks at how influencer marketing is shaping our world. I spoke with him this afternoon. It's not good to manufacture truth. However, as marketers, we often find the nice silver shiny part of the object to highlight that, even though it also means obfuscating the five other things that may not be so good. I think that to be much more human about our marketing communications, about the products that we bring to market, requires us to say, hey, how would I want a human being to talk to me about this? Not me as a customer or consumer, but real life human beings. How would I want someone to tell me about this thing? And that requires us being much more human to think about interacting with humans, not companies communicating with customers.

Starting point is 00:03:58 And I think what you're describing is an ideal world, but is ideal something that marketers can realistically do when they're also dealing with sales targets and market pressures? Yeah, I think that we've seen marketers do it. I mean, marketers like Patagonia is a great example of this. Patagonia used to do a good and bad project where they would show the good that they were doing to live up to the precepts of their brand about minimizing the evasiveness of humans on the earth. They also show that these are parts we're not doing so well, that these parts need to get better.

Starting point is 00:04:29 This is where we have issues. And it's that level of transparency that people go, I trust Patagonia. I trust them. Marcus Collins, his book is called For the Culture. It's available on Amazon. So while the marketing industry this week grapples with shifting reception to influencers, the American trade regulator is taking steps to get ahead of the discussion. This week, updating its endorsement guides, which govern how brands and creators disclose connections.

Starting point is 00:05:00 There are a lot of new rules, so let's go through them. Putting hashtag ad or a similar disclosure in a TikTok caption is no longer sufficient. It must now be overlaid on the video itself. De-influencing campaigns require disclosure if an influencer criticizes a competitor they endorse. Tagging a brand is not enough now to disclose a relationship. Specific disclosure is required for sponsored content on blogs or social media pages. A blanket disclosure won't suffice. Disclosures cannot be hidden behind links, even if that link is labeled disclosure. For Facebook posts, including a disclosure in the comments is not enough. Thank you or thanks brand is not enough to communicate that an endorser got something for free. Gifted by itself is also not a significant disclosure for a free product.

Starting point is 00:05:55 And unsolicited gift products must now be clearly disclosed by influencers and they should be instructed on how to disclose and tag the brand. And disclosing sponsored content only at the bottom of a blog or ad is no longer enough. It must be placed where it easily catches consumers' attention and is difficult to miss. The FTC says that foreign creators creating content that will be seen by U.S. consumers must also comply with their rules, though I think the jury is still out on how an American regulator would have legal jurisdiction in another country. The new policies also apply to some retail spaces as well. For instance, review links can no longer be sent exclusively to satisfied customers, and brands can no longer ask customers who left

Starting point is 00:06:44 negative reviews to change or delete those reviews. Looking to improve your ad targeting? Maybe you should consider asking customers for their email passwords. That's close to what Pinterest is thinking about these days. The company's applied for a patent to scan users' email inboxes for things they like. According to Patent Drop, a newsletter that tracks registered patents, Pinterest described how the concept would work. First, users would somehow be convinced

Starting point is 00:07:16 to connect their email account to their Pinterest account. Then the engine would essentially scrape their inbox, looking for topic information to personalize that person's Pinterest experience, making boards and posts more customized, and maybe provide advertisers with some first-party data to be used for interest targeting. The system could find new topics of interest, update existing topics, or simply record the information as user data. Quoting socialmediatoday.com,

Starting point is 00:07:45 I'm not sure this is going to pass the GDPR test, but conceptually, if you were to gain user permission and ensure that their personal info is not misused after being accessed, it could be another way to understand user preferences, then show them related content according to their interests, though I can't see many people giving Pinterest the go-ahead to scan their private messages, unquote. Do you have business insurance?

Starting point is 00:08:13 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. Another loss for the ad tech industry today as MediaMath is reportedly filing for bankruptcy protection after failing to secure a buyer in

Starting point is 00:08:43 recent weeks. Earlier today, employees were told the company would shut down operations in the coming months. MediaMath is known for launching one of the first ever DSPs, but the company has been plagued by financial issues. Digiday notes that this development will have serious repercussions throughout the digital media landscape, resulting in financial losses for several sell-side ad tech companies, mostly publishers, with debts amounting to tens of millions of dollars. More automation is coming to Microsoft Ads, the company rolling out predictive targeting to all advertisers this week. This tool provides data advertisers provide like existing ads and landing pages combined with Microsoft's audience data to deliver the ad to what they say is a more relevant audience.

Starting point is 00:09:31 The tool automatically targets ads to the audiences most likely to convert without requiring us to build an audience targeting strategy manually. Microsoft claims the new ad tool can increase conversion rates by almost 50%. To integrate this into your marketing campaigns, you need to toggle on an ad group setting in audience campaigns. Predictive targeting will now be the default targeting option for your audience campaigns, meaning you won't specify an audience. Microsoft will automatically select one for your ads. If you don't want to use the feature, you can add an audience target and switch off the predictive targeting toggle. At least for now.

Starting point is 00:10:15 A man involved in one of the largest music royalty frauds in history has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for stealing more than $23 million in YouTube song royalties. Jose Teran was sentenced to 70 months by a U.S. federal judge this week. Teran and his accomplice orchestrated an elaborate scheme where they falsely claimed ownership of about 50,000 songs on YouTube videos to collect royalty payments. Teran pleaded guilty to conspiracy wire fraud and money laundering in January. The operation involved searching YouTube to find non-monetized songs.

Starting point is 00:10:53 Two men then set up a company to falsely claim ownership of these tracks and collect royalties from Google. Their company profited every time one of the songs was played on YouTube. Turan is said to have personally pocketed more than $6.2 million from the scam. Even after being indicted, he continued to receive royalty fees through the shell companies. Just 12 days after receiving a summons,

Starting point is 00:11:17 he opened a bank account and transferred more than $190,000 of YouTube royalties to himself. More surprising, he has also expressed interest to remain in the music industry. And finally, Twitter appears to have quietly rolled out a significant change to its platform. Now, you must be logged in to see any tweet on its website.

Starting point is 00:11:44 Previously, if you had a link to a tweet, you could read it, but had to log in to like it, reply to it, retweet it, and so on. But now, on the website, you can't even see it. Platformer reports the plan is to implement this over on its mobile apps as well. The move may be designed to stop screen scrapers from using the free content to bulk up large language models. What's weird about this, as socialmediatoday.com noted, is that Twitter relies on logged-out browsing to prop up its argument that it's a good corporate citizen. Their European disclosure site reads, quote, Twitter makes most of its content accessible to non-authenticated users. Persons without a Twitter account or logged out Twitter users are able to access most content on Twitter.com without being required to log in.

Starting point is 00:12:33 This accessibility is, you know, I feel like this needs some music. This accessibility is fundamental to Twitter's mission to serve the public conversation and help ensure the freedom of expression and access to information of its users. Oops. When that started making the rounds today, Elon Musk, internationally recognized for his ability to make a decision and stick to it, has apparently changed his mind. Now says this was a temporary measure all along. So the coffee experiment continues.

Starting point is 00:13:18 No coffee because I'm trying to save the 160 calories, which does not come from the coffee, by the way, but comes from the creamer that I must put into it. I switched over to calorie free, well well, low-calorie energy drinks. And I'm saving net 150 calories per day by doing this, which I've discovered I'm just spending foolishly. Yesterday, I took my 150 calories that I'd earned and made brownies with it. So, yeah. And that will do it for the week.

Starting point is 00:13:43 Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Tsunamic First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is the intrepid Steph Gunn. Production coordinator, Sarah Guild. Music licensing by Source Audio. Ad coordination by Red Circle. And, you know, not many people know this, but our theme composer, Mark Blevis, was one of Twitter's biggest advertisers. He paused it all when Elon got it, but he was thinking of coming back, new CEO and all. Except he wasn't impressed by their junket.

Starting point is 00:14:18 I asked him what the event was like. He said, a singer in a smoky room, a smell of wine and cheap perfume. Monday is a stat holiday in Canada. Tuesday is a stat holiday in America. We are taking both days off. Have a restful weekend, friends. We will see you next on Wednesday. and some more We spend our weekends and our days depending on how much we pay Cause this is life Life Today

Today in Digital Marketing - Let Us Read All Your Emails Because Reasons: [YES] [NO]

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