Today in Digital Marketing - Long Live The Bend And Snap

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Starting point is 00:00:18 starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected, be Zen. Today, it's official, YouTube has come out swinging for TikTok. at zensurance.com. Happy birthday, Elle Woods. I'm Todd Mapfin from EngageQ Digital, and here's what you missed today in digital marketing. Another shortish show today. I guess a lot of PR people are taking this week as a summer holiday. Not Aaron Schultz, who won a Fulbright and a Rose. He writes financial software codes, but that's a challenge he's outgrown. How many aughts can one man own? YouTube's answer to TikTok is finally rolling out globally. They call the format Shorts, and after a trial run in India and a handful of other countries, it should now be available pretty much everywhere YouTube is available. They recently added the ability for creators

Starting point is 00:01:22 to sample audio from other videos on YouTube. And yes, you can opt your brand's videos out from that if that makes you squiggly. You can also take back the books and pack up the clothes, clear out the room and drop off the key, leave with what's left of your dignity. Just get in the car. Just go. So for those of you keeping score at home, we have the OG TikToks, Shorts from YouTube, Spotlight from Snapchat, Reels from Instagram. So, there's blood in the water. Let the games begin. Four of them will win, but just those four with the dorsal fin. I guess one advantage to everyone adopting the same format is that it's easier to cross-post. Produce for one platform, publish on all the others.

Starting point is 00:02:07 But TikTok videos are different than any other old vertical video format. The content in a video's story is usually quite a bit different than one in a reel. TikTok's videos, and I guess now everyone's version of it, have got their own unique culture. In fact, TikTok's ad platform's tagline is, Don't make ads, make TikToks. Really the big unknown here, where their brands can actually rise to the challenge. After all, this is Harvard, not a stripper bar.

Starting point is 00:02:40 Speaking of TikTok, the company is launching an interesting activation in the UK, the 4U House. Named after the app's primary content feed, this is a pop-up physical storefront in a West London shopping mall. Inside, fans get to shoot their own videos on little mini sets, like a dressing room and a garden, and take quick courses in content creation. There's also a fully functioning kitchen. Of course, they'll get to meet popular creators like European footballer Jeremy Lynch. Freestyle footballer, I should add, because they do bring their boys up different in those charming foreign ports.

Starting point is 00:03:11 They play peculiar sports in shiny shirts and tiny shorts. YouTube did this a couple of years ago with what it called its experiential house. But, quoting social media today, obviously things have changed a lot since then, and within the context of the pandemic, it is interesting to see TikTok looking to latch onto the resurgence in in-store shopping as the vaccine rollout continues. The program is actually part of shopping mall owner Westfield's push to get people to come back to stores, and in this context, TikTok is probably a perfect partner, providing a strong lure to get younger audiences back into its facility, unquote. Yes, malls are still an important consideration. The best way, of course, to experience one is, first, a deep breath.

Starting point is 00:03:55 Take it all in. Feel all those halogens warming your skin. Smell how they pump in pure oxygen. See? They care. The 4U House pop-up store opens on July 22nd and will close two weeks later. It will have gone on to better things, better jobs or bigger rings.

Starting point is 00:04:15 Kind of a cool, ironic twist. Who else can I tell? Wait, where's my cell? In a bar, I met this guy De Dewey, and he bought me like 14 beers and he told me he was from Ireland and I lived with him 10 years. That's about what it's taken for Google to finally add this important upgrade. Google says they're making visitor sharing available to their business starter and frontline packages. With visitor sharing, you can share items like Google Docs with non-Google accounts. Finally, they'll get an emailed code to make sure it's really them.

Starting point is 00:04:50 Then they can view, comment on, edit content, all the regular stuff. This is, by the way, how Microsoft 365 handles sharing with non-Microsoft organizations. But, oddly, each person can only use this visitor share thing five times a month. Also today, Google introduced a new tier to its workspace product, one specifically for solopreneurs. It has some features that are in the higher end enterprise tiers, like being able to record Google Meet calls. And it comes with one of those appointment booking sites like Calendly, which I don't think is even in any of the regular enterprise yet.

Starting point is 00:05:23 It's called Google Workplace Individual. Remember, this Friday at 3 p.m. Pacific is our Listener Zoom. I'm hoping to have a special guest expert with me. It'll be a chance to pick their brains and the brains of your digital marketing peers. The Zoom link is b.link slash Listener Zoom. It's also in today's episode notes. That's Friday, 3 p.m. Pacific, which is 6 notes. That's Friday, 3 p.m. Pacific, which is 6 p.m. Eastern, 11 p.m. London time,

Starting point is 00:05:48 and 8 in the morning in Sydney, Australia. So Legally Blonde, the movie, turns 20 today. It was an okay film, nothing to write home about. But Legally Blonde, the musical, is a goddamn masterpiece. I am not saying this ironically. It really is in my top three list of all musicals. It is super underrated.

Starting point is 00:06:11 And yes, I've been quoting from it this whole episode in case you're wondering what all the bizarro non sequiturs were. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. There is a Greek chorus made up of college cheerleaders. Greek chorus! A courtroom scene where they try to figure out if the witness is gay or European, and a full

Starting point is 00:06:29 and remarkably accurate take on Riverdance. If you don't believe me, go watch for yourself. The whole thing is on YouTube. Just search for Legally Blonde, the musical. It's not a bootleg. It's professionally shot. You will enjoy it. I promise.

Starting point is 00:06:53 Speaking of shots, my second COVID shot is later this afternoon. So wish me luck. And provided the side effects of number two aren't terrible, talk to you tomorrow. Send my love to the leprechauns.

Today in Digital Marketing - Long Live The Bend And Snap

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