Today in Digital Marketing - Mamma Mia! The Mother's Day Social Media Conundrum

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, May 10th. Today, shop setback. TikTok becomes the latest company to push back e-commerce plans. Why brands get it wrong on Mother's Day. Amazon's pursuit of the great ad duopoly is getting real. Blue Sky is working on live audio. And why Gmail users are up in arms over a new ad placement. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. And a quick programming note. Today was Google's big annual announcement fest. It all came in after our deadline, but rest assured we will have all the details on how their changes will affect the marketing world on tomorrow's show. With Mother's Day approaching, it's likely your campaigns are already underway. But a recent think piece up on embedded.com suggests that nobody really knows how to post about the occasion, especially not brands. The pressure for marketing to be all-inclusive has resulted in a

Starting point is 00:00:52 flood of pre-campaign emails seeking to reassure those who might be triggered by the holiday, perhaps because their mothers died. This inadvertently means consumers are bombarded with reminders of that loss. So lately, some brands have been opting to send emails in advance, acknowledging the day may be difficult and offering to opt out of promotions related to Mother's Day. While these efforts are well-intended, author Leah Carroll, whose mother was killed when she was a child, says that these brand messages are counterproductive because they reinforce the idea that talking about the deceased is taboo. Instead, she believes Mother's Day provides a rare opportunity for people to talk openly about their deceased parents.

Starting point is 00:01:33 Quote, You can't opt in and out of grief. It's not like opting out of brand emails is going to stop you from grieving your mom on Mother's Day. In general, I'm a fan of sincere acknowledgement of other people's pain, which is why people like me and the brands in my inbox shouldn't attempt to stifle it. TikTok's bid to join the e-commerce race in the U.S. has hit a speed bump, with the company

Starting point is 00:01:58 delaying the release of its shopping platform as it struggles to attract merchants to the platform. The Wall Street Journal reporting today that ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, has postponed opening the shop to all sellers until at least June. It was initially planned for early spring. The Journal's report says the launch date could be pushed back even further due to merchants' concerns about a possible app ban, as well as slow adoption of live-streaming e-commerce in the U.S. Following a preliminary

Starting point is 00:02:26 test launch with a limited number of retailers last year, TikTok struggled to attract more sellers, pushing back its second phase of expanding the test pool until, well, supposed to be late March. This delay in opening shops is a big setback for ByteDance in its most profitable market outside of China. TikTok, I should mention, denies the journal's report saying the launch has not been delayed and that the company is still expanding its testing in the US by inviting more merchants to join as interest grows.

Starting point is 00:02:57 Amazon is catching up as the duopoly between Google and Meta stagnates. Google and Meta's combined share of the US digital ad market dropped below 50% last year, and it's projected to fall to 43% in a few years. This according to new data from Insider Intelligence published yesterday. Although Amazon is gaining momentum,

Starting point is 00:03:17 the three companies as a whole are losing their dominance. But Amazon might even surpass Meta and claim second place when it comes to retail media ad spending. Meta's U.S. ad revenues were more than double Amazon's in 2021, but the e-commerce company is closing in on Meta's share of digital ad spending, with the overall market share gap between the two expected to narrow to just 3% by 2025. Google, on the other hand, is experiencing its slowest growth since 2009. Its net ad revenues are projected to increase by just 3% this year, even with YouTube included,

Starting point is 00:03:57 which is below Alphabet's standards. The company's share of search ad spending is predicted to fall below 50% for the first time next year. Meanwhile, Amazon is also planning to come for the metaverse, if anyone still cares about that. The company launching a new shopping experience yesterday called Amazon Anywhere, which lets consumers shop for its products inside games and virtual worlds. 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

Starting point is 00:04:35 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. YouTube rolled out several new updates yesterday. First, the platform is adding new options to creator music, including a new licensing system that lets users filter license duration alongside price. A number of new icons have been added to the creator music listings to indicate which tracks are available for revenue sharing. As for Shorts, the company is giving users more analytics with a new data story feature that highlights how short form video content contributes to channel growth. The platform is currently testing the new Shorts card with select users.

Starting point is 00:05:21 YouTube's also launching expired posts on Android and iOS. These posts are displayed in-stream with a notification at the top identifying when they will disappear, which could be good for limited time brand promotions or updates. And finally, the platform now lets brands and users tag and pin products during live streams on the mobile app. Previously, this was only available on desktop. It's been a rough go for live audio. Clubhouse recently cut its staff in half. I won't even get into Twitter spaces and pour one out for Spotify Live. But the dark skies may be parting

Starting point is 00:05:58 as live audio is getting another go on the decentralized social network, Blue Sky, with a new audio service called SkySpaces. SkySpaces is entirely self-hosted by its developer who handles the servers, infrastructure, and web clients. The service launched a standalone site last month and an iOS app is in testing. There are currently no limits on time or participants, which of course might change as it grows. The platform aims to be seamless for content creators with recording and downloading options available,

Starting point is 00:06:29 as well as some monetization options at some point in the future. Currently, only about 3,000 Blue Sky users have joined Sky Spaces. And that will bring us to a new episode of Nobody Asks for This. Somewhat shockingly, it's not meta. This time it's Gmail, which is showing more ads and its latest ad placement smack dab in the middle of the inbox. Previously, Google limited the number of ads to two at the top of the inbox. But users are seeing ads now right smack dab in the center of their inboxes alongside

Starting point is 00:07:05 real emails. One user tweeted at Gmail complaining about the new intrusive ad placement. Apparently, though, Gmail's social team had not been brought into the loop on this test and replied, that doesn't sound good. No, indeed it doesn't. That's what I spent, I felt like the whole day. I guess it was only 90 minutes. But anyway, it is a pretty good idea, though, to set the date in your calendar. We were on a two-year term, and I set a little reminder notice for myself to renegotiate. That came up two years later, which was today. I called them. I'm like, yeah, I might bail out. And we got a much, much better deal.

Starting point is 00:08:00 So kudos for checklists, I guess. I'm Todd Maffin. See you tomorrow with all of today's Google News. 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.

Today in Digital Marketing - Mamma Mia! The Mother's Day Social Media Conundrum

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