Today in Digital Marketing - Mark Zuckerberg Hates Australians.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, Facebook locks Australian news out, social media influencers now have a big union behind them, the most unlikely location for a digital content studio, France forces Google to change its business rating system, and the I'm not a cat lawyer gets another round of 15 minutes of fame. It's Wednesday, February 17th, 2021. Happy 20th birthday, popular video game meme, all your base are belong to us. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here's what you missed today in digital marketing. You know, sometimes Facebook just can't help themselves. They must know they're the used car salesman of the internet. Nobody likes them anymore. And yet, they keep walking in the dog poop and dragging it across all of our carpets.

Starting point is 00:00:46 Case in point, a surprise announcement this afternoon that Facebook will now prevent people in Australia from posting, viewing, or sharing news content, both domestic and international. It's all part of a pissing match between the Australian government, which wants digital platforms to pay for their use of Australian news content, and those platforms that say, hey, what's the big deal? Aren't we sending you lots of viewers? Google had the same battle with lawmakers down under before they eventually decided to pay for the content's use.

Starting point is 00:01:16 But Facebook? Nah, Facebook's like, hey, it's a nice new carpet you got there. Facebook's news release today said, quote, This legislation penalizes Facebook for content it didn't take or ask for. We were prepared to launch Facebook News in Australia and significantly increase our investments with local publishers. However, we were only prepared to do this with the right rules in place. Unfortunately, this means people and news organizations in Australia are now restricted from posting news links and sharing or viewing Australian and international news content on Facebook.

Starting point is 00:01:53 Globally, posting and sharing news links from Australian publishers is also restricted, unquote. And just so everyone's clear, Facebook made a point of saying that Australian news publishers are no longer allowed to even post anything on their own Facebook pages. Facebook's news release today ended by saying, news provides a vitally important role in society and democracy. The company recorded $30 billion in net profit last year. Social media influencers have a new ally, one of the most powerful unions in America. The Screen Actors Guild says Instagram creators, TikTok creators, Twitch game streamers and others who create branded content can now qualify for union benefits like health care and pension plans. This is actually an extension of an existing deal with YouTube creators, and it only covers people who make videos for clients and post them on their own channels. That said, the union says even a six-second Instagram video story would qualify.

Starting point is 00:03:00 To be clear, this is not the same as full unionization, and some people say it's not as good a deal as it seems. Past healthcare quality has been spotty, and the union would introduce limits on who the creators could work with. For instance, a TikToker might want to collab with a YouTuber, only to find that YouTuber isn't union-affiliated. And then? Well, nobody's quite sure what happens then,

Starting point is 00:03:23 but it's certainly a new complexity. Not to mention these benefits don't come free. There'll be union dues to pay. As for how this affects us digital marketers, honestly, it's too soon to say right now. There may be upward pressure on their fees, and we may start to see more complicated contracts. Watch this space. Something will be different with that barbershop opening up in Columbus, Ohio in a couple of weeks. There'll be more ring lights there, probably a camera here and there,

Starting point is 00:03:52 and a lot of people milling around who aren't there for a haircut. That's because this barbershop is going to be the new digital content studio for the men's grooming brand Old Spice. They plan to have a celebrity barber residency program of sorts with actors, athletes, and musicians there to create content and give tutorials on men's grooming and stuff like that. Quoting Marketing Dive, Procter & Gamble's plan to open a barbershop inspired by Old Spice is a way to directly engage consumers with the men's grooming brand while also marking a return of experiential marketing efforts that had been suspended during the pandemic's earlier days.

Starting point is 00:04:29 Many barbershops closed temporarily last year amid concerns about the transmission of COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders led to lower demand for grooming products. Old Spice is now reversing course with the opening of a bricks-and-mortar location, unquote. This is part of the company's new initiative that it calls GrowthWorks, which is designed to help the large company move at the speed of a startup. Google has been fined more than a million euros by the French government because it used its own star ratings for hotels. France, you see, has its own special rating scale called A2France, and by law, you have to use theirs when communicating with customers. Hotels complained that Google's version was misleading, ranking some hotels lower by Google's criteria than they would have been with the official

Starting point is 00:05:16 national criteria. Google has agreed to pay the fine and has restored the French rating system to its hotel listings. A really nice upgrade to a platform used by a lot of brand and agency marketers, Google Workplace. Now you'll be able to share documents with groups of people, say the marketing team as a whole, or everyone at your client's office. Until now, there's only been two options. Either the whole world can see the document, or you have to grant access to each individual person allowed to see it.

Starting point is 00:05:53 This is something your domain administrator needs to turn on, though, so if you don't see that functionality, reach out to them. While we're on the upgrade topic, Agora Pulse has launched label reports to track performance of your content based on the publishing labels you've applied. This is only available in their paid add-on called Power Reports. And finally, remember this guy? I'm prepared to go forward with it. I'm here live. I'm not a cat. That lawyer whose assistant had toggled a cat face filter on his Zoom call and neither of them could turn it off. Turns out his name is Rod Ponton and he's a little bit wealthier today

Starting point is 00:06:28 thanks to an endorsement deal that he has signed with the Mike's Hard Lemonade brand. The 17-second video ad they produced is ostensibly unreleased footage from the original viral video. Oh, geez, did they hang up? It's the cat face, then him. They must have thought I was a cat. Then he opens

Starting point is 00:06:46 a hard lemonade bottle. That dang cat filter. And the caption reads, a hard day calls for a hard lemonade. Yeah, sure. It's a bit lazy. But hey, points for timing. That's it for today. Talk to you tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:07:01 Main screen turn on. It's you. how are you gentlemen all your base are belong to us you are on the way to destruction what you say you have no chance

Starting point is 00:07:14 to survive make your time ha ha ha

Today in Digital Marketing - Mark Zuckerberg Hates Australians.

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