Today in Digital Marketing - Move Fast and Ban Things

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Wednesday, December 21st. Today, Meta doubles down on Reels. New laws are forcing TikTok's key demo away. Why newspapers are the big winner in media buying. And will 2023 herald a recession in the ad tech business? I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. In what might be Meta's last attempt of 2022 to push short form video, Facebook has added a new ready-made tab for Reels, which lets users share Reels even if they don't know how to create them. The new tool turns the content that you share on Facebook, like stories, photos, and videos into those short form videos. Instagram already has a similar feature that produces Reels from stories, but now Meta has basically made it so easy to create reels, you don't even have to record video.

Starting point is 00:00:49 Instead, it will do all the work for you. Quoting social media today, the option summarizes all that Meta has been working toward in Facebook and Instagram throughout the year, which is essentially just using TikTok as its product development lead and hoping that will be enough to slow the migration of its users across to the Chinese-owned app, unquote. Well, while Meta continues to make changes to keep up with TikTok, here's one advantage for Zuck. More colleges are banning TikTok. Yesterday, the University of Oklahoma blocked employees and students from accessing TikTok on university-owned or operated devices, including Wi-Fi. Students can still access the app, but they will have to use their own mobile data. Students and staff were notified that the university was banning the platform to comply with the Oklahoma governor's executive order that prohibits people from installing or accessing TikTok on government-issued devices. The governor blamed ongoing security issues with

Starting point is 00:01:50 TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance for the ban. Oklahoma is one of several U.S. states that have passed platform bans. Several states have restricted TikTok on government devices, including Texas, Georgia, Idaho, and Virginia. Fortune reports that in some of those cases, the orders prevent TikTok from being installed on school computers and university-issued smartphones. But others, like the University of Oklahoma, take it one step further by blocking the app from campus Wi-Fi entirely. Big crowds turned out for Super Saturday, especially for brick-and-mortar retailers. A new survey from the International Council of Shopping Centers found that nearly 75% of consumers,

Starting point is 00:02:33 about 190 million people in the U.S., shopped on Super Saturday, with 7 out of 10 shopping in a physical store. Of that total, 7 out of 10 bought gifts, 2 out of 5 spent on dining, a fifth of consumers spent on entertainment. So what pushed Super Saturday sales? According to the survey, the number one reason consumers shopped then was to take advantage of deals and promotions for lower prices, followed by, of course, still having more people to buy gifts for and buying additional gifts for people. Finally, the survey said that 9 out of 10 said inflation did impact their decision to shop that day.

Starting point is 00:03:08 Shoppers identified the lowest prices, in-stock products, and ease of checkout as the primary factors in choosing where to shop. And despite money concerns, the majority of shoppers said they spent more than they had planned. 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. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com.

Starting point is 00:03:46 Be protected. Be Zen. an almost 10% drop in spend year over year. On top of that, during the month, digital ad spend fell for the first time in years, dipping 5% year over year. According to the report, the drop can be attributed to a decreased investment in search sites, with ad spend in the space falling nearly a quarter. Another curveball is the shift to print.

Starting point is 00:04:22 Newspapers became the fastest-growing media type in the second half of this year. In contrast, linear TV spend was down 13% year over year. Only newspapers and out-of-home media have experienced growth so far in Q4, while several other channels have seen decline like TV, radio, and magazines. Pharma and travel were among the top performing verticals in November, while technology and wellness declined. Well, with media spend down, Digiday reported today that ad tech firms appear to be focusing on layoffs as recession fears loom. One executive quoted in the piece said that while their company made cuts earlier this year, more cuts are potentially on the way as a result of over hiring over the last two years. Quoting Digiday, hiring more people in a sustained period of growth is a common predicament in the tech space. The ad slowdown

Starting point is 00:05:15 has shown how wide off the mark those hiring sprees were, perhaps more so in ad tech, where so much of how companies make money is predicated on the amount of dollars they have flowing into their platforms they can subsequently take a cut from. Sure, ad tech bosses could accept lower profits or increase the cut they make from those ad dollars to protect profitability. But the fact that these companies have opted to cut job costs may indicate that neither solution is either realistic, unless they want to be slammed by Wall Street and investors, or possible, because it would be shameless to try and hike up already high take rates, unquote. Another ad tech executive said that their company is seeing publishers and buyers not delivering on upfront commitments, which are currently coming in well under 100%.

Starting point is 00:05:59 Snapchat is ending the year with some new features, but they come at a price. The company Thank you. Snapchatters can also add a WhatsApp-inspired custom background to their chats with chat wallpapers. Those in the premium tier can choose from a standard background or branded content by uploading an image from their camera roll. Finally, users can now send a Snapchat Plus subscription to a friend for the holidays with a new gifting feature. Fallout 76 has consumed my mind. I have some ultracite farming to do, so I'm out of here. Tomorrow, by the way, will be our last regular episode. Friday we have a special episode lined up for you. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Move Fast and Ban Things

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