Today in Digital Marketing - Pixel Pushback

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Monday, September 23rd. Today, pixel pushback. That marketing code on your website could land you in front of a judge soon. The lawsuits, in fact, are already being filed. We'll talk to one agency owner whose client is on the hook. Plus, YouTube has good news for brands, bad news for viewers. And will the next filter on influencer platforms read apolitical? I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in Digital Marketing. This past summer, a California company which makes educational products found itself in front of a judge. This company's alleged defense? Putting a TikTok pixel on its website. Yes, the same kind of pixel you have on your

Starting point is 00:00:47 brand's website for TikTok or Meta or Google or all of them. The company is said to have violated California's broad privacy legislation passed seven years ago, in particular, a section known as Trap and Trace. Thalotta finds a Trap and and trace device as a tool that captures incoming electronic signals or impulses that help identify the source of a communication. Private citizens, with the help of class action lawyers, are now using this law to sue companies they think violate it with the marketing pixels on their site. We didn't get notified about any of this happening in terms of a new policy going live in California. Max Linguise with the performance marketing agency

Starting point is 00:01:30 Hype 10. I spoke with him Friday just a day after he learned one of their clients was being sued too. There was an email that was sent over that a lawsuit had basically been filed against this particular brand. Basically, a California consumer recently visited this website, and based off of the investigation, the website has installed a trap and trace software in violation of California Privacy Act. And that alleged trap and trace? A TikTok pixel, not on their client's brand site, but on their Shopify store. So far, at least in the case of that educational company I mentioned earlier, the court ruled against its arguments that the law only applies to physical devices attached to phone lines. The court also refuted its claim that the data collected by TikTok was only for basic operation and maintenance. So what's next?

Starting point is 00:02:27 Well, it's hard to say. Like many privacy laws in various jurisdictions, this applies based on where the technology's targets are. In other words, consumers in California. And contrary to popular belief in the marketing world, it's not based on where your brand is located. You could be in Romania and the law would still technically apply, though enforcement might be difficult. Some brands,

Starting point is 00:02:50 like Max's clients, are considering turning Pixels off entirely for California consumers, at least until the lawsuit is settled. The safest route naturally would be to stop advertising in California altogether. But as we well know, the vast majority of brands, California is in their top three markets. And so there doesn't seem to be a clear, favorable outcome just yet. Max Langlois is the founder and CEO of the Hype 10 Agency in New York. Their website is Hype10Agency.com. One of the most frustrating parts about uploading videos to YouTube is that if the enforcement bots

Starting point is 00:03:33 detect something against policy, the platform basically just blocks that video entirely. Your only real option is to edit the video and re-upload it. But that makes it a new video, losing whatever comments and virality you had on the previous one. Now YouTube appears to be fixing that. The platform is testing a way to let you edit out parts of your video that break the rules. This way, the video stays under its original URL and maintains the attached engagement. Here's how it works. If a video is flagged,

Starting point is 00:04:06 you'll see an option to edit it in YouTube Studio. You can then use a video editor to make changes and fix any issues. After that, YouTube's team will review the updated video and change their decision if necessary. If it's all good, the video is back in play. This is the latest update from YouTube to help creators deal with rule violations. In March, the platform started highlighting specific times in videos where rules were broken. This makes it easier for creators to fix any issues. YouTube also updated its copy strike system last year to make it more fair. So while YouTube makes friends with brands and creators, they may be about to make more enemies out of viewers.

Starting point is 00:04:48 The platform is expanding access to pause screen ads. These are, of course, the ads which show up when you pause a video. On mobile, they will squish the video over to the left to make way for a vertical ad, which takes up the right third of the screen. These ads have been around for about a year now, though they'd only been in testing with a very small group. Many people still have never seen one. Looks like that testing has done well because the number of channels which can activate these ads has grown. Now to qualify for these ads, a channel needs a thousand subscribers, 4,000 watch hours in the past year, and must be a member of the partner program.

Starting point is 00:05:25 YouTube didn't say how much money creators can make from the ads, but the company said it's trying to help creators earn more money. The company said the ads are designed to be less annoying than other types of ads. It was only last year that YouTube let ads on connected TV be unskippable. So far, viewers are unimpressed. With the US presidential election coming up, brands are being more careful about who they partner with. They don't want to risk a political backlash. And a great think piece in Digiday over the weekend

Starting point is 00:05:57 looked at the race to find and lock down politically neutral influencers. Quoting from that piece, quote, Recently, one agency was working with a lifestyle content creator. The ink had just about dried before the deal fell through.

Starting point is 00:06:11 In contract negotiations, the brand asked the creator to steer clear of any political content from the start of the campaign in September through January of 2025. It was unclear what was deemed political content, and ultimately, the creator didn't commit. Deandra Brown, a social media star with more than 1 million TikTok followers,

Starting point is 00:06:31 noted a similar experience. After posting a picture with presidential candidate Kamala Harris, he was turned down for a brand deal. Brown tweeted the interaction and used it as a call to register to vote. Digiday reports that some brands are trying to stay safe by working with influencers who focus on topics like beauty or fitness as these areas are seen as less likely to be divisive. The Digiday piece is called Brands Push for Apolitical Influencers to Avoid Backlash, and it is a great read if you are going to be working with American influencers in the coming months. We have a direct link to it in today's email newsletter, which you can sign up to for free by tapping the link at the top of the show notes or going to todayindigital.com

Starting point is 00:07:12 slash newsletter. A nuclear plant that was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in the U.S. is reopening, and AI is the reason. The Three Mile Island plant will sell its power to Microsoft to fuel the company's AI ambitions. The plant's Unit 1 reactor closed five years ago, but it's expected to be up and running by 2028. That's when Microsoft will start buying the carbon-free energy produced from it

Starting point is 00:07:42 to power its data centers. It's a 20-year agreement. It's the largest ever for Constellation Energy, the company that owns the plant. Nuclear energy is becoming more appealing to companies like Microsoft because it's a reliable source of zero carbon power. And unlike wind and solar, nuclear plants can stay on at all times of the day and night. This makes them a good fit for data centers that need to run 24-7. But nuclear energy has long been criticized for its waste. The U.S. still has no permanent repository for nuclear waste.

Starting point is 00:08:16 Instead, the waste is scattered across 70 different plants around the country. I did a very adult thing over the weekend. I bought new shoes. Now wait, wait. So I haven't bought new shoes in, I think, 14 years now. Basically like the year that my wife and I started dating. Yeah, since then. And here's what happened is that like right in the early days

Starting point is 00:08:43 of my consumer preference buying life, you know, early 20s, I got a pair of Rock Ports and I loved them. And I guess the brand like imprinted on me like a duckling or something because I just that's all I would buy. I would only buy Rock Ports from now on. And indeed, these Rock Ports that I've had for 14 years have held up. Sort of. You know, I walk a little crooked on them and the soles are worn through so you can't walk on ice. You just fall over. But, you know, and apparently they look a little ratty.

Starting point is 00:09:10 That was the big concern that my wife and to be fair, most of my friends have said they look ratty. Someone used the phrase grandpa shoes. I think that was what it was. And I have been shoe shopping before, but I just hate all clothes shopping. I hate all of it. But I went to the mall somewhat non-consensually, but I just hate all clothes shopping. I hate all of it. But I went to the mall somewhat non-consensually, but we went to the mall, finally got a pair of shoes. I think they look pretty good. They're like one of those slip-ons, but they look like a dress shoe,

Starting point is 00:09:35 kind of like a sneaker dress shoe. Anyway, I'm happy. More importantly, my wife is happy. So that's all that matters, right? All right. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Pixel Pushback

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