Today in Digital Marketing - Spoiler: That Wasn’t Insurance You Just Bought.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, your next source of product sales could soon come from WhatsApp. Snapchat will certify you on its ads platform for free. A clever marketing campaign provides insurance that's not actually insurance. Twitter stories are almost here. And yes, Google My Business and Facebook both have some issues today. It's Thursday, November 12th, 2020. Happy World Quality Day. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Back from a day off yesterday in recognition of Remembrance Day, and we start with a quiz. In the first six months of this year, what Facebook group topic was the fastest-growing topic in Canada and the US. Was it groups about cooking, homeschooling, gardening, or movies? I'll have the answer at the end of today's episode. TikTok is back in court today, but nobody's really 100% sure why, including TikTok itself. Today is the day the US government was set to ban the popular app. Why? Depends on who you ask. The Trump administration says TikTok is a security risk. Others think that Trump is personally hurt over having one of his rallies punked by a bunch of

Starting point is 00:01:17 TikTokers. And so TikTok is in court asking for some clarity. Clarity because they say the U.S. government has ghosted them. Weeks ago, TikTok asked the Committee on Foreign Investment for a 30-day ban extension, but they haven't heard from that group since. So they're in court because technically at midnight tonight, without the Oracle and Walmart ownership deal being finalized, the app is due to be cancelled. Maybe Trump's people just gave up after a couple of earlier court decisions didn't go their way. Orders to prevent new downloads or software updates were shot down by a district court. Other restrictions that were due to go into effect today were shot down by a federal judge in Pennsylvania. So maybe part of that ban is still around?

Starting point is 00:02:06 But how do you enforce a ban when part of that ban got shot down by a judge? You know, it's kind of like being partly pregnant. You either are or you aren't. So yeah, it's confusing, even to TikTok. So they are back in court to try to figure it all out. When digital marketers think about the Facebook marketing platform, we usually think of the Facebook marketing platform, we usually think of one of two apps, Facebook and Instagram. But Facebook also owns WhatsApp, and now they are moving more aggressively into the marketing space with that platform as well. A new shopping button in the app is showing up,

Starting point is 00:02:39 which will let your users browse your brand's catalog of products. The catalog, of course, comes from the regular catalog that you would set up in Facebook's business manager. This new button is rolling out around the world starting today. It looks like a little store icon, and it replaces the call button in the top right corner. Facebook says, and this surprised the hell out of me, that more than 175 million people message a WhatsApp business account every day. Snapchat is adding more marketing courses to its platform. The company offers free certifications for different types of direct response advertising. The courses will show you how to use their advertising tools to drive customers to an e-commerce app or website, how to promote an app to get more installs,

Starting point is 00:03:29 and how to drive awareness and installs for a mobile game. I should note when I say free certification, I do mean free, like everything is free. That's different than Facebook's certification programs. Yes, the course material itself is free there, but you have to pay if you want to take the final exam. There are separate modules over at Snapchat for North American and international markets. If you want to check it out, you will need one of the Snapchat ad manager accounts. A clever marketing campaign from Amazon-owned Whole Foods, Turkey Insurance. Yes, I think we can all reflect on poor Thanksgiving turkey executions. You didn't cut it right, or it was undercooked,

Starting point is 00:04:12 or the stuffing inside got burnt to a crisp. So they're selling turkey insurance. And while it's underwritten by an actual insurance agency, both underwritten and insurance should be in quote marks because it's not really insurance. It's just a great gimmick. Basically, for a one-day period, they'll have a mini site up where you can upload a photo of your failed turkey attempt, describe what went wrong, and of course prove that you bought it at Whole Foods by sending in a photo of your receipt.

Starting point is 00:04:38 And they will send you a $35 gift card. It's only for the first 1,000 people. Terms and conditions apply, blah, blah, blah. But this is such a great idea. And by limiting the number to a thousand, they know that this promotion will only cost them $35,000. Which brings us to the lightning round. Instagram has added account switching on the desktop. So if you're logged into your user account via the web interface, you'll be able to easily switch between accounts. Instagram is also rolling out a UI change to its app. They're finally adding a Reels tab at the bottom of the screen and a Shop tab as well.

Starting point is 00:05:17 Also Twitter yesterday rolled out its redesigned Carousel Ads. It's an ad unit with between two to six horizontally swipable images or videos. Still with Twitter, it looks like Twitter Stories will be here soon. Sorry, Fleets. The platform is rolling it out this week to Japan, so it's launched there, plus in Brazil, Italy, India, and South Korea. Looks like there's a backlog of reviews waiting to be added to Google My Business profiles. So if you're expecting a good one from a customer and it's not there, but they promise they wrote one, they may indeed be telling the truth. Google is aware of it and say the backlog

Starting point is 00:05:49 should be cleared in the next day or two. YouTube says this year it'll skip its usual year in review video. Why? Because 2020. And Facebook this morning reported, wait for it, problems with ad delivery. As of the time of this recording, the issue was still outstanding.

Starting point is 00:06:08 Oh, and the answer to the quiz question. In the first six months of this year, the Facebook group topic that grew the most in Canada and the U.S.? I bet you didn't get this one. Gardening. Yeah, apparently groups about gardening grew faster than any other topic. My wife started Assassin's Creed Valhalla yesterday. As sort of middle-aged gamers, I have to say how thrilled we both are that you can increase the size of the in-game text. You know, we play on Xbox, so we're like 12 feet away from the TV, so that's a nice touch. But now that the text is really big, I have to say it sort of feels like we're playing an iPhone game on a big screen.

Starting point is 00:06:47 Anyway, I have banned myself from starting that one until I finish Watch Dogs Legion, which is still going to take a while. I'm Todd Maffin. Talk to you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - Spoiler: That Wasn’t Insurance You Just Bought.

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