Today in Digital Marketing - The Next Great Ad Placement: Airpods?!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, the next big ad placement could be AirPods. A decision by the Trump administration will have far-reaching effects for local businesses who want to use radio to advertise. Spotify launches a live show that's customized to each listener. And Facebook takes away yet another thing that we digital marketers have relied on. But don't worry, they've made a podcast. It's about resiliency. It's Friday, October 23rd, 2020.

Starting point is 00:00:30 It is the 20th anniversary of the launch of Google Ads. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here's what you missed today in digital marketing. There may be a new ad placement coming to your favorite platform in the future. Whispers. Like literally audio whispers. Maybe this would be in conjunction with Google Maps, where someone gets close to your store and a voice whispers into their earbuds, Hey, go check out this store. They have 40% off.

Starting point is 00:00:59 This kind of technology is closer than you think. Location marketing firm Foursquare is working on something they call Marsbot for AirPods. Quoting Streetfightmag.com, Marsbot will whisper things to users about their surroundings, unprompted, as they move throughout the world. The insights could be a recommendation for a local coffee shop or a fun fact about a landmark. They could also take the form of sound effects, and the app will let users know when they happen to cross someone else using Marsbot, unquote.

Starting point is 00:01:29 The premise is basically an audio version of AR-enhanced glasses. Here's the best part. It's available right now. At least the app is for iPhones. You can find it in the App Store under Marsbot. And they let users add their own short audio clips tied to location. So, in theory, if you have a bricks and mortar store, I suppose you could run your own free ad that plays in people's AirPods when they get close to you. If this kind of thing takes off, though,

Starting point is 00:01:58 then will people's ears be assaulted by non-stop ads? No, they'll need to filter some out, which probably means in the next couple of years, we may all need to learn the ins and outs of yet another content algorithm. Let's talk about radio for a moment, and specifically a legislative change in the US by the Trump administration that may be great for people who own radio stations, but is bad for marketers with local businesses and terrible for the people who listen to radio stations, the federal regulator, the FCC, has removed a rule that prohibited radio stations

Starting point is 00:02:37 from just dumping simulcasts of their programming on nearby transmitters. The idea was that if you're going to have a radio station in a community, it should serve that community, not just be a repeater for a bigger station closer to them. Local radio means more support of local businesses, more relevant news coverage, stronger community support. But nah, forget all that. There are higher profit margins to be had. Specifically, the rule prohibited radio stations that overlapped the reach of their signal by more than 50% from duplicating more than 25% of their total programming hours. That rule is just gone now, and so station owners can, if they want to,

Starting point is 00:03:18 just turn community radio stations essentially into rebroadcasters of another community's programming. Which may explain Spotify's announcement today, dot, dot, dot. Spotify has launched its first radio show. I don't mean playlist or podcast. I mean an old-school live radio show that airs at a specific time every day. It's a morning show called The Get Up and airs every weekday starting at 7 a.m. Eastern. It will only be available by streaming it on Spotify, of course. It will have music, the latest national news,

Starting point is 00:03:53 and actual hosts, three of them. I'm sure it will be a well-produced, thoughtful show, which I gotta say is kind of a shame. I grew up in the 80s, and I miss the crazy, overproduced, chaotic morning shows of AM radio. LG 73, top 8 at 8, morning Zeus, the man who has the top for the top 8 at 8. Let's give away some free money for the super prize song. One thing that is interesting about this new Spotify morning show

Starting point is 00:04:19 is that they say the music will actually be personalized to each person listening, which is, you know, that's kind of cool. Sadly for us non-Americans, the show is not available outside of the 50 states. If listening to morning radio isn't your jam and you'd prefer to spend more time with Facebook, the company has launched a new podcast called Boost My Business. And it's about what you'd expect from Facebook. Vague, general, and full of buzzwords. The first episode is about resilience and insights and entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial resiliency. The only reason I even mentioned the show is because the host is David Fisher, who actually is Facebook's chief revenue officer. He also happens to have perhaps the worst case of vocal fry I have ever heard.

Starting point is 00:05:14 This season, the podcast has a new name, Boost My Business, brought to you by Boost with Facebook. And it focuses on the ways you can leverage connections to, well, help boost your business. But maybe given his position, we might get some tidbits applicable to our work as digital marketers. David also used to work on Google's ad products, so, you know, he does know his stuff. Apparently, though, the episodes will mostly be interviews with business thought leaders because, you know, we need more of those podcasts. Anyway, if you're looking for it, it's called Boost My Business, brought to you by the company which just this week removed the ability in account overview

Starting point is 00:05:49 to see what percentage of your account was in the learning phase in a campaign's first 14 days. But rest easy, fellow digital marketers. That metric has now been helpfully replaced by an icon of a house. Because, sorry, why exactly? has now been helpfully replaced by an icon of a house. Because... Sorry, why exactly? Hello? Hello? A couple of small items.

Starting point is 00:06:20 First, there is a bug happening for some people who use Sprout Social's iPhone mobile app. For a week or so now, the notification badge has not been showing up, which means if you didn't see the actual notification message pop in briefly, you would have no way of knowing whether there's messages to review. They are aware of it, but they say there won't be a fix until early to mid-November. So maybe for now, change those notification banners from temporary to persistent. So at least you'll hopefully see those. And it looks like some people are seeing square icons on Google Maps, otherwise known as ads. Yes, you can buy what they formally call a promoted pin.

Starting point is 00:07:00 It marks your location on Google Maps with your logo and even appears on the map through zoom levels. So if your regular organic pin would drop off the map when someone pulls back one zoom level, your promoted pin sticks around. And finally, yes, some of you heard two pre-rolls on the podcast yesterday, for which I'm sorry, I am still trying to figure out the back end of the Red Circle platform. These ads are dynamically inserted, so I'm hearing them the same time you are. Apparently, each of the three role placements can support two ads, and there's no easy way to drop that to just one. But I was told that if I up my CPM for mid-roles, that the service will prioritize mid-role placement. So I've done that. Together, you and I, we will both find out what happens.

Starting point is 00:07:37 Which do you prefer, mid-roles, pre-roles, post-roles in your podcast that you listen to? Let me know. Tweet me. My handle is in the show notes. Or better yet, talk to me directly in our Slack community. What's that you say? Why, yes, we have a Slack community.

Starting point is 00:07:50 Check the link in the episode notes or go to todayindigital.com slash Slack. Before I send you off for the weekend, I wanted to leave you with this funny little moment. I haven't talked much about it here, but I've been producing and hosting a community podcast

Starting point is 00:08:06 for my hometown of Nanaimo on beautiful Vancouver Island. We are having a provincial election, and each election I go to the candidates and interview them, but the rule is no politics or party stuff or platform. It's just about them and their life story. Anyway, what I want to play for you here, the local BC liberal candidate, which despite its name is actually our conservative right-wing party in the province.

Starting point is 00:08:29 First of all, she didn't even know what a podcast was. You know, I've only got a flip phone. So podcasts are like downloadable radio shows. And then we had this little funny moment at the end of the interview. Quick background. She's in her 60s and is the admin of a Facebook group in the north end of our city. Okay, here's how that episode ended. She likes photography and managing that Facebook group. A couple hours in the morning, morning coffee, then I go do something, then I float back, check it throughout the day on, I've got a Kindle,

Starting point is 00:08:59 so I check it, and then a couple hours at night. You're using Facebook on a Kindle? When I walk around. Yeah, well, I'm not technologically advanced. I still have a flip phone. Clearly, that might be the single worst way to experience Facebook. Well, it's not. They have iPads. I've never got one.

Starting point is 00:09:24 Mostly, I have a laptop. So the thing is, I'm not really a big TV watcher. Kathleen Jones is the BC liberal. So there you go. The full series of six candidates, in case you care, is at NanaimoChronicles.com, and there's a link in this episode's notes. Our production assistant is Sarah Guild. Our theme is by Mark Blevis. Music licensing by Source Audio.

Starting point is 00:09:43 And this podcast is produced by our agency, EngageQ Digital. Find us at engageq.com. Full transcripts to every episode are on our website, todayindigital.com. I'm Todd Maffin. Have a restful and safe weekend, friends. I'll talk to you on Monday. Wild and crazy, wild and crazy, oh, wild and crazy kids.

Today in Digital Marketing - The Next Great Ad Placement: Airpods?!

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