Today in Digital Marketing - The Pop-Up Box No Advertiser Wants

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, August 1st. Today, they don't want to, but they might have to. How Meta's proposal for handling personalized ads might cripple their ad business. Microsoft's version of Performance Max is out in the wild. Will YouTube summarize your brand's videos accurately? And on the ad-free premium podcast, which you can learn more about by tapping Go Premium in the show notes, Product tags without the cut. More on Meta's plans to let you tag products in your own shop. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. One of the things that made the iOS 14.5 changes devastating to the ad business

Starting point is 00:00:41 was that Apple devices started requiring apps to put a question directly in front of their users. Can we use your personal data for ad targeting or no? Most people, of course, said no. Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Meta is considering a similar nuclear option, proposing it asks European users for consent to use their on-app behavior for ad targeting. It's a move some say could break its ad business. This is part of a proposal, a concession really, to European privacy regulators. MetaCetic could set up their systems to ask users by the end of October. The idea is to help resolve an ongoing legal battle over such ads in the region. Unlike its current approach,

Starting point is 00:01:27 where users in Europe can only opt out of activity-based ads through the completion of a lengthy form, this new proposal takes it a step further. Rather, a consent-based approach would mean asking users to say yes or no before showing them personalized ads. And EU law mandates that users must still have access to the service,

Starting point is 00:01:49 even if they say no. As the Journal Report points out, ad revenue could suffer big time. Quote, if a large number of users decline ads based on their activity on Instagram or Facebook, Meta's systems would end up with fewer signals to infer interests and build audiences for ads that make up the bulk of its revenue. That could make its ads less effective, which could weigh on prices, unquote. Meta plans to proceed with the change following discussions with Ireland's Data Protection Commission. The company added that advertisers will still be able to run personalized ad campaigns in Europe if the proposal goes forward,

Starting point is 00:02:26 but only to users who opt in. As Medic grapples with personalized ads in Europe, it also introduced new brand safety features yesterday. First, Zephyr's third-party brand suitability verification tool is now available for Instagram's feed. This tool measures industry recognized brand safety and suitability across Instagram and Facebook feed placements. Until now, Meta only offered Zephyr's verification technology for its Facebook feed. The company also added four new languages to its inventory filters and third party brand suitability verification for both Facebook and Instagram. Those languages are Arabic, Chinese, French, and Portuguese. And finally, Meta is currently testing a new inventory filter option on Reels.

Starting point is 00:03:19 Microsoft's August updates to its ad platform have been announced. The big one is that Performance Max campaigns, that's Microsoft's version of them, are now in open beta for all advertisers worldwide. The company also rolled out code-free conversions for all smart campaigns globally. This update lets marketers set up conversion goals without manually adding code snippets to their websites. Microsoft also made changes to its plans regarding the universal event tracking web insights rollout. The original plan was to automatically roll this feature out to advertisers using UET starting a couple of weeks ago.

Starting point is 00:03:55 Now the company has decided to pilot the feature. You can opt in manually to participate in the test. You can do that in the ads platform. Search ad revenues on retail sites like Amazon are projected to grow almost 20% this year, nearly four times faster than the growth of other search advertising. According to new data from Insider Intelligence, Amazon is dominating that growth as it's expected to account for $24 billion of the total $30 billion U.S. spend this year. Other players like Walmart and Instacart also contribute to retail media's share of search ad spend, but their role is of course much smaller. The report

Starting point is 00:04:40 notes that economic uncertainty fuels retail media ad spend as advertisers recognize the value of reaching consumers close to the point of purchase. The loss of third-party data also pushes advertisers to rely on first-party information from retail media networks, which also helps drive ad spend. Despite some signs of an economic rebound, total U.S. ad spending is still down. As a result, Insider Intelligence suggests advertisers will continue investing in performance-oriented channels, which of course is good news for retail media search. YouTube's latest AI feature is like CliffsNotes for your brand's videos. The platform has started testing generative AI video summaries, which will be displayed on its watch and search pages. These summaries give a brief overview of the video's contents without replacing existing human written descriptions.

Starting point is 00:05:37 YouTube says the experiment is currently running with a limited selection of English language videos and viewers. This is when brands and creators use key news events and pop culture trends, specifically like Barbie, to boost views. Also, permission to flex, which revolves around personality types. This trend has seen other creators participating by sharing their personality type and what it means to them. Also, chess is apparently cool again, with new takes on the game, like chess boxing, where competitors fight between moves and comedians crack jokes during chess live streams. Finally, a more unusual trend on YouTube is Skibbity Toilet. Based around a character who sings a Bizer King song from a toilet,

Starting point is 00:06:49 while YouTube sees it as a reflection of Short's trend-driving power, it mostly reflects Gen Z's fondness for absurd humor, which might not work for every brand. By the way, we'll be playing the entire video of the YouTube team's breakdown of the current trends at the end of today's episode in case you want more detail on all the trends. If you want to listen to this show without any ads and have all the benefits of the premium subscribers you can do without spending a penny. All you have to do is refer two people to our newsletter. That's it.

Starting point is 00:07:27 That's two people. And you will get a month free of the premium podcast. Even when you just refer one person, you get the full length video of my keynote speech on the six keys to going viral. And there's a whole bunch of other rewards. So if you're not on our newsletter yet, tap the link in the show notes or go to todayindigital.com slash newsletter. Stick around to the end for the YouTube Trends video. See you tomorrow. 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.

Starting point is 00:08:08 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. Be protected. Be Zen. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy.

Starting point is 00:08:41 And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at Rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.C-A. All right, as promised, here is the entire video from YouTube's team discussing the most recent content trends on their platform. Right. So the first one is one of my favorites. We're calling this trend popular media as a muse. It's basically referring to us using big popular media events as a source of inspiration for our content. So let me give you some examples. The first one that probably comes to mind is the Barbie movie. A lot of us have seen a lot of content revolving around the Barbie movie recently. And this is a really great example of how creators

Starting point is 00:09:28 are taking this huge media event and using it as inspiration for their own content. Another one is with the Spider-Man movies. I'm not sure if you guys saw this, but the term canon event was coined from this movie. You're going to have to forgive me because I've not actually seen it, but I have done my research and I do know that the term canon event is referring to a really big seismic event which like shifts your future reality. An example of a canon event is like Spider-Man being bitten by a radioactive spider. Yes, I know I've not seen the film, but I don't live under a rock and I know that's what happens. So creators who've seen the film coined the term canon event and turned it into a source of inspiration for their content. I'll put some examples on the screen. Other examples include the Wes Anderson trend,

Starting point is 00:10:08 trends revolving Little Mermaid and Euphoria. I mean, I can literally name loads of them. So what are you guys supposed to do with this information? Well, I want you to have a bit of a Google search and look up any future movie releases or big media moments that you think is going to happen over the next few months or maybe even the next year. And I want you to map these out onto your calendar, okay? So that you've got a clear idea of when certain things are happening, and you can use this as inspiration for your content around that time. Now, I absolutely love this trend because not only does it give you some ideas for immediate content, like, you know, content revolving around the Barbie movie or the Spider-Man movie, but it also gives you the formula for jumping on trends way into the future as well. So you're welcome. Now, this next trend is a game changer

Starting point is 00:10:49 because it could potentially change how you view virality and this idea of going viral completely. I hope I've not oversold it. I don't think I have. Okay, so listen up because we're going to go deep. The trend is called the rise of the Riz. And it's referring to this video where the creator called Kai actually coined the term Riz. The term is then picked up by the youths, also known as Gen Z. Hello, if you're watching. And now Gen Z start using the word Riz in all of their content. Now in the past year, content which has the word Riz in its title has been viewed over 600 million times. 600 million. Now, because more and more people are using the word Riz, the actual definition has changed a bit. Originally, Riz was shorthand for like charisma, right? And now it's progressed to point of view content, all the way through to content where people are evaluating

Starting point is 00:11:34 someone's level of Riz, and has also progressed to sketch comedy and skits. Now, why is this trend so important? And why does it have the potential to change how you view the idea of virality? Well, previously, to have a viral video basically meant that you uploaded one video and it was viewed by a lot of people. Now, the idea of having a viral video or viral content is more to do with the concept within your video rather than the video itself. So this is a perfect example. The word Riz has gone viral. The video itself got a lot of views as well, don't get me wrong, but the viral part of that video is the concept, it's Riz. So it's one part within that video that can be coined by several other people, that other people can clip and turn it into their own content, that different communities can take part in, right? Participation is what really drives virality now.

Starting point is 00:12:20 It's not just about that one solo video that has a big crown on its head and is like, oh my god, I'm so great, so many people viewed me. It's not just about that one solo video that has a big crown on its head and is like, oh my God, I'm so great. So many people viewed me. It's not just about that anymore. It's more about the concept and the content within the video. And how you really nail that is by creating something that other people want to participate in, that other people want to put their own spin on. Right? Mind blowing. Okay. So this next one like really had me stumped. Like if you've not seen this content already and you're seeing it for the first time, I just need you to prepare yourself because this one is rogue. This trend is called Skibbity Toilet. That's right, guys. It involves a toilet. Essentially, back in February, one YouTube short called The Skibbity Toilet gained over 37 million views in just three short, short, short months.

Starting point is 00:13:00 This sparked quite a frenzy and we've now got to the point where it's launched into an episodic series. There were episodes to this video, 13 episodes in fact, and it really has become a major, major trend on YouTube. Instead of me trying to explain what happened, I'm just going to put it on the screen. So just prepare yourselves. But this is the original video of the skibbity toilet. So the creator of this series has amassed over 18.9 million subscribers. Honestly, guys, the power of shorts is absolutely insane. And their content has been viewed over 7.6 billion times. So why does this matter? And how do we use this for our future content? The thing I want to focus on with this short is the fact that it really shows the narrative potential

Starting point is 00:13:40 of this format. Essentially, this creator has taken short form video content and has turned it into multiple episodes and basically like a TV series. And the reason why the creator was able to do this was because it realized the narrative potential of shorts. Shorts are obviously short, hence the name, which means that when you use shorts correctly, you're able to create bingeable content because they're such quick pieces of content that when done right, you can really leave your audience wanting more and you can really hook them into watching more and more and more to the point where you have an entire series like this creator does. Also, because the content of this short is so, so random and really doesn't have much context, it actually invites the audience to fill in the blanks. So

Starting point is 00:14:17 you might have seen that clip and thought, I don't get it. What is this about? I don't think anyone watched that clip and thought, I won't exactly know what this is and what this is referring to. So instead, people started to hypothesize. People created their own narrative. People assumed the context. And that process alone actually invites your audience in to fill in the blanks that you are purposely leaving open. So it's a really interesting way to approach short form content, but clearly a way that can really work. The next one is called permission to flex. I really like this one. I wonder if any of you guys have heard or seen anyone saying, are you a T? Let me know in the comments if you already heard of this trend or any of these trends that I'm talking about. If you already heard of them, then please let me know in the comments. Are you a T is a question which is being asked by Korean

Starting point is 00:14:57 content creators. And it's basically a way of identifying your personality type. You know, those personality quizzes that people do like the Myers-Briggs one, don't know if you guys have done that one before. And it basically tells you what your personality type is, which means you can easily identify other people who have a similar or maybe even compatible personality type to you. It's kind of a bit like how horoscopes work. You know, like I can tell people I'm a Scorpio. I'm a nice Scorpio. Scorpios have such a bad rep. I can tell people I'm a Scorpio and then they might respond and be like, oh my God, get away from me. We're not compatible. Hopefully that's never actually happened, but it could, right? So in Korea, something called the MBTI actually functions as a similar idea to the horoscope. So the same way that I will tell people I'm a Scorpio, in

Starting point is 00:15:39 Korea, someone might say I'm a T, right? Now in Korea, videos in relation to MBTI have amassed over 100 million views in just 90 days. So this is definitely, definitely a huge trending topic. So my favorite question, why does this matter? And what are you supposed to do with this information? What I love about this trend is that it gives people a way to talk about themselves that feels natural, feels easy, and doesn't feel like you're showing off, right? Hence the trend title permission to flex. So what a lot of creators are doing is they're using this MBTI content natural, feels easy, and doesn't feel like you're showing off, right? Hence the trend title, permission to flex. So what a lot of creators are doing is they're using this MBTI content to say, hey guys, I'm a T, which means that I have these personality traits and blah, blah, blah, blah.

Starting point is 00:16:18 And it's being really well received by their audience. So if you're not familiar with MBTI, and maybe that's not the part you want to jump on, maybe think about how you can use other personality tests like the Myers-Briggs test, or maybe just your good old horoscopes to communicate to your audience who you are and share a bit about you. If you're tired of doing the like Q&A or get to know me tag content, this is your opportunity to freshen that content up and actually find a new and interesting way for you to talk about yourself to your audience, a way that feels natural and authentic to you. Last but certainly not least, this trend is titled chess. So I think we could all take a wild guess about what the trend is about. There have been over 4 billion views on videos related to chess over the past year. And I know what you're thinking, of course there has been Jade, it's all due to the Queen's Gambit. Well, you might be partially

Starting point is 00:16:59 correct. I definitely think it added to a lot of the interest in chess, but there's actually been a lot of other content that has been driving this trending topic. For example, chess has managed to find itself in an unconventional partnership with comedians in India. So essentially Indian creators are producing content where they're narrating over a chess game and just saying a lot of really funny stuff, which I've heard is what comedians do, right? They tell jokes. They're telling jokes whilst other people play chess. Chess has managed to maintain popularity over the past year, mostly due to how it's adapted and found itself in new modern types of content. So the comedy example is one of them, but also there's something called chess boxing, which is probably the only

Starting point is 00:17:39 kind of boxing that I'd ever really get into. There's something called chess boxing events where, I mean, I'll just put a clip on the screen so you can see. In addition to this, there's a chess-like game called Shogi from Japan, which has also had researchers in popularity and has gained over 250 million views over the past year. So what does this mean? What are you supposed to do with this information? Well, this is a great example of something old being transformed into something new. And the way in which it's being transformed into something new is by putting new modern twists on it. So a modern aesthetic, a modern format, right? So you could do the same thing. There could be something that you're really interested in. Maybe you never create content about it because you just think, oh, it was popular a few years ago, but it's not

Starting point is 00:18:17 popular now. You could bring it back. It could be popular now. All you've got to do is look at it through a 2023 and beyond lens, right? Think about how you could bring something traditional into the modern age by putting your own twists on it rather than consistently feeling like you have to recreate the wheel. Okay guys, those are some of the most popular trends on YouTube at the moment. Let me know in the comments if you heard about any of those before. I'd also love to know which of these trends you're going to be using in your future content. If you feel like hanging around, I recommend watching this video. It's all about how you can create a YouTube strategy, which really works in under five minutes.

Starting point is 00:18:49 I will put a link to the YouTube trends website below in case you want to read up a little bit more on these trends. Thank you so much for watching as always. Can't wait to see you in my next video.

Today in Digital Marketing - The Pop-Up Box No Advertiser Wants

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