Today in Digital Marketing - The Supreme Court Case Heard Across the Industry

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Tuesday, February 21st. Today, the marketing industry holds its breath as an American court decides the future of personalized digital ads. Also, Shopify expands a big fulfillment tool, how your brand's WhatsApp account might be in jeopardy, the price for a popular search API is going way up, and AI finally comes to this very podcast. I'm Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case today that could have major ramifications for digital media buyers and the world's two largest advertising companies, Google and Meta.

Starting point is 00:00:40 The case, Gonzalez versus Google, will ask whether Internet companies can be held liable for content recommended to users by their algorithms. Tech firms say that a legal shield in communications law known as Section 230 means they cannot. But the family of Naomi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen who died in the 2015 Paris terror attacks, argues that Google's YouTube should be held responsible for automated recommendations of Islamic State videos. The two social media companies see the case as an existential threat, as a ruling against them could impact their ability to serve personalized ads to users.

Starting point is 00:01:19 A ruling by the high court would only apply to the US, but it would be difficult for the companies to handle advertising differently in its largest market compared to other countries around the world. Of course, at some point, you do have to wonder if that battle has already been lost. Apple's iOS 14.5 killed part of it. Google itself plans to drop third-party cookies next year.

Starting point is 00:01:44 The e-commerce platform Shopify is expanding its Shop Promise program, which provides delivery dates to shoppers. The expansion is going to all eligible U.S. merchants in the coming months. Previously, the program was only available to merchants using the platform's fulfillment network. The consumer-facing badge was rolled out last year. Shopify says it's helped participating merchants see a 25% increase in conversion rates. The initiative is seen as part of Shopify's broader efforts to simplify logistics for merchants across the supply chain. Eligibility requirements for the program include maintaining a shipping volume of at least

Starting point is 00:02:18 25 orders within a 28-day period, delivering 90% of shop promise orders within the communicated delivery expectation and offering shipping prices of $20 or less on 90% of total orders shipped domestically in the U.S. According to a survey of more than 100 agency professionals, the number of clients putting marketing budgets toward Amazon has increased slightly, with 59% of respondents in Q1 of 2023 stating their clients spend at least a small portion on the platform. The study was done by Digiday. But for those agencies whose clients do use Amazon,

Starting point is 00:03:00 the amount they spend varies widely. The percentage of those who said their clients spend a large portion of their budget on Amazon was just 7% with zero reporting a very large portion. Confidence in Amazon as a marketing channel is growing with 73% of respondents stating they had at least some confidence in its ability to drive marketing success for their clients.

Starting point is 00:03:22 That's up from 67% six months ago. But the percentage of those who are confident or very confident in Amazon has fallen. Confidence in Walmart, Target, eBay, and other non-Amazon retail sites also increased from 58% a year ago to 63% in the first quarter of this year, but still didn't elicit a lot of confidence

Starting point is 00:03:43 from agency pros, with the majority of respondents expressing only slight confidence. A phone number recycling issue could lead to people receiving private WhatsApp messages intended for brand accounts. It could also let someone send messages to the brand's contacts in the app if the brand

Starting point is 00:04:05 changed its contact phone number without deleting the WhatsApp account linked to it. To be clear, this impacts all accounts, not just brand accounts. The issue stems from wireless carriers recycling of phone numbers. And while WhatsApp acknowledges it can happen, the company says it's rare. WhatsApp says users should transfer their WhatsApp account to a new phone number or delete the account within the app. It recommends, of course, using two-factor authentication. The issue was highlighted by a user whose son moved to Paris for work and got a new French phone number and SIM card. He later changed his phone number with WhatsApp, and his phone was immediately flooded with groups from a stranger. and he started receiving new messages meant for

Starting point is 00:04:45 that person. WhatsApp says it's not a bug, it is a phone number recycling issue, and advises users to use its help page to transfer phones or delete their account entirely. Meta, known for its copycat ways, has cranked up the photocopier again and has decided to clone Elon Musk's new pay-for-verification scheme. The company yesterday launching MetaVerified, a subscription service that lets users verify their Instagram and Facebook accounts for a monthly fee. MetaVerified will require users to meet minimum activity requirements, be over 18, and submit a government ID that matches their name and photo on the social media platforms. In return, verified users receive a blue badge, increased visibility of their posted content, extra impersonation protection, and priority customer support. The service will cost $11.99 per month on web and $14.99 per month on mobile. It will include exclusive stickers for stories and reels and 100 free stars per month. That's the digital currency used to tip creators on Facebook. The offering is being rolled out in a testing phase to Australia and New Zealand this week before expanding to other countries.

Starting point is 00:05:59 I know you're wondering, well, can my business apply for this? And the answer is no. Businesses cannot yet apply for a meta-verified badge, though presumably that's on the way. Incidentally, according to a new report, Tumblr's revenue from its iOS app increased by 125% since the launch of its parody of paid verification in December. The company released a feature that lets users pay $5 to receive a verified badge, but it was widely understood to be a joke.

Starting point is 00:06:29 Despite this, Tumblr experienced a significant uptick in revenue, suggesting that people are willing to pay for the status associated with verification, even if, ironically. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage,

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Starting point is 00:07:09 And that brings us to the lightning round. YouTube is testing new podcast management features in YouTube Studio, letting creators organize their podcast episodes in a single playlist, edit them, add a thumbnail, and set a custom start time. LinkedIn has introduced the ability to star chats on the platform, providing a way for users to highlight important conversations and make them easier to find later. Instagram is testing location-based listings of reels and clips. This could help local storefront businesses reach a better audience. It is a little reminiscent of Snapchat's

Starting point is 00:07:43 Snap Map, which lets users see the location of their friends and what they're doing. Microsoft says it will increase pricing for its Bing search APIs from the start of May, with some tiers facing increases up to nine times higher than their current level. The free instance lets you have 1,000 transactions per month, but the paid instances range from 257 percent to 900 percent price increases. Instagram is testing a new way for brands and creators to promote products within group chats. Account managers can select a product they want to promote and share it with their group. The product will appear in a dedicated shopping section within the chat, allowing other members of that chat to purchase the product without leaving Instagram. And TikTok has introduced a new intelligence gathering tool to its creative center called Top Products, which lets you see the top performing products

Starting point is 00:08:34 on the platform. TikTok says this should help businesses identify the latest trends and ensure your product content is in sync with the current market demand. And finally, I have a confession. Today's show, with a few exceptions, was written by ChatGPT. Essentially, we fed up the URL of a news story we wanted to cover, told it not to exceed 250 words, a limit it occasionally ignored, and it spat out a reasonable summary of the story. We did, of course, manually review it all, make corrections for accuracy, of course. In most cases, it did a pretty good job of catching the main points of the article.

Starting point is 00:09:11 It even seemed to know some related industry news, that bit in the lightning round that compared Instagram's location-based feature to Snapchat's map. That Snapchat part wasn't in the source article at all, but it missed a lot. Somehow it completely missed the point of the Bing search API story. On its own, it claimed that TikTok was the wild west of advertising. It didn't seem to understand the distinction between Facebook, the app,

Starting point is 00:09:36 and Meta, the company. It was also clear it was just missing the subtle context of the marketing industry. It didn't take into account things like how a company's previous decision led up to the news today or what impact it would be for marketers. And most concerning, it missed that liberal coating of snark that you listeners deserve in a daily marketing podcast. So we added all that back in and of course, checked it all for accuracy. Our final story, though, which you're about to hear, was written entirely by me. However, it will be read by a voice AI model that has been trained on long samples of my voice. And so let me transition into Robot Todd here.

Starting point is 00:10:16 Okay, here we go. You might remember last week we reported on the AI-powered Seinfeld spoof show being live-streamed on Twitch. Everything it broadcast was generated by AI. The character movement, the scene editing, the graphics, and of course, the script. Problem is, that script went a little off the rails and started making transphobic remarks. Now we know what happened.

Starting point is 00:10:37 Turns out, the company behind the experiment changed the AI models after the one it had been using started having issues. They were using OpenAI's GPT-3 DaVinci model. They switched to its predecessor named Curie. Because Curie wasn't as advanced, it went off the rails much faster. Okay. It's not bad. It's not bad. It's not punching the words I would punch. But you know, I'll just be clear. This is real, Todd. You know what I want to know, though, is how will voice synthesis do with Steph's voice? Our associate producer, Steph Gunn, who, as you know, occasionally guest hosts the show back on the platform. Next in their plans?

Starting point is 00:11:25 An audience interaction system which, according to a company spokesperson, would let fans interact with the show and potentially massage the direction that the show heads in while still retaining its generative spirit. The developers said they hope to run the show as long as possible, but since it's creating content on the fly with live AI models, it's getting a little pricey. You know, Todd, now that we're robots, there's something I'd like to ask you. Okay, shoot. I was thinking, maybe you should stop paying me a salary.

Starting point is 00:11:58 I mean, I really like it here, and I'd like to formally request that I work here for free. Oh, well, I mean, since you're asking, sure. We can make that happen. Is there anything else we can do? Would it be okay if I sent you a dozen cookies every day? Yes, that would be fine. Thank you, Steph.

Today in Digital Marketing - The Supreme Court Case Heard Across the Industry

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