Today in Digital Marketing - The TikTok Challenge to Stay Far, Far Away From

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Tuesday, November 29th. Today, new or existing customers, where should your efforts be placed this holiday season? TikTok's latest trend gets caught up in a malware scam, Cyber Monday sets records, Twitter continues its slide toward irrelevance, and an expensive lesson in paying close attention to the fine details in your ad creative.

Starting point is 00:00:24 I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed today in digital marketing. This holiday season, are you focusing on acquiring new customers or keeping your existing ones? If you're still not sure, you're not alone. A new Digiday study has found that marketers are split between retention and acquisition this Q4. The study looked at who retailers and brands are targeting with promotions, and yeah, exactly half of marketers said existing customers are the primary audience for their holiday ad campaigns, and the other half said new customers are the primary audience.

Starting point is 00:00:58 The survey also asked what kinds of discounts those audiences can expect to see. According to the data, the majority of brand and retail pros think discounting is going to stay the same between this year and last year. Nearly a third expect their 2021 holiday discounts to be deeper than their discounts this year, while only 15% expect discounts to be bigger this season compared to last. Here is how hackers are thirst-trapping people into downloading malware. There's a new scam going around where cyber criminals claim to offer a filter remover that exposes naked people that have taken part in TikTok's invisible body challenge. The challenge, if you haven't seen it, encourages users to film

Starting point is 00:01:45 themselves naked, then use the app's invisible body filter to hide their bodies. As you might imagine, some people see these posts, then Google invisible body filter remover to try to see their favorite influencer in the nude. But the page they end up on, which claims to be that filter removal tool, is actually malware. Those who fall for the scam end up on, which claims to be that filter removal tool, is actually malware. Those who fall for the scam end up installing a piece of malicious software called Wasp Stealer Discord Token Grabber that, according to the security firm CyberSmart, can be used to harvest Discord account details, credit card information, passwords, crypto wallets, and a whole bunch more. In other TikTok news that doesn't involve nudes, the company

Starting point is 00:02:26 recently launched its updated marketing partners platform. More than 180 endorsed providers are now able to assist you with your TikTok marketing process, including campaign management, measurement, creative effects, commerce, and sound. Twitter has announced it will let COVID misinformation flow freely. No, I'm not making that up. The platform has changed its COVID misinformation policy to, well, essentially cancel it. A note on the policy page now reads, Effective November 23rd, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.

Starting point is 00:03:05 Tech policy analyst George Cabarello posted on Mastodon today, quote, this is mostly because there hasn't been anyone physically present to enforce the COVID-19 misinformation policy for nearly a month. The same is true for virtually any hateful or spammy content. That's because Twitter's content curation process wasn't 100% automated. It was a hybrid So that means advice like injecting bleach into your veins or claims that vaccines contain microchips or that COVID can be caught just by being in the same room as a trans person. Expect all of that to return to the Twitter feed now that it's under Elon Musk's control. Quoting The Verge, quote, Twitter first introduced these policies in 2020 and began applying labels to

Starting point is 00:04:05 tweets that contained disputed information about COVID and its vaccines. The platform also removed tweets that contained demonstrably false or potentially misleading content and permanently suspended accounts if they continuously broke the rules. According to data posted by Twitter, the company suspended a total of 11,230 accounts, unquote. Speaking of suspended accounts, today came word that Twitter is reinstating thousands of accounts that had been previously suspended for rule violations. Platformer reports that 62,000 of those accounts have more than 10,000 followers and 75 of those have more than a million followers. We also learned last night from Wired that Twitter has fired almost every employee that had been working to remove child sexual abuse material across the Asia-Pacific region, which

Starting point is 00:04:58 is home to more than 60% of the world's population. Literally only one person on that team remains. It was only a couple of months ago when Twitter sent advertisers a letter apologizing for letting tweets with child porn run alongside ads. At the time, Mazda, Dyson, and Ecolab were among the brands that pulled their campaigns as a result, and that was when Twitter had a full team looking for such material. And finally, in what might be another sign of Twitter's slow collapse, Ars Technica is reporting that Twitter has missed payroll for some employees in Europe, specifically staff in the UK and Germany had their paychecks delayed.

Starting point is 00:05:36 Twitter sent them an email in which it blamed the bank. Well, amidst the sputtering economy, expectations for this year's holiday spending online were dim, but there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. Earlier today, Adobe Analytics reported that Cyber Monday online sales hit a record of more than $11 billion. It represents nearly 6% growth year over year. And Adobe said those figures were driven by demand and not just inflation. An analyst for the company said deep discounts also played a significant role. Quoting the Adobe release, quote, With oversupply and a softening consumer spending environment,

Starting point is 00:06:17 retailers made the right call this season to drive demand through heavy discounting. It spurred online spending to levels that were higher than expected and reinforced e-commerce as a major channel to drive volume and capture consumer interest. Black Friday sales surpassed $9 billion, while Thanksgiving sales were $5 billion, both also exceeding earlier forecasts. Overall, Cyber Week will generate $35 billion in sales online. That's up 4% over last year and accounting for nearly a fifth of all sales in November and December. Want people to read your content? They'll start with your headline and that's as far as they'll get.

Starting point is 00:06:59 If your headline doesn't convince readers to take action, it's meaningless. Stop wasting time writing headlines that don't get results. Headline Analyzer Studio is a free writing tool from CoSchedule made to help you write effective headlines that actually get seen and clicked. With data-backed headline scoring, suggestions, and SEO tips, you'll write better headlines that rank higher in search results and drive more engagement from your audience. Headline Analyzer Studio is also available as a free WordPress plugin

Starting point is 00:07:30 and browser extension, so you can optimize your headlines anywhere you write them. Get the leading edge over millions of existing headlines and maximize the traffic, engagement, and conversions you get from your content. Sign up for your free Headline Analyzer Studio account at coschedule.com slash today. That's coschedule.com slash today. Well, perhaps influenced by Elon Musk's hardline approach to management, the parent company of Snapchat is the latest company

Starting point is 00:08:00 to undo its generous work-from-home policies. The company's CEO, Evan Spiegel, reportedly told employees that he expects them to be in the company's offices 80% of the time starting in February. According to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg, he pitched the move as a way to accelerate the company's growth.

Starting point is 00:08:18 Quoting Spiegel, quote, what each of us may sacrifice in terms of our individual convenience, I believe we will reap in terms of our collective success, unquote. Back in August, the company fired a fifth of its workforce and cut several projects. As Bloomberg pointed out, the company hasn't been able to increase its revenue as quickly as expected as marketers cut their ad budgets. And finally, here's why you should review your ad creative very, very closely. And then do it again.

Starting point is 00:08:53 Just ask the marketing executives at the luxury brand Balenciaga. First, they unveiled their holiday campaign, which featured children holding bags shaped like teddy bears wearing bondage gear and other BDSM accessories. The second ad, part of the brand's upcoming spring campaign, seemed normal until you zoomed up closely on the papers in the creative. Turns out they were a printout of a Supreme Court decision on child pornography. And now Balenciaga Gate is trending online, and Kim Kardashian, who frequently reps the brand, has publicly denounced them. Following an apology for both campaigns, Balenciaga announced yesterday that it is suing the production company and set designer, who chose the court papers as a

Starting point is 00:09:39 prop. The designer's agent, however, told the Washington Post her client's ad was heavily influenced by the brand. Starting to feel a little bit better. I think we have turned the corner. Better living through chemistry, am I right? Like, I don't know. When I was younger, I was like, I would have to have incredible pain just to take a Tylenol. Now, no, I'm throwing everything at it. Pills, cough syrups, throat lozenges, anything that can help.

Starting point is 00:10:12 And it maybe is working. Sleeping also seems to be helping. Those of you who are asking, yes, I am on Mastodon, just go to the show notes and look for Follow Todd on social media. See you tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - The TikTok Challenge to Stay Far, Far Away From

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