Today in Digital Marketing - Why Canadian Brands Are Going Grey

Episode Date: August 29, 2022

Pinterest's new app is all the rage — even if it goes backwards in time. Microsoft delays the rollout of RSAs... Fast food drive-thrus are getting AI now...One more app tries to clone BeReal... and why are Canadian brands going grey?Links to stories we covered: This is a Premium exclusive feature. Go Premium! No ads, story links in show notes, deep-dive weekend editions, better quality, live event replays, audio chapters, earlier release time, exclusive marketing discounts, and more! Check out https://todayindigital.com/premiumfeedGet the Newsletter! Prefer to get the show in email form? Sign up for daily or weekly issues at  https://todayindigital.com/newsletterFor information on advertising, our social media, contact info, and everything else, please go to https://todayindigital.com/shownotes➡ Join our Slack at todayindigital.com/slack_____________Need to Upgrade Your Digital Marketing Skills?*Inside Google Ads with Jyll Saskin GalesFoxwell Founders Slack GroupFoxwell Digital CoursesMarketing Tools We Use and Recommend:*Sprout Social: Full-service social media managementAgorapulse: Full-service social media managementAppsumo: Lifetime deals and discounts on marketing toolsRiverside.FM: Studio-quality podcast interview recordingShor.by: Smart link-in-bio service with full analytics* Some links may provide affiliate revenue to usOur Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today, why Pinterest's new app is all the rage, Microsoft delays the rollout of RSAs, fast food drive-thrus are getting AI now, one more app tries to clone BeReal, and why are Canadian brands going grey? It's Monday, August 29th. I'm Todd Maffin. Here's what you missed, today in Digital Marketing. Is Pinterest making a comeback with younger audiences? Shuffles, that's Pinterest's new invite-only app,

has been going viral on TikTok and climbing the app store's top charts. The new app features a Gen Z aesthetic that lets users create collages from their Pinterest boards or with their own photos. The features include being able to add text, image cutouts, some animation is there as well. These collages are then set to music and posted to third-party platforms like TikTok or

shared within the app itself. Users can publish their digital art to a Shuffle's community by using a hashtag. Basically, the company's created a new form of mood boarding, while also developing a new relevant video editing tool for TikTok that is resonating with a younger audience. For the time being, though, users need an invite code to get in. Once a code is obtained, users are rewarded with invite codes to share with others. So how can you get a code if you want to see what your brand can do with it? First, if you already work with an influencer, check with them, as they are more likely to have codes than regular muggles. You could also search Shuffles Codes on Twitter and Reddit. Sometimes they show up there.

There's some giveaways happening on Instagram and TikTok, so you may want to check there. Also, maybe look for some hashtags that are relevant. Or, like the rest of us, just wait it out. An interesting sort of protest is happening among a handful of brands here in Canada. Earlier this month, one of the country's top news anchors was fired after 35 years with the company. No, she didn't do anything wrong. No, it wasn't for bad ratings. Some people say it's because she let her hair go gray. Her name is Lisa Laflamme. She was the lead anchor of CTV News, one of Canada's national networks. The public only found out after Laflamme, who'd been absent from the airwaves for

a few weeks, suddenly popped up on Twitter. I was blindsided and I'm still shocked and saddened by Bell Media's decision. I was also asked to keep this confidential from my colleagues and the public until the specifics of my exit could be resolved. The executive who gave her the news is now on leave. It was a big deal up here, especially when you consider her predecessor, Lloyd Robertson, was 77 when he left the anchor chair. In fact, he held the record of the oldest TV anchor in network television. Lisa Laflamme is 20 years younger. So many brands were picking up on this chatter on Twitter and in the media, and some decided to jump in. Late last week, the fast food chain Wendy's updated its social media profile icon, swapping out its mascot's red pigtail for grey and tweeting,

because a star is a star regardless of hair color. Dove Canada also launched a campaign urging people to change their profile pictures to grayscale in support of those who chose to keep the gray. That was the hashtag they used. The company that owns CTV, by the way, Bell Media, says in a statement, it regrets the way in which Laflamme's departure was handled. Artificial intelligence is everywhere in our industry,

from ad campaign decisions to policy enforcement to the development of creative. Now, another incursion of the robots, this time into a category which has used humans since it started. Starting today, Panera Bread is testing AI voice ordering at two of its drive-thrus. Its name is Tori. Customers will interact with Tori at the drive-thru speaker, and Panera employees will be on hand to assist if need be and take payment for orders. The company says using this tech at the drive-thru will help reduce wait times and improve order accuracy. The test will be used to evaluate if Tori should be expanded to more restaurants. Earlier today, Microsoft announced that its advertisers now have five extra months to

finish migrating expanded text ads to responsive search ads, RSAs being that platform's version of AI-driven campaign delivery, quoting Microsoft. Starting on February 1st, 2023, responsive search ads will be the only search ad type that can be created or edited in standard search campaigns. With the focus of this migration being to help you efficiently drive a stronger ROI, expanded text ads will continue serving along with RSAs, but will no longer support the ability to create new or edit existing expanded text ads moving forward, unquote. This was an extension from the previously planned deadline, which was supposed to be today. A nice touch out there for social media managers who look after their brand's LinkedIn page. You can now pin a comment on a LinkedIn post. Using the three dots menu on a post, you'll see that option there,

which will keep that comment at the top of the response chain. This is, of course, similar to how pinned comments work on other platforms like Instagram and YouTube. On LinkedIn, business users also have the ability to pin updates to their company pages, and top posts can be featured at the top of a user's profile. But being able to pin specific replies or comments is a nice addition. Snapchat is jumping on the dual camera bandwagon. The company announcing today it is rolling out a feature that seems suspiciously like BeReal. It lets users capture a photo using the front and back facing cameras at the same time. Though Snapchat's version is a little more jacked up compared to BeReal's.

Currently, BeReal only supports images, doesn't include any editing tools, and only supports one layout for pictures. That's really by design. While Snapchat's dual camera has four layouts, vertical, horizontal, picture-in-picture, and cutout. Snapchatters can also add their usual creative tools to the photo, like music, stickers, and lenses. This dual-camera functionality will be available globally on iOS today, with Android support coming in the next few months. It may seem like a small thing, but if you produce content for your brand, it ends up on YouTube. The company today announced some interesting stats that you may want to be aware of. They said that viewers are watching videos at faster speeds these days. You may not know this, but YouTube actually supports watching a close second and 1.2 times at third.

And for the perfectionists who like custom speeds, 1.1 times was the most used speed, just a little faster, but not too much, unquote. The platform also noted that playback speeds get faster as the day progresses. Finally, playback speed depends on what device consumers are watching on. On living room devices like smart TVs and gaming consoles, users spent the most time watching at normal speed, followed by one and a quarter. On YouTube.com, the website, viewers spent the most time watching videos at double speed. Mobile users often use 1.5 times playback speed on mobile devices. Socialmediatoday.com also reported on the topic, quoting them, quote, It may seem a little strange to consider that so many people are watching video playback with chipmunk-esque voices, but basically no one has time to wait anymore because in most cases they don't

have to, which is an important consideration for brands, unquote. And finally, Instagram has fixed what it says was a bug that removed the sound from Reels clips downloaded from the editing screen. The Verge is reporting this today. iOS users were apparently affected by the bug, which is detrimental to creators who use Reels as a filming tool and then export their videos to other platforms like TikTok. We reported on this last week. Meta at the time said the issue was not intentional and it was working on a fix. Now it appears that fix is in. Hope you had a good weekend. Nothing to say here. I've been fed a lie. Dreaming is wrong.

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