People love free samples. Is the marketing opportunity of the future free tastes?

Novel technology intends to redefine the virtual reality experience by expanding to incorporate a new sensory connection: taste.

“The chemical dimension in the current VR and AR realm is relatively underrepresented, especially when we talk about olfaction and gustation. It’s a gap that needs to be filled and we’ve developed that with this next-generation system.”

Free smells too!

via ScienceDaily

Smaller is better. At least when it comes to podcasts for ad performance.

Smaller podcasts consistently are more efficient at driving visitors per impression

smaller podcasts are more effective per dollar spent

smaller shows may have more committed, niche audiences that are more connected to the host

Which makes sense, since podcasts are basically audio-first influencer channels. It’s about audience engagement, not size.

More nuggets:

• 16% of site visits occur within 24 hours of hearing an ad
• 40% within a week
• 80% within 23 days

via Inside Audio Marketing

I like this Quality Cliff model from Animalz.

A baseline of quality is needed for any piece of content to “work.” But at some point you’re polishing for the sake of procrastination or perfection, not performance.

Of course, there is no universal benchmark or threshold.

Consistently undervaluing the need for quality risks dismal results; pursuing quality at all costs winds up expensive and over-engineered. You need to evaluate every topic and campaign on a case-by-case basis.

Just like Steve Pratt says about creative bravery:

It is relative to every brand. There’s no universal scale of creative bravery.

What’s creatively brave for you could be a way of thinking about it.

Most of it is thinking about who the end consumer of the content is—whether it’s a podcast or a video or an email newsletter—is this something that they’re actually going to look forward to and appreciate. Is this going to create value for them. Is this something that is coming from you but not about you.

What is a gift we can give that can only come from us that is intended and designed for the people you’re trying to reach?

Stated even clearer:

Is this brave enough to get into the attention fortress?

Using video as an example. There is a minimum viable quality if you want your video to “work.”

TikTok and the rise of “authentic content” has dropped this bar, but it still exists. Lighting, angle, story, and speed are probably the core 4 to hit the minimum.

• Can we see the subject of the video?
• Can we figure out what it is?
• Can we figure out why you made the video? What are you trying to tell us about the subject?
• Is it slow enough that we can keep up but fast enough that we don’t lose interest?

But there’s a lot of ground to cover between that minimum and the maximum of a Super Bowl commercial or branded blockbuster film.

The decision you need to make is: do you need a top 5 Super Bowl commercial this year? Or do you just need a short-form vertical video that will get people to pay attention and maybe engage a bit?

And be clear about why you need what you decide. Whether it’s vanity, cachet, or KPIs. (Or Deb in accounting.)

Minimum viable (for the performance you want) is usually the better choice than maximum available.

Be brave. Or be ignored.

Be weird.

Ad frequency is a common consideration for advertisers (this being the number of times a person is shown the same exact ad).

We know it takes more than one interaction, but how many is too many?

The paper Battle of the Brand: Brand Attachment Inoculates Against the Negative Effects of Ad Repetition has some interesting findings.

The Toleration Range

2-5 ad exposures seems to be the sweet spot before it becomes annoying and negatively impacts brand perception. (At least for traditional media, digital is a different ballgame.)

Brand fans can tolerate a higher frequency.

stronger personal brand attachment slows ad wearout

Identity Threat

The study found that people sometimes perceive repeated ad exposure as a threat to their identity.

Everyone experiences in negative thoughts about a brand as frequency increases. BUT people with strong brand attraction generate more positive thoughts about the brand in response.

Basically an identity protection response by the brain. “I’m a Starbucks person so I can’t be too annoyed by this Starbucks ad.”

The antidote to ad wearout is personal connection.

Are you going to get out of the way and stop making things that are about you and instead start making things that are from you, that people are looking forward to and value?

A question from Steve Pratt that more companies need to ask themselves about their marketing.

Especially owned channel / content marketing.

People don’t just want to know what you make. They want to know what you’re made of.

At Blue Ion, we’re big into help brands uncover, articulate, and share their mission, vision, and purpose. Which means we’re always collecting compelling thoughts about these ideas.

I like these from Dr. Michael Gervais

Vision

Vision is like this compelling future that I see, I imagine, and it is so compelling and beautiful and electric to me that I want to work towards that future state.

Purpose

Purpose is the deep why that you’re here.

To get deeper, ask another why.

Is SEO for AI all about vectors?

Instead of relying on exact keyword matches, search engines now use vector embeddings – a technique that maps words, phrases, and even images into multi-dimensional space based on their meaning and relationships.

3 strategies mentioned:

• Add semantic topic modeling to your keyword research mix
• Focus on where topic meets intent over keywords
• Make good content (which means make it for humans, not bots)

Of course, the best way to find out what AI might think about your content is to use AI to tell you.

GenAI as customer lock in

Alexa Plus is $19.99 per month on its own or free for Amazon Prime members — a better deal, considering Prime costs just $14.99 per month or $139 per year.

Prime is the digital version of Costco or Sam’s Club. People pay a membership fee with the expectation of receiving more value through savings. Then a bunch of secondary benefits sweeten the deal.

By paying a fee, members are more likely to spend money to justify the initial fee to themselves.

Amazon’s primary retail customer is Prime. Everything else funnels there.

via The Verge

Promotions and sales are a lever. But if pulled too often they become your brand. (See: JCPenny)

discounting and promotions in general is a place where retailers all too frequently get caught up in the short-term goal of juicing sales, get caught up in the short-term goal of taking advantage of promotional environments by using promotions as a lever, again, to drive conversion and the short-term.

what gets very dangerous there is that you can really erode the value of your brand.

Competing on price is hard.

Compete on something that makes you unique and use sales and promos as sprinkles.

The 2024 holiday shopping season proved splintering is still the trend.

One other thing that I saw was this growing divide between higher and lower, and middle income consumers.

There really is a growing divide between people who feel pretty good, are spending, they’re going out to eat and those who are pinching pennies.

you see a growing split on the haves and have-nots within retailers.
…
It sounds like the haves and have-nots are really maybe going to be the water we’re all swimming in as we enter this new year.

Like when a frozen pond cracks, the splinters are still spreading.

Brand vs. Performance marketing? Trick question.

Brand equity is the foundation—it’s Job #1 for any marketing team.

Brand marketing is now discovery marketing. Discovery leads performance.

Without a brand, there is no performance.

Performance marketing can drive quick sales, but it’s brand-building that gives consumers a reason to buy again and again.

Brand marketing and performance marketing aren’t two different disciplines. They’re just measured on two different timelines.

via The Marketing Insider

Advice from the guy behind the Gorillaz videos, Pete Candeland:

You always try to build entertainment almost like a ladder — or steps — going up to a climax. Like a little story. You want to keep people involved by giving them just enough to want to know what’s going to happen next.

In a short video, it’s about what comes in the next 20 seconds, and then the next 20 seconds, and then the next. It’s an escalating ramp-up of interest, and sometimes a ramp-up of activity and richness of imagery.

via Animation Obsessive

Research has shown that rhymes are more memorable. But I much prefer this way of saying it from the Weird Studies podcast

Sound—rhyme and meter, or musical measure—whether we’re talking about poetry or whether we’re talking about music is absolutely the handmaid of memory. Of how things get into the heart.

The function of your message is important. The content must be worth the attention.

But the form determines its reach. This is the vehicle of transmission.

From MediaDailyNews: Search Ads Slide As A Way To Reach Consumers

Not a new trend—and likely even more pronounced since this was published—but search is no longer a discovery mechanism.

Search is truly an intent channel—harvesting discoveries happening elsewhere.

One of the 9 F’s of Attention is Future Me.

Purchasing is an act of aspiration. Buying a future state.

As Seth Godin says, very few of our purchases are for what the thing says on the tin.

Our focus, energy and money are often spent on transactions that are disguised as something else. What we’re really doing is buying affiliation, status or the freedom from fear.

The Walmart index is…unclear

The mega-retailer forecasts lower growth this year, saying:

“We have to acknowledge that we are in an uncertain time and we don’t want to get out over our skis here.”

More high earners are shopping for rollbacks, as value remains shoppers' top priority.

Walmart did not factor looming US tariffs on foreign goods into its forecast, because it’s unclear if or when they’ll kick in.

inventory levels increased 3% last quarter, suggesting it may be calling in orders to get ahead of future levies.

via The Daily Upside

Retro is an evergreen trend, thanks to the One Song podcast I now have a benchmark for what that means:

Retro is almost always running on a 20 year clock

So if you want to try riding the front of the retro wave, look back 19-20 years and pick your trend to revive.