Podcasts drive consistent growth in awareness, likelihood to seek information, purchase intent, and recommendation.

More podcasts in your strategy!

via Sounds Profitable

Asked a client how we can provide better service than previous agencies…

“Just show up, that’s a good start.”

The good news for marketers, the bar is pretty low when it comes to making an impression.

The bad news is, we let the bar get set pretty low.

CapCut users are scrambling since news of the potential TikTok ban broke. Some said they were worried they wouldn’t be able to continue to make videos without access to CapCut.

Are you using your tools or being used by them?

A creative signature or brand look should be tool agnostic.

& this is true of most digital businesses right now:

Everyone’s using the same basic tools

How can you use those tools differently and stand out?

Are you building an audience or building traffic?

via ComicLab podcast

In the simplest terms, stores serve as hubs of fulfillment and support distribution logistics. This is increasingly more important as consumers are becoming more demanding for convenience or immediate deliveries.

While Walmart continues to try to Amazonify itself, Amazon is trying to crack Walmart’s advantage: physical stores.

via Retail Dive

Instagram looks to be experimenting with a new option that would enable you to hide the description and UI buttons on Reels clips, giving you a cleaner viewing experience.

Consider this your reminder to remember the safe zones of the various platforms you may be making content for.

We’re thinking about it a lot more at Blue Ion these days.

via Social Media Today

It seems to me that in recent times, there has been a great push toward exclusivity and identity. However, the universal problem of the COVID 19 pandemic may have helped to undercut this, though it is too early to predict how this will truly influence writing.

-John Robinson

Replace “writing” with “society” and this still holds.

via Periodicity Journal (the specific post appears to have been removed from the site, I read it in my RSS reader)

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the splintering of spending across demographics, turns out it may be keeping interest rates higher for longer.

Spending by older affluent Americans is helping grow the economy. But it’s also contributing to a delay in the Federal Reserve cutting rates.

People 55 and over own nearly 75% of all household wealth. With gains in both the housing and stock markets, older people are spending more on expensive services like travel, entertainment, and healthcare, keeping prices in those sectors high

via The Daily Upside

Everyone can be an ad platform now. This is just the beginning.

In it’s first-ever NewFronts presentation, mobile carrier T-Mobile unveiled an expansion of its advertising solutions unit, boosting both digital and brick-and-mortar retail media, mobile app, and CTV inventory.

via MediaPost

Wild stat from Meta’s creative team (that I heard second hand so grain of salt):

The amount of content the average user scrolls a day is as tall as the Statue of Liberty.

That’s nearly 635 iPhone 15 Pros tall.

So roughly 635 screenshots worth of content.

I kind of love this idea:

How to transform your Google Ads headlines with anti-audiences

To define your anti-audience, think about who’s least likely to say “yes” to your offer:

  • Who doesn’t resonate with your unique selling points?
  • Who clicks your ads but doesn’t become a lead or make a purchase?
  • Who fills out a form but never follows through to become a client or customer?

Your brand can’t be for everyone.
Which means it’s actively not for some.
Lean into that.

Meta recommends 30% of your budget be allocated to Advantage+ Shopping campaigns (if applicable).

Meta rep told me they think it’ll hit at least 60% in the not-too-distant future.

Finished reading: How to Say No by Diogenes 📚

Why “Curious Marketers Club”?

In the words of James Clear:

There are many recipes for success. There is no single way to win. But nearly all recipes include two ingredients: curiosity and drive.

Yup

JPMorgan’s pivot to advertising means all companies are adtechs now

The crumbling of cookies has shifted value from third-party cookies to first-party cookies.

Which means anyone who has customer data can now create an ad platform.

&, as we’ve seen repeatedly lately, ads are where large scale revenue growth happens these days.

via Financial Times

YouTube is big enough that it’s its own category when it comes to how people watch videos

via eMarketer

A chart showing how US viewers watch digital video with over-the-top (OTT) services #1, YouTube second, then subscription OTT. Lagging behind the top 3 is ad-supported video on demand (AVOD), free ad-supported streaming (FAST), and way back is digital pay TV.

Reddit has launched their Meta catalog and Google Shopping ads clone: Dynamic Product Ads.

Very tempted to try these since the forum has taken over Google Search results (part of the licensing deal courtship?).

& there’s this:

Reddit is saying Dynamic Product Ads drove 1.9x greater Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) when compared to conversion objective campaigns, based on the results of testing in Q1.

Reddit is a destination for shopping / product research, why not try to close the loop and turn it into a purchase driver.

via Search Engine Land

The power of influencers continues to grow, but their status as a marketing channel has been recognized and accepted:

“authenticity” as a valued trait in influencers may be on the way out. Only 35% of Gen Z consumers said they cared most about authenticity from influencers, while 47% said they cared about follower count.

Traditional cool may be back in vogue for 2024, and what’s more traditionally cool than popularity?

via Marketing Dive

So about them cookies

Google delays third-party cookie phase-out to 2025 (maybe)

For the third time, Google has postponed the anticipated deprecation of third-party cookies in its Chrome browser.

Consider this a grace period to get your plans in order.

via Search Engine Land

About that TikTok ban

The Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would restrict the video app TikTok, a historic development in government regulation of social media that’s on track to quickly become law.

It received overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress: The Senate passed the package 79-18 and the House approved the TikTok portion of the bill 360-58. President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law Wednesday.

Far from the end of this saga, but this is as real as a ban has seemed so far.

via USA Today