Zig vs. Zag
Lucky vs. Repeatable
It’s so important to know the difference between the two when attempting to learn from someone. You want to try to emulate skills that are repeatable. Attempting to copy the parts of someone’s success that aren’t repeatable is equivalent to a 56-year-old dressing like a teenager and expecting to be cool.
via Collab Fund
A common practice in marketing is to look at competitors and inspirational/aspirational brands to benchmark—harvest ideas, uncover keywords, see what’s working. But it’s hard to figure out what we can repeat-like trying to reverse engineer virality.
We’re only seeing the finished product. We don’t know the process. This is the “overnight success” myth. The success is only overnight to those that weren’t doing all the work to make it happen.
you have 20 years to write your first album and you have six months to write your second one.
The returns diminish with each additional mover.
The first movers do it, then everyone does it. When everyone does it, it doesn’t work as well.
via Marketing Against the Grain podcast (📼 / ~15:24)
Timing is luck. Virality is luck. Catching a person in the perfect moment for your message to resonate is luck.
Delivering value is repeatable. One core, consistent, coherent brand message is repeatable (that’s kind of the point). Being where your customers are is repeatable (and also kind of luck).
Coming up with the slogan “Red Bull gives you wings” is lucky. Sticking with it for decades is repeatable.
When benchmarking, spend less time focusing on what your gaps and more on theirs. What channels are underused? What tones of voice are avoided? What value adds or selling points are missing?
It’s easier to build a repeatable practice in a place with low competition than it is to get lucky in a place with high competition.
Or, trying zigging when others zag once in a while.
On today’s podcast episode, we discuss which digital behaviors Hispanic Americans over-index on, how they get their news, and what advertisers should consider when trying to reach and market to these folks.
Recommended listen.
And a good reminder that many shorthands we use to aggregate groups of people aren’t helpful for much outside the census (like generations, which are garbage).
Shiny New Ad Toys
Walmart
it is opening up Walmart Connect to brands that have not traditionally sold their products in its stores, such as automotive and financial marketers – known as “no-endemic” marketers.
Another page from the Amazon ad playbook?
Plus:
- Brand search terms (yours or competitors)
- More offline sales tracking
- More self-serve options, including in-store placements like the TV wall
- Taking the partner program (Roku, TikTok) wider
Retail media could be a big winner of the cookiepocalypse if its reach can extend beyond classic retail use cases (like advertising a car to someone shopping for a car battery instead of just more parts sold via the retailer).
Microsoft
This month’s top story: Maximize conversion value bid strategy is now available for search and shopping search campaigns
Plus:
- Microsoft Click ID (is this really new?)
- something something AI
- A new hotel tool means the old hotel tool is getting the hook
via Microsoft
Advertisers can add CTV to their LinkedIn campaigns through a network of partners that includes Paramount, Roku and Samsung Ads.
In addition to LinkedIn’s self-service Campaign Manager, the company also has a managed offering, LinkedIn Premiere via its partnership with NBCUniversal
Ad surprise of the year so far? Benefits of being part of the Microsoft ecosystem.
via MarTech
Google is testing a new format for search ads, the ads go in a slider or carousel that let you swipe through various ads, instead of scrolling past them.
The carousel looks a lot like the new Arc Search look for links from summary pages. Imagine it’s top 1.5 slots or bust for clickthrough and performance with this layout.
Chase (?(!))
This week, JPMorgan Chase launched Chase Media Solutions, its new digital media business. It’s the first bank-led media platform, allowing advertisers to send relevant promotions to some 80 million financial customers.
Any aggregator with first-party data in the post-cookie world could become a media network, Chase’s performance may open the floodgates.
Chase’s advantage is transactional first-party data, which allows brands and agencies to target based on purchase history… Chase customers have purchase histories across retailers and other businesses they buy from.
The immediate winners will be those closest to purchase. With time this could become the new paradigm (along with AI-powered contextual advertising).
via MarTech
AI and the Complexity of Loss - blog.rinesi.com
Highly recommended for anyone interested in the more technical side of AI.
And a quote that extends beyond AI:
not aggressive enough — you use tame optimization algorithms in contexts where you could learn radically new processes through wildly more creative ones with nothing more at risk that a short-term drop in a dashboard only you and your manager care about.
Doing things “the way they’ve always been done” or “the way everyone else is doing them” usually means results a little less than before or others.
Take (acceptable) risks.