Anyone trying to garner attention these days is essentially a media entity. This means owned media channels are important (and I think will only become more important over the next few years).
One way to grow this capability is to Acquire media assets to grow your brand.
The marketing function of a company today demands the same or more of a media company.
Editorial blogs, professional-grade podcasts, YouTube channels, curated newsletters, pop culture social media.
Marketing today demands brand.
Build your brand on assets you control, distribute it via channels you don’t.
The AI search engine Perplexity is going to start testing ads
Related questions, which include links to sources, account for 40% of Perplexity’s queries. So Perplexity plans to add relevant, related brand-sponsored questions along with organic questions.
Since ads in AI engines hasn’t been cracked yet, it’ll be interesting to see how these fare. 🔮?
Plus it gives me an excuse to share this quote from the founder:
Ads are not evil. When ads are done right it’s amazing, and generative AI is going to help us build even better targeting.
Make better ads.
A Brand is Empty, then Full
A new brand is an empty vessel.
The meaning doesn’t come from the name or the logo, but from what you fill it up with.
Your drive. Your reason for existing. Your core belief. Your brand experience.
“Just Do It” means more than the strict definition those words when Nike is attached. Red Bull doesn’t literally give you wings. Buying an Apple doesn’t magically make you Think Different.
When we bring a brand to the world, it’s rare indeed that people are okay with it having nothing inside. The wrapper matters, but so does the experience within.
Your brand may be hollow when it lives only as a final design file, but it better not be when you launch. Just make sure to leave room for what your fans want to fill it with too.
The premise is that creators make content for a brand, but instead of living solely on social media channels, that content lives in 15- and 30-second spots on ad-supported streaming platforms.
Interesting concept. Creators scale up their reach, brands scale down their production.
Creators and AI (and their ethos) will increasingly become studios.
Ad meets word of mouth meets social proof meets celebrity endorsement.
And social media eats the world.
via Digiday
Social media is a major gatekeeper at this point—the other one is search—so if you’re building a strategy that would be reliant on social media, I would just ask that publisher “why?” given the fact that the rules of engagement can change on you immediately.
Don’t confuse channels of amplification and distribution for your foundation and infrastructure.
via The Daily podcast from eMarketer
via the Future Forecast podcast:
Nowstalgia: hyperfast way of looking at nostalgia of things that didn’t happen decades ago but years or even months.
The nostalgia cycle is spinning so fast that the look back period is shortening to hypermodern history.
Or; the half life of attention (but not attention spans) is so short that the idea generation period has to compress to a point where sequels and building off the previous effort is the only viable option. It is impossible to both stay relevant and create from a blank slate each time.
Friday Bits & Bytes | 032924
Why Marketers need to embrace the funny when it comes to podcasting
While there’s no sure-fire formula to being funny, brands that lean into comedic ads find the effort has a good success rate.
A funny ad is a sticky ad
Marketing (and business) doesn’t have to be that serious, have some fun. It may even make your work better.
If only there were a “holiday” coming up that would let you safely try humor for your brand…
How consumers find new brands and products on social media, marketplaces, and brick-and-mortar retail in 5 charts
Here are 2:
Over two-thirds (67%) of US 16-to 24-year-olds say they’ve learned about a product or service through a social media video that organically entered their feed
But
Social media is just one part of the discovery mix. Online marketplaces or search engines are the top places where US consumers start their shopping journey
Outside of impulse purchases, discovery and shopping are two different phases.
Are Lookalikes Still Relevant?
I get that lookalikes are technically a bit more specific, in theory. You could find people similar to your paying customers, for example. I wonder if advertisers simply don’t trust the newer options as much as the tried and true lookalikes.
I’m just not convinced that lookalikes are any better than these other methods. I’ve mostly abandoned them completely as a result.
I am now very interested in this question. Mostly because I’m interested in what’s working on Meta.
And because I just made a bunch of lookalikes earlier today for an upcoming campaign. Wonder if that was time wasted…
Attention Spans or Filter Quality?
Are our attention spans really getting shorter?
I hear this said a lot.
But I also know people who listen to multi-hour podcasts, read books, binge series, run/bike really long distances, write books, build apps…
Yes, some of those aren’t really the things people are talking about when they say we’re basically goldfish with thumbs. But they’re not irrelevant.
Maybe the explosion of content and choices coupled with the rapid increase in quality and professionalization of many content creators mean our bar for “bad content” is really low.
Maybe instead of having shorter attention spans we have stricter quality filters.