AI at Google Marketing Live, EU Commission investigates Meta, Netflix to build ad-tech platform, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute new research & more ??topics
Whatagraph
The fast and easy-to-use platform for monitoring and reporting on marketing performance.
Welcome to the June issue of Summarized, a marketing newsletter by Whatagraph, where we share our latest articles, case studies, top news from the digital marketing world, and platform updates each month.
Major AI announcements at Google Marketing Live 2024, based on "panic"?
AI has certainly taken center stage during the May 21st Google Marketing Live 2024 annual event. Other updates have focused on creatives, data and giving the consumer what they want straight from the Search results. A closer focus on impression levels will surely be required.
The Performance Max upgrade allows advertisers to rapidly produce high-quality creative assets for campaigns across marketing channels. Brand fonts, colors and imagery may be incorporated as guardrails. 谷歌 promises 5x acceleration of creative production and 6% higher conversion rates for those who improve their Performance Max Ad strength to Excellent. AI also creates video-powered Search Ads which can include not only short-form videos, but also AI-rendered "virtual try-on" ads of clothers for different body types, or 3D-rotation animations of items like shoes.
"Sponsored" sections will appear within AI-generated overview boxes on the SERP, existing Search, PMax and Shopping campaigns eligible. First-party data will be analyzed through the Ad Data Manager Tool for data integration and unified analytics, audience insights and targeting. AI-powered interactive ads will be provided before connecting customers with advertisers' websites to explore their intent for complex purchases (an example of renting a storage unit was provided, its dimensions depending on the specific items of furniture to be stored there).
On the other hand, comments from Scott Jenson, a former Google senior UX designer of 15 years who left the job last month indicate that Google's chase after "everything AI" is motivated by FOMO panic that they are getting left behind. In his view, the vision of a Tony Stark "Jarvis" assistant who locks you into Google's ecosystem is "pure catnip". Google allegedly fear somebody else getting their first. The last time this happened with Google was 13 year ago, with Facebook instead of AI now, when Google+ was launched and then soon discarded.
Are those AI-powered tools relevant to your campaigns and customers? Would you use them or wish to be excluded from being affected by them?
The EU Commision launches investigation into Meta platforms' addictive qualities
EU officials have launched yet another investigation into a social media company. This time it's Meta who came under scruting in face of the Digital Services Act (DSA), as part of EU efforts to protect social media's younger users.
Under the Digital Services Act, large social platforms operating in Europe are required to “take appropriate and proportionate measures to protect minors”, with a provision to address elements “that may stimulate behavioral addictions of recipients of the service”. Both Facebook and Instagram have addictive qualities, as various academic reports have shown, the challenge is holding Meta to account for this.
The EU Commission thinks that Meta has not done enough to address these areas of concern, and is now forcing Meta to share evidence of its progress on the matter. In response, Meta says that it’s implemented a broad range of tools and policies to protect children, and that it’s looking forward to working with the EU Commission to address their concerns. EU officials are keen to pull social platforms into line, in accordance with the new rules, with each violation, if proven, potentially resulting in fines of up to 6% of the platform’s annual global turnover for failure to adhere to DSA's guidelines.
Today, the Commission has opened formal proceedings to assess whether Meta, the provider of Facebook and Instagram, may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to the protection of minors. The Commission is concerned that the systems of both Facebook and Instagram, including their algorithms, may stimulate behavioral addictions in children, as well as create so-called ‘rabbit-hole effects’. In addition, the Commission is also concerned about age-assurance and verification methods put in place by Meta.
Netflix to be no longer reliant on Microsoft for their ad-tech platform
In a mid-May announcement Netflix have stated that after solely relying on 微软 for its ad-tech, Netflix will build its own advertising platform by the end of 2025. This move is expected to provide advertisers with new ways to buy ad space and measure impact of campaigns.
With the launch of its in-house ad technology, Netflix plans to take control of its advertising strategy, empowering the streaming company to create targeted and personalized ad experiences for its user base of 270 million subscribers. Advertising executives last year told the Financial Times the company wanted to run “episodic” campaigns that would serve a series of different but related sequential ads to consumers. This would avoid a common problem of serving the same ad several times back to back.
Microsoft will now need to share its strategy and relationship with Netflix. Netflix executives must feel pretty comfortable with these changes. The streaming company said it now supports 40 million monthly users on its ad-supported tier globally, up from about 23 million earlier this year. In regions where ads are available, more than 40% of new users are signing up for the ad-supported tier.
Bringing our ad tech in-house will allow us to power the ads plan with the same level of excellence that’s made Netflix the leader in streaming technology today,” said Amy Reinhard, Netflix’s president of advertising. “We’re being incredibly strategic about how we present ads because we want our members to have a phenomenal experience. We conduct deep consumer research to make sure we stay ahead of the competition, bringing opportunities that are better for members and better for brands.
Influencer marketing suffers from a gender mismatch
An immense wastage of budget resources was recently discovered in connection to influencer marketing strategies. Women-specific cosmetics, beauty and personal hygiene brands were surprised to find out that the influencers they have hired have over 70% of male followers. This issue is magnified because the beauty and fashion attract the largest numbers of social media influencers, especially on Instagram and YouTube .
Beauty and cosmetics companies such as Nykaa, Lotus Herbals, Sugar Cosmetics, Lakme Lever, L'Oreal and Mamaearth collaborate with thousands of influencers. Honasa-Consumer owned Mamaearth alone does so with over 4,000 influencers. Citing risks of fake or mismatched influencers, executives of companies such as Lotus Herbals are resorting to mapping data on their own to mitigate wastage of marketing spends, as most third-party influencer insight tools currently available are not consistent in their analysis.
Determining return on investment of campaigns and maintaining credibility is the greatest challenge for influencer marketing according to last month's report from strategy consulting firm EY and talent management company Collective Artists Networks. Such reports indicate expectations of 50% growth of the influencer marketing industry, while at the same time 47% of brands prefering to drive their campaigns with micro and nano influencers due to lower cost per reach. According to Vineeta Sing, the CEO of Sugar Cosmetics, there's a pressing need for brands to find creators who fit their needs and persona. Brands getting tangled in FOMO only leads to unnecessary spends.
Women-specific brands on Instagram are talking to over 70% male followers, which is a waste. Only 9.9% of beauty and cosmetics influencers on Instagram have at least 50% or more female followers. This is a huge gender mismatch. Brands are hiring and paying influencers on the bases of the number of overall followers, and not whether these followers are actually potential customers.
- Vaibhav Gupta, chief product officer of data analytics and tech platform KlugKlug
Do any of your more gender-specific brands utilize influencer marketing? How aligned your actual audiences are with the product target?
New marketing findings from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at the University of South Australia is a leading marketing research center. The institute challenges traditional marketing theories like the 4Ps and STP models, advocating instead for a data-driven approach over outdated practices.
The Institute has been at the forefront of challenging long-established marketing doctrines. In a recent article the institute’s scholars scrutinised the marketing mix, or the 4Ps model, the segmentation of marketing activities into product, price, distribution, and communication. This model has been a cornerstone of marketing strategies for decades. However, the institute’s critique extends beyond the 4Ps, encompassing the STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) model popularised by Philip Kotler. The institute concludes that these theories, while once groundbreaking, now lack the evidence support necessary to address the complexities of modern marketing. The Institute seeks to supplant these traditional theories with data-driven strategies that better reflect the dynamic nature of contemporary consumer behaviour.
The institute’s own research on the effects of commercial length on advertising impact, exemplifies their approach to understanding media efficacy. This focus ensures that media strategies are not based on intuition or outdated practices but are informed by robust evidence as brands seek to navigate the complex media landscape effectively.
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute envisions a future dominated by sophisticated mass marketing. This diverges from the traditional segmentation and targeting paradigms and suggests that brands grow not by focusing on narrow segments, but by appealing to the broadest possible consumer base. This is substantiated by the Law of Duplication of Purchasing, which demonstrates that competing brands share buyers across the category, not just within segments.
These findings advocate for a shift towards strategies that prioritise mental availability and brand salience over differentiation. The future, as seen through the lens of this research, is one where marketing efforts resonate with category buyers at large, ensuring that brands remain top-of-mind across the entire market, rather than within segmented niches.
领英推荐
What's new at Whatagraph?
Summer got here incredibly fast. And we are starting it with some excellent updates and new features.
First, new marketing integrations are already here, and the list will keep growing. Then, check out the latest updates to the user experience, source management, and report building.
If you have any questions or requests or wish to track the updates live, visit our Changelog.
1. Our list of marketing integrations expands
As we informed yesterday, we are adding four new integrations:
Your Source Management section already has Matomo, Taboola, and SA360 integrations with a "NEW" tag.
They work the same as other integrations in the list: you can connect, organize, and visualize the data, as well as set up BigQuery transfers.
The Trade Desk will be rolled out gradually with some minor limitations. Learn more here.
2. Updates to summary rows and data labels
These improvements enable you to present insights more clearly in the Overview, Multi-Source Tables, and Goal Widgets.
First, you now have summary rows in your Overviews and Multi-Source tables.
Second, the "Display labels on charts" option is now available for your goal widgets.
3. User management improvements
This vital update to the team settings enables you to manage activity by a specific account:
Check out this video walkthrough for more details.
4. Duplicate tabs with one click
Tabs in reports were a significant update, and we are happy you loved it!
We made it even more powerful by adding a one-click tab duplication option to the tab settings. It is handy when you need multiple tabs with the same layout but different filters or sources.
Contact our Live chat support if you have any questions regarding report tabs or duplication.
That's all for this month! If you enjoyed this issue, please follow us on LinkedIn and stay subscribed to the Summarized to receive more updates in the future.
The Whatagraph Team