Cost of living crisis, Twitter goes long-form, and Ahrefs launches a search engine

Welcome back to CriticalReading - your resource for the sharpest insights and trends across Strategy, Creative, Performance and Communications.

This month, we're talking advertising through a crisis, lessons from Cannes, and another update from Twitter (hint, it's not an 'edit' button).

Strategy: In times of prosperity, you should advertise. In times of hardship, you must advertise ??

It’s been on the cards for a while, but the cost-of-living crisis is here - and most likely - a recession too.?

Recessions mean hard times and a reassessment of budgets and costs. And marketing and advertising is often one of the first to go, seen as ‘discretionary’ or ‘nice to have’.?

Quite simply - this is a terrible mistake.?

Numerous studies have been conducted on the long- and short-term benefits of advertising in a recession. McGraw Hill studied over 600 companies spanning 16 industries throughout the 1980s recession.?And their findings were clear: companies who continued to advertise during the two-year recession saw sales 256% higher sales than their counterparts post-recession.?

But that doesn’t just mean throwing everything at marketing. Now is the time - more than ever - to be savvy.?

As we’ve been talking to our clients about, the brands that will successfully navigate this challenge are the ones that start planning now. That means reassessing who they’re talking to, what they’re saying and how they’re doing it – ensuring they’re both differentiated and relevant.

Our three top tips to stay ahead:

First things first - understand your audience.

Next - analyse them, your brand and your market to really understand and predict how this crisis is going to affect?them, and the role your brand is going to play.?

Finally, fine-tune your marketing strategy to make sure where you are spending your time really delivers.??

So, what does this mean??

Brands cannot simply keep doing what they have been doing and hope for the best. Nor will throwing money at the problem necessarily help. It’s time to reassess, dig in and refocus. And doing it now - not when it’s too late.?

Creative: Two brands are better than one ??

One of the big winners at Cannes 2022?was the beautifully observed “Better with Pepsi” print campaign.??

Normally a creative concept that only featured logos would have been quickly dismissed by any Creative Director. Here those clever people at Alma DDB have turned that conceit into a work of art.?

Their idea was to highlight how brands like McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s taste better when accompanied by a Pepsi - irrespective of whether they actually stock the drink. Through close-ups and some handy folds, Pepsi shows how its logo is ‘already hidden’ within these brands’ packaging.?

?Given the corporations involved, permission would have had to be sought and granted. The fact that it was, shows that even the biggest names are now more willing to playfully interact with each other, without calling their lawyers.?

So, what does this mean??

The teaming up between brands for mutual advantage/giggles is a refreshing one. But in an ever more reactive marketplace what real choice do they have? Brands can’t stay as walled gardens; conversations are inevitable. And not just on social media, but in print and retail too.

In the past two years we’ve launched joint campaigns between Greggs & Heinz, and Asda & B&Q to great effect. The consumer no longer views brands as totally separate entities, but as part of the same shopping landscape. Now, it appears more brands than ever are getting their heads together and are coming to the same conclusion.??

Performance: Yep, Ahrefs has launched a search engine ??

SEO tool Ahrefs has launched its own search engine – ‘Yep’. Initially announced way back in 2019, Ahrefs has reportedly pumped $60M into the venture so far. Currently in beta mode, Yep will soon be available in all countries and most languages.

So what makes Yep different? Firstly, its mission is to go back to basics: supporting good content. Yep intends to do this by providing 'an unbiased, private search experience that rewards and compensates the makers behind the content.' And compensate it will - a whopping 90% of ad revenue goes directly to content creators.

Whilst it all sounds ideal, to date I haven’t seen a single visit within any of our client’s analytics, but you only have to look at the success of Brave and DuckDuckGo (which now hold a 2.5% market share in the US) to see there is an appetite for alternative search engines.

So, what does this mean??

It doesn’t mean you should change your approach when it comes to optimising for search. Avoid getting sucked into any articles titled “SEO tips for YEP” or similar. Optimising for users - and Google - is still the best course of action, and generally leads to success across most other search engines.

Communications: Twitter ‘notes’: clutching at straws? ??

The news of Twitter testing a notes feature is an interesting announcement and one we presume has been met with a certain amount of scepticism…

Twitter ‘notes’ will have a 2,500 word limit – supposedly due to the volume of people taking pictures of larger amounts of prose they want to post on the platform, or linking to newsletters and external sources elsewhere online.

When we’re normally used to 280 characters this seems like an almighty leap, but it is intended to keep users within the social media platform which is undoubtedly more valuable for advertisers, so you can see where the tech masterminds are coming from.

The test will apparently run for two months and involve a small group of writers in Canada, Ghana, the UK and US. Perhaps we’ll hear more about the infamous ‘edit’ button over the next few months too?

So, what does this mean??

The whole premise behind Twitter was short and snappy commentary, not reams and reams of notes, and it seems a shame to move away from that. If you've got a strong USP, as Twitter unarguably has, don't mess with it. Stick with what you know your channels can do (Instagram should heed this advice too...).

Critical Reads ??

?? Choice Factory author Richard Shotton muses on the power of words.

?? Is BoJo a master-manipulator of Search? Laura Rudd lays out the evidence in this fascinating guest blog for Prolific North.

?? Dutch Salvation Army mocks high-fashion, whilst highlighting inequality, in its 'Truly Destroyed' collection.

?? IKEA Canada turns real-life homes into living billboards in an innovative OOH campaign to promote its downtown Toronto store.

Campaign of the moment ??

?? CALM's 'The Last Photo' is the suicide prevention charity's biggest campaign to date. This incredibly poignant campaign reveals the heartbreaking reality behind suicide, via seemingly happy 'smiling portraits' - the last photographs of people who took their own lives shortly after. By breaking down stigma and encouraging people to talk openly, CALM are aiming to help stop suicide.

CreativeRace?is a a?fully integrated, independent marketing agency based in Leeds. We've launched CriticalReading to share the sharpest insights and trends across Strategy, Performance, Creative and Communications. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the above - don't be shy, get involved in the comments below ??