Mediaboss Marketing

Hoorah SA says that it understands people through data, driven results, creativity and innovation and that it tells stories with its consumers at the centre of them.

Hoorah adds that it is here to disrupt the landscape and create innovative, personalised experiences at scale.

Marco Russolillo, group ECD at Hoorah, says, "We are extremely happy to be represented among the best in the industry for our work in social and digital media."

"We will continue to innovate and push for creative and digital excellence for our clients. Hoorah has had a successful year of growth and these awards are a testament for things to come,"Russolillo concludes.

Hoorah SA won the following awards atThe New Generation Social and Digital Media Awards:

Hoorah SA New Generation Awards Hoorah SA at New Generation Awards The New Generation Social and Digital Media Awards Hoorah Digital agency Digital agency SA

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Hoorah SA wins at the New Generation Awards - Media Update

September 15 marked the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month. Like during Black History Month or Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, brands want to take the opportunity to market directly to Latinx audiences and position themselves as allies. But Latinx consumers arent a monolithic group. The Latinx or Hispanic consumer encompasses 27 distinct countries of origin, cultures and identities.

The challenge for brands is creating authentic and impactful, culturally-focused Hispanic marketing campaignswithout pandering, stereotyping or over-generalizing. The most powerful technique social teams have in their corner this month is working directly with Latinx and Hispanic creators.

If your brand is looking to enter the Latinx market, heres what you need to know.

Latinx spending power is expected to top 1.3 trillion dollars in 2023 and 78% of Latinx and Hispanic consumers enjoy online shopping. As far as social marketing goes, theyre extremely immersed in social media. A majority (52%) of Hispanics aged 18 or older spend an hour or more on social media every day, compared to 38% of non-Hispanic whites. Theyre also 5 times more likely to share content, which can have an extreme impact on your reach.

This rapidly growing demographic should be a crucial part of your inclusive marketing strategy. Reaching out to the Latinx community in your marketing can have positive effects on your overall social strategy as well. Most (60%) consumers are more likely to buy from a brand with inclusive marketing.

To improve your inclusivity, creators are the key to making an impact with the Latinx community.

The Latinx community is no exception when it comes to the advantages creators bring to social marketing strategy. Some 68% of marketers use creators to generate more engagement, and Latinx creators understand and relate to their audience in ways that make consumers want to learn more.

Their authenticitywhich is the second most important creator traitand connection with their communities are key to creating viral content. And as 74% of marketers prepare to spend more than a quarter of their budget on creator partnerships, Latinx creators are a great bet.

The most obvious benefit of bringing on a Latinx creator is their intrinsic cultural expertise. As members of the community, they know first-hand what resonatesand whats going to fall flat. Leveraging their perspective on campaign ideas and execution can help your team avoid cultural appropriation and build a meaningful sense of cultural appreciation.

Vanessa Sirias has built a following of over 250,000 people across platforms with her comedy sketches surrounding the Latinx experience. When Secret Deodorant approached her for a partnership, she created a sketch poking fun at the stereotypical Latina-oriented commercial. This approach was not only relatable for her viewers, but it established Secrets position of being in on the joke, instead of the butt of it.

Different communities have different relationships with your product. This sounds obvious, but when youre constantly creating marketing campaigns aimed at targeting the largest number of people, it can be easy to forget. Luckily, creators have unique insight into how different groups might respond, relate to and use your offerings. Partnering with diverse creators can bring your marketing team new insight into what might appeal to your target audience.

Violeta Venagas is a Selena tribute creator with 1.3 million followers across platforms. For her partnership with Dossier Perfumes, she paired each scent with a Selena song to describe the vibe. Fragrance companies often have difficulty describing their olfactory products on visual platforms, but Violeta was able to market them more concretely by associating the products with something familiar to her audience.

One of the major appeals of social media is the opportunity to dive deep into niche audiences. Its hard to justify a commercial or billboard that will only appeal to select consumers. Latinx creators combine their interests with their experiences, creating powerful content for others who share their hobbies and obsessions. Partnering with these creators gives your social team the opportunity to find their fandoms and create highly-targeted and highly-effective content.

Lis Wonder, a Cuban-American cosplayer with almost 2 million followers across platforms, built her audience around geek culture. Fandoms love dressing up for movie premieres and Lis is no exception. Her partnership with Regal centered around the comfort fans find in going to their favorite movies and the excitement of showing up as their favorite characters.

While Hispanic Heritage Month is an excellent opportunity to celebrate Latinx and Hispanic culture across your brand channels, it shouldnt be the only opportunity. Consumers are clamoring for more inclusive content and providing them with it will only make your brand stronger. By partnering with creators who represent the communities youre trying to reach, your strategy will be more inclusiveand more successful.

Looking to learn more about advancing diversity, equity and inclusion on social media? Check out this article with five essential things to keep in mind while building out your strategy.

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Why partnerships with Latinx creators matter to your inclusive marketing strategy - Sprout Social

The takeaway: As Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram chase TikToks success in cornering short-form video, the race underscores just how important video has become as a marketing channel.

Brands really should be shifting more budget into video, and I don't mean just TikTok, our analyst Jasmine Enberg said on a recent Behind the Numbers podcast.

TikTok is clearly raking in ad dollars as a result of a lot of these economic challenges and privacy policy changes, she said. But it should be looked at as kind of a big-picture thing, so social marketing strategiesmeaning advertising, organic content, and creator partnershipsshould all be video-first right now.

Targeting TikTok: Trying to beat TikTok might be a lost cause, but Enberg said platforms will have an easier time cloning TikToks approach to short video than reinventing it. Instagram has already put a greater emphasis on its Reels format, even though viewers watch Reels 11 times less than TikTok videos, according to an internal Meta memo.

This week, Facebook and YouTube announced efforts to bolster their short-video products:

Why video?: Video now accounts for more than half of the time spent on social media, our The Great Realignment report recently found. And that figure is only expected to increase. For marketers, that represents an advertising opportunity that many are jumping at.

Display advertising will make up 57.7% of digital advertising budgets in the US in 2022, driven by this consumer surge in video consumption. In fact, we now expect more than $76 billion in video ad spending this year, significantly higher than our pre-pandemic forecast.

Whats next: The major social platforms might be nearing their ceilings in terms of users, Enberg said, but new players can still emerge, especially ones like BeReal that are capturing the attention of Gen Z.

I think it's way too soon to tell whether it's going to be as big as TikTok, or how far it's really going to reach within the social media landscape, she said. But keeping an eye on those new players and how younger consumers are spending their time and communicating on social media really is vital to see where the landscape is going next.

This was originally featured in the eMarketer Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.

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TikTok and the race to corner short-form video - Insider Intelligence

The evolution of the digital space has brought about many huge changes. One of the most extraordinary ones predicted by many marketing experts is the inception of how the Metaverse will dilute and over take most of our day to day tools such as marketing, social media and branding.

The Metaverse is by no chance taking any prisoners and this is a fact. One of the many marketing experts whove predicted this is the well renowned social media, content strategist and marketing expert Zoe Marais who vividly shared her prediction of the marketing, social media and branding space in the years to come.

Marais stipulates that the world is definitely heading into the Metaverse with many of our brands and products being fully advertised and showcased there with no exception, something that she is very fond of herself.

Marketing just as social media is one of the foundations the Metaverse will be built on. The Metaverse, in return, will impact the way we think about and use social media. The world will see a sharp rise in more Metaverse oriented marketing tools than ever.

So how can we expect marketing and social media marketing to evolve over the coming years as the Metaverse begins to take over and take hold of our brands, lives and companies? Will the term marketing become redundant, not because we stop using the web to be social and for businesses, but because most aspects of the internet will become socially connected without any limits?

With all this being said Zoe Marais, a marketing expert and social media strategist, thinks the future will only help marketing and social media grow stronger no matter the circumstances. She definitely predicts a shift to Metaverse which she thinks is for the benefit of most experts despite the fear of losing a lot in the process.

Its hard to say where this field is headed, but I do know that as the years go on this type of marketing will only grow stronger and stronger. I predict that well soon be shifting into Metaverse based marketing where were not only being fed ads and content on social media platforms, but we will be in the platforms face to face with these marketing efforts. This is a space Im extremely passionate about too. Zoe Marais said.

The marketing expert also believes that more and more people and professionals need to be well versed in these new inceptions such as the Metaverse and the famous blockchain companies. Knowledge is power and the more people get accustomed things like the Metaverse the more people can use their crafts and grow through the changes.

I enjoy bridging gaps between consumers and businesses and one of the key industries that I think lacks a substantial amount of wide spread adoption is the web3/blockchain space. Over the last year Ive worked closely with blockchain companies to build their online presence and help connect as many people as possible from the wide spread public to a very niche and evolving industry. This technology has such huge potential and has been deemed the future. I keep imagining all of these tools including the Metaverse corroborated with the crafts some of us are experts in. If we managed to grapple and know more about these new things we will definitely be able to use them to our advantage. Contrary to this, which is dangerous, if no one knows about it, how are we going to accomplish what we know best?

Who knows what the future holds? With more stern and honest discussions with Marketing experts such as Zoe Marais, the world will definitely be a better place for old school crafts as long as we do better to know more and know more to do better.

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Marketing, social media and branding in the Metaverse era with expert Zoe Marais - Business Review

While people around the world have been returning to restaurants, concerts, and travel, theres one place many of them arent going: the office. Many business leaders who craved, demanded, or expected a five-day-a-week, nine-to-five return to office (RTO) have been disappointed, and in some cases even had to roll back mandates.

In todays hybrid world, work is increasingly something people do, not a place they go. Theres no going back to 2019, so its time to rethink the role of the office for both workers and businesses.

Empowered, energized employees drive competitive advantage. But so far, business leaders have had more questions than answers about exactly how the office can best support and engage their people in a hybrid world. Our latest research at Microsoft reveals the answer may lie in what I believe should be front and center for every leader: reconnecting employees.

Theres absolutely a strong desire among business decision makers (BDMs) to get people back into the office. Data from our latest Microsoft Work Trend Indexresearch shows that 82% of BDMs say getting back to the office in person is a concern. But, two years of zero commuting time and an ability to more effectively manage work-life balance means employees are looking for a compelling reason to schlep back to the office and 73% of them say they need a better reason than just company expectations. So, the question becomes, what is a compelling reason to come into the office?

Its simple: People care about people.

When asked what would motivate them to come into the office, employees had a resounding answer: social time with coworkers:

I felt that power of connection firsthand on a trip to the United Kingdom and Germany this spring my first business travel since the pandemic began. As I met with local employees, customers, creators, and students over the course of the week, I was blown away by how energized I felt and I was reminded that it wasnt the physical office Id missed, but the people at the office.

The data shows Im not the only one feeling that way. With roughly half of employees saying their relationships outside their immediate work group have weakened and over 40% reporting that they feel disconnected from their company as a whole, ensuring people have an opportunity to reconnect will be crucial in the year ahead. And lets not forget the huge cohort of people who started or changed jobs during the pandemic shutdown. For them, every face is new.

Leaders recognize how difficult creating connection can be, with nearly 70% saying that ensuring cohesion and social connections within teams has been a moderate to major challenge due to the shift to hybrid. But now they need to recognize its importance and take action or risk losing the social capital that keeps companies running.

Leaders need to intentionally use the office to rebuild social capital: the value workers get from their networks, like getting new ideas and inspiration, being able to ask for help or advice, or finding new career growth opportunities. Social capital isnt a nice-to-have; its crucial so that employees can do their best work and organizations can keep innovating. So setting the stage for meaningful connection at all levels should be at the core of every organizations RTO plans.

This starts with demonstrating to employees that coming to the office fulfills more than an arbitrary desire to see bodies in seats. Leaders need to prioritize building and rebuilding connections between people to fuel creativity, teamwork, and strong support systems that empower them to tackle challenges. Here are three ways to do it.

Make connection the top priority for in-person time. No one wants to go into the office just to spend the day on video calls and answering emails and pings. But thats what could happen, unless leaders and managers intentionally create both the space and the permission for employees to spend that time reconnecting.

Understand that this in-person socializing is not taking away from productivity its fueling innovation, psychological safety, retention, and more. To foster and protect connection time, encourage employees and teams to set norms around expected response times while in the office so that being there doesnt become a blur of overlapping deadlines. And to alleviate anxiety around work piling up, consider instituting team meeting-free days or encouraging employees to book and protect focus time so people know they can catch up later. For example, consider meeting-free Fridays: Recharged from in-person time earlier in the week, employees get uninterrupted focus time and can spend the day in get it done mode.

To support the rebuilding of social capital and team bonds, leaders need to design experiences that bring people together in new ways. Create intentional opportunities for connection, like an extended catered lunch from a popular nearby restaurant to draw local employees into the office, or hold quarterly team weeks that bring local and remote employees together onsite for a series of daily workshops.

Younger employees are especially keen to use time in the office as a way to establish themselves as part of their workplace community and feel more connected to their coworkers. To a greater degree than their Gen X and Boomer counterparts, Gen Z and Millennial workers see the office as an opportunity to build relationships with senior leadership and their direct managers. But just as important, 78% of them said theyre particularly motivated to work in person by seeing their work friends.

So, build in additional intentional in-person time for connection when onboarding new hires. And for early-in-career employees, think about creating focused events to help them build their networks. Just last month, I had the chance to do both when I spoke to our new Microsoft Marketing college hires as part of their week-long onboarding program. And although the goal was to inspire them, I walked away myself feeling inspired, energized, and yes connected.

In our latest Work Trend Index, 85% of employees ranked authenticity as the number-one quality a manager can have to support them to do their best work. The good news is that 83% of business decision makers say its important for their senior leadership to show up authentically, so the level of awareness is relatively high all around.

So what does authenticity look like in practice? It starts at the top, by setting the tone for an authentic culture where open, genuine, and empathetic connections can happen. Youll need to lead by example, using an authentic voice that communicates openness, inclusivity, and that youre there to help people build their social capital. We ask people a lot at Microsoft to bring their full selves to work, and thats only possible when they have psychological safety, especially for employees who come from underrepresented groups and may not see themselves in the people around them. As a leader, Im always asking myself how I can create a culture and work environment where every employee feels safe to connect on a deeper level, beyond transactional relationships.

Authentic culture and communication need to transcend physical space, since not every employee will be in the office every day or even every month or quarter, depending on where they live. Increasing the surface area for connection is especially crucial to ensure we dont lose ground on inclusion; since employees from underrepresented groups are more likely to prefer remote work, leaders need to be sure that their communications reach all employees, wherever they work. Embracing multimedia formats like podcasts or interacting on internal forums creates an ongoing conversation and two-way dialogue, helping keep people feeling connected, informed, and engaged. For example, I always receive more questions than I can get to in the live Q&A portion of my all-hands. But the conversation doesnt need to end when the event does instead, my leadership team and I follow up on unanswered employee questions in our Microsoft Marketing forum, keeping the discussion and flow of information going.

Were all still learning how to get hybrid work right. From the research, its clear that putting people at the center by fostering connection between employees is key to the new role of the office.

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To Get People Back in the Office, Make It Social - HBR.org Daily