Mediaboss Marketing

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.

Read more:
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.

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

In that public health messaging, how have you described MPX? There's a conversation around it not being compared to a sexually transmitted infection has that been helpful or harmful in the long run?

I think that the long run is not here yet. So I think we will see at this time next year what impact we've had.

I do believe we're all trying to figure this thing out. The scientists are trying to figure out how this is manifesting in the way that it is. But I just think people just want to be protected, and they want to ask questions about the muscle, whether it should be shot subcutaneously or intradermal. There have been a lot of questions about that. And, "What is this vaccine?" So, similar to vaccine hesitancy that we experience with COVID, we're seeing with people of color [that] a lot of those questions have been coming up.

Coming into a space like ours, our center serves everyone. But we are Black-founded and Black-led. And our clinic is very representative of this, the most marginalized people in our community. So when people come in, they see people like them who are able to explain what we understand so far to them, and people have been very appreciative.

I see your center's website uses both "MPX" and "monkeypox." How are you navigating that?

We have been saying "MPX" [pronounced "em-pox"] to people. But it is monkeypox. I know the CDC is working to change that language, or the name, but people know "monkeypox" now because it's been out there.

But we've also been sort of changing the language. When we talk with people, we will say "MPX" just as a way to get away from that whole "monkeypox" language, which has also been stigmatizing to a lot of people.

A connected question is, if people feel less stigmatized, are they more likely to seek help?

Definitely. And with HIV, the whole HIV social marketing and media process was all about destigmatizing getting tested for HIV, getting treatment for HIV.

And [MPX] is new. So it's going to take time. But we are seeing a lot of people come in who do not want to be exposed to MPX. You know, I've never seen this. There was no vaccine for HIV. So just to see people coming in in droves to get vaccinated it's new.

Folsom Street Fair is happening in San Francisco on Sunday, September 25 which draws a lot of people and promotes a sex-positive message. How can people continue to participate while keeping in mind the risk of getting infected?

I can say that here in Oakland, I know that PrideFest was just [on September 4], and before that was Oakland's other Pride event. And so I know thousands of people have been vaccinated working through Alameda County Department of Public Health, which has been setting up those pods throughout the city. So more people have had access to at least first-dose vaccinations.

I just think as long as people follow the guidance that is on the CDC's website. There are other organizations, [like the] San Francisco AIDS Foundation, so many other organizations out there that are helping people to understand how to be safer. I feel our LGBTQ community has been very responsive, and they've been very responsible, just wanting to get vaccinated. And that is one reason you're seeing the numbers come down.

Is there something like a playbook for how an organization responds when there is an outbreak of a virus like MPX? What are those steps and what are some of the priorities?

I really believe that counties have to include POC communities, in addition to other communities as well. Because when the outbreak happened here, the county went to which makes sense the Steamworks [bathhouse], which is a place that's known for sex, where people have sex.

But what I believe is, they should have immediately prioritized people of color communities, and people who have access to those communities. It should be something that happens simultaneously, instead of a sort of reactionary approach, which resulted in lots of white gay men having access right off the bat to this vaccine, and other communities not having immediate access.

But when we reached out to the county and let them know, "Hey, what's going on? What about us?" there was an immediate pivot. And we've been working in partnership with [Alameda County]. And it's been really a great partnership.

Read more:
'Our Community Has Been Very Responsive': Oakland LGBTQ Community Center's Joe Hawkins on Managing the MPX Outbreak - KQED

Mailchimp is targeting marketers where theyre spending their time: on social media. The email marketing company is aiming to appeal to marketers by targeting them on apps like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and more with ads touting new tools like its customer journey builder, predictive segmentation and content optimizer.

A lot of marketers spend their time marketing on social media themselves, so it makes sense for us to show up in the space to stay relevant and get folks engaging with our ads, said Jeremy Jones, global campaigns director at Mailchimp.

Mailchimp wants to appeal to marketers by touting its ease of use. Growing a business can feel like a guessing game regardless of whether youre a brand-new marketer or a wizened marketing genius, said Jones.

The companys in-house creative agency, Wink Creative which has 40 members on staff, created the ads in collaboration with the film production company Smuggler and director Bjrn Rhmann. CMO Michelle Taite challenged them to combine their quirky, expertly absurd nature with a more sophisticated feel.

The ad spots were developed following an internal brainstorm that focused on cultural moments and trends.Mailchimp is looking to stand out with the spots by using avant-garde visual elements for the spots which will air on TV until 2023.

From its previous campaign, in which the brand advertised a program it created to support for entrepreneurs of color, Mailchimps marketing strategy has evolved more to reflect what its customers asked for new features and tools to grow their revenue streams and kick-start their business momentum per Jones. We started to mention these features last year but with this campaign, were really leaning into the benefits a lot more and even developed claims around them for marketers to understand their advantage, he said.

It is unclear how much of Mailchimps advertising budget is allocated to this campaign, as Jones would not share overall budget specifics. According to Pathmatics data, the brand spent a little over $18.9 million so far on advertising efforts this year. The ads will also appear on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, and TikTok. Jones also declined to disclose how much of its advertising budget was split between the social platforms.

Were putting ad dollars behind our creative campaign so that it reaches as many potential customers and consumers on social media as possible, in the hopes that we can bolster brand visibility and sales for these deserving small businesses, said Jones.

Due to the macroeconomic climate, small and medium businesses are increasingly shifting their marketing budgets to channels and tactics that are transparent and measurable. The pressures for accountability to every dollar is at an all-time high, and Mailchimp is tapping into that emotional trigger with this campaign while keeping the creative execution light and fun, saidMargo Kahnrose, CMO at the omnichannel platform Skai. That one-two punch of serious, timely message and sugar-coated delivery can make for a powerful advertising campaign.

https://digiday.com/?p=465384

Read this article:
Why Mailchimp wants to boost brand visibility, sales by targeting marketers on social media - Digiday

Pinterest is launching a new promotional campaign in which it looks to further distance itself from its social network roots, by framing Pinterest as a more positive space, free of the judgment and criticism that comes with those other apps.

As you can see in this example, the new campaign (annoyingly titled Dont Dont Yourself) looks to highlight the inner saboteurs that hold us back, with Pinterest being the antidote to doubt.

Though why Pinterest would be any different to other social platforms in this respect isnt really established - outside of Pinterest saying so.

As explained by Pinterest:

Developed in partnership with award-winning UK creative studio, Uncommon Creative Studio, the campaign introduces Pinterest as the inspiring anti-dont where people go to do.

I really dislike weak puns like this. I dont know who, in what board room, came up with that anti-dont wording, but if you were ever doubting your own campaign creative, take heart in the fact that this is the best that Pinterest, a multi-million dollar company, could come up with.

Dopey terms aside, the campaign is interesting, and it does help to frame Pinterest as a more creative, experimental space.

But again, Im not sure how well that will translate to actual usage.

As noted, Pinterest been trying to distance itself from the social network tag for years, preferring instead to call itself a catalog of ideas or similar. And it is less of a social media platform than those other apps, with the focus more on the content itself, and on products specifically, as opposed to interpersonal engagement and community.

Really, Pinterest is a UI-fueled digital store, showcasing the latest in innovative, creative products, from retailers small and large. That diversity of listings is what makes the app valuable, but whether that makes it a more open space for freedom of expression, Im not sure.

The new campaign will run across TV, cinema and streaming in the US, UK and Germany, while Pinterest is also running a related tie-in for World Mental Health Day (October 10th), with a live, interactive installation in New York, that takes on one of those inner saboteurs.More info to come on that.

More here:
Pinterest Launches New Campaign to Highlight Freedom of Expression in the App - Social Media Today