Mediaboss Marketing

Googles looking to help businesses make the most of their Google listings for the holidays, with new, streamlined claiming options for your Google My Business profile, and additional insight on how Google search is driving people to your business.

First off, Googles looking to make it easier for businesses to claim and customize their Google listings, with a new option to update and verify your brand profile direct from Search and Maps.

As explained by Google:

Starting this week, you can easily claim and verify your Business Profile directly on Google Search or the Google Maps app. Search for your business by name and youll see an option to claim and verify the associated Business Profile. Once your business is verified, you can edit your business information, including the address, store hours, photos and more.

Which you absolutely should do your Google My Business profile is key digital real estate that you should claim, providing various options to influence how your brand appears in Google Search results, and even where it appears to some degree.

That doesnt mean that by filling in your details youll automatically hit the top spot on related searches, but more contextual info in your Google display listings can play a significant role in driving more traffic for your business.

Though this is interesting:

Moving forward, we recommend small businesses manage their profiles directly on Search or Maps. To keep things simple, Google My Business is being renamed Google Business Profile. And in 2022, well retire the Google My Business app so more merchants can take advantage of the upgraded experience on Search and Maps. The existing Google My Business web experience will transition to primarily support larger businesses with multiple locations, and will be renamed Business Profile Manager. Well share more details on these changes in the months ahead.

You should still claim and update your profile now, but its interesting to note that Google will be switching the focus of its business tools next year, with a view to better highlighting exactly what this element is, and how it can be used, while also maximizing take-up by removing the need for a separate app.

Expect, also, that Google will put even more emphasis on this as it broadens access, with additional features and tools that will likely replicate many Facebook business features. Watch this space.

Googles also adding additional options to message customers from Search, while its also providing new metrics on inbound customer calls that came from their Business Profile on Google.

That could be an additional, valuable indicator, highlighting the benefits of your Google listings. Referral traffic data wont reflect these interactions, and while it may only make up a minority of queries, it could be significant, and could alter the way that you look at your future promotions.

Google also recommends that brands sign up for its Pointy POS data linkage tool, which is free and available from your Google Business Profile on Search. That will ensure that your product listings are connected through to Googles display options, while Googles also updated its Performance Planner tool in Google Ads to provide more insight for your strategy.

While social platforms continue to get the most focus from many marketing teams, Google remains the key driver of referral traffic in most cases, and as such, its worth taking the time to understand the available tools and options to optimize your Google display listings.

SEO may not be as sexy as creative promotions, but its effectiveness is likely far more relevant, and these new options provide more ways to maximize your Search performance.

See the article here:
Google Adds New Business Display and Connection Options for the Holiday Push - Social Media Today

It is unusual -- but not unheard of -- for comms leaders to get promoted into high-ranking marketing roles. It happened in November 2020 in the automotive sector when seasoned PR pro Tara Rush was elevated to chief marketing officer at Audi of America, moving up from chief communications officer.

Infiniti is portraying the promotion as an outside-the-box pick meant to capitalize on Orthmans skills as an advocate for diversity and inclusion, lifestyle storytelling and digital media. Such traits are becoming more important inside the automotive sector. Car brands are notorious for big-budgeted TV campaigns, but quick-moving social media campaigns are taking on new relevance as brands adjust to the media habits of younger buyers.

Infiniti is a brand born to defy conventions and Wendy has a flair for big, convention-breaking ideas. With this change, Infiniti is once again making a daring statement by truly integrating marketing, social and communications into one vision, Olga Filippova, divisional general manager for Infinitis global brand, sales and marketing, said in a statement.

Orthman will report to Filippova, as well as Infiniti Chairman and Senior VP Peyman Kargar.

Infinitis global marketing is handled by Publicis Groupe, which won the account in March.

Infiniti, like most auto brands, has seen sales slide due to supply issues stemming from the ongoing microchip shortage. The brands U.S. sales plummeted by 39 percent in the third quarter, according to Automotive News.

Originally posted here:
Why Nissan's Infiniti brand is merging marketing, PR and social media roles - Automotive News

Campaign: ThighstopCompany: WingstopAgency partners: Publicis Groupe (marketing), Leo Burnett (creative), MSL (PR)Duration: June 21 - September 8, 2021

Restaurant chain Wingstop launched its virtual restaurant, Thighstop, which offered a nationwide, delivery-only menu featuring crispy thighs in 11 flavors.

Strategy

Wingstop has been looking to move beyond the wing for a while, part of its whole bird strategy, which isnt just more economically viable but better for the environment.

Thighs were the perfect place to start, according to Megan Sprague, Wingstops senior director of PR. After testing the concept last year, we found that guests loved the juicy crispy flavor of thighs, and that you eat them like a wing, she said. Overall, they were a hit.

So when the pandemic radically altered consumer restaurant behavior, shifting revenue to online ordering, Wingstop decided to launch a digital brand focused on chicken thighs. The rewardintroducing chicken-lovers to the tastiness of thighswas swift, and the risks and costs were relatively low.

Tactics

To make the Thighstop menu, the company used its Wingstop locations as ghost kitchens for the brand.

Thighstops marketing never tried to hide that the brand was associated with Wingstop. Orders were delivered in Wingstop bags with a Thighstop sticker over the logo. The company wanted to show consumers that just like wings, chicken thighs were delicious and easy to eat.

Thighstop launched on June 21 and was announced through an exclusive interview with Bloomberg.

To launch the virtual restaurant, Wingstop partnered with rapper, record producer and Wingstop franchisee Rick Ross. In addition to being featured in digital, TV and social marketing, Ross was available for interviews with reporters.

Press releases, which were sent to journalists in advance of the launch, were tailored to each outlet. For business and trade publications, messaging centred on the companys whole bird strategy as well as the ongoing chicken wing shortage.

Meanwhile, entertainment reporters received an announcement that focused on Ross involvement, while releases to tech journalists highlighted Thighstops all-digital brand launch.

Thighstop orders were available through Doordash and Thighstop.com. The Thighstop items are still available, but on September 8, they were rolled into Wingstops menu.

Results

The campaign generated more than 1,700 media placements, including coverage in CNN, CNBC, Food and Wine, Forbes and Bloomberg. Two of my favorites were Thighstop being included in The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and Late Night With Seth Meyers, Sprague said.

Wingstops central campaign points were covered in 84% of earned media placements, while 99% of earned stories had a positive sentiment.

See the rest here:
Amid a chicken wing shortage, Wingstop turns to thighs - PR Week

By Alex Bozhin

Marketing tech, or MarTech, encompasses a huge number of digital tools that help businesses achieve their marketing goals. Its also an important sector to watch for growth.

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Even with consolidations and acquisitions, nearly 1 in 5 of the current MarTech solutions is new on the scene. To me, this paints a clear picture of a thriving industry.

As we continue to become a more tech-centric society, the numbers show that MarTech will keep playing a pivotal role. That said, there are some obstacles that need to be addressed. Below, I outline why privacy concerns matter, how sustainable growth can be achieved through social media, why investors are so keen to back MarTech startups, and where I think the industrys future is headed.

MarTech is now a $121 billion market, so the challenge of ethical data collection is serious.

Nobody minds when aggregated data makes life easier with personalized user experiences, streamlined workdays or a better bottom line. However, theres a general feeling of discomfort from the public when they understand that were tracking and analyzing personal data.

In response to these unsettled feelings, regulatory bodies are stepping up consumer protections. This is good for security but frustrating for marketers. Remember the EUs GDPR directive? The entire internet had to race to adapt, costing more than $9 billion.

Statistics show that the demand for data protection has skyrocketed, and brands like Apple are already implementing privacy updates in response. These policies will keep coming, so we need to be proactive.

Did you know that 67 percent of internet users have no idea what their countrys privacy and data protection rules are? Worse, 79 percent of internet users worldwide feel they have no control over their data. This means its our job to educate and empower the public.

So, lets change the narrative around privacy. For my startup, I decided a proactive approach was best. The sooner that MarTech and AdTech startups can build transparency into their brand strategies, the sooner theyll be able to move forward and tackle other challenges.

Social media is the final frontier for businesses looking for new avenues of active user growth. Facebook last year expanded 7.3 percent, while Reddit, Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat added 20 percent.

Consumers want to find your products, interact with your brand and share your content. The trick is knowing how and when to give them what they want. For example, my startup launched in 2020, and thanks to our strong social media presence, weve booked 100,000 clients globally. We make sure that our services are visible across all major platforms, and we make engaging our potential client base an integral part of our marketing strategy.

The MarTech sector is flooded with VC money right now. Even in 2020, top projects signed six-figure deals.

Here are a few notable ones:

Another omnichannel customer engagement platform, Emarsys, was acquired by SAP in October 2020. This shows that the current buying spree includes global corporations too.

Even my startup piqued investor interest. We raised $2 million in 2021 and strengthened our relationship with firms like TMT Investments and YellowRockets.

A recent poll shows that 69 percent of marketers believe theyll be expected to produce better results with fewer resources from now on. Because of this, only brands with budget-friendly, effective solutions will thrive.

Another avenue to pursue is client education. According to research, even skeptics will bring in MarTech if marketers can show them how it improves their marketing strategy.

Finally, interconnectivity is going to be essential to successful digital transformation. If youre still trying to compartmentalize, youre going to get left behind.

Right now, businesses of all stripes are poised to invest in MarTechmarketers just have to prove that its worth their time and money. The industry is at 8,000 companies and growing. Build-on acquisitions are gaining popularity, and global reach is becoming a make-or-break part of marketing strategies.

Despite the challenges of handling privacy concerns and seeking new avenues of growth, theres still so much exciting, unexplored territory to cover in MarTech.

Alex Bozhin, founder and CEO at Postoplan, is a serial entrepreneur with 15 years of marketing experience. In 2020, he founded Postoplan, an AI-powered system for marketing automation in social networks that helps to create, publish and promote content in social media and messengers.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the Crunchbase Daily.

Originally posted here:
Marketing Tech: Why The MarTech Industry Is Thriving Despite Several Challenges - Crunchbase News

When marketers Paul Benigeri and Geoffrey Woo were at their former companies, in food tech and e-commerce infrastructure, respectively, they experienced how manual and repetitive digital marketing workflows were, especially as the number of disparate and unintegrated marketing tools grew.

With the goal of making their own lives easier, they formed Archive.ai in March to build technology that connects databases and distribution channels so they talk to each other and to address what they believe will be the future of marketing building with you versus the talking at you approach the founders believe traditional digital marketing is doing.

Its two initial products are Archive, a Shopify app that automatically detects, classifies and saves Instagram stories relating to a brand, and Archive Communities, which makes influencer marketing programmatic so that brands can more quickly scale their community-building efforts.

Archive.ai dashboard

In fact, Woo, who is chairman of Archive.ai, said via email that the company is pioneering a new approach to digital marketing it calls community marketing.

This takes ideas from influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, loyalty programs and community management, he said. Much of the existing services operate in silos and dont inter-operate well. Also since Apple banned the Facebook tracking pixel with iOS 14 in recent months, a lot of the paid social media advertising has become exorbitantly inefficient for most e-commerce companies.

Before incorporating, the company was a profitable project, according to Woo. Its list of enterprise customers includes Four Sigmatic, CEO Benigeris former company Health Via Modern Nutrition and some household names he was not ready to say yet. There are over 40 alpha testers on Archive App with more than 200 people on the waitlist. The company expects to go live with Archive App before the end of November.

However, to properly build a next-generation community marketing technology company, as Woo put it, the company decided to go after some venture capital. Today, it announced $4.068 million in funding led by Stripe.

Also joining in on the round were Lux Capital, Sugar Capital and Anti Fund, as well as a group of individual investors that included Ramp CEO Eric Glyman and CTO Karim Atiyeh, Attentive CEO Brian Long and CPO Andrew Jones, Applied Intuition CEO Qasar Younis and Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue.

With the new funding, the company tripled its headcount to 36 people, and its monthly recurring revenue grew 58% since April. The company also intends to triple the engineering team to focus on workflow automations and machine learning to assist and streamline marketing tasks and decisions.

In addition, plans include building out a marketing team. Kwan Kim recently joined Archive.ai as head of growth after being the first digital marketing hire for Recurly and scaling the company to its acquisition by Accel-KKR in 2020.

Archive gives businesses an easy way to review and, more importantly, understand what their customers are actually saying the north star for every smart company, Chris Sperandio, corporate development lead at Stripe, said in a written statement. Were excited to invest in Archive and, in doing so, to help their users grow internet-enabled commerce.

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Archive.ai aims to free marketers from their monotonous workflows - TechCrunch