Mediaboss Marketing

Theres a video on YouTube I keep coming back to, even though I absolutely hate it. Its a 46-minute mix of songs titled Lofi glug glug mix beats to drive/study to. The buzzy, mostly wordless electronic tracks are set to an animation of an anime girl driving a car with a cheerful Shiba Inu hanging its tongue out the window. Its a lot like other lo-fi mix compilations on YouTube, except in this one, theres a tiny red car with a Conoco logo on the anime girls dashboard. Thats not an accident: The video was produced not by a random YouTube DJ, but by the official account of Conoco, a giant chain of gas stations owned by Phillips 66. (The glug glug in the title apparently refers to the sound of gas being pumped into a car.)

No joke this actually isnt too bad as late night cruising music, the top comment reads. Mad props to Conoco on this one as this is .

I really, really hate that I agree.

Most oil and gas companies seem to struggle with how to present themselves on social media, isolating their brand presence to strictly photos of refineries on Instagram or making cringy statements about Pride on Twitter. Some have started dipping a toe into Instagram influencer marketing; an Earther investigation last month revealed that Shell has worked extensively with Instagram influencers, most recently on a campaign to promote a carbon offsets scheme for their gas. (Phillips 66 also worked with influencers on an Instagram campaign.)

But Conoco stands out from its competitors: Its social channels are filled with content theyve created thats actually interesting, mostly because it has absolutely nothing to do with gasoline. In one Instagram story, a makeup artist paints their face and chest to resemble a mountain scene, complete with gondola; theres a short that starts off with a man whose body is a cat tree; theres a whole series called Conococooks, which features recipes with illustrations for foods like Thrilled Cheese and Hamburgizzadog. The whole thing is well-designed and a little disorienting, meaning I spent a lot of time on their account just looking at posts (which, I suppose, is the goal of a social media campaign). The vibe is somewhat reminiscent of Brand Twitter, the ever-growing ecosystem of companies who attempt (sometimes too far) to assert a personalitythink of how the Steak-Umms account keeps picking fights with Neil DeGrasse Tysonbut with a remove that makes it not too annoying.

Reaching a younger, Very Online crowd, it seems, is Conocos whole goal here. Most of Conocos social content appears to have been produced by Carmichael Lynch, an ad agency based out of Minneapolis. (Carmichael Lynch also ran the Phillips 66 campaign where it tapped Instagram influencers.) In a case study posted on their website, the agency sheds a lot of light on the goal of all this strange posting from a gasoline brand.

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Conoco wanted to reach 18-24-year-olds, a hard-to-engage audience, the case study begins. Skeptical of marketing and unlikely to interact with brands, they sit, text, curate and retweet in an endless stream of #content.

Surveys have found that around 70% of this age group also experience eco-anxiety due to the climate change caused by the product Conoco is trying to sell them. But, of course, that wouldnt make for a very good brand campaign. (Carmichael Lynch didnt answer questions as to whether young peoples concerns about climate change were part of their conversations with Conoco.)

The result of the analysis is a campaign called Choose Go, which, the case study describes, is a social-first campaign that changed the rules of social engagement by understanding the audiences perceptions of brands. Instead of forcing advertising-like objects on them, we built content around their interests. AdWeek wrote a glowing review of the glug glug lofi mix video, and per the case study, the campaign generated millions of impressions on social media.

This strategy of increasing brand loyalty while not focusing on the actual product was pioneered by another oil giant. In the 1970s, Exxon sponsored several episodes of the PBS program Masterpiece Theater in one of the earliest examples of a company associating itself with a cultural touchstone to boost brand loyalty. This strategy can be really successfulwhich isnt great news for the climate.

This is why ad agencies are so dangerous: they can take a boring fossil fuel company and turn them into your hip best friend, Jamie Henn, the director of Fossil Free Media, which runs a campaign called Clean Creatives dedicated to pressuring ad and PR agencies to quit working with fossil fuel companies, said over Twitter DM. Who cares if ConocoPhillips is blocking climate legislation if theyre sharing dope playlists and funny animations, right? Im sure the team at CarmichaelLynch had a good time working this account, but creativity has consequences. Shilling for Big Oil is an act of climate denial no matter how cool it looks.

There could be limits to how far this dont-focus-on-the-oil-and-look-how-funny-we-are approach can go with other oil and gas companies. Im not sure if high-profile brands like Exxon will be able to appeal to Gen Z since its name is associated with lying about climate change for decades. Other Big Oil companies like Chevron, BP, and Shell have had a more intense and unforgiving spotlight put on them for their role in delaying climate action.

One of the reasons this particular strategy seems to have been able to succeed here is that Conoco hasnt come under the same scrutiny, perhaps because it only sells gas. But it does have a dirty history: ConocoPhillips, its predecessor company, produces about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day. In 2012, ConocoPhillips, then the third-biggest oil company in the country, split its oil-and-gas producing arm from its oil-and-gas selling arm; the resulting companies are ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66, which owns Conoco.

Phillips 66 and ConocoPhillips have done quite well since then: They are currently the fifth-largest and third-largest oil and gas companies by market share in the U.S. And at the end of the day, selling all that oil is what these kinds of campaigns are for.

Conoco sold 40 million more gallons of gas in the campaigns first five months compared to the year prior, Carmichael Lynch concludes their case study proudly. Lets hope none of the other oil companies figure out how to replicate this success.

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I Hate That Conoco Is So Good at Social Media - Gizmodo

LinkedIn has shared new insights into the changing landscape of gender and racial diversity in the marketing field today.

Although the stats shared in this infographicfocus on comparisons between women and men in the industry,LinkedIn notes that "Gender identity isnt binary and we recognize that some LinkedIn members identify beyond the traditional gender constructs of male and female. The data shown here is based on individuals and their chosen pronouns. LinkedIn encourages everyone to include pronouns in their profiles so that they can improve their data. "As members begin to self-report gender, we will be able to share more inclusive gender data."

A few notable stats seen in this infographic:

This is the fourth update from LinkedIn in a series called The Changing Marketing Jobs Landscape.

Optional Caption

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LinkedIn Shares Insights Into Gender and Racial Diversity in the Marketing Field - Social Media Today

As consumer habits post-pandemic ebb and flow, beauty brand Fresh is using data to drive its social marketing decisions.

At Fairchild Media Groups Virtual Tech Forum on June 17, Tennille Kopiasz, chief marketing officer of Fresh, spoke with Thomas Rankin, cofounder and chief executive officer of marketing software company Dash Hudson on how the brands digital strategy reflects the needs of a post-coronavirus consumer.

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Our customers and our employees have changed, and theyre not going back, Kopiasz said. From a marketing standpoint, consumer satisfaction is the new marketing excellence. Weve seen major shifts in all dimensions with unprecedented speed and scale with digital always at the core. Its about how we reinvent across all areas, from content, to human capabilities, experience, channels and even the future of work.

Kopiasz credits the brands partnership with Dash Hudson for the agility of its social media content. Technology is only as good as the team you have behind it, because it helps you make smarter decisions. Dash is at the heart of how we look at social on a daily, weekly, quarterly and annual basis, but its also helped us shift our strategy, she said. In the past, we were obsessed with engagement, but it didnt really encompass video. So now, were using the [Dash Hudson] effectiveness tool, and its really helping us drive the strategy moving forward. Data is in everything we do.

We also use Dashs organic reach tool to figure out what people are talking about, what theyre interested, and we tweak our strategy based on what their interests are, Kopiasz continued. We see the big content buckets of our competitors, and distill that in a way thats more specific to Fresh, because what works for Fresh isnt what works for other brands.

Just like its clients, Dash Hudson has also made a concerted effort to keep up with the rise in content format. Its been a real struggle for brands as the formats have grown, Rankin said. Channels aside, if you look at Instagram alone, with the launch of Reels and IGTV and of course, Stories, its about understanding your baseline performance across all of those formats and understanding how they come together, he said.

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Rankin added that video, despite being increasingly resonant, has historically been difficult for brands to scale or to understand its return on investment. Additionally, the company is seeing its offerings applied to paid advertising in growing numbers, despite paid and organic social content existing in silos, he said.

Kopiasz postulated that when creating paid content as an extension of organic posts, consumers respond with more enthusiasm. When you see what performs, its almost never what you think is going to perform, she said. These beautiful, perfect, curated, branded assets that are the epitome of the brand are not typically what appeals to your consumer. To have those insights from an organic content perspective, you can ultimately take that and adapt for the paid perspective to reach a whole new audience and group of consumers.

Following explosive growth in Eastern markets like China, Kopiasz also has her sights set on social commerce.

Weve done a test and learn approach and where weve seen the most success is in exclusive drops. For example, the jumbo size of our Soy Face Cleanser, which is a cult product our consumer already knew about, and that saw great success. For our partners in China, social commerce is hitting almost 30 percent of the business, and thats only going to be bigger with TikToks partnership with Shopify. Theres not just a brand approach there, but an influencer approach. Its going to create a whole new level of commerce that doesnt exist in the Instagram universe, Kopiasz said, adding that the brand still experiments with Instagram Checkout and Live Shopping.

In a live Q&A with Evan Clark, deputy managing editor of WWD, Kopiasz discussed how Fresh is reinventing the wheel for its upcoming social holiday campaigns, which run from September through December.

Theres a high level of fatigue. Holiday represents almost 40 percent of the business, you typically have one campaign, and you spend a lot of money on it, Kopiasz said. Dash helped us look at different content segments. Moving into 2021, we broke our social business into three different buckets. We have content thats still holiday, but doesnt have the same fatigue, and thats all driven by data.

For more from WWD.com, see:

10 Unscented Body Washes for Sensitive Skin

Neimans Turns Toward Technology With Heightened Investments

Dash Hudsons Jenny Pratt Taps Into Users to Create Content

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Freshs CMO on the Future of Social Marketing in Beauty - Yahoo Lifestyle

Juul Labs Inc. has struck a $40 million settlement with North Carolina over a lawsuit claiming it aimed its e-cigarette products at young people, in what the state called the first such agreement to hold Juul accountable for its marketing.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein and the company told a state judge of the settlement at a hearing on Monday. At a news conference afterward, Stein said Juul had agreed to fundamentally change its business practices, restricting what products it sells, how and where it sells them, and who is able to buy them, and abandoning all marketing strategies and content that appeal to young people.

The consent order, enforceable in North Carolina court, prohibits advertisements near schools and most social media advertising and bars Juul from making claims that compare the impact on health of using its products with that of combustible cigarettes, among other stipulations, according to the attorney generals office. The $40 million will go to programs for teens struggling with e-cigarette addiction and to prevent other young people from starting the habit, Stein said.

Today, because of Juul, thousands of kids in North Carolina are addicted to nicotine, putting their long-term health at risk, Stein said.

Juul said in a statement that the settlement is consistent with our ongoing effort to reset our company and its relationship with our stakeholders, as we continue to combat underage usage and advance the opportunity for harm reduction for adult smokers. The company said it would work with Stein and with other manufacturers on the development of potential industry-wide marketing practices based on science and evidence and said it had previously halted all mass market product advertising.

Indeed, some of the settlements requirements are in line with actions Juul had already announced, such as shuttering its social media accounts. As it is, e-cigarette makers are barred from introducing new products without permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Juuls popularity had ballooned in recent years, with the company coming to dominate the e-cigarette market. That success landed it in the cross-hairs of federal regulators and state attorneys general who worried about Juuls impact on teenagers. North Carolina became the first state to sue Juul for allegedly advertising to minors, in May of 2019. The companys practices helped create an epidemic among them, downplaying health risks and understating the strength of nicotine in its products, according the states complaint.

California and New York followed with similar suits that November. Juuls legal woes expanded in February of last year with the announcement of a 39-state probe of its teen marketing.

Just talk to any high school principal in North Carolina and you will hear what a devastating problem this is, Stein said.

With assistance by Breanna T Bradham, and Erik Larson

(Adds details, quotes and context starting in second paragraph.)

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Juul Makes $40 Million Pact With North Carolina on Marketing - Bloomberg

Marin is contributing to the fast-growing platform its experience in assisting marketers in optimizing over $40 billion in digital advertising spend.

FREMONT, CA: Marin Software, a leading provider of digital marketing software for performance-driven advertisers and agencies, has enhanced its flagship MarinOne platform with the ability to manage Instacart Ads. This integration enables brands to communicate directly with customers at the time of transaction.

Marin is contributing to the fast-growing platform its experience in assisting marketers in optimizing over $40 billion in digital advertising spend.

In North America, Instacart is the leading online grocery platform. Today, Instacart works with over 600 national, regional, and local retailers, including unique brand names, to deliver from approximately 55,000 locations in over 5,500 cities across the United States and Canada. Instacart provides self-service and managed ad services to over 2,500 CPG clients, including all of the Top 25 CPG companies.

Self-service To assist in generating more demand, the MarinOne platform combines lower-funnel marketplace advertising with paid search and paid social marketing. Marketers may coordinate their efforts across channels to ensure that they work flawlessly throughout the customer journey.

"Customer habits shifted during the pandemic and online grocery delivery was a big beneficiary," stated Chris Lien, Marin's Chairman and CEO. "As the leading online grocery platform in North America, Instacart is a must-have part of digital marketing strategies. We are delighted to give advertisers on Instacart the power of MarinOne to maximize return on their investment."

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MarinOne Announces Integration with Instacart Ads - CIO Applications