Mediaboss Marketing

The events of 2020 reshaped the world in ways we never thought possible, turning us all into homebodies overnight and fundamentally restructuring our approach to work, travel and interpersonal interaction.

Nowhere was this seismic shift more apparent than in the digital media space, as marketers sought out new and innovative ways to reach consumers all but confined to their homes.

Suddenly, consumers were no longer commuting, leaving billboards unseen and radio shows unheard. Print media fell out of favour fast as buyers gravitated to less tactile forms of consumption.

At the onset of the pandemic, many businesses weren't at all digitally savvy and were initially unsure as to how to go about reshaping their communications to meet the needs of an evolving audience.

However, as the year progressed, new and exciting opportunities began to emerge. As television and radio stations moved into the online space, digital inventory expanded across the continent, offering advertisers access to new markets and methods of communication. Existing platforms like WhatsApp proved to be incredibly versatile in terms of its capacity to drive both engagement and sales.

One of the inevitable outcomes of the first wave of lockdowns was a boom in online shopping, as customers flocked to the digital space so as to avoid exposure to public places.Major players in the e-commerce space were quick to capitalise, forcing smaller enterprises to adapt in order to survive.

Where once this sphere was all but owned by the likes of Takealot, it quickly began to diversify, as smaller speciality stores started using platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp to promote their own 'Click and Collect' offerings, in turn opening up the market and enabling users to recreate the traditional retail experience from the comfort of home.

Certain sectors like tourism, alcohol and events were especially hard hit by the pandemic, which essentially obliterated their earnings for a significant portion of the year. But while some chose to shut up shop temporarily, others used the unique circumstances to build brand loyalty and engage consumers like never before.

The Comrades Marathon, for instance, was reimagined in virtual form, with runners taking part in an individual capacity via an online portal. This enabled sponsors to entrench ties with consumers, fostering unity and encouraging interaction that wouldn't have otherwise been possible.

2020 was characterised by the emergence of less polished content as brands scrambled to communicate and keep up with the ongoing changes. The result was a compelling narrative fueled by authenticity, with world-class production value replaced by rougher, more resonant content.

Brands were forced to be brave and experimental, ultimately enabling them to connect with consumers in a far more authentic way. From at-home workouts to live cook-offs to Tik Tok challenges, brands embraced change like never before, paving the way for a new era of added-value content less adherent to brand guidelines and more attentive to the real needs of consumers.

Possibly the biggest paradigm shift of 2020 was the way in which brands finally embraced social channels with newfound seriousness, recognising the true potential and scope of the tools at their fingertips.

Seemingly overnight, social media was promoted from 'nice-to-have' to 'must-have' and, as such, brands began to push the envelope, measuring, adapting and ultimately leveraging the potential of each channel.

Gone are the days of social media merely serving as a supplementary messaging house for above-the-line campaigns. Today's consumer expects more and it's up to marketers to deliver the goods.

Unpredictability continues to be the order of the day, and as more and more brands become digitally savvy, an increasingly agile and creative approach will be required in order to cut through the clutter.

As prices increase in light of growing competition, real value is likely to be the key to success and marketers willing to take risks are those most likely to be rewarded.

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Social media in the age of social distancing Marketing News - Media Update

LONDON Dont Cry Wolf, one of the handful of PR agencies to so far become a B-Corp, has repositioned as the brand activism agency to reflect growth in its environmental and social change client base.

The three-year-old agency has also strengthened its ESG credentials by inviting a client onto the board to improve governance, and taking environmental measures that have led to a 45% drop in carbon emissions. This is despite increasing headcount to 16 staff as of next month, up from 11 the previous quarter and including the agencys first designer, Sam Allen, who joins from ethical beauty brand Lush.

Dont Cry Wolfs new positioning comes after the team rolled out work such deforestation campaign from palm-oil-free nut butter brand Meridian after work with brands including community-focused fizzy drinks brand Soda Folk, which donates a proportion of profits to good causes. The agency's revenue grew by 30% in 2020, to 1.1 million.

Managing director Sara Collinge told PRovoke: We wanted to be super clear that we believe brands have a role beyond pounds and pence and that we work with peoplewho want to use their resources to create positive change in the world. Were attracting more clients who really want to make a difference and arent just virtue signalling.

The new non-executive board role has been filled by Amy Barber, the head of marketing for hairbrush brand Tangle Teezer North America, which became a Dont Cry Wolf client in September last year. She previously headed up PR for femtech trailblazer Elvie, which hired the agency in 2019.

Collinge said: Having a client on the board is a bit like breaking the fourth wall. As a B-Corp we have that triple-bottom-line focus and were doing well on the environmental and social side of things, but we were looking at ways to make sure we were doing our best with regards to governance and one of those ways is to have external people on board. We already have Stephen Waddington and wanted to introduce another big brain into the mix and who better than a trusted client to give advice?

Barber added: When Dont Cry Wolf asked me to join the board, I was surprised and delighted. Surprised because Id never heard of a client being invited into the inner chamber of an agencys business before. And delighted because theyre a great bunch of people and a team of wicked-smart comms professionals. Im looking forward to seeing what its like north of the wall.

The agency is launching another US and UK brand activism campaign this week for Tangle Teezer: addressing the lack of diversity in the traditional stories that are read to children by putting Black protagonists and their natural hair centre stage, finding that hair relaxers are used on around half of Black children.

In fulfilling its obligation to tracking its carbon footprint as part of B-Corp status, with consultancy Green Element, Dont Cry Wolf saw total carbon dioxide equivalent gases drop from 50.17 tonnes in 2019 to 26.91 tonnes in 2020, primarily because of a drop in travel, commuting, meetings and entertaining, and despite an increase in electricity usage as the team shifted to working at home without the benefits of buying at scale.

Agency founder John Brown said: Its been fascinating to see the impact the pandemic has had on the carbon efficiency of our business. While the carbon emissions per full-time employee have decreased overall, its important to ensure that all the good steps weve taken to make our office as environmentally sound as possible are reflected in a more virtual setup. As we all rush back to happy hours, we should at least try and keep in mind that sore heads and light wallets arent the only by-products of the social side of our business.

See original here:
Don't Cry Wolf Repositions As Brand Activism Specialist - PRovoke Media

This year, TikTok has quickly started to move out of the experimental bucket and is now becoming a staple of the social spending pie, according to media buyers, who say that they expect more ad dollars to flow to the app this year.

With the future of the app in the United States no longer a question and the sale to Oracle shelved, that stability has marketers more comfortable committing additional ad dollars to the short-form video app. Buyers said improvements to its e-commerce capabilities like its partnership with Shopify as well as new e-commerce-focused ad units like a dynamic catalog ad unit thats currently in beta are swaying marketers to spend more on the app.

In 2020, marketers were wary of the stability of TikTok, said Madelyn Lydon, associate director, public relations and social media at OH Partners. It seemed like a big risk to invest dollars without knowing the future of the app. However, weve seen users are spending more time on TikTok than Facebook, and it is crucial for marketers to provide those users with content. Otherwise, they risk getting left behind.

Without the perceived risk, the overall perception of TikTok has shifted dramatically over the last 12 months, and in doing so shaped marketers sentiments, according to marketers and media buyers. This year, TikTok seems to be a social partner that clients ask for, versus us having to push to get test budgets in 2019 and 2020, explained Carrie Dino, head of media for Mekanism.

Brands have shifted from viewing them as that fun/experimental platform to one of the big players, said Brendan Gahan, partner and chief social officer at Mekanism. As a result, weve been doing a lot of planning around ongoing content strategies. Clients are investing (or considering investing) in creating a community versus just doing one off activations like branded hashtag challenges or influencer partnerships.

However, TikTok has yet to become a staple like Instagram and Facebook, but the momentum is there, added Gahan. You can see how it could happen soon.

While media spend on TikTok varies by brands, buyers say its still a minimal portion of the budget allocated to social platforms. Katya Constantine, CEO of performance marketing agency Digishop Girl, said that direct-to-consumer brands she works with now allocate roughly 5% of the social budget toward the app versus roughly 75% toward Facebook and Instagram.

TikToks investment to make ads more shoppable and push further into e-commerce has the potential to help the app become more of a priority in ad budgets, according to buyers. Constantine said that new e-commerce-focus ad units have clients eyeing the platform more and more.

If they continue enhancing advertising platform at the same rate as last 12 months then TikTok has a strong place at the table to be 20% of the mix, said Constantine, adding that currently it represents roughly 5% of the media mix. Thats especially true for brands that are going after younger consumers.

Buyers expect marketers to continue to spend more on the platform this year, particularly as advertisers look to diversify their media mix due to an overreliance on Facebook and Instagram when it comes to social channels.

That said, as the platform continues to gain ground, buyers say advertisers will have to invest in creating content specific for TikToks highly engaged audience, who is not as apt to interact with material thats not native to the app experience. Even so, buyers expect brands to continue to lean into TikTok as the burgeoning app, which AppAnnie expects to hit 1.2 billion monthly active users this year, is where consumers are spending more time.

TikTok is the new beauty haul, a more dynamic unboxing opportunity, the virtual makeup counter or live runway, and it puts the tools in the hands of its users, said Jess Richards, evp managing director, commerce at Havas Media. Brands can gain a lot by finding ways to enable this experience in a meaningful, authentic way.

‘The momentum is there’: In 2021, marketers are starting to see TikTok as a staple of the social budget

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The momentum is there: In 2021, marketers are starting to see TikTok as a staple of the social budget - Digiday

Movie production houses are expected to tap social media and digital influencers ahead of film releases this year, reducing dependence on billboards, celebrities and television advertising.

Digital spends would be 50-100% higher than pre-covid levels, with social media engagement, contests and influencer marketing taking the lead, as per the studio executives currently preparing their slate of films for release.

Some impact of covid has been positive in the sense that consumption patterns of audiences have changed and they are more device-friendly now. That fact should lead marketing campaigns," said Gaurav Verma, chief operating officer of Red Chillies Entertainment, which releases Abhishek Bachchan-starrer Bob Biswas later this year.

People are reacting more to social media, and even news breaks on digital platforms nowadays, Verma said, adding it only makes sense that the media mix will change to afford greater spends on digital.

Siddharth Anand Kumar, vice-president of films and television at Saregama India that owns a boutique studio Yoodlee Films, said digital promotion will be in favour not just because most audiences are still at home, but because segments are easier to target this way.

Film trailers were already releasing on YouTube, but now theres greater focus on new-age influencers across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and short video apps. Meanwhile, television with the exception of some reality shows and sports programming, should see 15% lower spends, according to Kumar, while news channels are losing because of the recent controversy over viewership ratings. Out-of-home avenues such as billboards are on the backburner, too.

The cost of influencer marketing alone may have gone up by 100%, which is far more effective in spreading word-of-mouth in a controllable way," Kumar said. Digital could make up nearly 60-70% of movie marketing budgets now, he added.

Mint had earlier reported that many social media influencers have tripled their pay rates over 2020, commanding anything between 3 lakh and 5 lakh per Instagram post. A typical Instagram user who was spending an hour on the app per day now uses it for three to four hours, prompting them to follow more people, and boost opportunities for brands to monetize. With traditional advertising options like billboards making no sense in the protracted lockdown and no buzz around bigger celebrities, companies have tapped into the influencer base.

Marketing has gone fully digital during the covid-19 pandemic, Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO and co-founder of digital agency TheSmallBigIdea said.

From zoom press conferences to fan-meets, the entire marketing narrative pivots on the actor and the production houses social and digital strength.

Production houses upping their digital game. Gone are the days when firms appeared on the marketing landscape only during film releases and went back into hiding after that. Production houses are strengthening their digital presence and trying to build influencing narratives for a loyal audience set," Pillai added.

Studios, however, are staying cautious while not cutting corners.

We have to balance our spends right now between possible profits and the need to get the message out," said Pradeep Dwivedi, CEO, India Eros STX Global Corporation that has films like Haathi Mere Saathi (Hindi), Kaadan (Tamil) and Aranya (Telugu) slated for release. Dwivedi was referring to the possibly slow return of people to cinemas in the first few weeks. While companies may deploy only 80-90% of their marketing budgets to start with right now, they will get into full gear by August going full throttle into the festive season which will be big for the movies this year," he said.

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Bollywood production houses to tap social media, influencer marketing to boost films - Mint

The Center for Excellence in Public Health (CEPH) had a strong presence at the annual meeting of SNAP-Ed implementing agents. The Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA) hosts this event each year to position agents from across the US to discuss emerging policy issues and share best practices. The event was held virtually from February 1-3.

Not surprisingly, this years conference offered a significant focus on public health approaches to alleviating hunger during the pandemic. Another recurring theme was equity in programming and planning.

CEPH Senior Research Associates Pamela Bruno, MPH, and Kira Rodriguez, MHS, presented on their work, as did Obesity Prevention Coordinator Hannah Ruhl, MPH, and Emily Estell, RDN, MPH, a nutrition educator from UNEs Coastal Healthy Communities Coalition at the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Collectively, these UNE professionals highlighted their work in social marketing and media, program evaluation, COVID-19s impact on program delivery, and virtual training strategies. They also participated in panel presentations highlighting their recent research and practice collaborations with academic peers from partner universities, sharing lessons learned and emerging evidence.

UNE implements Maine SNAP-Ed through a contract with Maines Office for Family Independence with funding from the US Department of Agriculture. The program addresses food insecurity and obesity prevention in low-resource communities across the state.

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UNE attendees contribute to national SNAP-Ed conference - University of New England