Mediaboss Marketing

Elliot Willis has been promoted from commercial director to managing director at The Hook Labs, just as it sets its sights on US expansion.

The start-up, founded by Andy Fidler and Gordon Bennell, is made up of two in-house divisions; the social marketing agency, The Hook Labs, and its media brand, The Hook. As managing director, Willis will build on UK success, and help it ease into the US by growing the sales, marketing and operations teams.

Andy Fidler, co-founder of The Hook Group, said: Elliot has played a key part in getting the business to where it is today and has built a great foundation for The Hook Labs to grow from.

Willis added: The future of The Hook Labs is extremely bright. Our team have worked hard to nurture small to global brands and ensure the highest possible delivery. I look forward to developing the next phase with our talented team and launching more high impact social marketing campaigns.

Willis has led teams at media companies including ITV, ChannelFlip and Endemol Shine.

In September, the group threw shade at agencies and media titles that fail to inform brands of the outcomes that can be achieved on social media.

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Elliot Willis promoted to managing director of The Hook Labs with sights set on US - The Drum

TikTok is either the next big thing in digital marketing, or simply the latest fad that will eventually peter out. Where you stand on this will come down to your individual perspective.

On one hand, TikTok's popularity doesn't appear to be slowing. According to the latest data from Sensor Tower, the short video app has now exceeded 1.5 billion downloadsworldwide, making it the third most downloaded,non-gaming app of the year (after WhatsApp and Messenger).

The app has proven particularly popular in India, as explained by Sensor Tower:

"India has been the main driver of TikTok downloads across the App Store and Google Play, with 466.8 million, or about 31% of all unique installs coming from the country. China has generated the second most downloads for the app, accounting for 173.2 million, or 11.5%.The United States ranks No. 3, generating 123.8 million downloads, or 8.2%."

US growth is good, but India, with over 1.3 billion total citizens, and a rapidly growing digital economy, may be even better for the app's longer-term future - if TikTok becomes the must-have app among younger Indian users, that will set it up for huge success, and huge advertising potential in that market.

Expanding on this, TikTok is also looking into new music streaming partnerships, which would enable it to not only connect its users to downloadable music from major artists, but would also facilitate the creation of its own music library, which users could then search through and add to their TikTok videos, streamlining the process.

TikTok's also experimenting with social commerce linksand new ad types which could expand on its potential for brands and businesses.

There's a lot to like for social media marketers, and TikTok could well be for real, and could be set for a major rise in 2020.

But then again, on the other hand...

TikTok is also under investigation over its potential links to the Chinese Government - or not so much its links to the Chinese regime as such, but more the obligations it could face, as a Chinese company, in regards to the data it collects on users. If the Chinese Government came calling on TikTok's parent company ByteDance and requested all the data it has as part of a broader surveillance effort, ByteDance would likely have to abide - and this is before you consider questions of censorship and the potential sharing of communist propaganda among the youth of external nations.

TikTok is working to distance itself from such claims. This week, Alex Zhu, one of the founders of Musical.ly, and a current leader at TikTok, spoke to The New York Times about such concerns and how his company sees it:

As per NYT:

"No, TikTok does not censor videos that displease China, he said. And no, it does not share user data with China, or even with its Beijing-based parent company. All data on TikTok users worldwide is stored in Virginia, he said, with a backup server in Singapore."

And if it were requested to turn over user data by the Chinese Government? Zhu says that he would turn them down.

But then, of course, TikTok would say that - whether that's how it would work in action is another thing. But the fact that Zhu is even addressing such questions, and doing PR interviews in America, shows just how concerned TikTok is about such reports. Other rumors suggest that TikTok has even considered re-branding entirely to further distance itself from its Chinese parent, while various company executives have sought to quell concerns around content censorship and removal on the platform -which reports have shown may not be as prominent as once suspected.

There are also concerns with its actual user counts - the app may have been downloaded 1.5 billion times, but downloads are not the same as active users, which TikTok has been less forthcoming about.

In combination, these concerns equate to a significant gray area in TikTok's rise, which could become a major issue. Or, as TikTok is keen to reassure, it could be nothing.

Maybe TikTok comes out next month at reports that it has 500 million active US users, which would be significant, and that, in turn, sparks a new wave of advertisers flocking to the app, regardless of these potential vulnerabilities. Maybe the various investigations into TikTok equate to nothing, and the app adds links for creators, and facilitates a whole new stream of monetization, succeeding where Vine failed. That could be enough to help it establish new foundations for ongoing success.

Maybe, we don't know at this stage.

Does that mean you should avoid it completely? It depends on your audience, the market you're trying to reach, it depends on where you stand on the above-noted issues and where you believe that TikTok is headed. If you have concerns about building reliance on a platform with several questions still swirling around it, you should probably avoid such, but the full picture is still not 100% clear on the app right now.

2020 could be the year for TikTok, and if it continues its rise in India, it could well be on track to become the next big social platform -and as such, getting in now and establishing a presence may be of some benefit. Or it could stumble and fall back.

It's hard to say which way things are headed, but it's something that will no doubt be debated by many marketing teams heading into the new year.

See the original post here:
TikTok Reaches 1.5 Billion Downloads, Seeks to Distance Itself from Chinese Government Links - Social Media Today

Social media was created to facilitate human connection, to amplify our interactive capability by providing new ways for us to share our lives and experiences, and relate to others around the same.

Social media gurus have been preaching along these lines for years - in order to succeed on social platforms, you need to 'be more human', you need to 'humanize your brand', 'it's human connection that matters'. And while there are many examples of such approaches leading to greater success for brands online, there is another, rising trend which largely goes against this, and brings into question the very future of the form.

That trend is the rising popularity of virtual influencers - computer-generated models which are gaining popularity, especially on Instagram.

Virtual influencers, as you can see here, run a broad spread of variation - from so close to real that you can't tell, to cartoonish, Sim-like characters which seem completely out of place.

But they are, indeed, rising - recently, social analytics platform HypeAuditor put together an overview of some of the top virtual influencers, and their performance stats over the last year.

And the numbers speak for themselves:

According to HypeAuditor's report:

"Virtual Influencers have almost three times more engagement than real influencers. That means that followers are more engaged with virtual influencers content."

That's an amazing trend, especially when you consider what it could mean for the future of influencer marketing. If these findings are correct, and virtual influencers are on such a significant rise, that will lead to more brands looking into the same. Virtual influencers are unpaid, unbiased, available 24/7 - and, evidently, very popular.

Is this the next wave set to flow through your Instagram streams?

In terms of who, specifically, is engaging with these computer-based characters, the profile shows that younger female users are more likely to engage with virtual influencers.

You can see that 18-24 year-old female users are significantly more likely to engage with these creations. Additionally, HypeAuditor's data shows that US users are far more likely to engage with virtual personalities.

So who are they, and why are they on the rise? You can take a look for yourself - HypeAuditor has also provided a listing of the top virtual influencers worldwide, along with their rising follower counts.

As noted, the characters themselves range from hyper-realistic to cartoonish depictions. The leading virtual influencer is lilmiquela, with 1.7 million followers, followed by the Bratz-doll like noonoouri(332k followers), the mostly real looking imma(159k) and the hyper-real Shudu (193k).

Most of the Instagram profiles for these characters note that it's a virtual or digital character within their bios, but as these types of models rise, it'll be interesting to see if more try to disguise the fact that they're not real - and whether regulations may need to be established on disclosure over such.

Right now, however, there are some limitations on virtual character use. Building realistic 3D models is expensive -maybe more expensive than simply using real people in some cases - but as technology advances, those costs will go down, and open the door to more businesses looking to utilize the same.

That could also, however, lead to new questions around depictions of realistic body types and their impacts on impressionable users. We already see such debates when looking at real models, and how young women, in particular, compare their bodies to them - but these characters aren't even real. No diet tricks can help you obtain a virtual waistline.

It's an interesting area, and one which is likely to come up for increased debate in times to come. HypeAuditor suggests that novelty is a key element in their current popularity, and as digital models become more commonplace, they'll lose some of that interest. But will they? Will we even know who's real and who's not in future?

The stats here would suggest that it's likely to become a bigger point of discussion.

Continued here:
New Report Looks at the Rise of Virtual Influencers on Instagram - Social Media Today

The Unmistakables won Best in Diversity & Inclusivity in an organisation at The Drum Social Purpose Awards 2019. Here, the agency reveals the background to winning this award.

The challenge

Weve all been in brainstorms addressing how to make brands more diverse or organisations more inclusive. The talk is easy but, unfortunately, the action is all too rare.

As a professional working in the marketing and communications industry, Asad Dhunna realised that a major part of the problem was the workforce status quo. Its lack of diversity continues to see it majority white, male, straight and middle class. He had an idea. What if he created a consultancy of minorities, made of people who knew what it was like to be different? What if he could find others who, like him, consider marketing not just a career, but an opportunity to drive real societal change?

What if he could attract the types of people who often leave the industry because it cant seem to cater for anything but the mainstream?

The strategy

As a gay Muslim man, Asad knew what it felt like to feel different, working in an industry that would enthusiastically talk the talk, but usually fail to walk the walk. He wanted to nurture an environment where clients could learn and people could thrive. And so, following a round of seed investment, The Unmistakables was born in September 2018.

The mission is simple: to help organisations become more representative of society from the inside out. Rather than treating diversity as a box-ticking exercise, this cultural consultancy focuses on getting to the root of the issue and working with organisation leaders to transform how they operate. Its uniqueness comes in its unrelenting ambition to use the power of marketing and communications to go deeper within organisations in order to drive meaningful change. Its work comes from CEOs, learning development directors, and marketing and communications leaders.

The action

This approach led to significant growth in year one, with clients including Unilever, the England Cricket Board, Barnardos and Openreach. The work the consultancy does has been described as transformative, and it is slowly carving out a niche to help brands and organisations that want to walk the walk, rather than talk the talk when it comes to diversity & inclusion.

The initiatives The Unmistakables undertakes, from its morning Minoritease news updates, to its thought leading Stereotypes Report also lead the way on pushing for a better understanding of minority groups, and are having a world-changing impact on the industry by making people think differently.

The results

In less than 12 months since launching, The Unmistakables has grown from a kitchen table to an office of six people, all different in their own way. The agency is on track for 350K in revenue, and has worked with household brands including the England Cricket Board, Barnardos, Openreach and Unilever.

It has also worked with start-ups from diverse backgrounds, helping the likes of LGBT+ app Squad Social, Proud Beer and Yogarise in articulating their proposition and messaging. Asad has also been invited to speak around the world spreading The Unmistakables message at the IDEA Summit in Toronto, at Media360 in Brighton, at Ad:Tech in London, and most recently at the International Festival of Creativity in Cannes. Its presence has extended beyond speaking engagements, with media coverage about The Unmistakables appearing on Euronews, BBC News, Holmes Report, and multiple times in The Drum.

We decided to go with The Unmistakables because their mission statement to create an agency which reflects the world in all its varied forms means, by its nature, they re-think things from first principles. This fully reflects the way that we work, avoiding assumptions and carefully considering what might be the best approach for a given project or situation. Its a pleasure to work together. - Simon Thorpe of Market Peckham

The Unmistakables was a winner at The Drum Social Purpose Awards 2019. Click here to register you interest in next years awards.

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Why The Unmistakables represents a 'first principles' approach to diversity and inclusion - The Drum

Good morning, PR pros:

Taco Bell has entered the chicken coop.

The fast-food chain is debuting its Crispy Tortilla Chicken, which are chicken tenders marinated in jalapeo-buttermilk flavoring and tossed in a tortilla-chip coating. The tenders are offered both inside a taco and alongside dipping sauce, but only in its Houston and Dayton, Ohio locations. Taco Bell said the menu item will expand to all U.S. locations in 2020.

The move is an attempt by Taco Bell to wrestle with competitors such as Popeyes, Wendys and Chick-fil-A. More and more fast-food chains are clucking at the chance to get a piece of Popeyes continuing viral fame as consumers clamor for chicken sandwiches and beyond.

Here are todays top stories:

Google announced several ways its limiting targeting of political ads, along with ways its going to increase transparency and cut down on misinformation ahead of elections in the United States, United Kingdom and beyond.

Googles vice president of product management for Google Ads, Scott Spencer, wrote in a blog post:

Whether youre running for office or selling office furniture, we apply the same ads policies to everyone; there are no carve-outs. Its against our policies for any advertiser to make a false claimwhether its a claim about the price of a chair or a claim that you can vote by text message, that election day is postponed, or that a candidate has died.

Along with clarifying its ads policies to highlight prohibited content and messages, Google will limit targeting options for political ads to age, gender and location categories. It also is adding to its transparency report and in-ad disclosures U.S. state-level candidates and officeholders, ballot measures, and ads that mention federal or state political parties.

We want the ads we serve to be transparent and widely available so that many voices can debate issues openly, Spencer wrote.

Why it matters: Googles announcement follows Twitters decision to ban political ads, as pressure on social media and search platforms grows to limit fake news and misleading content. The new policies can affect communicators outside of the political spectrum, such as nonprofits and government agencies that will have to be more careful with their content. PR, marketing and social media pros should also take this as a reminder of their responsibility to fight fake news and increase both transparency and trust within stakeholder communications and relationships.

Many leaders talk about transformational change, but how many actually achieve it? Accentures Stacey Jones shares her tips for how a global consulting group was able to reform its communications with a few guiding principles.

The piece is the latest in our How We Did It series, in partnership with the Institute of Public Relations.

How are you bringing change to your organization and team? Share what you think are the most important elements in making a lasting impact on your workplace with our hashtag #MorningScoop.

According to a study from MBLM, brands that can tap into consumer emotion outperform national indices like the Fortune 500 and S&P Global.

The report breaks down brand intimacy by measuring factors that draw consumers to a brand identity. The report also breaks down which brands are most attractive to different genders.

How are you working to make your brand more meaningful for your audience? Learn more about brand intimacy by reading the full report.

The social media platform announced measures that will enable brand managers to select where their ads appear before they go live and increase transparency on where their content resides. These features include block lists to exclude content creators and channels, improved delivery reports and a white-listing tool for types of content.

In a post on its business blog, Facebook wrote:

While we have zero tolerance for harmful content on our platforms, we recognize that doesnt mean zero occurrence. Its why we are tackling this challenge across the company working with industry, enlisting expertise across subject matters, and continuing to invest in the technology, tools and advancements that advertisers are asking for. A safer Facebook and Instagram is better for everyone, including businesses, and its what well keep working towards.

Why you should care: Facebook and other social media platforms arent just struggling to respond to increased pressure regarding misinformation across their websitestheyre also grappling with user growth while courting marketers. Just as consumers can vote with their wallets to effectively sway organizations to adopt stances and policies they want, so too can brand managers push Facebook to adopt better content policies, safety features and advertising transparency. Catering to marketers increases Facebooks revenue, but by elevating content guidelines and cracking down on misinformation and other controversial content, Facebook can also increase trust among its userswhich include fans of your Facebook page(s).

Twitter is testing a scheduling feature within its platform that enables you to schedule tweets directly from the tweet composition window:

Tweet scheduling on https://t.co/8FModRv1sl? Yes please! Starting today, were experimenting with bringing one of @TweetDecks handiest time-saving features into Twitter. Tell us what you think if youre part of the experiment. pic.twitter.com/4pI9xrbPEP

TweetDeck (@TweetDeck) November 20, 2019

The experiment is open to a select number of Twitter users, but the social media platform didnt say how many users have access to it. If Twitter expands the feature to all users, communicators wouldnt have to schedule tweets through a third-party social media platform such as Buffer, SproutSocial or Tweetdeck.

The feature might entice more brand managers to use Twitter (or increase their activity on the platform). It could also help communicators choose social listening tools and create dashboards, if scheduled tweets dont have to be part of the service.

We asked for your biggest challenge when working on media relations campaigns and other buzz-building efforts, and 41% of you said landing pitches with journalists remains the top hurdle. Showing that media coverage produced ROI comes in at a close second (38%), with 12% of you struggling with finding news for stories and pitches.

What's your biggest challenge with media relations and increasing your organization's buzz?

Share your insights with us under #MorningScoop, and we'll share in tomorrow's roundup.

PR Daily (@PRDaily) November 20, 2019

As newsrooms continue to shrink, communicators can break through with savvy storytelling efforts and targeted, interesting pitches.

Where are you increasing your focus in the year to comeand in your budget?

Where are you increasing your focus (and budget) in the year to come?

Share your insights under the #MorningScoop hashtag. We want to hear your thoughts!

PR Daily (@PRDaily) November 21, 2019

Weigh in and share your thoughts under the hashtag #MorningScoop and well share in tomorrows roundup.

Topics: Brand Journalism, Content Marketing, Crisis Communications, Executive Communication, Leadership Communications, Morning Scoop, PR Industry, Social Media, Storytelling, The Workplace, Writing & Editing

COMMENT

I love Google but I fear for their continued freedom to serve us.

I love Google not only for the obviousthe convenience of all that information available instantly and freebut also because Google is a marvelous way to get the TRUTH.

It used to be that we could rely for the truth on newspapers and TV that told both sides, but many media are increasingly slanted to favor leftist or rightist positions. Yet Google tells it like it is with no political slant so we can trust Google for the truth.

Unfortunately for Google and for us, newspapers and broadcasters that have lost billions in ad dollars to Google may be menacingly influential in Washington. So the older media would love Washington to pass laws that reduce Googles value to usand reduce Googles ability to win more and more ad dollars away from newspapers and TV.

Googles latest move to reduce fraudulent advertising may be intended not only to protect us, the readers, but also to protect Google againstWashington laws to purportedly protect the public but actually toprotect newspapers and TV against loss of still more ad dollars to Google.

But poor Google! Look what they are doing and and what they COULD be doing to protect their freedom to publish and our freedom to have the convenience and the truth Google gives us.

WHAT GOOGLE IS DOINGand its such an easy PR blunder to makeis to rely on reducing the complaints old media can make that ads on Google are unfair discrimination because advertisers can go after (and only pay for) one gender but not the other, people in rich areas but not in poorer areas.

THE DANGER TO GOOGLE AND TO US is that political leaders, eager to win favor of newspapers and TV stations that can make or break political leaders, will pass laws seemingly to protect against such discrimination. But the EFFECT of such regulation can be to reduce advertising in Google leaving more ad dollars for newspapers and TV.

WHAT GOOGLE IS NOT DOINGat least not yetis to back some hugepublic service project like a billion dollar anti-cancer program with a cancer center like Americas Memorial Sloan Kettering so perhaps 100 million Americans will think God bless Google.

Whom God hath joined together, wedding ceremonies recite, let no man put asunder. Whom God hath been asked by millions to bless, PR wisdom tells us, no Washington political leaders may be inclined to damage. Truth is a good weapon and Google is using it. But the publics self-interest is also a good weapon. Adding it can reduce the peril that Google and billions in ad dollars will be put asunder.

Read the rest here:
Google limits political ad targeting, Facebook announces brand 'safety controls,' and Taco Bell enters the 'chicken wars' - PR Daily - PR Daily