Hootsuite: Social Media Marketing In 2019 Will Be About Trust

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Consumers turn to social media for personal interactions and that includes brands. Marketers will need to earn and maintain trust, while remaining agile to new sharing formats on social, according to Hootsuite’s annual trends report.

Hootsuite shared its annual global social media trends report on Friday, outlining five takeaways for the coming year. The report is the culmination of 3,255 Hootsuite business customers, interviews and industry analysis, along with additional research.

Brands will need to rebuild consumer trust as they become acutely aware of how data is used—or misused—among social media giants worldwide. Consumers are trusting brands less and less, turning instead to friends and family for authentic interactions.

The report notes efforts being made by Adidas and The New York Times, who are creating communities around their brands and using internal experts and employee advocates.

“Consumers want to be treated like individuals, not demographics,” says Hootsuite. “They’re demanding more value in exchange for their time and information. The pendulum has swung back to social’s roots: real, personal, and authentic.”

Adopting new ways of communication on social media will also be key to engagement this year. Stories are being used everywhere from YouTube to LinkedIn, allowing brands to get creative and have fun with it. Capturing in-the-moment experiences allows users—and brands—to connect with followers with a level of intimacy not found in text alone.

Sixty-four percent of respondents have either implemented Instagram Stories into their social media strategy or plan to do so in the next 12 months. Just over half cite lack of video creation skills and/or budget as a top challenge for doing so, however.

The pendulum has swung back to social’s roots: real, personal, and authentic.

The rising popularity of social media advertising has resulted in a surge in prices. According to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2018 report, Facebook click-through-rate (CTR) costs have jumped 61 percent. Cutting through the noise of social media advertising is a challenge, but can be achieved through personalization, entertainment and creativity.

Meanwhile, social ecommerce will continue to grow in 2019, Hootsuite predicts. Just over a quarter of respondents said they have either implemented social commerce or plan to do so in the next 12 months and 17 percent said the same about shoppable galleries.

The final social media trend for the coming year is how brands will interact directly with consumers online. Messaging apps, providing better customer service through social accounts and in-app assistants are some of the ways marketers are connecting intimate connections with consumers.

When asked what their biggest challenges are for the future of social media, respondents named “the decline of organic reach” above all others. Half said that personalization is one of the biggest challenges for the coming year, and 47 percent were concerned about integrating social media across the enterprise to improve CX.

How Attitudes Around Influencer Marketing Shifted In 2018

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Was 2018 the year that influencer marketing finally got taken seriously? It certainly seems like it.

Influencers in gaming and fashion/beauty influencer to fame this year and were paid handsomely for it. But the system isn’t perfect—fraud, fakes and scammers take advantage of a booming industry. The vetting process is getting better and the analytics are tighter. On the other end of the spectrum, with fraud and FTC pressure comes growing transparency between marketers and influencers: To call an ad an #ad.

Longer-term relationships between marketers and influencers are trending up, with some brands creating influencers from in-house. Diversification of influencer campaigns will also continue next year—brands partnering with many micro-influencers rather than the riskier proposition of partnering with a few big ones.

We’re taking a look back at 2018 and what changed in influencer marketing, with anticipation that 2019 will be the format’s biggest year yet.

Strength In Numbers

Many marketers are drawn to influencer marketing because, if done correctly, the ROI and brand awareness consistently positive. In a report by WHOSAY, 89 percent of marketers surveyed agreed that influencer marketing can positively impact how people feel about a brand. Another study found similar results. In “The State of Influencer Marketing” study by Linqia, 86 percent of marketers who used influencer marketing in 2017 and 92 percent found it efficient.

Companies are seeing considerable ROI. According to a study conducted by Tomoson, they’re making $6.50 for $1 spent on influencer marketing. The top 13 percent of businesses earning $20 or more. The study also found influencer marketing is one of the most cost-effective online customer-acquisition channels, along with email.

“I think 2018 is where the industry has grown up in a quite a few different ways. This is now a standard marketing practice for almost every B2C companies…” said Tim Sovay, COO of CreatorIQ.

In some ways, 2018 was a banner year for larger-scale influencers. It was the year Tyler “Ninja” Blevins became a household name. In June, the gamer, who primarily streams Fortnite on Twitch, partnered with Red Bull. He announced the collaboration to his fans after his regular Sunday stream and simultaneously revealed he would compete in Red Bull Rise till Dawn, a Fortnite Battle Royale duo competition.

A few months later, Blevins appeared in a Samsung commercial with rapper Travis Scott to promote the Galaxy Note 9. The commercial centers around a young woman who fantasizes of being an eSports star. Right at the start, her mother walks into her room and says, “Honey, the local game store wants to sponsor you.” Her daydream concludes with Blevins calling her up to the national team.

Uber Eats also partnered with Blevins, challenging him to eat one doughnut per elimination on Fortnite during his first stream of the day.

Beauty Influencer Jackie Aina—who was named Beauty Innovator of the Year by Refinery29 and Influencer of the Year by WWD—joined forces with beauty brand Two Faced to increase darker shades in its Born This Way foundation line. The highly anticipated shades were released this summer and it proved to be a massive success. The deepest shade, Ganache, sold out on Too Faced’s website on June 28, two days after the launch.

Jerrod Blandino, Too Faced’s co-founder and chief creative officer, approached Aina when he realized their shade range needed help.

The vlogger—known for being outspoken about diversity and inclusion in the beauty business—called out Tarte’s Shape Tape concealer for not having enough dark shades and even made a vlog showcasing the worst makeup for POC.

Fake Followers And Ways They Can Actually Help

Transparency and authenticity will continue to be major topics of discussion in 2019. During Cannes, Unilever’s CMO Keith Weed announced the brand will not work with influencers who buy followers and stated Unilever wouldn’t buy followers either. He urged the industry as a whole to take action on rebuilding integrity and trust.

There are several ways to spot a fake account like spikes in follower or a large number of followers from foreign countries.

Authentic influencers get followers from posting lots of content over months or years and those with hardly any posts are usually fake. Bogus accounts usually don’t follow too many people and their comments can be a dead giveaway.

“This is where I think measurement becomes really important, where it’s not just about reach and views, but understanding that authentic connection,” said Stephanie Chevalier, senior director of brand, content and community for Tubular Labs, a social video analytics company.

“From our perspective, I think a general trend that’s happened is a sort of shift from building for platforms to building for an audience,” said Chevalier. “It’s about really returning back to the basics of building authentic connections with your audience through the content you’re creating.”

In 2018, many brands brought influencers in-house, including L’Occitane and Birchbox. Brands are using one of two different models. They’re either creating an influencer team to manage all aspects of campaigns independently or hiring a manager to strategize influencer marketing and continuing to leave the bulk of the work with external agencies.

For example, Reebok hired Purvi Patel as their senior manager of influencer marketing and operations to develop a team to handle the brand’s digital influencer marketing campaigns. In order to review the hundreds of influencers, Reebok uses agencies and other tools to do the pre-vetting work.

“Many brands still look for that one celebrity they can lock up in a contract in sponsorship, but now there is an opportunity to increase; to build an influencer network that helps you get your story out across thousands,” said Neil Patil, CCO of Tubular Labs.

Large brands may still be aiming for large- or macro-influencers, but their smaller equivalent—micro-influencers—play an important role going forward. Micro-influencers are cheaper and more approachable with follower counts in the range of 1K to 100K.

A study by Markerly found that micro-influencers have better engagement. Still, some believe it’s not how big or small an influencer is, it’s all about what is best for your brand.

“It really doesn’t matter the level of the talent, it depends on the idea and once you have the idea if you would like it to involve mommy bloggers or local smaller reach talent—if it matches your idea great—those same lower-level talent are going to reach 7 to 25 percent of their fan camps, so it’s a mathematical process,” said Steve Ellis, CEO and founder of WHOSAY.

“You can have one person with a million followers to reach 7 to 25 percent of their followers or you can have 1,000 people with 1,000 followers reach the same 7 to 25 percent. Frankly, it’s hard to manage 1,000 people, but ultimately the math is uniform.”

Transparent, Authentic Content

One thing has been really clear this year: transparency is vital. The Federal Trade Commission ruled paid advertisements must be disclosed by influencers to clearly reveal their relationships to brands. They sent more than 90 letters to marketers and influencers to remind them that they need to “clearly and conspicuously disclose their relationship to brands.”

Instagram created the “paid partnership” tag for posts and stories to make it clearer to users when the content is sponsored. However, it seems some brands and influencers aren’t sticking to the rules.

Most recently, beverage company Diageo was accused of running a noncompliant Cîroc influencer campaign. Truth in Advertising (TINA) along with the FTC felt Sean “Diddy” Combs and other influencers failed to properly disclose connections to Cîroc. If the accusations are found to be legitimate it could hurt consumer trust.

This situation is not shocking. Last year, Diddy got a letter from the FTC reminding him of the ad disclosure rules and Diageo got one from TINA for undisclosed Cîroc ads with DJ Khaled.

However, it’s getting more complicated. The Atlantic recently published a story about Instagrammers posting fake sponsored content and staging fabricated ads to get the attention of brands in hopes that they get their first sponsorship deal.

There is an aspirational quality to many influencers and the “influencer” experience is so ingrained in popular culture that everyday people want the feeling of being one—and the perks that come with it.

In October, Sephora hosted the beauty retailer hosted its first Sephoria House of Beauty in Los Angeles which drew crowds with its bevy of samples, Instagrammable activations, master classes, product customizations and celebrity appearances. It was also a chance for Sephora to learn more about their customers and beyond just making a transaction—every attendee had an RFID tag to track engagement.

Going Forward

“Authenticity” will be the most important word for influencer marketing in 2019. For a campaign to be successful it must feel or be genuine.

Payless’ fake luxury boutique Palessi is an example of influencer marketing gone wrong. Attendees didn’t know they were looking at actual Payless shoes marked up at a much higher price. One good thing is that the shop didn’t keep any of the money from the purchases, but it didn’t leave a good impression on millennials according to YouGov.

Influencer marketing will continue leaning towards video and live streaming—it’s hard to fake “authenticity” in real-time. With this in mind, look for “genuine” influencers to continue to thrive.

“We like to think of it as quality views, where people are actually making the choice to watch your content and stay engaged for quite a long time. There are real people at the other end of it,” said Nate Harris, marketing manager for CreatorIQ.

Instagram is currently the main platform for influencer marketing, but emerging channels such as TikTok could become a strong competitor.

Advancement in measurement and other technology will also lead the way in the evolution of influencer marketing.

“When we got into the business back in 2014, the primary metric that we could report to our clients was impressions. Less than five years later, a consumer can see an influencer’s ad on social media and we can track—in an anonymized and consented fashion—if they went into a store, how long they dwelled there, and in some cases, if they even made a purchase,” said Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential, a social intelligence company.

“2019 will be the year of attribution. The Holy Grail for marketers is being able to measure if their marketing spends led to getting shoppers into a store and ultimately making a purchase.”

This Week’s Exec Shifts: Sara Lee Names Chief Marketing Officer; Burberry Names CMO

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This week’s executive shifts include a new chief marketing officer for Sara Lee Frozen Bakery, PepsiCo’s new CEO line-up, Burberry’s new CMO, Clorox’s new GM for Nutranext, Native Instruments’ new CMO, a new marketing chief for Eve Sleep, a newly created global head of digital marketing role for BNP Paribas Asset Management, a CMO for Wynn Resorts, IFB appoints a chief marketing and strategy officer and Valiant Entertainment says goodbye to its senior marketer.

Check out our careers section for executive job openings and to post your own staffing needs.

Sara Lee Frozen Bakery Names CMO

Ryan Malone has joined Sara Lee Frozen Bakery as chief marketing officer. Malone brings over 25 years of food company experience and joins Sara Lee from McCain Foods USA, where he served a number of roles including senior director of marketing.

Malone held several marketing roles at Kellogg Company and Kraft Foods where he worked on iconic brands like Pop-Tarts, Special K and Maxwell House. He also worked for Kronos Foods in both sales and marketing leadership role.

Burberry Names Chief Marketing Officer

Rod Manley has been appointed chief marketing officer at Burberry effective January 1, 2019. Manley joins the brand from Calvin Klein where he served as executive vice president of influence marketing and communications.

Manley also previously held a position at Giorgio Armani.

Blumhouse Pegs Netflix PR For New Marketing Head

Karen Barrigan is joining horror producer Blumhouse as its new head of marketing and communications. Barrigan was the vice president of publicity for Netflix original series, including House of Cards.

Fisher And Paykel Appoints Head of Marketing

Appliance brand Fisher and Paykel has appointed Richard Babekuhl to the role of head of marketing. Babekuhl joins the brand from KitchenAid, where he served as marketing director. He brings over 17 years of experience to the role, including various positions with Breville and Electrolux

IHeartMedia Appoints SVP Of Marketing

Eric Hadley has joined iHeartMedia as the new senior vice president of marketing. Hadley brings a wealth of sales and marketing experience to the role—he most recently served as chief marketing officer for GroundTruth and his career includes Microsoft, The Weather Channel and Outbrain.

Geico Promotes For VP Of Marketing

Geico’s assistant vice president of marketing Joe Pusateri has been promoted to vice president of marketing, the company announced Thursday.

BMW Names Head Of Brand Management

BMW has appointed Jens Thiemer as its new head of brand management. Thiemer joins the automobile manufacturer from Mercedes-Benz, where he served as vice president of marketing and then later CMO.

Speaking on the appointment, Pieter Nota, BMW brand sales boss, said: “I am delighted that Jens Thiemer, a highly experienced marketing specialist, is joining us at this time. Our joint goal is to achieve a seamless brand experience for our customers, across all touchpoints.”

Boxed CMO Joins Clorox As Nutranext GM

Jackson Jeyanayagam has been hired by Clorox to be the vice president and general manager for Nutranext direct-to-consumer operations. He joins the consumer goods giant from Boxed, where he served as chief marketing officer.

His career includes a number of CMO advisory positions and he spent a year as head of digital marketing for Chipotle.

Native Instruments Appoints Chief Marketing Officer

Paul Jeszenszky has joined music production and DJ technology brand Native Instruments as its new chief marketing officer. Jeszensky brings over a decade of marketing leadership experience to the role and most recently served as growth officer for pet-sitting network Rover.com. His career includes marketing roles for eBay, Google and Airbnb.

As chief marketing officer, Jeszensky will oversee Native Instruments’ global marketing and communications strategy to drive its growth under the brand message of “anyone can make music.”

Atlantic Records UK Promotes For Marketing Director

Callum Caulfield has been promoted to marketing director of Atlantic Records UK. Caulfield joined the music label in 2012 as senior marketing manager and worked his way up the ranks to head of marketing in 2016. Prior to joining Atlantic, he held marketing roles at Mercury Labels and Columbia Records.

“He will no doubt drive us into a new era of greater personalized marketing and authentic story-telling,” Atlantic Records UK general manager Katie White said in a statement.

PBS Distribution Creates Marketing VP Position, Taps Former AMC Exec

PBS Distribution has appointed Jen Robertson to the newly created role of VP of marketing. Robertson joins the brand from Global Series Network International’s Walter Presents, where she served as GM. Her career also includes 15 years at AMC Networks, most recently as SVP, digital media and business development, for WE tv.

Eve Sleep Names Chief Marketing Officer

Eve Sleep has appointed Cheryl Calverley as its new chief marketing officer. Calverley joins the DTC mattress company from the Automobile Association, where she served as marketing director. Her experience includes senior marketing roles at Unilever and Birds Eye Iglo.

Houston Symphony Welcomes New CMO

The Houston Symphony named Gwen Watkins as its new chief marketing officer effective January 2, 2019. She most recently served as associate head of marketing and communications for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

BNP Paribas Names Global Head Of Digital Marketing

BNP Paribas Asset Managment as appointed Hilda Tingle as the global head of digital marketing in a newly created role beginning January 7. Tingle joins the financial giant from JP Morgan, where she served as head of digital engagement. She brings over 20 years of experience to the position.

“. . . Hilda’s expertise in areas including marketing automation and digital strategy and transformation will be invaluable as BNP Paribas Asset Management continues to enhance its digital capability,” commented BNP Paribas CMO Roger Miners.

Dunkin’ Brands Promotes For Marketing SVP

Tom Manchester has been promoted to senior vice president of integrated marketing for Dunkin’ US. Manchester has worked with Dunkin’ Brands for 17 years and most recently served as vice president of field marketing, leading the brand’s sports marketing initiatives.

In this new role, Manchester will be responsible for culinary innovation, consumer insights, brand marketing and field marketing.

CraftWorks Names Chief Experience Officer

Josh Kern has joined CraftWorks Holdings as chief experience officer (CXO). Prior to joining the restaurant brand, Kern served as chief marketing officer for Cerca Trova Restaurant Concepts, the nation’s largest franchisees of Outback Steakhouse.

In this new position, Kern will oversee strategy, marketing and digital for CraftWorks’ portfolio of brands, including Logan’s Roadhouse, Rock Bottom Restaurants Inc. and Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group Inc.

IndyCar Appoints New Company President

IndyCar has promoted Jay Frye to company president. Frye joined Hulman & Company, the parent of IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in 2013 as chief revenue officer and most recently held the position of president, competition and operations.

WeAre8 Names Chief Marketing Officer

Danny Tawiah has joined the executive team at WeAre8 as chief marketing officer. Tawiah previously served as vice president of global digital brand innovation at Nike.

Speaking on the new hire, Sue Fennessy, founder and CEO of WeAre8, said: “Danny has a natural gift for creating deep emotional connections between people and brands, and his incredible vision and storytelling ability will be a major asset to our partners and clients as they invite millions of people to help tell their brand story.”

Wynn Resorts Appoints Chief Marketing Officer

Casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd. has named Scott Moore as its new chief marketing officer effective January 2, 2019. Moore joins the company from Augeo, where he served as chief operating officer for just over a year. His experience also includes owning his own consultancy firm and serving as senior vice president of marketing for Best Buy.

IFB Appliances Names Chief of Marketing, Strategy

Niladri Datta has joined IFB Appliances as chief marketing and strategy officer. Datta previously served 15 years at LG India, most recently as head of corporate marketing.

Valiant Entertainment’s Senior Marketer Exits

Senior marketing and communications manager Victoria McNally has exited Valiant Entertainment, she confirmed on Twitter. McNally held marketing communication roles at the comic book publisher for just over a year. Prior to joining Valiant, McNally worked as an entertainment writer for outlets like Nerdist, Bustle and MTV.

Editor’s Note: Our weekly careers post is updated daily. This installment will be updated until Friday, December 21. Have a new hire tip? We’re looking for senior executive role changes in marketing and media. Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.

Job Vacancies 

Executive Director, Chief Marketing Officer Lenovo Chicago, IL
Global Head (CMO) of Print Marketing HP Palo Alto, CA
Vice President, Marketing Strategy and Project Management Paramount Pictures Hollywood, CA
Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Origins North America Estée Lauder Virtual, USA
Head of Integrated Marketing, Fire TV Amazon Seattle, WA
VP, Retail Marketing Yamaha Buena Park, CA

Make sure to check back for updates on our Careers page.

Every Publication Wrote “How To Delete Facebook” Articles; Snapchat Brings Back Big Ben

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This week in social media news, every publication tells you how to delete your Facebook, Snapchat brings back Big Ben, Facebook knows your location even when you think they don’t, Snap gets another new Spectacles boss, influencers are posting fake branded posts and TikTok hits 500 million users.

Every Publication Writes “How To Delete Your Facebook” Article

Nearly every publication and their mother wrote a “How To Delete Your Facebook” article in the last 24 hours. Is this a sea change we haven’t seen before?

Why it matters: With the continuous stream of bad news for Facebook, the brand has seen massive damage to it’s reputation in 2018. There have always articles about what to do when you delete Facebook, but this feels different. If users leave, marketers are sure to follow.

Details: In the wake of yesterday’s Facebook news meltdown, publications like Fortune, USA Today, Slate, Newsweek, NBC News all ran “How To Delete Your Facebook”-type articles. Sure, they are re-upping old articles for clicks, but with each consecutive drop of bad news for Facebook, we get closer to people actually leaving the platform. Remember, it seemed not too long ago, that MySpace would be around forever. 

Snapchat Brings Back Big Ben With AR Filter

Snapchat debuted a Big Ben AR filter and it even chimes every 15 minutes.

Why it matters: For Londoners who miss seeing the old clock, the AR filter offers a bit of reprieve. This is fairly unique for Snapchat, in terms of highlighting a monument in its actual space. However, they collaborated with Jeff Koons a few years ago on something similar.

Details: As reported by The Daily Mail, Snapchat brought back Big Ben with an AR filter, showing the large clocktower enveloped in a snow globe. The clock is under restoration for at least four years and currently covered in scaffolding.

Facebook Knows Your Location, Even When You’ve Turned It Off

Users can’t really control Facebook’s location settings and this is not good news for marketers serving ads.

Why it matters:  Facebook’s advertising principles and even announcements from the VP of ads say that its ad preferences tool allows you to control your ad experience, but a post on Medium reveals its deceptive to users and advertisers. The company doesn’t supply any real controls and this can be very damaging to advertisers. No one wants to get ads related to a private location, such an abortion clinic, and get ads for baby clothes while using the platform.

Details: The reporter found that even when Location Services was set to “never,” she still got ads targeted to the city she lives in, works and even traveled to.  What’s even more alarming is that her profile didn’t contain her current city or any recent pictures.

Snap Has A New Boss for Its Spectacles Unit

Snap’s hardware unit–SnapLab–is getting a new boss once more, the third one in the last six months.

Why it matters:  The Spectacles haven’t been very popular. There were initially long lines to buy them, but the product turned out to be more of a fun gadget, only selling about 220,000 pairs. However, Snap’s CEO believes the Spectacles are important to Snap’s future plans.

Details: In February, Steen Strand will head the unit in charge of its Spectacles photo and video sunglasses. The current leader, Sahil Sharma, assumed the post in July. There has been a lot of turnover in SnapLab since the spectacles came out in 2016 and the change comes right after Snap announced it’s releasing the third version of its Spectacles.

Influencers Faking Sponsored Content To Look More Credible

Promoting products is a sign of a successful influencer and many are “faking it till they make it” to attract brands because it’s so hard to get that first sponsorship deal.

Why it matters: FTC disclosure has been a hot-button issue this year. But, when influencers create “free” posts, it can put a brand at risk. Some brands like free promotion, but see it as a brand safety issue.

Details: The Atlantic published an article titled, “Rising Instagram Stars Are Posting Fake Sponsored Content,” detailing how influencers go about attracting brands by posting fake branded posts. Some brands believe that reaching out to these fake brand ambassadors is worse than ignoring them.

TikTok is Growing And It’s Time to Make Money

TikTok is planning its monetization strategy, as user numbers continue to increase—500 million so far. In September, the app was the most downloaded app in the US in both Google Play and App Store.

Why it matters: TikTok could be a portal for brands to communicate with China.  They’ve started experimenting with The Honey Partnership, a social media agency, and favorably running ads in its Asian market. It also launched its first major UK holiday marketing campaign this year, targeting Millennial and Gen-Z generations.

Details: In 2018, TikTok entered into a global partnership with MTV EMA awards as a streaming partner. It’s curating its own influencers such as body painter Vicky Banham, who has gathered about 1.3 million followers. Stefan Heinrich, TikTok’s head of global marketing told The Drum that they’re still investing “heavily in the user experience.”

Facebook Learned the Hard Way, Now They’re Vetting Political Ads in India

Facebook is looking ahead to India’s general election in 2019 and planning an offline process of vetting locations and identities of political advertisers.

Why it matters: Recently, Facebook announced they would enforce stricter controls on political ads. This year they opened a public archive that lets users see the buyers of political ads in order to be more transparent. It’s part of the effort to gain back trust after the 2016 Us Presidential elections.

Details: The social media giant reportedly wrote an email to Indian advertisers and agencies to send proofs of who they are if they want to advertise on Facebook. They will also be visited by an India-based team for authentication. Any advertiser who wants to run an ad must confirm their identity and location.

A New Report Shows Sweeping Analysis of Russia’s Disinformation Campaign

A draft obtained by The Washington Post offers new information explaining how Russians, working at the Internet Research Agency, used social media platforms to target messaging to help elect Trump.

Why it matters: The research—prepared for the Senate—is the first to analyze the millions of posts by Russia’s disinformation campaign around the 2016 election. It’s the latest evidence that the Russians directed their efforts at getting conservatives amped-up on gun rights and immigration issues.

Details: The research, by Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika, was gathered from data provided by Facebook, Twitter and Google. However, the authors emphasized the social platforms’ “belated and uncoordinated” response to the disinformation campaign. They also targeted African American voters by spreading deceptive information on how to vote in order to help Trump win.

Facebook’s ‘Clear History’ Feature Taking Longer Than Expected

Facebook announced its product “Clear History’ in May, but Facebook users won’t see it for a few more months.

Why it matters: The feature will let Facebook users the ability to clear the browsing history connected to their profile. Browsing data is crucial to target people with advertising, but the issue of privacy is really important to Facebook—especially after the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal—and this delay isn’t the best news for the company.

Details: According to a story published by Recode, it might take a whole year between the feature announcement and product testing. Facebook pointed out there are two technical challenges. One is that the company’s data is not always stored the same way it’s collected and the second is that they store browsing data by date and time, not by which user it belongs to.

Editor’s Note: Our weekly social media news post is updated daily. This installment will be updated until Friday, December 21. Have a news tip? We’re looking for changes to and news surrounding social media platforms as they relate to marketing. Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.

Twitter Releases Best Brand Moments Of 2018

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Twitter’s released their ‘Best of’ 2018, recognizing brands that stood out on the platform this year with humor or engagement—or found other interesting ways to use the platform. Ryan Oliver, Twitter’s head of US/Canada brand strategy, selected the winners, which include KFC, Wendy’s and Budweiser. Sections include ‘Best 6-Second Video,” “Best Launch Moment,” and “Best Brand Purpose.” Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

Best Brand Voice: @KFC

KFC made a lot of headlines this year, from its chicken scented log to streetwear, it’s no surprise they made the platform’s ‘best of’ list. The moment that stood out to Twitter was when KFC live-tweeted General Hospital. Many followers asked for more, one fan replied, “I hope you keep this up.” Twitter also applauded the Colonel’s comeback on the platform.

Best Digital To Physical Activation: @SiliconHBO

Silicon Valley made fun of the boom in food delivery apps by creating their own called “SliceLine.” Much like Priceline, the popular travel site, it finds users the cheapest choices with an added bonus: drone deliveries. On the premiere of Silicon Valley’s fifth season, HBO used Twitter to deliver pizza to fans who used the #SliceLine hashtag, some actually received their food via drone.

Best Banter: @Wendys and @LittleDebbie

Wendy’s is known for its snarky Twitter voice and beefing with other fast-food spots. Oliver says Wendy’s is top dog when it comes to it, “NOBODY is better at Twitter banter.” The hamburger joint’s “Twitter talk show” with Little Debbie won this category. Using the same talk show format, we saw Pop Tarts and Moonpie jump into the fun conversation.

Best 6-Second Video: @Tide

Earlier this year Tide won a Grand Prix Cannes Lions and Twitter’s first #BrandBowl with their “It’s a TideAd,” which spoofs most stereotypical TV ads. The commercial came back during early in the NFL season using famous players and Fox’s entire on-air personality team. Sports Analyst Mike Pereira used the telestrator not to mark-up a football replay, but to show how clean a football player’s white pants were.

Best Use of Creators: @NBAonTNT

Grassroots meets Twitter. The NBA on TNT partnered with Niche, the platform’s creator community, to work with local artists in key NBA cities. The artists, from places like Boston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia shared their art via social media and it was featured in NBA Tip-Off OOH ads. The beautiful artwork was also shown on Twitter in a “Heart to Remind” campaign.

Best Brand Purpose: @nike

Nike’s Kaepernick ad was among the most groundbreaking of 2018. The black and white photo of Kaepernick’s face with the words “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything,” stirred a heated conversation throught the platform and the country.

Best Event Activation: @budweiser

Budweiser was the most-mentioned brand on Twitter during this summer’s World Cup. It’s Man of the Match polls let fans vote for their favorite player during each match. Budweiser generated 115 billion impressions as a result of the polling activation, a combined effort by FIFA, Twitter and Bud.

Best Launch Moment: @heinzketchup_us

Mayochup, a combo of ketchup and mayo, got a lot of buzz in 2018. The concoction generated one billion impressions in the first 48 hours of launch. Someone tweeted a photo of the product from a Kuwait grocery store and it turned into a Twitter debate on whether it should be sold in other countries. This gave Heinz the idea to create a Twitter poll asking if Mayochup should be released in the US with over 500,000 voting yes.

CMO Council: European Marketers Fail To See Path Between Social Media, CX

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Social media channels offer a real-time look into consumer experience, but many European brands don’t bother to listen, according to the CMO Council. Failure to view social engagement as anything but a free marketing push is costing European brands the contextual and personalized engagement they need.

The CMO Council published a new report this week called “Turn Up The Volume: Rethinking Where and How Customer Voice Enhances Experience.” Statistics include insights from 150 marketers across Europe, with 42 percent of respondents in charge of organizations with revenue in excess of $500 million.

Nearly a quarter of European marketers surveyed admitted that they do not have a strategy in place to listen on social media. Just 27 percent said they actively listen for the voice of the customer, while another 36 percent listen with a limited scope.

When asked how their respective organizations view social media channels, 64 percent consider them to be PR amplification tools and just over half—55 percent—see them as a free push for marketing. Just 35 percent see social media as a “critical listening post to gather customer voice.”

“It is sobering to see that even in this age of omnichannel real-time engagement, so many organizations choose to view social as a free push tool and not a megaphone leveraged by customers who fully believe brands are already listening,” noted Liz Miller, CMO Council’s SVP of marketing.

To be fair, not all customers expect social engagement from a brand at all. According to the CMO Council’s own 2017 consumer study, social media was considered a critical touchpoint by just 27 percent of consumers.

Just because a consumer isn’t expecting a brand to listen, however, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. Marketers should not assume that consumers aren’t sharing relevant information. Even if social posts aren’t about the brand itself, customers are having conversations about what matters to them, the CMO Council notes.

Collecting information directly from the consumer was named the top challenge among European marketers at 40 percent, followed by “translating words into insights on intention” at 39 percent. Other concerns included the ability to understand noise vs. signal, managing the flood of data from all touchpoints and adding voice into the customer view across the enterprise.

The solution to this problem may become apparent once brands correct misconceptions around social and data, the CMO Council asserts. Marketers were asked to identify what gaps are holding the organization back from better listening to and engaging with the customer in real time.

Respondents struggled to single out one issue that if resolved, would allow the organization to achieve success. At 18 percent, however, marketing leaders blamed budget more than talent, data, tech and measurement.

We’ve Reached Peak Branded Holiday Sweaters

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It is safe to say that 2018 has seen the largest amount of branded swag from brands like Taco Bell and Pillsbury, just to name a few. The ironic holiday fashion piece has grown in popularity and has generated strong demand with consumers interested in buying limited edition merchandise or getting a chance to get free swag through giveaways on social media.

Branded Holiday Sweaters Prove To Be Popular

Tipsy Elves, known for making ugly sweaters, partnered up with Captain Morgan to create a line of ugly Christmas sweaters, onesies and leggings. Additionally, Tipsy Elves is the official sponsor of National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day on December 2, adding more reasons to purchase a sweater. Currently, three of the four sweaters are sold out.

Pillsbury’s holiday sweaters also saw high demand when they were released. The doughboy ugly Christmas sweaters went on sale on December 5 and quickly sold out, but the company gave fans a second chance to get the sweaters through a giveaway. The company encourages fans to wear the doughboy ugly sweater and share their photos on social media using the hashtag #Pillsbury.

Famed burger chain Whataburger also had highly popular holiday sweaters. The first batch of the bright orange sweaters—going for $42.99­–was gone immediately when they launched in November.

Miller Lite made its own ugly sweater and Dodge didn’t miss out on making its version of the holiday trend. 

IHOP also debuted its online shop PancakeWear dedicated to the breakfast item. Their collection includes leisurewear clothes and of course two Christmas sweaters. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of one piece and lounge pant will benefit children’s health and wellness charities.

Most recently, Windows announced its “softwear.” Their throwback sweater has the old Windows 95 logo which the company is giving away to a few lucky winners via Twitter.

Iconic music venue First Avenue released two holiday sweaters. The Minneapolis-based nightclub partnered with Ragstock. The neighboring clothing brand had an increase of “ugly sweater” related searches by 200 percent between 2012 and 2015.

“We’ve definitely noticed an uptick in bands releasing their own knits,” said Zach Nagle, eCommerce director at Ragstock. “With First Avenue being such a legendary venue, we thought they should have their own sweaters, too.”

Influencers Tap Into The Trend

Food and fashion marketers aren’t the only ones banking on the ugly sweater. YouTuber Felix ‘PewDiePie” Kjelberg teamed up with UglyChristmasSweater.com to create a line of holiday products. The black and red sweater features the Swedish star dressed as Santa. The PewDiePie line includes socks, jumpsuits and beanies.

The e-commerce site also collaborated with Fortnite star Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins. There are three ugly Christmas sweaters with his logo. There is even a sales incentive; customers can use the code ‘Ninja’ to buy one and get one half off.

Popeyes Launches ‘Emotional Support Chicken’ For Holiday Travelers

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Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen launched a cheeky, humorous holiday travel campaign with its ‘Emotional Support Chicken,’ a new carrier for its three-piece chicken combo. The paper box is in the shape of a chicken with an emotional support vest and is available to those traveling through the Philadelphia Airport, one of the country’s busiest airports.

The fast-food company got their idea from travelers “pushing the envelope” and taking all sorts of animals, like peacocks, squirrels and tarantulas as emotional support animals on planes. The animals provide comfort and companionship, so it makes sense to make fried chicken—traditionally seen as comfort food—as a travel buddy.

Though it may ruffle some feathers, Popeyes says it’s all in good fun.

“We hope to bring travelers a good laugh and a hot meal to ease the stress of holiday travel,” said Hope Diaz, chief marketing officer of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.

This is not the first time Popeyes has used tongue-in-cheek marketing. In November, the QSR offered a 12-hour drive-thru in honor of its 12-hour marinating process. Fans looking for a road trip could place their order at the standalone menu board along Interstate 10 outside of Fort Stockton, Texas, but, they had to pick up their order in New Orleans—12 hours away.

Once they arrived in New Orleans, they were met with a band to rejoice their accomplishment.

Popeyes also cooked up a fancy recipe with its 24-karat gold battered chicken. The boneless wings were also dipped in champagne. Like the Emotional Support Chicken, it wasn’t available nationwide.

“Popeyes is a brand born in Louisiana, that takes pride in its heritage and authenticity. We are festive and lively, with southern charm and light-hearted humor,” said Diaz.

Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits became Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in 2008.  The former chief brand officer told Nation’s Restaurant News that changing the name and logo was “just one step in elevating the brand.” He also noted Popeyes had an advantage over its competitors with its spicier option. The demand for spicier options has been blamed on millennials.

No word on if the Emotional Support Chicken will make an appearance at other airports, for now Philadelphia Airport travelers will be the exclusive patrons. The city of Philadelphia has seen its fair share of marketing fun lately.

A Look Back At The Past Decade Of Online Magazine Evolution

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Originally published at AW360 by Mario Peshev.

Online magazines, formerly referred to as “ezines” or “webzines,” have penetrated the digital space since the ’90s, growing in popularity over the coming two decades.

With the growing popularity of the Internet and increased use of personal computers, consumers have gradually transferred to consuming information online. Traditional print magazines had to consider the digital presence of their brands to stay relevant and retain their loyal offline audience.

Fast-forward to 2018, the web looks and works differently. Social media is a major source of traffic alongside organic search, mobile sites are the standard, advertising revenue is substituted with memberships and strategic partnerships. Here’s how the web changed over the past 10 years.

2008

Desktop computers were the main source of consuming Internet content. While laptops were gaining traction fast, the average speeds of 3.6 Mbit/s in most corporate offices and homes were still prohibitive for mobile consumers (in addition to the poor user experience on the mobile devices to date).

AARP was a leading online player among consumer magazines, with National Geographic, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, and People gathering large audiences in the millions of monthly users. Traditional magazines have switched from launching separate online versions supplementing their print issues to releasing their content online — as paid online subscriptions or releasing old prints for free.

Facebook went live in 2006 and some brands have started promoting through the social network in 2008 and 2009. Language and geographical targeting were announced soon after, helping publishers reach their ideal audience online.

2009 – 2010

A few major events have marked the beginning of a new decade at the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010.

The launch of iPads in 2010 has shaken the reign of desktop computing for good. While smartphones have been slowly making their way in the digital bandwidth space, tablets were the natural continuation of mobile devices with sufficient screen size for actual work.

Apple’s notorious brand and its loyal followers helped launching the first two iPad issues, Time in April and Wired in June 2010.

And do you remember Flash? Around that same time, Digital Magazine Awards was won by iFly Magazine, an interactive landing page with animations and floating buttons running on the proprietary Adobe Flash framework.

And iPhones have never supported Flash. But mobile traffic was merely 1 percent in 2010, and Flash was both a hatred toolkit and one of the few popular ways of building interactive online apps. And the world was split into purely web versions of magazines and an iPad-specific app for every brand.

2011 – 2012

Monetizing online content was hard, especially when hiring professional journalists and writers. The New York Times announced their premium subscription in 2011, along with a wave of other media outlets launching paid plans or freemium reads.

Jakob Nielsen’s report on the usability of websites and tablets released in 2011 outlines multiple problems with iPad editions of online magazines building specific apps for the iPad:

  • Touchable areas in many apps are too narrow
  • There’s a high rate of incorrect activities due to wrongful touches
  • Discovery isn’t intuitive due to poor UX
  • Inconvenient writing on iPads compared to computers is affecting the registration process

Suddenly, the growth of tablet use was questioned. Poor UX was leading to lower adoption, and insufficient writing capabilities made the sign-up process (and certain forms of payments) obsolete or simply cumbersome.

2013 – 2015

Thus, Mashable announced 2013 the year of Responsive Design, strongly suggesting that all websites can (and should) go mobile-friendly with little to no effort thanks to technological advancements over the past years.

The ad-driven model has become wildly successful and ruled the world, but facing additional oppression by ad stoppers. AdBlock was first introduced in 2009, it wasn’t as popular yet and Internet Explorer was still a dominant browser for a few years, but Google Chrome took over and became the leading browser supplementing the #1 search engine with a powerful collection of free browser apps (extensions).

Publishers kept mixing ad-driven content with premium subscriptions or donations, sometimes with additional reads and private articles available for premium users only. Luckily, hosting fees have become more affordable over the past years, making scalability a slightly cheaper process. The peak of guest blogging for SEO and personal branding reasons was also a secret trick into releasing more high-quality content at little to no cost from external contributors—a concept that was barely touched on during the early years.

2016 – 2018

As compared to 2010, trends have evidently shifted into a new realm.

While Internet Explorer accounted for 60 percent of all traffic in 2010, it struggled retaining 10 percent market share for long. The 1 percent mobile traffic use in 2010 grew to 40 percent in 2016, and TechCrunch reported in November that mobile traffic surpasses desktop for the first time.

Google Chrome replaces Internet Explorer and accounts for 66 percent of all browsers in the latest months. Research in 2016 reports over 600 million devices using Adblock, many of whose mobile as well. Magazines relying solely on ad revenue have been struggling to retain the same revenue and grow slowly with steady traffic but a wider adoption of different ad blockers.

Medium, one of the largest publishing contributing networks, announced a paid membership model in early 2017.

The U.S. presidential election of 2016 brought a mix of uncertainty in social networks like Facebook followed by a set of crisis PR questioning the authority and privacy of content and users hosted on the social network. Coincidentally, Facebook step on the wrong foot with its trial experiments for launching a separate “Explore” feed for pages that users like, sinking the traffic of groups and pages with loyal following.

This led to a strategic shift to membership mixed in with other creative advertisement techniques. The New York Times announced over 3.5 million subscribers, with 300,000 added early in 2017. After the Trump election, other media sources like The Washington Post and The New Yorker have all reported a positive influx of subscribers.

Uncertainties in social media exposure (and the reliability of fan pages) led to discovering new advertorial opportunities. Publishers solely relying on Facebook looked into other networks that work better, including Snapchat, Quora’s new advertising platform and link features, Taboola or Outbrain. Google’s DFP capabilities were pushed to the maximum, leading to a renowned update called Google Ad Manager.

Due to hefty charges on the ad front, header bidding gained popularity, with programmatic solutions like RTK.io gaining adoption and hundreds of billions of ad impressions monthly on top of DFP or self-hosted ad platforms. This led to additional opportunities for sticky and adhesion ad units, implementing flexible layouts for galleries and infinite scroll pages, and other UX improvements supplemented with powerful caching mechanisms. This goes both for traffic arbitrage strategies by some and proven revenue generation for SEO-optimized publishers with plenty of organic or email-derived traffic.

What’s Next?

The dynamic evolution of publishing over the past years have brought technological, creative, and advertorial innovation to major digital publishers.

  • The growth of machine learning now allows for AI-driven opportunities for related posts, personalized newsletters, and customized user feeds.
  • Voice assistants like Alexa and Google Home, along with Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, and Bixby, have significantly increased the voice search traffic, strengthening the importance of featured snippets in Google and content optimized for audio consumption.
  • YouTube took the second place among the largest search engines, increasing the importance of video content within posts, video slideshows, and video-first content transcribed as a post-factum.

This Week’s Exec Shifts: Chevrolet CMO Announces Retirement; Clorox Shifts Marketing Team

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This week’s executive moves include the CMO of Chevrolet planning retirement, a new VP, chief marketing officer for Madison Square Garden Company, Chili’s promoting for head of marketing, Wag! hiring its first marketing chief, Clorox promoting its CMO and appointing another, VidCon appointing its first marketing VP, RCA Music hires an SVP of marketing, La Madeline promotes for VP of marketing, the Philadelphia Fliers picks up marketer for president of business operations and FedEx’s CMO will become the brand’s new CEO.

Check out our careers section for executive job openings and to post your own staffing needs.

Chevrolet CMO To Retire March 1

Tim Mahoney will retire from his position as chief marketing officer of Chevrolet and leader of GM’s global marketing operations effective March 1, 2019. Mahoney has served in the position since 2012 and helped lead the brand into global markets under the campaign “Find New Roads.”

Prior to his time at GM, he held marketing leadership roles at Porsche, Subaru and Volkswagon.

MSG Company Appoints VP, Chief Marketing Officer

Madison Square Garden Company has named Geraldine Calpin as the new vice president and chief marketing officer, effective immediately. Calpin joins the brand from WeWork, where she also served as chief marketing officer. Her experience also includes 16 years at Hilton Worldwide.

As VP and chief marketing officer, Calpin will set an overall marketing and digital vision for MSG and work closely with the company’s executive management team for delivering brand strategies and digital platforms to engage customers.

Save The Cat! Names First CMO

Screenwriting structure brand Save the Cat! has named its first chief marketing officer, Jason Kolinsky. A Cannes Lions award-winning marketer, Kolinksy has served as a consultant to Save the Cat! since last May. Prior to that, he led numerous marketing efforts for agencies including MRM McCann and BBDO Worldwide.

The hire comes at a pivotal time for the late Blake Snyder’s creative brand, as Save the Cat! just announced its first screenwriting competition and released Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, which became #1 on Amazon.

Chili’s Promotes For Head Of Marketing

Ellie Doty has been promoted to the role of SVP, head of marketing for Chili’s Bar & Grill. Doty has been with the restaurant brand since June of 2017 when she joined as vice president of marketing and culinary. Prior to joining Chili’s, Doty served as director of marketing for KFC and brand manager for Taco Bell.

Wag! Appoints Chief Marketing Officer

On-demand dog walking brand Wag! has named Kevin Frisch its first CMO. Frisch joins Wag! from Uber where he served as head of performance marketing and CRM for North America.

Prior to Uber, Frisch also separately served as CMO for GSN Games and Snapfish, and he was also head of marketing at ProFlowers for a number of years. 

Clorox Shifts Marketing Executive Team

The Clorox Company announced several changes to its executive team on Monday, including the CMO. These shifts will take effect on January 7, 2019.

Stacey Grier has been promoted to senior vice president and chief marketing officer. She currently serves as vice president of brand engagement and enhanced wellness marketing.

Eric Reynolds has been promoted to executive vice president of Cleaning and Burt’s Bees. Reynolds previously served as senior vice president and chief marketing officer. In this new role, Reynolds will have responsibility for the Laundry, Home Care, Professional Products and Burt’s Bees businesses.

IKEA Promotes CMO To General Manager

Global chief marketing and communications officer Claudia Willvonseder has been promoted to general manager for IKEA’s Swiss operations. Willvonseder has been with the retailer since 2006 and held a variety of marketing roles before her appointment of chief marketing officer in 2014.

Channel 4 Marketing Chief Exits

Britain’s Channel 4 has announced the early 2019 departure of chief marketing and communications officer (CMCO) Dan Brooke. He exits after eight years in the role, during which time he earned numerous awards including a Cannes Lions Grand Prix in 2016.

Brooke is leaving to launch a purpose-driven marketing and comms business.

VidCon Appoints First VP Of Marketing

VidCon has named Sarah Tortoreti as vice president of marketing. Tortoreti joins the video creators convention from Viacom’s Nickelodeon, where she served as director of marketing and brand strategy for just over two years. VidCon was acquired by Viacom in early 2018.

In this newly created role, Tortoreti will be responsible for the development and management of all aspects of the VidCon brand. This includes overseeing its global marketing strategies across social media and editorial content, as well as internal and external communications.

RCA Music Names SVP Marketing

Archie Davis has been appointed to the role of senior vice president of marketing at RCA Records. Davis is currently CEO of creative agency and production company Six Course.

As SVP of marketing, Davis will oversee marketing campaigns for the company’s artist repertoire. This includes ensuring artists are supported by the right creative resources to grow their brands and careers.

GWS Giants Appoints Interim Marketing Head

Rebecca Hamilton has taken a temporary 12-month role with the Greater West Sydney Giants as head of marketing and experience. She covers for Samantha Blomeley, who is out on maternity leave. Hamilton was previously media director at media agency Bohemia.

Despite the temporary position, Giants’ chief fan and commercial officer Ryan Kaveney said he was thrilled to welcome Hamilton, saying: “With the Giants being based in such a highly competitive entertainment landscape as Sydney, we pride ourselves on being a club like no other and we are excited about what Rebecca can bring to the club.”

FedEx CMO To Succeed CEO Upon Retirement

Raj Subramaniam, currently executive vice president, chief marketing and communications officer of FedEx Corporation, will succeed CEO David Cunningham effective January 1, 2019. Subramaniam has been with FedEx for more than 27 years and has held various executive level positions in several of our operating companies and international regions.

LA Madeline Promotes For VP Marketing

La Madeleine French Bakery & Café has announced the promotion of Jacqueline O’Reilly to vice president of marketing. O’Reilly assumed leadership of the marketing team in January of 2017. Prior to joining the company, O’Reilly served as an account supervisor at TracyLocke, for Pizza Hut, Hewlett-Packard and Sonic Drive-In. She has also served as brand spokesperson for the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile.

Philadelphia Flyers Taps Nationals’ Marketing Chief

Valerie Camillo has joined the Philadelphia Flyers as president of business operations. Camillo was the chief revenue and marketing officer of the Philadelphia Nationals. Before joining the Nationals, Camillo had served as the senior vice president of team marketing and business operations for the NBA.

In this new role, Camillo will also oversee operations at the team’s arena, the Wells Fargo Center

Editor’s Note: Our weekly careers post is updated daily. This installment will be updated until Friday, December 14. Have a new hire tip? We’re looking for senior executive role changes in marketing and media. Let us know at editorial@alistdaily.com.

Job Vacancies 

Executive Director, Chief Marketing Officer Lenovo Chicago, IL
Global Head (CMO) of Print Marketing HP Palo Alto, CA
Vice President, Marketing Strategy and Project Management Paramount Pictures Hollywood, CA
Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Origins North America Estée Lauder Virtual, USA
Head of Integrated Marketing, Fire TV Amazon Seattle, WA
VP, Retail Marketing Yamaha Buena Park, CA

Make sure to check back for updates on our Careers page.