How Social Is Walking The Straight Line Toward Transparency

BY

Measuring return on investment for social networks can be hard enough without having to worry about whether or not your analytics are correct. In an attempt to better serve marketers—and their own reputations—the top social networks are working hard to instill faith in how data is obtained.

After owning up to a number of accidentally inflated metrics, Facebook has been hard at work assuring brands that going forward, Facebook will be more transparent than ever.

“As a partner to over four million advertisers across a wide range of organizations and objectives, we want to provide transparency, choice and accountability,” the company said on its blog last month. “Transparency through verified data that shows which campaigns drive measurable results, choice in how advertisers run campaigns across our platforms, and accountability through an audit and third-party verification.”

Over the coming year, Facebook will get incredibly specific on ad impression data—down to the millisecond. The company is also committing to an audit by the Media Rating Council (MRC) to ensure accurate information is provided to clients.

“Measurement allows marketers to understand the effectiveness of their advertising,” Facebook said in September. “But measurement across different devices, channels and platforms is tough without a consistent denominator. That denominator should be real people. When real people aren’t at the center of your digital measurement campaigns, up to 66 percent of digital conversion events can go unrecognized. People-based measurement tells a better story about how your ads are really performing.”

Although Google denies taking inspiration from Facebook, the company announced in February that it too would be audited to receive MRC accreditation.

“Committing to measurement is critical, but just the first step,” Google said. “We believe that that the industry needs metrics that are trusted, transparent and easily verified. Today, we’re pleased to share several updates on the work we’re doing with third party verification and audit partners to ensure that the metrics available from Google are objective and accurate.”

Despite its popularity, Snapchat does not currently offer on-board analytics for marketers, and very little for users—something that its top creators take issue with. One thing it does regularly disclose are reports detailing when user information was requested and/or provided to government officials.

Twitter has followed suit with its own transparency report and went a step further to break down this data by agency, country, type of request and more.

Social media users love to share every detail about their lives—especially what they ate for lunch—but it’s always good to know what can legally be done with that information, and that goes for businesses, too. Particularly in light of the nation’s political strife, transparency by social networks we use and trust can go a long way—from video views to why the FBI wants your lasagna recipe.

Why Prudential Produced A Film Series Documenting Pain And Perseverance

BY

There is no subject more difficult in life to discuss than the death of a loved one.

Prudential Insurance is trying to turn a painful process of mourning the people who have passed a little easier with the introduction of a film series that explores love, loss, recovery and celebrates life, art and the regenerative power of the human spirit.

Masterpiece of Love is a Prudential-commissioned long-form film series that delves into the lives and heart-wrenching stories of four real policyholders who have endured personal losses. The stories are then transformed by four different artists who turn the stories of the survivors into unique works of art. The series that celebrates love appropriately commenced on Valentine’s Day. Each installment is about 20 minutes long and supports Prudential’s individual life-insurance policy business.

Gail Van Dalen, chief marketing officer at Prudential Individual Life Insurance, joined [a]listdaily to discuss why the financial services corporation is talking about death through an in-house artistic advertising series, and why the sensitive campaign was a difficult discussion that needed to take place.

Why was it important to launch this long-form video series? What is the story Prudential is trying to tell with Masterpiece of Love?

Prudential Individual Life Insurance, through its new campaign Masterpiece of Love, delves into emotional storytelling about the legacy our loved ones have left to us, and the legacy we want to leave behind to those we love. This is what our business is all about. We do more than sell insurance policies. We help people leave a legacy for their loved ones through life insurance. We provide financial assistance that helps people get through difficult times and keep moving forward in life. While the long-form film series format may be new for us, the message is closely aligned with Prudential’s purpose and legacy of helping people achieve financial security for 140 years.

Consumers have to confront mortality when considering life insurance, but these films celebrate life through art. Why are you now talking about death directly?

The film series features interviews with people who describe significant personal losses that changed their lives. But that is not the end of their stories. Next, we shared some personal items that hold great meaning with artists, who then created works of art based on the pieces. These interactions spark deep, meaningful conversations about not only the people who have died, but also the loved ones who are honoring their legacy. Life insurance is more about love and life, than death. And we can’t be afraid to have the real conversations about how people feel when they experience loss. It’s in these real conversations that we can help carry on the legacy that our loved ones have created for us and weave in our own beautiful story. The real stories of the survivors and how their lives have changed because of their loss gives meaning to life insurance. By embracing this, we give greater meaning to what we do.

What are your previous learnings with an inspirational marketing campaign? How are consumers responding to your brand-as-publisher initiative? 

Masterpiece of Love grew out of some social media posts we did last fall during Life Insurance Awareness Month. We saw tremendous engagement and response when we provided people a forum to talk about loved ones they had lost. We felt like we had struck a nerve and were providing a very powerful experience. And so the Masterpiece of Love campaign goes beyond the film series. We have also created an interactive, social sharing space where people can create their own works of art to honor those they’ve lost. Specifically, people can upload a picture of somebody they love who has died and add a brief story about their life. The picture is treated in an artistic way. And readers are responding—people have shared powerful, inspirational stories.

What is going to be Prudential’s social media and influencer marketing campaign strategy to promote the series and microsite?

Masterpiece of Love is being promoted through an integrated plan including earned media, employee communications, content partners, paid content distribution and search, and a robust social media activation plan, as well as several non-traditional tactics, like an exhibit and reception at the Newark Museum that unveiled the completed artwork. Prudential is leveraging Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram for both consumer and B2B audiences to encourage consumers to visit the website to view the films and share their own stories of love and loss as part of a larger digital story. Our content partner Upworthy contributed four original stories, released weekly on their website. The film content is also being distributed via YouTube, the Visible Measures network of sites, and Outbrain. Trailers promoting the series have run in more than 40 theater chains affiliated with America’s Movie Network, the largest in-cinema media company in the United States. And as part of that experience, theatergoers can Shazam-enable the 60-second video to link to two full-length shorts.

Why is branded content currently in favor over traditional ads? Why does that kind of content outperform traditional pre-roll ads?

Branded content focuses on the customer’s needs and wants. Through stories, we can deliver valuable information and hopefully inspire new thoughts or actions. When consumers are ready it is still critical that we clearly explain the value of working with Prudential and the products, services and legacy of care that we provide. But branded content allows us to start with a focus on the consumer, instead of ourselves.

What emerging trends are you zeroing in on in order to explore and innovate the Prudential brand?

Customer experience has been and will continue to be a key focus for individual life as well as for the other businesses of Prudential. We are focused on meeting consumers where they are at and providing first-class service to help them make the best decisions for their situation.

Is there a new product or service that you think will influence future decisions?

We are always seeking to position life insurance as a key component of an overall financial plan. Now we are seeking to make it relevant, and less of a commodity. Continuing to understand the needs of consumers throughout their lifetime assists us with offering solutions to meet their needs.

What is the number one emerging trend for marketers in the insurance field this year?

Life insurance, by its nature, is deeply individualized, so the key to marketing is to reflect that individuality, to meet a prospective customer how, when and where they are to demonstrate that we can address their specific needs with our solutions. Continuing to focus on the consumer first in our conversations and striving for a deeper understanding of their needs will provide us with the ability to offer solutions throughout their lifetime versus leading with a sale of a policy.

Follow Manouk Akopyan on Twitter @Manouk_Akopyan

ESL Explains What Twitter Adds To ESports

BY

Twitter has partnered with ESL and DreamHack to livestream eSports events and original content in 2017. More than 15 events in the ESL One, Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and DreamHack circuits will be livestreamed globally on Twitter. The first ESL livestreamed event occurred this past weekend with IEM Katowice and DreamHack Austin in April will follow.

ESL will also produce live original content for Twitter, including a weekly 30-minute show featuring highlights and behind-the-scenes footage. The live content on Twitter, which is set to begin on March 4, will be available globally at esl.twitter.com, iem.twitter.com, and dreamhack.twitter.com. The livestreams will also include advertising packages with TV-style ad spots combined with original highlight and recap clips that advertisers can sponsor and promote on Twitter.

The first ESL eSports show will debut this week with IEM Katowice with CS:GO being the focus, according to Johannes Schiefer, vice president of social media and editorial at ESL. He talks to [a]listdaily about what Twitter opens up for eSports in this exclusive interview.

Johannes Schiefer,
Johannes Schiefer, vice president of social media and editorial, ESL

Twitter currently works with traditional sports leagues to livestream games. What’s unique about eSports and social media?

The one thing that eSports has that differentiates it from sports is that there is a huge media world around sports with 24-hour channels and sports sections of newspapers. That doesn’t exist for eSports, so when people want to read about what’s going on, get the latest updates or discuss them, they go to social media. That’s where the traffic is around eSports.

A lot of that information is in the social digital space, and the conversation around eSports is particularly heavy on Twitter. All the big players are on Twitter. Every team is on Twitter. The amount of interaction, engagement and story development that takes place on Twitter is disproportionately large in eSports when compared to sports. So bringing the actual content to Twitter so that you can watch it where that conversation is taking place only makes sense.

How has ESL’s relationship evolved over the years?

We’ve been working with Twitter for quite a while. Twitter’s been featured in our shows and we’ve even had the Twitter mirror selfie booth that you’ve seen at the Golden Globes or the Oscars at our events. We’ve been slowly working with them over time to increase what we do. We use Twitter as part of our storytelling. We have all these instant highlights, and when something happens in the stream, two minutes later it’s on Twitter and on our channels. That’s something that we’ve been building with them together over the last two-and-a-half years, and this is just the next step.

What does Twitter open up for this show that will be unique?

You can tie the conversational part of engaging the actual audience with the show much better on Twitter. If you take a hashtag and ask fans to submit things and be part of the show—that’s a huge opportunity that really only exists there. We have this also in our actual broadcasts, where we ask fans to join the conversation @IEM, and people are tweeting in and then suddenly your tweet appears in the show or the caster reads the tweet and laughs about it.

What will be the focus of the Twitter show debut?

It’s probably going to be quite Counter-Strike heavy, simply because the amount of Counter-Strike content that we produce takes up the largest space. That doesn’t mean it won’t hit other games. It’s a product that’s going to evolve to see how it resonates with the community. But at least in the beginning, there’s going to be a lot of CS:GO.

Is the show going to be designed for a live interaction with the community?

It’s definitely where I would want to take it, yes. It’s not a finalized, and I don’t think anything in the show needs to be set in stone right now. I’m generally not a big fan of that kind of stuff anyway. But it’s important that, when designing any kind of entertainment content, you’re taking your distribution channels into account when you’re conceptualizing the product. Live interaction doesn’t necessarily need to happen during that show. We can have segments like Top Match and Top Highlights of the Week, where people can tweet in throughout the entire week for the chance to be in the show. Using the Twitter platform directly to build the content for the show is the unique opportunity there.

ESL runs multiple events and tournaments. Will the show cover all of them?

Yes. It allows us to cover all of our events and tournaments and then theoretically take any new games that come up and bring them into this because, at its core, it’s an eSports show. It’s not going to be a CS:GO show.

Moving forward is there a possibility that you have enough content to support two shows? One focusing on CS:GO while the other follows another game?

That would be my goal, yes. We’re not there at the regular produced eSports content yet, but it’s still early days and our goal should be to move into that direction.

In general, there’s not necessarily a lot of crossover with fans of different eSports games, right?

The challenge of making an eSports show is huge because there are very few eSports fans per se that are just eSports fans and will consume any type of eSports content. They exist, but most fans follow a particular game. It’s difficult to just have a generalist eSports show. But we’re trying to build compelling narratives around different games, different products and then package them so that people regardless of what game they’re watching can somehow still enjoy that concept.

Is there anything unique that you see from a sponsorship standpoint that Twitter and your livestreamed show opens up?

Because you’re reaching different or broader audiences, you’re able to integrate in different ways. One of the interesting things about eSports—in how teams and players and leagues have approached it—is that there’s a high amount of conversation and engagement with the fans, and that’s something that many sponsors are extremely interested in because we can integrate the sponsors into the conversation very easily. It’s not just about putting your logo on a wall.

Gillette a great example of a brand that has just come into the space and they’ve been really active in how they’ve approached this partnership. During the League weekend, you had all of the teams and all of the casters tweeting out pictures of their custom razors because Gillette went the distance and every player had a custom razor with his name on it.

All the fans here are running around with the razors and their social accounts have been interacting with ours, and they’re just really activating. I love what they’ve been doing and this is exactly what is so great also about eSports, because we’re so open to that and the players are so open to that, and building this entire engagement if the sponsors are capable of doing it.

This is something that wouldn’t happen with traditional sports?

Yeah. But that’s the great thing. If the brand is willing to speak that language, they will have that engagement with that audience. Gillette managed to build a lot of goodwill towards themselves by just going out and saying, “Hey look, we made you all custom razors.” And they’re tweeting them out and they’re loving the razors.

How Brands Are Using Instagram’s New Album Feature

BY

Instagram’s newest feature—the ability to combine up to ten photos and/or videos in a single post—has been out for a week now, and to mixed reviews. Mashable has written not one but two articles bemoaning the latest feature and declaring the platform now dead, having betrayed its founding ideals. Whether the introduction of Albums will continue Instagram’s meteoric growth (from 400 million users in 2015 to 600 million by the end of 2016) or drive away users in droves remains to be seen, but savvy brands have seen the potential of Instagram’s latest upgrade. Below is a list of some of the more creative uses of albums in no particular order.

Airbnb

Hospitality giant Airbnb has innovated here by not innovating: they’re using albums on Instagram as, well, albums. Rather than pick one photo that sums up their travel experience, Airbnb has decided to embrace the vacation album aesthetic and packaged together a group of photos taken by one family during a stay in Hawaii. The album puts focus on the atmosphere of their patented brand of accommodation, rather than the one-off beauty shots you see elsewhere.

Levi’s

Levi’s has used the feature to take their followers on set for their latest photo shoots. Any of the images would have made a decent post on their own merits, but combining them allows for interested viewers to take a closer look at the styles on display. It’s giving followers more bang for their (admittedly free) buck, but without cluttering up their feeds.

charity: water

charity: water is giving Tasty a run for its money here, combining the concept of bite-sized visual recipes with an admirable cause. In honor of National Banana Bread Day, the charity showcased an African woman named Tencia’s home recipe, and along the way demonstrated the vital importance of access to clean water. charity: water is using Instagram’s albums to share stories untellable in another format.

Denny’s

Introducing our new line of Cheeodorants™

A post shared by dennysdiner (@dennysdiner) on

Denny’s continues their trademark strategy of surrealist advertising, but now in three dimensions! It’s unclear what “cheeoderant” has to do with all-night diners, but it’s heartwarming to see that their social media team wasn’t forced to pick just one cheese pun to publish. It may be bizarre—it certainly isn’t appetizing—but it is memorable.

Sneaker News

Sneaker News has made varied use of the new feature, but none so successfully as in the example above. It blends in with the rest of their content, but on closer inspection is not just a single photo, but a series of detail shots that in turn allows the viewer to inspect the shoe closer. By the end of the four-photo series, the only thing left to the imagination is the new shoe smell.

Audi

Take it for a spin. #AudiQ3

A post shared by Audi (@audi) on

Audi invites their followers to take the driver’s seat in their latest album post, letting viewers swipe left to get a 360-degree view of the Q3’s opulent interior as it sits in a very photogenic barren parking lot. It’s a marked difference from their usual Instagram fare of action shots of Audis in motion, and it gives the audience at least an inkling of what it might be like to drive one.

Vans

➡️➡️➡️

A post shared by vans (@vans) on

Vans takes an easy concept (lateral movement) and executes on it six times in a row. The result is a series of brief black-and-white videos of a man walking in snazzy new Vans. The scenes could easily have been lifted from a Wes Anderson commercial, and the act of swiping away from the direction of travel adds a neat bit of engagement to an otherwise simplistic ad.

WeWork

The building that’s now home to WeWork Tower Place used to be a gym. We let that inspire the concept for the space, centering the design around vintage sports and giving a nod to the 1996 Olympics that were held in Atlanta. We wanted to maintain a gym-like atmosphere and energy through the use of industrial materials like perforated metal, but also keep it humble by using warm woods and wool. Incorporating bungee cords into the design of the stairs tied those back to the central theme. We turned the gym area into a functional workspace and kept the original running track (and scoreboard) on the mezzanine level to give members a well-lit space to sit or stroll. Another cool touch: basketball flooring repurposed as wall paneling for the phone booths. Our in-house graphic design team (@wearelunchmoney) designed custom wallcoverings to fit the overall concept: a cheering crowd for the pantry area outside of the gym; a unique step-by-step office workout for the conference rooms; and geometric swimmers for the restrooms. Designer @david.silverstein also worked his magic on a mural in the lounge area—another nod to the 1996 Olympics. Swipe through for photos and tap for project credits. #weworkdesign #wearewework

A post shared by WeWork (@wework) on

Co-working space rental service WeWork takes followers on a tour of one of their offices with their album post, showing off their aesthetic. It’s easy to get a sense of the environment from these 10 photos, especially since many of the focal points of the close-ups are visible in the wider shots. The album captures not just the physical features of the space, but the ambiance as well.

ESports Just Got More Social Thanks To ESL And Twitter

BY

ESports are about to get a lot more social, thanks to a partnership between Twitter an ESports League (ESL). Twitter has been an eager adopter of livestream video, particularly in the realm of sporting events, and this agreement will grant streaming rights to the social network, along with an exclusive weekly show.

“Twitter is a very strong eSports platform, where many of our fans and followers already engage with DreamHack events,” Marcus Lindmark, CEO and president at DreamHack, said in a statement. “This will be a shortcut for fans, as they can both watch and engage on the platform at the same time.”

ESL’s partnership with Twitter kicks off right away with the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice tournament on Friday, as well as DreamHack Austin this April. In addition to streaming live tournaments into the indefinite future, ESL will produce Twitter-exclusive highlights for a weekly, half-hour show that will cover eSports events and behind-the-scenes footage.

This news makes a lot of sense, considering ESL’s new partnership with with former Fox TV exec David Hill—who launched Fox Sports in the US—to give its video game competitions more TV-style production values.

The deal covers more than 15 events in the ESL One, Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and DreamHack eSports circuits. According to ESL, the video streams will be available for free worldwide at esl.twitter.com, iem.twitter.com and dreamhack.twitter.com as well as on Twitter’s app for Apple TV, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV.

IEM world championship events across League of Legends, StarCraft II and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) have broken records each year with over 113,000 visitors to the IEM Expo and over 34 million livestream viewers tuning into the action last year. ESL has partnered with Sliver.tv to broadcast in virtual reality, a number of global TV broadcasts and online streams across multiple channels for maximum viewership.

Social media has become a strong ally in the world of eSports, as proven by the recent partnership between Facebook and Activision Blizzard. Ahead of its successful World of Warcraft: Legion expansion, Blizzard made it possible for fans to log in to the game launcher with a Facebook account and stream directly onto the social feed.

Snapchat Lens Games Take Marketing To A New Level

BY

Snapchat lenses are a proven way for users to literally become “the face” of a marketing campaign thanks to augmented reality, but the social king of selfies is taking it a step further by making filters into a game.

In November, Snapchat introduced World Lenses—a way to add virtual elements to a user’s environment such as sparkles, colors, a virtual flashlight and clouds puking rainbows. Perhaps inspired by the success of Pokémon GO (and its many business partnerships), this update laid the groundwork for what would become playable lenses.

Snapchat's new "Princess and Queen" lens upgrade game (Source: Social Media Today)
Snapchat’s new “Princess and Queen” lens upgrade game (Source: Social Media Today)

The games kicked off with a sponsored Kraft Macaroni and Cheese filter in December that challenged users to catch animated noodles in their mouth. Shortly thereafter, Snapchatters got into the holiday spirit with Santa’s Helper—a game that superimposed the user’s face onto an elf that had to be navigated down a snowy mountain. While the holiday game wasn’t sponsored, it certainly inspired users to share both activations online, and not just on Snapchat. YouTube screen captures and Twitter screenshots began to appear as well, ensuring that nobody’s friends missed out on the goofy antics.

Most recently, a new game has surfaced on Snapchat within its “Princess and Queen” lens. Now when a user selects the lens, a prompt appears inviting them to “double tap to upgrade.” Doing so changes the camera to outward view and collectible gems appear in the environment, similar to Pokémon GO. Collecting all five gems unlocks a second version of the “Princess and Queen” selfie filter and demonstrates the possibilities of AR in the platform.

Over the past year, marketers have created innovative ways to engage Snapchat fans through playable games like Gatorade’s Serena Williams Match Point and Under Armour’s It Comes From Below. Endemic brands like Microsoft and Activision have mastered the art of the sponsored Snapchat lens, transforming users into characters from the latest triple-A games. The popularity of both game-inspired lenses and playable ads shows that Snapchat users welcome the idea of these interactive experiences.

The photo-sharing “ghost” attracts a young, active fan base of 100 million users who watch over 10 billion videos per day. Rebranded as Snap Inc., the camera company will soon be offering shares—so it has been hard at work proving value to potential investors through new ad offerings and original content.

Sponsored lens games could potentially be paired with geographical locations (such as retailers) or be triggered by Snapchat’s new image-recognition-triggered ad offerings for a fun, shareable experience.

Now that Snapchat Spectacles are available for purchase online, the timing is perfect for brands to create interactive, first-person lens games for mass consumption and sharing. While Snapchat’s first few games are simple, they fit right into the raw and wacky stories that the platform is famous for.

 

How Honda Drives Their Message On Social Media

BY

Honda used two of the biggest entertainment events of the year this month to showcase their new marketing campaigns.

They selected the Super Bowl to continue their years-long message for “Power of Dreams” with the TV ad “Yearbooks,” a celebrity-driven spot featuring the likes of Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Missy Elliot, Stan Lee, Jimmy Kimmel and Magic Johnson, among others, to encourage people to chase their dreams as they talked through their static high school portraits.

The underlying idea behind it, which was complemented with the social campaign #PowerofDreams, was that Honda was making a 20-year dream come true with the CR-V.

“This year marked the CR-V’s third appearance in the Super Bowl, and each time the SUV has appeared has been tied to an important milestone, with this year marking the CR-V’s twentieth birthday,” Susie Rossick, Honda’s assistant vice president of marketing, told [a]listdaily. “The Super Bowl provided the largest audience on TV, making it the right platform for introducing the right vehicle—and this year’s campaign was created to entertain fans through the participation of some of the biggest stars from film, television, sports and even comic books while introducing America to the fifth generation CR-V. ‘Yearbooks’ conveys how the CR-V was once the new kid on the block before becoming America’s best-selling SUV—and how all of the stars featured in ‘Yearbooks’ began with a dream and the determination to achieve it.

The “Power of Dreams” messaging carried into the Academy Awards on Sunday in some markets, and it was complemented by their multi-channel marketing campaign, “Always Thinking About Tomorrow,” which focused on taking fuel cell technology mainstream by educating consumers about their new fuel cell car. The campaign was inspired by Honda’s global environmental slogan “Blue Skies for Our Children.”

“The new marketing campaign for the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell is the next step in our effort to advance fuel cell vehicles to the mainstream market,” said Steve Center, vice president of the environmental business development office at Honda. “This fully integrated marketing campaign also demonstrates our commitment to growing electrified vehicles into a volume pillar for the Honda brand.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1b-Zt2IJl8

Alicia Jones, Honda’s head of social media, joined [a]listdaily to share their second-screen strategy and how they are leveraging their channels to connect with consumers.

Which social channels are you most interested in engaging with your audience?

We go where our audiences are—wherever that may be. We have an engaged audience of millions of people across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, YouTube and more, and we interact with people in different ways on different platforms. Facebook delivers massive scale, rich targeting capabilities and unique creative formats. Instagram, now plugged into the dominant Facebook ad engine, gives us an opportunity to tell a rich, visual story. Snapchat allows us to drive strong national reach while making our audience active participants in our story through Filters and Lenses. YouTube is a powerful vehicle for driving reach and awareness, and functions as a library of video content that has a much longer shelf life than on other channels. Beyond its ability to scale video content through pre-roll, YouTube is also a massive search engine, and we can capitalize on that long-tail search interest by creating and optimizing niche content that solves problems, answers questions, and gives guidance.

What is the toughest task to marketing cars to millennials?

Millennials are often overgeneralized as an entirely uniform group of people, but there’s an incredible amount of nuance within that demographic. They care about experiences more than possessions, so we need to show how we empower and inspire those experiences. Data shows that millennials are also deeply mistrusting of the normal car-buying process, so our marketing needs to not just appeal to their emotional and rational needs, but needs to provide them with tools that give them the information they need on their terms, in the channels they’re comfortable with. 

How are you using social data to better connect with consumers?

Data is at the core of everything we do in social. We are rigorous in our collection, analysis and application of the insights we pull from literally millions of data points surrounding our social activity. We use data to inform who we’re talking to, which topics we discuss, which platforms we distribute our message, and what format we produce content in. We use data not just to eliminate waste in our marketing—making sure we are connecting with the people most interested and receptive to our messaging—but also to reduce friction in establishing those connections, and uncover hidden opportunities to reach our audience based on their passions. Every campaign is designed around a specific strategic hypothesis—establishing both a reason for being, and a desired outcome. We collect data on the performance of content and media to validate or disprove our hypothesis, and feed that into subsequent content development and media planning.

Has Honda done any influencer marketing in the past to promote marketing and social endeavors? What were the goals? Was it successful?

Honda has been actively involved in influencer marketing in a number of forms over the past several years. We see influencers as a unique tool for connecting with our audiences by having credible, authentically aligned voices tell the brand story in new ways. Utilized properly, influencers can be sources of unique content creation, and efficient organic reach. We’ve utilized influencers for model launches, tapping into people who represent our target audiences, or have audiences composed of people we want to reach. We’ve also used influencers to create content unique to their area of expertise or position in culture—travel, music, comedy, technology—that aligns with the core use cases for our products, or with the passion points of our target audiences. But there’s no question influencers can be misused, too. Simply paying the largest or fastest growing social celebrity to push product for your brand that they don’t have a meaningful alignment with, or tangible connection to, is a waste of money. Beyond the potential cost inefficiencies and supersaturation of branding in the influencer’s content mix, people see through the lack of authenticity, and reject the messaging. Above all else, when partnering with influencers, we look for the proper mix of scale against our target audience, alignment with our core messaging, authenticity of involvement and engagement among their fan base.

What is on top of your marketing “hot list” this year? What emerging trends are you zeroing on in order to explore and innovate the Honda brand?

We’re excited about the potential of immersive content formats like AR, VR and 360-degree video. With the development of smartphone technologies to power the format, and the massive cost reduction in content creation tools, immersive formats present a rich canvas for marketers to tell more compelling, engaging and ‘sticky’ stories to their audiences. As always, we’re excited about the potential for applied data. More data is being generated now than ever before across all channels—and we want to make the capture, analysis and application of that data systemic. The more data we have, and the more effectively we use that data, the better experiences we can provide for our customers. We’re also excited about the power of what we’re calling ‘conversational interfaces.’ Voice interaction has exploded in popularity with Alexa, Siri, Cortana and others taking more prominence in people’s daily lives than ever before. Chat bots fall into this category as well. Whether they’re on Facebook Messenger, Twitter or on our website, the transformative impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning has breathed new life into the potential for brands to add value to people’s lives. As always, we have to think about how to make those experiences not just entertaining, but useful, or they’ll risk becoming novelties.

Follow Manouk Akopyan on Twitter @Manouk_Akopyan

Inside Time Inc.’s Content Strategy For Snapchat Discover

BY

Media partners continue to flock to Snapchat—and Time Inc. sent two of its editorial entities in Entertainment Weekly and Essence to the platform earlier this month to join sister brand People in delivering unique content as publishers for Snapchat Discover.

EW and Essence will enter the fray as weekly publishers to complement People’s daily edition, which was an original partner of Snapchat when Discover launched two years ago. Essence’s weekly edition will address topics spanning entertainment and lifestyle to politics from the perspective of African-American women. Pop culture portal Entertainment Weekly will provide exclusive access, intel and insight on TV, movies and music, highlighted by the weekly features “Must List” and “Bullseye.”

The deal allows for Time Inc. to continue attracting advertisers and marketers looking to magnetize millennials, which was highlighted by their Academy Awards coverage Sunday. During a conference call with analysts to discuss Q4 results, Time Inc. CEO and president Richard L. Battista revealed that digital advertising revenue increased 15 percent year-over-year during the quarter, and native advertising revenue doubled in 2016, courting more than 400 sponsors across 600 programs.

Snap Inc., which according to documents filed with the SEC has its sights set on a $22 billion valuation in IPO, is rallying a variety of players with publishing prowess in recent weeks to solidify its seat at the social table.

The platform also partnered with The New York Times and Discovery Communications earlier this month. The exclusive content moves they’ve brokered carry into the recent wave of momentum with such brands like Disney and NBCUniversal, who also procured deals to produce Snapchat-specific content. Snap Inc. paid content partners $57.8 million under ad-revenue sharing agreements.

“Our goal is to entertain and inform Snapchatters on a wide range of topics that speak to the diversity and many interests of our community,” said Nick Bell, vice president of content for Snap Inc. “Essence has served as a quintessential guide to what matters to African-American women for decades. Entertainment Weekly provides unparalleled insider access to take our audience deeper into the stories behind their favorite shows and movies. Their strong editorial perspectives will be incredible additions to our Discover lineup.”

Snap’s other editorial partners that publish editions on Discover in the US include: The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Mail, Vogue, Cosmo, Bleacher Report, Buzzfeed CNN, Comedy Central, Mashable, MTV, Complex, Food Network, Mitu, Now This News, Brother, Refinery29, Tastemade and Sweet.

Zoe Ruderman, executive director of content strategy at Time Inc., joined [a]listdaily to detail how they will be approaching editorial on the emerging platform.

Zoe Ruderman, executive director of content strategy at Time Inc.
Zoe Ruderman, executive director of content strategy at Time Inc.

Why is it critical for publishers to be on Snapchat and pursue storytelling on new platforms for new audiences?

Our goal is to be wherever our readers, users and viewers are. It’s no longer about making the user come to you, but rather going to where they are and delivering the kind of content experience they’re looking for on that platform. The audience is enormous—and growing—on Snapchat, and it’s an audience that doesn’t overlap a whole lot with the users we have on other platforms, on our sites, or in print. Plus, because of the nature of Snapchat Discover, we have a lot of fun with how we tell the stories: using animation, video, really creative design formats and interactivity. People has been on Snapchat Discover from the inception, and we’ve had huge success in growing our social footprint and gaining new fans. We’re excited to replicate all of those successes with Entertainment Weekly and Essence.

Will you be shifting your content strategy away from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to Snapchat for EW and Essence by tailoring more content toward that specific platform?

Not at all. We’re leaning heavily into Snapchat, but that doesn’t mean we’re easing up our efforts and growth on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. In fact, we recently launched a Facebook Messenger bot at People and broke Instagram video records at InStyle, so we’re continuing to go hard on all platforms. We’ve also staffed up with writers, editors and designers to accommodate the new content we’re pushing out across our social channels.

What’s the best way you’ve learned to create content for Snapchat? As a distribution vehicle for existing content? Or creating original content?

Definitely original content. The consumption and the user are so different from that of the site or magazine that it doesn’t work to just take content from other places and retrofit it for Snapchat. We have a dedicated team of writers and editors, and they’re crafting stories and experiences on Discover that are distinct and unique from what you’ll see on our owned and operated sites. Often, we’re covering the same topics (for example, when Beyoncé revealed she was pregnant, we did numerous stories on the site, in print and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, plus of course Snapchat), but we’re using different graphics, headlines and ways of drawing in the user depending on the platform.

Screen Shot 2017-02-27 at 12.41.50 PM

How else are you engaging mobile customers outside of your dedicated website? Are you testing any other new platforms?

We know that the majority of our users are consuming content on their phones. So, every single part of every one of our sites is mobile optimized, and when we’re creating content, we’re doing so with mobile in mind. Especially when we’re launching new tools, programs or campaigns, we’re thinking mobile-first. For example, this red carpet season, we kicked off a program that takes users inside the awards shows in a minute-by-minute way, curates social content the night of the shows and essentially throws the ultimate virtual viewing party. It looks even better on mobile than desktop—it’s slick and beautiful on a phone.

What have you learned from the platform’s audience? What does it offer that other social channels don’t?

We’ve got it down to a science. With the People editions, we’ll literally print out top snaps from the past few months, tape them all to a wall of a huge conference room, write out the swipe-up rate, the completion rate and the time spent then spend a couple hours analyzing the numbers and talking with a team about what we can glean from the data. That, combined with our editorial instincts, has made us even better at getting people to engage with our content. We’ve learned so much about the stars they care about, the words that catch their attention, even things like the ideal length of time for a top snap. And our data deep dives have confirmed what we all already assumed to be true: Snapchatters can’t get enough of the Karjenners.

Follow Manouk Akopyan on Twitter @Manouk_Akopyan

Pokémon Day Catches All The Fun Across Games And TV

BY

It’s Pokémon Day, and both Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International have a lot to celebrate.

On February 27, 1996 the first Pokémon games launched in Japan—21 years later the franchise is still a source of entertainment and camaraderie for fans both young and old alike. This year’s anniversary celebrations extend across the Pokémon universe from games to TV and of course, plenty of nostalgia to go around.

Using the hashtag #PokemonDay, fans are invited to share their favorite moments with the franchise to be included in a photo gallery on Pokemon.com. An all-day Twitch stream will replay memorable matches from the Pokémon trading card game, video games, and Pokkén Tournament from the past several years. The promotions continue on the official web store with the debut of a new Gallery Figures collection designed especially for the Pokémon Center.

For those playing the games, there are several promotions to keep trainers on their toes. Wild Pikachu characters in Pokémon GO will be wearing a party hat from February 26 to March 6 and any Pikachu caught during that time will get to keep its festive look.

Happy Pokémon Day 2017!

 

Those playing Pokémon Sun and Moon can visit a participating GameStop location through March 5 to receive a free Bottle Cap—unlocking an in-game strength boost for a single Pokémon. Also on Nintendo 3DS, the puzzle game Pokémon Shuffle is offering special promotions as part of the celebrations.

Of course, it’s hard to imagine the “pocket monster” phenomenon without the trading-card game. The Pokémon Trading Card Game Online started its festivities early with extra Trainer Tokens available on the Bonus Wheel for the entire week leading up to Pokémon Day. Players logging onto the site on Pokémon Day will also receive an “extra-special” daily bonus.

For a limited time starting Monday, Pokémon TV will be hosting a marathon featuring full-length animated movies and TV shows online and through the official Pokémon TV app.

It’s no secret that last summer, the whole world caught the “training” bug and Pokémon GO became the most successful mobile launch in history. Not only did Pokémon GO capture the imaginations of consumers everywhere, but of other developers and brands, too—demonstrating the profound possibilities for augmented reality. That hype fueled tremendous success for Pokémon Sun and Moon, resulting in launch day sales exceeding 10 million units. This was a 150 percent increase from the last Pokémon games (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in 2014), making them the best-selling titles in Nintendo 3DS history.

Nintendo 2DS and 3DS consoles saw a boost in sales as fans dove into the Pokémon games for the first time, or relived some of their favorite titles. Nintendo even launched a limited-edition Pikachu Yellow Edition New Nintendo 3DS XL to further entice fans to the platform.

Happy Birthday, Pikachu! You’re now old enough to drink!

Copy Cats! Social Networks Can’t Stop “Borrowing” Features From Fellow Competitors

BY

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram must be blushing . . . or sharpening their axes, and plotting revenge.

All three social networks have made major changes, especially over the last year, that “borrowed” features from each respective prodigal social institution in order to improve their own product. Now, while all three platforms remain (mostly) unique, the lines are increasingly beginning to blur in terms of updates and ad options available to users and marketers alike.

In 2014, Instagram introduced direct video messages. In response, both Vine and Snapchat followed suit by enabling one-on-one texts, picture messaging and video chats. This turned a one-way conversation (i.e. “look at what posted today”) into a two-way conversation (i.e. “look what I’m doing”) and therefore, more engaging.

“There’s nothing like knowing you have the full attention of your friend while you’re chatting,” Snapchat said in a statement announcing the update.

Snapchat (left); Instagram (right) Source: Fashion Magazine

While Snapchat benefits from its raw, unpolished design—translating more easily into authentic posts—a lack of metrics, or perceived user-friendly interfaces, often prevented older generations and marketers from giving it a go.

Snapchat has had a lot of pressure to prove return on investment to marketers, something that Facebook excels at, although not without its mistakes. To hold its ground against the Goliath that is Facebook, Snapchat has introduced new targeted ad offerings, mid-roll ads and sponsored lenses to help brands stand out on the platform.

Its latest update includes programmatic ad spending, allowing agencies and brands to license its API to do their own buying. With the introduction of Spectacles, the disappearing photo-sharing app—and newly re-branded camera company—is on track to hit $935 million in ad revenue in 2017, according to eMarketer.

Facebook-owned Instagram took full advantage of its brand-friendly tracking systems by introducing “Stories,” a more track-able version of Snapchat’s disappearing messages. It wasn’t long before Snapchat creators took notice and headed over to Instagram for its features like privacy options, searches, pausing and the ability to view a Story without following the poster. Creators find that its easier for users to find or discover their channels, helping them grow an audience.

Until recently, Snapchat cornered the market on augmented reality filters for selfies and video—that is, until Facebook started rolling out lenses of its own in October.

Limited to verified users on Facebook Messenger and the Mentions App, the addition of animated filters will inevitably lead to brand-sponsored versions and the circle of social media copying will continue.