Earlier this year, Snapchat shelled out $100 million for Bitstrips, a company that makes personalized comic strips and emoji. Called “Bitmoji,” the custom-tailored expressions are now available for Snapchat integration. Users must simply download the Bitmoji app on either Android or iOS and link the account with their Snapchat profile.
So, why is this a big deal? Although more and more brands are using emoji to convey ideas to their audiences, Bitmoji is more flexible, adding flair to spice up those disappearing messages. The personalized cartoons are available for both snaps and chat, encouraging users to be creative in how they engage with others. Another feature that sets Bitmoji apart from other emoji keyboards is the fact that you can utilize cartoon versions of your friends, as well, so long as they have made a Bitmoji version of themselves.
Snapchat is a rising star in the world of marketing, particularly in the use of branded lenses. According to a Demandware study, 72 percent of US beauty brands are testing a form of “guided selling” to push sales, like Snapchat lenses and augmented reality.
In May, 20th Century Fox staged the first-ever, complete lens takeover to promote X-Men: Apocalypse. For online underwear brand MeUndies, demonstrating their products in funny, “brief” ways has proved incredibly effective. In a video ad called “Lounge Off,” two members of the team modeled the brand’s new tie-dyed lounge pants in some seemingly uncomfortable places like on top of tables, and in the street. Using a call-to-action with vanity URLs, the company saw a conversion rate of 16 percent on Snapchat traffic in June.
As for Bitmoji, the addition of these custom cartoons to Snapchat offers both opportunity and challenges for brands. A study by AppBoy found that in general, people respond well to emoji-based marketing. The poll found that overall, 52 percent find their use to be fun or relatable. However, it’s important to note the remaining 47 percent of those surveyed range from a resounding “meh” to downright disgusted. People over 45 years of age were most opposed to emoji messaging in ads, while those between the ages of 25 and 44 find them to be the most fun.
As always, the use of a popular marketing tactic comes down to knowing the target audience a bit better.
Facebook has come a long way since its introduction in 2004, with a high amount of earnings in its most recent quarter ($6.44 billion over the past three months) and a monthly user base of 1.71 billion, per their recent earning’s call. However, it’s also innovated in a number of ways when it comes to how products are marketed on its site.
Thanks to the introduction of new services (such as Facebook Messenger and Facebook Video), the site has found ways for companies to reach out to consumers—and not with obtrusive, stock ads that stick out like a sore thumb. Let’s look at the many ways that Facebook has mastered the art of marketing products:
Video, Video Everywhere
While Facebook was originally launched as a way to connect with your real-life network, as content from publishers gained prominence, video became a key aspect of the site. Facebook Video has grown quite a bit over the past few years, making it a viable competitor to Google’s YouTube.
There have been more notable deals as of late, including the signing of many media partners and celebrities, along with a recent partnership between Facebook and Blizzard to help connect friends better with the competitive shooting game Overwatch. And the medium is just getting started, as more and more marketers are finding the best ways to utilize video, including new formats like 360-degree video—a very friendly format for virtual reality.
Changing How We Feel About Data Collecting
In order to gain access to sites and services, we inevitably surrender our data. As a society, our attitudes about what information we provide and our consent to use it has become increasingly laissez-faire over the past few years. Beyond the information you enter upon signing up, Facebook is constantly collecting information on its users who are willing to provide it, by liking pages and posts, watching videos and who they follow, over time the social media giant has a pretty good sense of who you are, what you like and don’t like.
The company breaks down its data policy here, explaining how data collection is utilized for communication and ad measuring services. While there are those who still feel uneasy about having personal information available such as this, Facebook’s system has enabled a “breathe easy” format that uses it for the better.
Content Consumption
In the past, users usually visited a website just to get the information they needed—checking on a news story, watching a movie trailer—and then happily moving along their way. Facebook’s News Feed put all of the content users like in one place, which keeps them coming back for more and replacing what traditional web portals have provided for the Internet—only completely customizable and personalized.
Targeting Audiences
In the past, creating a target audience for a product was tricky business and not an exact science. For all of its incessant data collecting, Facebook has made it a whole lot easier for brands to get in front of consumers who are relevant to them and vice versa. From age groups and income brackets to specific geographic locations and whether you like sports, marketers are able to drill down and reach niche audiences more easily than ever before.
Twitter has been making a lot of deals to bring video content to its social network lately, including broadcasts involving the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB). But it hasn’t overlooked its growing video game-loving audience, and has just announced a pairing that will include eSports content.
Turner and WME/IMG have announced that the final rounds of ELEAGUE, which has been airing tournaments over the past few weeks on TBS and gaining a solid viewing audience, will also be streamed live on Twitter. This marks the debut eSports event for the social channel.
Broadcasting will begin Friday night at 10PM EDT for the semifinals, and Saturday at 4PM EDT for the finals. The event will also be shown on TBS and Twitch, but Twitter promises a larger amount of involvement with its streaming, including real-time highlights, GIFs, memes, statistics and score updates. Periscope will also feature content from the ELEAGUE event, including behind-the-scenes footage with select players.
“Twitter is the native social platform for eSports and this partnership provides our passionate fans with an additional opportunity to consume ELEAGUE content as we reach the pinnacle of our first season,” said Christina Alejandre, general manager for ELEAGUE and vice president of eSports for Turner Sports in a press release. “We’re excited for our first ELEAGUE championship and look forward to offering these content experiences to our high-engaged fan base.”
“ESports fans go to Twitter to see and talk about what is happening now in competitive gaming,” said Anthony Noto, chief financial officer for Twitter.” Gamers are one of the largest and most engaged audiences on Twitter, and we are thrilled to partner with Turner and WME/IMG to bring them the live content from ELEAGUE and Twitter commentary they are already looking for, on one screen.”
ELEAGUE already had its fair share of sponsors over the course of the season, including Domino’s, Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings and Credit Karma—all of which will play a part in advertising during the semifinal and championship events.
The partnership with Twitter not only provides another way for fans to watch live ELEAGUE content, but also gives the social platform its first entry into eSports. Facebook made the jump to eSports earlier this year when it announced a partnership with Blizzard so that games such as Overwatch can be connected with accounts, allowing players to connect with friends and empowering streamers with more options.
While Americans spend much of their time on social media, a new survey shows that they are less satisfied with the experience than in previous years. According to the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released on Tuesday, social sites such as Twitter and Facebook saw a decrease in satisfaction year over year.
Facebook dropped 9 percent in customer satisfaction, while Twitter dropped 8 percent among those surveyed. Overall social media satisfaction, meanwhile, dropped 1.4 percent from 2015. While you can’t please everyone, the drop in satisfaction could be attributed to a number of factors related to user interface, changes in privacy agreements and social strife (cyber bullying, for instance).
The constant comparison between ourselves and others on social media can even lead to depression, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.
“People who use social media are particularly touchy about two elements of the experience that are never going to go away as issues,” ACSI’s managing director David VanAmburg told NBC News. “They’re concerned about privacy and about doing the very thing that social media is all about—putting personal information out there and then being concerned with what people are doing with that information.”
A drop in Facebook satisfaction hasn’t stopped users from flocking to the site, with 71 percent of American adults using it, according to Pew Research. Advertisers love it, too, naming Facebook the best platform for calculating return on investment (ROI). Facebook Messenger is now the top messaging platform of its kind, with a whopping one billion active users.
If you’re wondering which social media site ranked the highest in customer satisfaction, Wikipedia dominated with a 78 ranking. Top satisfaction rates were followed closely by YouTube (77) and Google+ (76). Pinterest (76), Instagram (74) and Tumblr (67) all dropped 3 percent. LinkedIn (65) tied with Twitter for last place.
Social media is an ever-changing landscape (just look at MySpace), and brands are utilizing new tools like messenger,virtual reality, livestreams and emojis to connect with their customers on an emotional level. As more brands use social media as a means to provide customer service, it will be interesting to see how—and if—this affects satisfaction rates in 2017.
Earlier this summer, Twitter revealed how more than half of the users are gamers that love discussing and sharing information about their favorite titles. However, it’s not the only social platform to have a high gamer population.
VentureBeat reported on a survey the image sharing service recently conducted that reveals how the overwhelming majority of its audience—about 91 percent—are made up of gamers. Imgur also reported that 63 percent of gamers who visit the site tend to play games at least once a day, while 88 percent game several times a week.
Imgur also detailed a number of other interesting statistics, such as how 52 percent of players would be willing to cut one meal out of their day if it meant more time with their game, and 25 percent of users spend at least $50-$100 on their favorite games regularly. Ten percent spend a higher monthly amount, somewhere between $500 to $1,000.
Considering that Imgur has a monthly audience of 150 million users, making it one of the top 50 sites in the world, it’s a better social platform than some may expect.
Steve Patrizi, vice president of marketing for Imgur, noted that users can “surface really entertaining moments” from the service, with the right amount of creativity. “Gaming is mainstream. We don’t position ourselves as a hardcore gaming site. There aren’t a lot of non-gaming destinations where you have a high concentration of hardcore gamers. We are not a site about gaming. But the gamers are here.”
The survey also shows that gamers are big spenders, with 33 percent stating that they buy at least one game per month, while 27 percent pick up one or more games a week. Meanwhile, 22 percent wait a good six months, and nine percent can hold out for an entire year, which is the same percentage as those that buy a game a day.
So where does Imgur benefit from a gaming audience? Usually with screenshots and images from new releases. “There’s funny Grand Theft Auto scenes where a tractor-trailer goes off a cliff and lands perfectly in a parking spot,” noted Patrizi.
GTA isn’t the only popular franchise. About 49 percent of users play Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series, while 43 prefer its other hit title, Fallout 4. Other notable entries include Minecraft (41 percent), Pokémon(3 percent) and The Legend of Zelda (31 percent).
“It’s hardcore, on the PC side of the spectrum,” noted Patrizi. “Pokémon GO is certainly a big topic.”
Video games and social networks have a bigger connection than expected. Gleana Albritto, industry marketing lead for media and entertainment for Twitter, explained that “gaming’s popularity is anything but a game, as 65 percent of Twitter users say they play video games, and 55 percent of those users say they regularly play console games.”
These sites also provide a place to talk about new game announcements and details right away. “Gaming audiences like to stay up-to-date on all the latest equipment as well,” Albritto added. “A whopping 78 percent of them researched a game or console as a result of following a gaming handle. Of these followers, 81 percent own a console and 53 percent bought one in the past 12 months. Nearly 40 percent of them intend to buy a gaming console in the next year.”
Imgur is certainly no stranger to embracing its unique audience. In fact, earlier this year, it revealed a culture poll discussing the growth of the “millennial geek” audience, with 23 percent proclaiming themselves as full-on geeks, and only 12 percent stating they weren’t geeks at all.
While Reddit may not yet be as much of an advertising boon as social brethren Twitter or Facebook is, a recent business move may very well grab them a seat at the table.
The site has confirmed that starting on August 4 it will offer a new ad system called Promoted User Posts. With it, marketers will be able to sponsor user generated posts through the platform, with their given consent, according to AdAge.
One example involves a user making an enlarged item based on a company product, like Taco Bell’s hot sauce packet—the fast food chain could then step in and make a deal to turn that into a sponsored post for the site. That, in turn, would allow it to be shown off on various parts of Reddit, including targeted audiences that would be ideal for said post.
Of course, Reddit is proceeding with caution, since its user base of 240 million isn’t fond of being hammered with promoted posts that stand out from the real content on the site.
“Reddit users don’t like being bullshitted,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told AdAge. “Reddit is a platform where you can call people out on it. And a lot of traditional advertising feels like we’re being taken advantage of and nobody likes that. But when advertisers come with honest intentions we see a much higher level of engagement with the brand. We don’t see hostility and we have valuable connections.”
As part of the acceptance of promoted posts, users will get a lifetime of Reddit Gold, with a number of additional benefits included.
Strategists for Reddit are already hard at work teaming up with brands on the deal, including Coca-Cola and eBay; Proctor & Gamble has already confirmed that it will invest $300 million into advertising for Reddit.
Although not all Reddit users will be happy with the move, the company as a whole sees it as an opportunity to real in new revenue. “There are car enthusiasts on Reddit,” said Huffman. “Makeup addicts, people who discuss movies, books and video games where these commercial relationships are already developing with our users. It is not a stretch for the advertiser to come in here and engage with our audience.”
With the move, Huffman believes that Reddit will evolve out of its “teenage years” and become more popular than Facebook. “We are a developing company and we are taking this very seriously. We are learning to be adults here . . . Of course, Facebook and Reddit serve different needs for people. There will never be total overlap so I don’t think you have to choose one or the other. On Facebook, you have your real world identity and your friends, and that is important to people. But on Reddit you have all the other facets of your persona and you can talk about things you can’t talk about with your friends and family.”
Many companies have already taken advantage of the Reddit platform in the past, including the following:
Nissan
The auto maker listed a thread on Reddit in 2014 asking what users would want from Amazon. It was an interesting move to help promote the company’s Versa Note vehicle, and one that paid off in spades with a number of creative responses, including “30 months of Reddit gold.”
President Obama
The Commander In Chief utilized Reddit for a half hour virtual question and answer session in 2012. It was so popular in traffic that the site had to shut down temporarily, per the Washington Post. “Ask me anything”—also known as AMAs—are a favorite for public figures looking to use Reddit to connect with their fans.
‘Glamour Magazine’
A while back, Pitch Perfect starlet Anna Kendrick appeared in Glamour Magazine. To help promote the issue, the publication introduced a subreddit called “Shower Thoughts,” compiled of Kendrick’s thinkings. As a result, it gained quite an audience, between both the subreddit account and the separate video, filled with plenty of quandaries. For instance, “Does a frozen yogurt headache burn less calories than an ice cream headache?”
This small sample of previous examples have worked pretty well with just regular posts. One theme is clear, though: the set-up caters to Reddit’s unique audience.
We’ll now wait to see what promoted posts—and more elaborate marketing set-ups— can do for brands.
As a former head of product for Google social apps, who helped bring social aspects to apps such as Google Docs, Blogger and more, Bindu Reddy has had a long history with social media. She later went on to put that experience to work as the CEO and founder of MyLikes—a content and advertising platform for social publishing with over 1.5 million publishers across Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Tumblr and Pinterest. Now she’s out to repeat her success by launching a brand new anonymous social media platform today called Candid for iOS and Android, which gives users a chance to speak their minds without fear of social backlash.
Bindu Reddy, CEO of Candid
Reddy explains to [a]listdaily that, “I’ve been around social media for a really long time, back when it started with blogging through things like LiveJournal,” and that she’s “passionate about social media and sharing minds freely,” which led to the creation of Candid.
“Over the last couple of years, I’ve had this sort of social anxiety and fear of backlash, so I’ve had to censor a lot of my posts on Facebook and Twitter,” said Reddy. “I think everybody really needs to think twice right when they post anything . . . You have to censor what you’re saying, or you’ll get comments and responses from your friends, co-workers and even potential employers. Expressing your mind freely can have very negative consequences.”
Users can have the Candid app pull information such as education, employment history and friends from their Facebook accounts, which is then used to recommend topical channels to join. They are then assigned a random identity with every post so that they can comment on issues without worry. At the same time, identities may be marked as “friends,” so that users know which posts are written by people they know from their other social networks. Posts can also be shared across other social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
As Reddy describes it, “Candid is your personalized newsfeed of things that you care about and people that you care about in an anonymous context, so that there’s more authenticity. Candid is the place to get authentic information—the news behind the news, the story behind the story.” She further explains that “connecting with Facebook will pull employers and education and recommend communities based on that. If you work for Yahoo, for example, it will recommend the Yahoo community to you. Now you can talk about Yahoo in an anonymous context with other people who work at Yahoo, and that is the key. Candid is the only place for you to express what you feel to relevant people.”
In discussing the limitations of current social platforms, Reddy states, “You can go on Reddit to talk about it [your topic], but you won’t necessarily be talking to people who care about it. Candid is kind of like a common man’s Reddit, which gives you the right communities and personalizes your news feed and information. Compared to other anonymous apps, these channels are moderated to ensure each post belongs to the community it’s posted in.”
Candid uses artificial intelligence (AI) to moderate channels by ensuring that each post is relevant to the topic, which separates it from the manual process Reddit and Facebook employ and guarantees an unbiased process. The program also analyzes sentiment, to determine whether a post is positive, negative or neutral. “Posts that are particularly libelous or call people names will be pulled down,” explains Reddy. Users are given different badges according to their posts. For example, an often negative user will be given a “Hater” badge. It’s a way to help users become more self-aware and encourage them to become less negative, people who continue to be haters are kicked from the platform to make to “prevent the platform from devolving into a cesspool of gossip, hatred and slander.”
Lastly, the AI has a rumor detector that will cross-reference posts with sources such as Twitter and Wikipedia, marking them as either facts or rumors while eliminating outright falsehoods. Given enough time and data, Candid could potentially become a platform for the most honest and truthful opinions and conversations.
So how can brands make use of a platform that specializes in anonymity? “It’s really good for brands to do beta testing,” said Reddy. You can use it for “releasing new products and trailers to see authentic reactions. Targeting specific people who they think are potential customers. A movie about politics can be promoted on a politics channel or an actor’s group. Disney could target interested fans directly and brands can start conversations about particular movies. There’s already a thriving Pokémon GO group, and brands can target those players with services, features and announcements.”
Furthermore, Reddy notes that “you can get information and honest feedback about your brand, and you can promote your brand to people who have interests that align with it.”
The platform still has plenty of room to grow, with a desktop platform expected to launch in the future for long-form posts. Reddy also has plans to expand the platform so that it can link up with information from platforms besides Facebook. Some of the more ambitious features on the horizon include livestreaming, video support and messaging, all of which could make it an ideal platform for discovery and conversation.
Reddy believes that “there are a lot of things that people want to say that they can’t today.” Candid could become the platform to remedy that, and companies looking for honest opinions could benefit.
People are talking, and brands want in on the conversation. According to Pew Research, 49 percent of smartphone owners age 18 to 29 use messenger apps, so there’s no surprise that it’s become the next big marketing platform. By 2019, the number of messaging app users is expected to reach 2.19 billion, about the same amount of people on social media today.
Sponsored Content
Communicating to an audience has become more than a static ad plastered across the screen. Savvy brands have been utilizing messaging apps to seamlessly integrate ideas using timely messages, digital stickers and emojis.
For Mother’s Day last year, 1-800-FLOWERS.com, Inc. created a mobile campaign that provided free digital stickers through native in-app delivery on messaging platforms like LINE Messenger, Kik and Viber. The interactive digital stickers also drove traffic to the 1800flowers.com e-commerce site. Kik’s Promoted Chats feature allows users to opt-in to receive messages from specific brands, such as Seventeen Magazine and Funny or Die.
Now that Facebook offers sponsored content, brands are racing to the platform, which now sees more than 900 million monthly users. WhatsApp, which boasts a user base of one billion, is ad-free. However, the BBC used its Broadcast Lists feature to deliver news last year. The feature only allows for lists up to 250 people, and users must add the contact to their address book to receive messages.
Snapchat offers Sponsored Snaps, but other brands, like WeUndies are using the popular social network to create brand awareness through comedic skits and exclusive promotions. Snapchat recently applied for a patent to create custom ads based on photos using object recognition technology.
Customer Service
Large companies like Bank of America and Virgin Atlantic use Facebook Messenger as a customer service tool. Rather than wait on hold for an eternity, consumers can report issues and obtain support with the same ease as texting a friend.
LINE first made a name for itself as a messaging service in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami and earthquake in Japan in 2011, but has more recently evolved into an all-conquering and fully-fledged platform. The company recently launched The Line app, which integrates with the main app and allows businesses to communicate with users.
To aid themselves and others playing Pokémon GO, Razer created RazerGO, a chat app that seamlessly integrates into gameplay to communicate between other players. To support the new app, Razer is introducing guided Pokécrawls along multiple routes around RazerStore San Francisco with giveaways and special promotions at the store and online.
Messaging apps can be used to create brand awareness, start conversations and offer support. Video game companies like Chinese mobile giant, Tencent, know this all too well. “Entertainment companies, especially on mobile, will start integrating messenger app functionality to build their user base,” said Joost van Dreunen, CEO and co-founder at SuperData Research to [a]listdaily. “Discovery continues to be a challenge for companies in the space. It also opens the market up to new revenue models, allowing game companies to rely more on ad revenue, provided they can build a large enough, and relevant, user base that is of interest to brands and advertisers.”
Next time you go on social media to openly discuss the fact that you’re desperately in need of a deep dish, just slide up in Pizza Hut’s direct messages instead because they’ve introduced a chatbot that will take your order on Facebook Messenger and Twitter.
The free service will offer menus, deals and promotions for pies that are specific to each store. Conversational ordering, sharing current deals and simplifying the customer experience is the key to the social ordering platform. The integrated pizza palooza will commence in August, the company announced.
Pizza Hut is just the latest high-profile company that is jumping on the big bot bandwagon. It’s a social strategy forward-thinking brands like American Express—among a slew of others—are quickly implementing ever since Facebook’s chat bot initiative that was announced during April’s F8 developer conference.
Baron Concors, the chief digital officer for Pizza Hut who’s responsible for driving digital innovation across marketing, technology and partnerships, joined [a]listdaily to talk about how he plans on engaging the brand’s strong social following, and to further extend its focus on personalized customer service.
How did Pizza Hut identify that chat bots would be their next marketing frontier? What was that “a-ha” moment?
We study customer behavior and monitor trends. In Mary Meeker’s latest report, she identified there has been (and will continue to be) significant growth with messaging. It is clear people are turning to messaging as their primary means of communications.
What kind of conversations do you envision having with customers?
We want to make it easy for customers to order or get whatever information they are looking for—this could be customer service, nutritional information or deals and offers.
Why is conversational ordering the next new thing? How will you leverage this to further brand retention?
There is a clear migration to messaging as the primary way to communicate so we decided to meet customers where they are to make it really simple. Our goal is for our customers to try the experience and say ‘Wow—that was easy!”
How did you identify Conversable’s enterprise platform as the right fit for the launch?
We evaluated several companies and Conversable stood out due to the efficiencies. We can build the messaging engine and easily add the messaging channels. We’re starting with Facebook and Twitter but we envision adding even more. The Conversable platform makes that easy.
We had an overwhelmingly positive response at Venturebeat. I had numerous people come up and tell me ‘they can’t wait to try the new experience.’
How will you measure success of this integration to further build out capability?
We will always lean on the voice of the customer as our primary measure. If our customers love it, we know it is a success. If they tell us they want more capabilities, we will add them.
What is Pizza Hut’s digital strategy on the platform going to be moving forward?
We are executing a holistic strategy of simplification and personalization across all of our digital channels. If we think it will make a customer’s life easier, we will add it to the platform.
Do you plan on experimenting on other channels to enhance the digital experience?
Yes. We are experimenting with all channels that are adaptable to conversational commerce.
It’s incredible just how much popularity Pokémon GO has attained since its release last week, becoming the most popular mobile game in US history, surpassing Twitter in daily active users, and earning more than $14 million in microtransactions.
With that, a lot of companies are taking advantage of the game’s popularity with promotions, from small businesses hosting Pokéstops and special deals to bigger brands creating Pokémon-themed features like Spotify’s soundtracks and a special “Live Story” on Snapchat. But mobile carrier T-Mobile may have scored the biggest coup to date, offering a special promotion for its consumers to celebrate the release.
The mobile company recently announced that it’s thanking its customers by offering free, unlimited data for use with Pokémon GO for a year’s time starting July 19. Playing the game will not affect their current high-speed data plans. In addition, it will also offer a free Lyft ride to a nearby PokéStop or Gym location, a free Frosty provided by Wendy’s and a special deal on T-Mobile licensed accessories.
This is a very huge deal for mobile users, as it enables them to continue playing the game without the need to upgrade to a new data plan. T-Mobile will also award 250 different customers with $100 in Pokécoins, and five grand prizes winners will get trips anywhere in the US, so they can hunt for Pokémon creatures wherever they like.
“This is what T-Mobile Tuesday is all about—thanking customers with hot, new, totally free gifts every week, and right now, nothing is hotter than Pokémon GO!” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “With the carriers’ shared data schemes, players could easily burn up the family’s data bucket—and then, hello, overages! At T-Mobile, we’re unleashing Pokémon GO so our customers can play free for a year.”
There’s no word yet if other mobile carriers will follow suit with similar Pokémon GO! plans, so T-Mobile has the advantage at the moment.
