Marketing Dojo #59: 🕵️♂️Camouflage Commerce:When Ads Blend with Posts 🌿
My podcast debut, Under Armour's AI misstep, the reality of marketing case studies and more.
Hello Everyone,
Welcome back to The Marketing Dojo, issue #59! After a week-long hiatus, I'm shaking off a bit of rust, but I'm excited to reconnect as this edition lands in your inboxes.
Today is the International Day of Happiness 🌞. I hope you take some time to carve out a moment of bliss—a long walk, coffee with a friend, or a trip to the spa.
For those not in the mood to celebrate Happiness Day, it's also Alien Abduction Day 👽today. Here's hoping your day remains otherworldly in the best way possible🛸.
With this random trivia out of the way. Here's what we will cover in today's newsletter:
💡 3 Marketing Tips From Yours Truly
🔄 Blurring Lines: When Ads Become Posts
🔥 Social Media on the Hot Seat: The TikTok, LinkedIn, and Reddit Saga
😂 Meme-time: Will The Real Marketing Campaigns Please Stand Up?
🤖 Under Armour Faces An AI-Powered Backlash
And lots more.
Let's dive right in.
My Podcast Debut: 3 Actionable Tips To Increase Your Marketing Impact.
A couple of weeks ago, Sheila Berman hosted me for an episode of the B2B Marketing Asia Podcast. It's live now!
In the podcast, I spoke about 3 things we, as marketers, could do for better results. They are:
Consistently communicate the value of marketing:
"What exactly does the marketing team do?" I have heard this snarky comment from sales multiple times, especially in B2B roles. I'm on a mission to clarify the critical role marketing plays and demonstrate how it can boost revenue or cut costs.
Pro-tip: An article that I am referring to these days for improving my value proposition.
Form feedback loops: Once a week, I open our CRM system and unravel the story behind an opportunity, collaborating with sales to identify successes and areas for improvement. This is just one example of a feedback loop. Marketers can create several feedback loops by attending customer calls, pitches, or events.
Cultivating multiple feedback loops supports the refinement of marketing strategies.
Run small experiments: Big-bang campaigns or grandiose marketing transformations are often doomed at the start. I advocate for small, manageable experiments that provide tangible results, allowing for scalable innovation without risking it all.
In a little under 27 minutes, we discussed a wide range of topics, including :
During the podcast, we also explored:
Essential skills for marketing roles at different levels (local, regional, global)
Common challenges marketers encounter
Three pieces of advice for budding marketers
Did any of the insights resonate? Please watch/listen to the podcast and share your feedback.
Meme-Time: Slick Videos, Empty Results.
Last week, I attended several events showcasing award-winning marketing case studies. The formula was the same: evocative background music, slickly shot video, and some KPIs that have little to do with business.
This trope of creating campaigns just for award entries is over a decade old. Frankly, it needs to go. I hope we can appreciate actual marketing campaigns that directly impact business. The move might help marketing find a seat on the C-suite table.
Today's meme is my cynical view of those shiny, sophisticated, but pointless case studies often paraded as the pinnacle of marketing achievement. Grrr!!
Camouflage Commerce? When Ads Mimic Posts.
Two platforms, Reddit and LinkedIn, recently unveiled new ad formats that will improve marketing performance and cause customer confusion.
Reddit has rolled out what they're calling "free-form ads." What makes them free-form? Using a flexible template, advertisers can mix text, video, and images in one post. Early tests show these ads are hitting the mark, with a 28% boost in click-through rates. It's no wonder they're effective; these ads blend seamlessly into the Reddit feed, looking just like regular posts. Take the Philadelphia Cream Cheese campaign as an example. It fits right into the Reddit environment and shows the potential of this native ad format.
LinkedIn is building on its recent success with thought leadership ads, allowing brands to transform any user post into an ad. The original Thought Leadership ads already scored big, yielding 1.7 times the click-through rate and 1.6 times the engagement of traditional single-image ads.
The thought leadership ads also feel very native to the platform. For example, the post below is an ad that can easily be passed off as a regular post for casual scrollers. By tapping into user-generated content, which often feels more trustworthy, LinkedIn's new approach could lead to even stronger results.
Early adopters will have a significant advantage here. Brands quick to adopt Reddit's free-form or LinkedIn's expanded ads could see a substantial uptick in engagement compared to standard ads. But will these additional clicks lead to a bottom-of-the-funnel conversion? The jury is out.
Creative Excellence Stagnation: Under Armour’s AI Ad.
Under Armour's rush to cash in on the AI hype has cost it some credibility.
The new commercial, directed by Wes Walker, was promoted as a groundbreaking AI-powered sports commercial that combined various digital techniques such as AI video, 3D CGI, and AI voiceover, created with no athlete access and using only a 3D model of Anthony Joshua and existing assets owned by Under Armour.
The video took less than 3 weeks to create (an unheard speed for brand videos). So far, so good. What could go wrong?
The commercial unleashed a storm of controversy.
Filmmakers, including Gustav Johansson, accused Under Armour of recycling content from previous projects without proper attribution. This ignited a fiery debate on the ethical use of AI in creativity, spotlighting fears that AI could trivialize the sanctity of original work by repackaging it without crediting the creators.
Under Armour's misstep was avoidable. A simple acknowledgement of the source material used to train the AI would have sufficed. This one feels like a self-goal.
The Summer of Scrutiny: TikTok, Reddit, and LinkedIn in the Regulatory Spotlight.
2024 is an election year. More than half the world's population will exercise their votes. Given this background, 2024 will also be the year when the love-hate relationship between politics and social media will take centre stage.
Case in point: yet another call to force TikTok to sell itself off to an American buyer or risk a ban. By now, this has become a case of the boy who called the wolf. We have heard the narrative around banning several times to see it fizzle out. I guess this time will be no different.
More realistic are the fears regarding the potential ban of Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms in Hong Kong that stemmed from a Bloomberg report highlighting a controversial proposal raised during a consultation exercise for the city's proposed national security legislation, known as "Article 23." For now, the HK government has denied all possibilities of a ban, but this might be the tit-for-tat move in case of a TikTok ban.
Two other platforms find themselves in trouble:
LinkedIn faces EU scrutiny under the Digital Services Act for inappropriate use of customer data to target ads. As per the recently passed DSA, social media platforms cannot use personal data such as health information, political, religious or philosophical views, racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, and trade union membership cannot be used for profiling a user and targeting an ad. The probe is still in its early days, but if LinkedIn is found guilty, it could be fined as much as 6% of its global revenue.
US regulator FTC is investigating Reddit's deal with Google to sell its data to train Google's AI model. Reddit's $60 Mn data-sharing agreement is critical for the success of its upcoming IPO.
As we approach the elections, the scrutiny of these large social media platforms will intensify, causing rapid changes in our marketing plans.
Short Stuff:
TikTok is developing an Instagram competitior. (No more originals).
Why do Gen Zs use Facebook? For its Marketplace. (Gen Zs love social commerce).
Microsoft Ads expands co-pilot to its advertisers. (Going all in on AI).
That’s a wrap on this week. Thank you for your time and attention. If you liked this week’s newsletter or found something interesting, please give me a like ❤️ or drop a comment🗨️. Your support helps drive the newsletter's discoverability.
Once again, thank you for your time. See you in your inbox next Wednesday.
Regards,
Garima Mamgain
P.S: I have written about catching up for coffee with Gen Zs. Well, here's the reason why.
I was preparing for an upcoming Keynote address at Castrol's Thought Leadership Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. I spoke about what drives loyalty and engagement with Gen Zs.
When Ogilvy approached me to speak at the event, I laughed. What credibility did I have to get onstage and talk about a generation I knew so little of?
But in the spirit of taking all the shots I get, I said yes. I am glad I did!
Preparing for this keynote has been quite a journey. I met up with several Gen Zs, read way too many reports, and watched an unhealthy dose of videos that could help me identify patterns.
I was left with a deeper understanding of this generation with every coffee meeting. As a marketer, nothing fascinates me more than understanding what drives perceptions, preferences, and loyalty. This opportunity to have in-depth discussions helped me unearth rich information (more on this in future newsletters).
Embracing this daunting opportunity was a win, widening my horizons. Here's to embracing those intimidating yet enriching chances that expand our worldviews!
These are excellent case studies Garima!
Lol, I'm a millennial who uses Facebook a lot, I think it's funny that Gen Z then only uses FB for the Marketplace (which I personally kind of hate...so many spammers).
You have so many great ideas, and they're always such great reminders for marketing. Thank you for these posts Garima! Just subscribed!