Marketing Dojo #75: 🍪Cookies Meet Bubbles🥤.
Understanding customer delight, sweetest collaboration ever, AI-proofing your content and more.
Hello,
Welcome to the 75th issue of Marketing Dojo!
Seventy-five issues—can you believe it?
Honestly, I'm surprised. With so many ideas constantly swirling around in my head, sticking to a habit has always been challenging. But here we are, and I owe it all to your support and accountability. Thank you for keeping me on track.
In today's newsletter, we'll dive into:
😍 WDYM Customer Delight?
👯 New billionaire BFFs in town
🔍 Meme: Honey, I shrunk your results
💻 Just one question: Website traffic in the age of AI
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With that, let's dive right in!
The Anatomy of Customer Delight.
Surprise + Joy = Delight
If you're in the business of managing customer experiences, McKinsey's report "Fueling Growth Through Moments of Customer Delight" offers a valuable framework. It simplifies the concept of delight, differentiates it from satisfaction, and suggests ways to measure it effectively.
Customer delight is the intersection of surprise and joy. It's the emotional cousin to plain old satisfaction - you know, that rational thing we're all supposed to aim for.
A good customer experience can have three levels:
Table stakes: If a company meets a customer's expectations, the customer remains neutral or has no strong reaction.
Good: When expectations are exceeded, the customer feels satisfied.
Best: When something unexpected happens in addition to satisfaction, the customer becomes delighted.
But customer delight isn't meant to fly solo. It needs to partner with satisfaction for real business impact. Together, they boost referrals, improve customer retention, and enhance revenue.
McKinsey's study is an excellent starting point if you're struggling to explain the concept of customer delight or quantify its impact.
Just One Question: Is Your Content AI-Proof?
AI-generated overviews in search results have B2B marketers scratching their heads. So, I reached out to an expert for some real-world advice.
Meet Sarah McNaughton, award-winning content strategist, journalist, SEO consultant, and editorial workflow guru. Here's what she had to say:
My question: With AI responses creeping into search, what's your advice for brands relying on search traffic to keep the lights on?
Sarah’s answer:
Brands need to prioritize intent and originality above all else when it comes to their website content.
Intent has always been (or should have been) a key focus for search performance. But with the rise of AI Overviews, originality will truly set one brand apart. If your content isn't both unique and valuable—uniqueness for its own sake won’t suffice—you’re not giving your audience a reason to choose your site over another or even the AI Overview that now dominates the SERPs.
Building a brand with unique value and an original offering is more crucial than ever. This often means gathering expert quotes or conducting original research for publishers and content creators. While it’s hard work, it pushes us to create much higher-quality content—a win for everyone in the long run. Plus, it fosters greater creativity in the content creation process, prompting questions like, “How can I make this more useful for my audience?” or “What can I add to make this the most valuable version on the internet?” And once again, that’s a win for everyone.
About Sarah:
Sarah has over a decade of experience in digital media, climbing the editorial ladder from Editorial Assistant to Vice President. She is the founder and CEO of McNaughton Digital Media. Sarah can be reached through her website at mcnaughtondigital.media or LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/sarahmcnaughton.
Creative Excellence: Coke + Oreo = A Billion-Dollar Sugar Rush
Move over Elon and Trump—there's a new billionaire bromance in town.
Oreo and Coca-Cola dropped a collaboration, which is a pure marketing genius.
Collaborations are marketing gold, and this one's no exception. Remember when we talked about Crocs and their collab craze?
Coca-Cola and Oreo have teamed up to launch two limited-edition products: the Coca-Cola OREO™ Zero Sugar Limited Edition drink and the OREO Coca-Cola™ Sandwich Cookie.
But that's not all—there's also a "Bestie Mode" experience on Spotify. By scanning the QR code on packs, fans can follow steps to sync up music preferences with their BFFs.
Coca-Cola and Oreo are two of the most recognized and beloved brands across generations. Coca-Cola's brand value is estimated at $57.5 billion, while Oreo is valued at $10.7 billion.
On social media, Coca-Cola's following could populate a small country, while Oreo's could fill a decent-sized stadium.
Coca-Cola has a massive following, with over 112 million followers on Instagram and over 37 million on Twitter. Oreo also has a strong presence, with over 3.5 million followers on Instagram and more than 1 million on Twitter.
Coca-Cola and Oreo are like the cool grandparents of the brand world—everyone knows them, and they still know how to party.
This collaboration between two iconic brands is set to generate significant consumer engagement and brand affinity, especially among Gen Zs.
Meme-time: Honey I Shrunk Impressions.
All eyes are on the US elections, and the memes just keep getting more hilarious by the day. But this one hit a little too close to home. Inflation is a double whammy for marketers—groceries are getting pricier, and paid media ad rates are going off the charts.
Auction-based ad placements on social platforms make it challenging to compare costs. But for the marketers running campaigns? They're feeling the squeeze harder than a stress ball in a budget meeting.
Earlier this year, LinkedIn ad prices shot up by 65% as brands fled X, looking for digital real estate without the drama. Not to be outdone, Google and Facebook's cost per thousand impressions (CPM) climbed by 11% to 15%.
Shrinking budgets chasing ever-more expensive impressions—only a Donald Trump meme could genuinely capture the slow burn of this situation.
Short Stuff:
More than 40% of Pinterest users are Gen Zs who research on Pinterest before shopping. (Ageing backwards).
TikTok announced cash incentives to lure IG & YT Shorts creators. (Opening the wallet again).
X competitor Bluesky is growing due to the mass exodus triggered by Elon Musk’s comments on the UK riots (Yet another self-goal).
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.
Regards,
Garima Mamgain
P.S:
If wasting time were an Olympic sport, I'd be gunning for gold. Sigh.
One of my New Year's resolutions was to start making short-form videos (don't ask me why). So I did what most people do when they resolve to lose weight - throw money at the problem.
Instead of a gym membership, I splurged on a Capcut Pro subscription. Made by ByteDance (TikTok's owners), Capcut makes video editing simple. With over 490 Million active users, Capcut is as big as X minus the drama.
But here's some free advice: if you don't have Capcut on your phone, keep it that way. It's more addictive than a bag of Oreos dipped in Coca-Cola.
Here's an example of what I am talking about.
So, no - I haven't created any TikToks yet. But I am killing brain cells at an alarming rate, scrolling through Capcut's endless possibilities.
At this rate, I might create my first video sometime around the 2028 Olympics. Maybe I'll document my journey to that time-wasting gold medal.
surprise + joy = delight. Loved that.
Also Pinterest ageing backwards. Very interesting for a maturing platform