Marketing Dojo #96: Poached 🎯, Paid💰, and Plugged In 🔌

Instagram's creator poaching, Spotify's play button, the non-linear way to growth and more.

Well, hello again, fellow marketers!

Fresh off a break that was heavy on sleep and Malaysian cuisine – you know, the kind where your camera roll remains suspiciously devoid of selfies. Just good old-fashioned lounging and eating.

It's odd. Holidays excite me, but lately, I miss the comfort of my daily routines while away.

Is this what getting older feels like? Or has Singapore's efficiency spoiled me rotten? (Let's blame the latter, shall we?)

Either way, I hope my next trip is a little more… adventurous.

But you know what is not lounging around - the curious marketing world. Here's a peek into what's in this issue of the Marketing Dojo!

📈 The Multiplier Effect: Brand * Performance

💰 Instagram Is Throwing Money at Its Problem

🏆 Spotify’s No Cash, Just Clout Initiative

🍻 Creative Excellence: Sober, Not Silent

And some more.

Haven't subscribed yet? Consider hitting that subscribe button. Every Wednesday, I distil the marketing world's chaos into bite-sized, scroll-friendly insights.

And to my existing subscribers - your support keeps this newsletter growing. Thank you for being part of this journey.

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Sell Now, Stay Memorable. Do Both.

At its core, marketing serves two distinct but intertwined purposes:

1. Nudge customers who are ready to buy. This type of marketing is all about the right triggers—convincing potential buyers that your brand is the best choice.

2. Make your brand memorable for future buyers. This is the long game: planting your brand in people's minds for future purchases. It's like leaving breadcrumbs in the forest of consumer consciousness. Since memories fade like footprints in the sand, you must keep refreshing those markers.

The first is performance, and the second is brand marketing. While both jobs are important, the scales have tilted heavily towards performance. Immediate results and perceived ease of measurement make for happier quarterly reports.

If you’re looking for a case to balance both, The Multiplier Effect, a report by WARC, is a must-read.

The report is filled with some original marketing goodness. Two points that stood out for me:

1. It's not brand + performance, but brand * performance. They multiply each other's impact, creating exponential rather than linear growth.

   

2. The need to shift from campaigns to platforms. Campaigns come and go, but platforms endure. Think Nike’s Just Do It or Dove’s Real Beauty—these platforms let brands tell a unified story over the years while staying relevant to trends.

Here’s the report. It might just reshape how you think about marketing's dual mandate.

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Instagram’s Golden Trap: Cash Now, Strings Later.

TikTok's ban saga has turned into an unexpected windfall for its top creators. While uncertainty loomed over TikTok's future, Instagram swooped in with lucrative deals—packed with some eyebrow-raising conditions.

Here's what's happening: Instagram is dangling monthly checks between $5,000 and $50,000 to TikTok creators with over a million followers.

To put this in perspective, your typical TikTok creator makes $15,000-$25,000 annually. According to Bloomberg, fewer than 10% earn enough to make a living. So Instagram's offer is turning heads, and for good reason.

But there's never a free lunch; the deal comes with several caveats, for example:

• Creators must post at least 10 Reels per month, all exclusive to Instagram for three months.

• Their Instagram posting must be 25% higher than what they post on TikTok or YouTube.

• They must cross-promote Instagram Reels on TikTok and YouTube, nudging followers to migrate.

The math is mathing for Meta. Instagram generates 44% of Meta's $164B revenue, so these payouts are just a drop in the ocean. It's a shrewd move, capitalizing on TikTok's uncertain future to poach top talent.

The risk is clear for creators: once locked in, they're at the mercy of Instagram's notoriously fickle algorithm.

Still, for creators looking at their bank accounts, it's hard to ignore the allure of guaranteed income in an otherwise unpredictable creator economy.

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You Can’t Spend It, But It’s Shiny! - Spotify

While Meta waves cash at creators, Spotify's taking a different route – they're going full YouTube with shiny plaques and (surprise!) some actual streaming numbers.

Last week, Spotify announced its first-ever Creator Milestone Awards to recognize top podcasters. If this sounds familiar, that's because it's Spotify's version of YouTube's Play Button (which, fun fact, recently got hit by shrinkflation).

The awards come with some extra fanfare—hand-delivered plaques, a dedicated winners' hub, and an annual award ceremony to hype up the recipients.

Here's where it gets interesting: Spotify, traditionally tight-lipped about podcast numbers (unless you're Joe Rogan), is finally cracking open the data vault. The awards measure lifetime streaming numbers, a small but significant shift in their typically fortress-like approach to metrics.

The timing isn't random. Spotify played the long game with podcasts just to see YouTube its lunch! In 2024, 31% of weekly U.S. podcast listeners chose YouTube, compared to 27% for Spotify and 12% for Apple Podcasts.

And YouTube has some serious advantages:

• Video-first podcasting naturally fits YouTube's strengths.

• The money (because it's always about the money). YouTube offers 55% ad revenue share, plus Super Chats, memberships, and integrated ads—far more lucrative than Spotify's engagement-based model.

These Milestone Awards might seem like a small step for Spotify, but they're part of a bigger story: creators are increasingly in the driver's seat, and platforms are racing to keep them happy.

First Meta with their chequebook, now Spotify with their plaques – who's next?

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Creative Excellence: How Heineken Hijacked Dry January

Most liquor brands hibernate in January. The New Year party hangover has barely worn off, and the dry January movement is the "new thing". But Heineken just said, "Hold my non-alcoholic beer."

Heineken's campaign for its alcohol-free beer—Heineken 0.0 - is textbook clever advertising wrapped in a fresh perspective.

1. Astute consumer insights – It taps into the frustration of being stereotyped for choosing a non-alcoholic beer. We've all been there – whether avoiding alcohol for health, driving, or just not feeling it that day. Heineken gets it, and better yet, they're calling it out.

2. Wise use of brand assets - While introducing something new (zero alcohol), they're leaning hard into what's familiar – that iconic green, the unmistakable logo. Same Heineken, just without the buzz.

3. Category leadership- Heineken's making a significant play in what's still a niche market. While non-alcoholic beer might be a small pond now, it's growing faster than traditional spirits. The brand is planting its flag early and big.

They're buying premium real estate before the neighbourhood gets hot. Smart move, Heineken. Smart move.

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Short Stuff:

• BlueSky reached a milestone of 30 Mn users in January 2025. Adding 1Mn users daily since November 2024 (X quitters assemble).

• YouTube unveils its 19th edition of AdBlitz. A one-stop place to see all the Super Bowl ads and more. (The annual creative inspiration for marketers).

• TikTok refugees that flooded the Chinese app RedNote (Xiao Hong Shu) have abandoned it in weeks (Daily active users declined by 54% week over week).

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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.

I will see you in your inbox next Wednesday.

Regards,

Garima