MarketingDojo #38:📈 'Incremental' Intel Inside!"
Incrementality in marketing, Lush has some new friends, fake OOHs and more.
Hey there, fellow marketers!
Welcome to the 38th edition of The Marketing Dojo. It's me, Garima.
Guess what? It's National Tacos Day! 🌮 while I promise not to overload you with taco puns, here's a cheeky taco gif to brighten your screen and our spirits.
Feast your eyes on today's tidbits:
📈Understanding Incrementality
🎭Fake it till you make it (quite literally)
🤝Lush has made some new friends
📸Gen Zs have a new bestie
🧠In awe of Getty’s Gen AI solution
And a lot more.
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Alright, let's jump in!
Incre-MENTALITY: Pizza and some marketing lessons:
Impressions, reach, engagement, leads & sales - usually, we measure a campaign's success based on one or more of these metrics. But I stumbled upon a gem of an article that threw a whole new light on a concept I'd somewhat overlooked: Incrementality.
Incrementality in advertising refers to the measure of additional sales or conversions driven solely by advertising efforts that wouldn't have occurred otherwise.
It's about answering, "Would this sale have happened even if the customer didn't see the ad?"
The article has a perfect analogy:
Consider a NYC pizza shop 🍕 running a 20% off promotion using coupons-
Low Incrementality: Distributing coupons right outside the shop led many customers using them, but sales were down 15% from a similar day the previous week. This mirrors retargeting advertising, where the audience might have converted even without ads.
High Incrementality: Distributing coupons in Central Park led to only two new customers, which were genuinely incremental. However, the overall cost exceeded the benefit.
Balanced Incrementality: Handing out coupons on a nearby street corner resulted in a 50% sales uplift from the prior week. The audience was high-intent, but the promotion swayed their behaviour.
Many ads spent in marketing are for low incrementality, such as branded keyword search ads, retargeting customers who just visited your website or Amazon-sponsored ads.
These types of advertising spend look the most cost-effective on paper, but in fact, a brand could do away with most of them.
Case in point: Airbnb in 2019.
They slashed their search and other performance-based marketing, turning to brand campaigns. Their advertising budgets decreased by 28%, but their traffic and revenue? No noticeable difference.
A year later, they even clocked their most profitable quarter!
We've got to rethink our metrics. It's not just about the revenue; it's about the incremental revenue. As marketers, that's the real gold we should be chasing!
Brands Are Faking It Till They Make It (Quite Literally).
Have you seen that L'oreal Mascara activation video? Or the giant Barbie casually strolling out of her packaging? Or how about those engaging Gymbox ads on buses designed to be seen by a select few?
Now, lean in for the spoiler – they're not real!
Yep, as shockingly impressive as they are, all these stunts have something in common: they're entirely computer-generated and have never seen the light of the real world.
Faux Out Of Home (FOOH) is a new advertising trend involving hyper-realistic, augmented reality or CGI-based digital ads that appear as real-world, OOH activations.
Out-of-home advertising is expensive, and innovative setups require jumping hoops through bureaucratic red tape.
FOOH helps brands generate social media buzz at a fraction of the cost and effort.
However, here's a thought. We live in a time when brands are all about being 'real' and 'genuine'. So, doesn't using FOOH seem a bit like we're pulling a fast one on our audience?
What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them.
Bridging the Human-AI Gap: Getty Images' New Gen AI Tool
Getty Images database has over 477 million assets.
Hence, the launch of Getty's Gen AI text-to-image generator trained on its database in partnership with NVIDIA is an exciting move.
The tool has many things going for it:
The AI-generated images come with Getty's standard royalty-free license, meaning worldwide usage rights across all media.
Contributors of images are fairly compensated for works included in the training data.
Getty also has a policy against submitting AI-generated images- this helps avoid the whole "AI training on AI-generated images" issue.
Getty's tool is an elegant solution for the human v/s AI conundrum in image generation. The photos clicked by humans form the backbone of Getty's Gen AI tool, and the AI helps deliver millions of permutations & combinations.
I've always been grateful to Getty & Shutterstock for their huge image libraries, but let's be honest – sometimes, the stock images can feel a bit generic. And it's a bit awkward when different brands use the same photo.
But with this new AI tool from Getty, we can sprinkle in some creativity to cook up something unique and relevant, all while steering clear of any legal troubles.
A minor grouse - I wish the folks at Getty had put more effort into naming the tool!
Lush: Breakups, Makeups, and Staying Fresh!
Lush, the UK-based skin-care company, is a brand with a point of view.
In November 2021, Lush decided to part ways with several major social media platforms, including those under the Meta umbrella.
Their reasoning? Concerns about mental health, ethical practices, and the sneaky algorithm.
But here's the million-dollar question: how does a brand like Lush keep its edge post-big tech in a digital-first world?
Their weapon of choice: collaborations.
In the past 12 months, Lush has collaborated with 8 partners, such as Netflix's Stranger Things, Mario Brothers & Barbie movie, Japanese Anime One Piece and more.
Here's a snapshot of the outcome:
The Lush x ONE PIECE collaboration was a masterclass in targeted marketing. Lush Japan saw its entire stock fly off the shelves by 2 p.m. on launch day, netting a whopping 71% of new digital customers.
The Barbie collaboration turned quite a few heads, too. Lush's app sales hit a new record, with a surge of +146% on the Super Mario Bros. launch day and a robust +44% compared to the Boxing Day sale.
Intriguingly, each collaboration ushers in an average of 30% new customers.
These partnerships aren't just about numbers. They're a testament to Lush's ability to tap into the zeitgeist, amplified by the surge in user-generated content celebrating each collaboration.
In the vast landscape of brands, Lush's approach is a case study in differentiation. They've chosen to be the agile innovator, nimbly navigating the challenges tech giants pose. Their partnership strategy clearly indicates how brands can maintain relevance without falling into the me-too trap.
Gen Zs Have A New Favorite.
What a difference four years can make!
In 2019, TikTok was a mere blip on the radar for most of Gen Z in the US, with only a few choosing it as their go-to platform for following influencers.
Fast forward to 2023, and the scenario has changed dramatically. According to a study by Morning Consult, TikTok has now eclipsed other giants like Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube, cementing its position as Gen Z's platform of choice for influencer interactions.
This shift underscores Gen Z's appetite for raw, authentic, short-form video content, steering clear of overly polished productions or traditional text-based posts.
TikTok's platform has democratised content creation. 15 per cent of Gen Z now identify as influencers, and over a quarter personally know an influencer.
Despite numerous attempts to ban TikTok, its allure among Gen Z only seems to intensify. Brands can ignore TikTok at their peril.
Short Stuff:
TikTok launches an AI assistant for ad creation. (AI Tools are getting more powerful)
Coke’s AI-created, futuristic drink Y3000 fails to impress consumers (AI for the sake of AI is a complete nono).
Meta plans to launch AI-Chatbots with multiple personalities (Character.ai has some competition)
Forbes released its list of top creators in 2023 (Some names are brand new to me).
That wraps up today's The Marketing Dojo. Big thanks for reading and being here with me. 👍
Did you find something useful or interesting today? 💡 If yes, please leave a comment or hit the like button. It helps more than you think, especially with the Substack algorithm. The more likes and comments, the more people can find us.
See you next week, right here in your inbox. Stay awesome! 👋
Love,
G.
P.S.: I might be slightly addicted to Reddit (just a tiny bit!). But hey, it's where gems like this pop up—I stumbled upon this hilarious article predicting how the Friends characters would look in 2024. Spoiler: They seemingly found the fountain of youth, especially Jennifer Aniston! 😂 Check it out!"
